[Part One]

So I have a lot of components.

It can take a long time to find a list of them for a prototype.

This is just one cupboard:

So I've come up with a solution: transferring everything into draws and putting lights behind the draws that flash and tell you which draws to search.

I made a plan, involving an LED matrix with a thin controller board behind each draw:

This was to be supported by a component database connected to a local server with an easy-to-use database that's quick to add a lot of parts to.

I drew a UI mockup of it. I'll later put it together with Python and the ttkbootstrap library.

One of the guys at my local hackerspace told me the matrix added a lot of complexity and proposed a new plan. Neopixels (WS2812B LEDs) can be arranged in a diamond formation such that the outputs and inputs are connected to one another, then power bus bars can be run along the length of the cabinet.

I decided to give each unit its own daisy-chained connector so they can be disconnected and moved around.