I have been able to get a number of unwanted electronic devices and I was wondering what things to people usually keep?
One of my hobbies is RC airplanes and one of the tools for that hobby is a heat gun used to attach coverings to the planes. The gun produces more than enough heat to loosen up items on a circuit board and I can pretty much take a plasic scraper and scrape surface mount stuff off easily.
Do people typically mess with the surface mount stuff? Some items have slightly larger pins and I think I might be able to solder them. A perfect example of the times I am running into. A guy from our IT department stopped by and gave me a box of devices that have a ethernet port and 5 usb ports. There are a bunch of nifty LEDs which is cool. There are 2 LM1086 regulators which are very useable. Then there are things like a Net+Arm Net 50 processor. Looks nifty but holy crap there are a lot of pins. Seems like I would have a hard time doing anything with it. There are a couple of little devices that look crystals. There is a Xilinx spartan dohickie and a intel Single-Port 10/100 Mbps PHY Transceiver. There are a bunch of little yellow rectangles labeled "336 16K 719" Lots of pins I can recycle. I can recycle the power connector and a little pushbotton. There are some TI 2054B and 2052B current limited power distribution switches that I might be able to solder.
I have a pile of other things that I have taken off printers. Lots of small ICs.
I have a pile 330uF capacitors. Seems like 330uF is a popular size. Lots in the 300-400 range.
You should keep things like capacitors, transistors, resistors, ICs, LEDs, motors u. lasers ( in DVD, Bluray etc. -players), switches etc. You will not be able to use SMD parts they are just to small solder and without the wright circuit board you can forget it. If you got an old CRT Monitor you´ll find a lot of copper and some gold. That is always worth keeping. If you really want to solder SMD parts watch this: Circuit Skills: Surface Mount Devices - YouTube
Grumpy_Mike, the capacitors have been coming from various sources but for the most part they came out of the main logic board in the HP printers I have taken apart. They are usually large blue and cylinder shaped and your size estimate seems pretty close. Typical hole mounted devices. Seems like the 330uf capacitors are frequently used. I have a lot of 300uf, 100uf as well.
Nothing like that in the USB device I was looking at today.
I might keep some of the chips I scrape off but since things are pretty cheap to order on-line, it really doesnt seen worth it. I have a hard enough time seeing what I am doing with through hole mounted stuff. The voltage regulators, though surface mount, seem useable. They are fairly large and the pins are easily accessable.
Seems like the 2 and 3 pin connectors might be useful as long as I have both the male and female pieces.
I have a growing collection of inductors and various ICs. Lots of capacitors. A couple of the printers I have taken apart were all in one types and I was able to get the light bar from the scanner parts.
All the printers have some interesting looking sensors. I keep them but am not sure how to use them. There is always a sensor in the print head and a sensor \ motor assembly that drives the various rotating things. These sensors have a clear plastic sheet that is marked with lines. Also a sensor that is usually located where the print head parks. Not sure what that is for. Looks like it has multiple lenses \ led \ laser things.
Does anyone have a good resource for identifying some of this stuff? A 'Things you find in a printer' reference?
I might take some photos and see if people recognise some of this stuff and how it functions.
One thing I thought was interesting what that the newer printers that I have taken apart didnt have stepper motors. Just brushed DC motors. Was kind of bummed about that because I am trying to collect various steppers.
For some reason, HP uses 5 while unipolar steppers in the printers I have taken apart. I have a growing pile of them. An older Desk Jet that I took apart had 2 big steppers and 1 little stepper and 1 larger dc motor and a smaller dc motor.
I actually like the idea of a "things you find in a [thing] " reference guide! Could possibly cover all sorts of "useful" consumer goods like CRT televisions, older computer hardware that might still use some TH parts, VCRs and all kinds of other appliances useful to the home hacker and bedroom builder
Maybe with hints on how recovered parts could be used and project examples? I know this stuff can all be googled but wouldn't it be nice to have it all there, in a lump, with nice detailed photos... if I had more time and access to a reasonable amount of junk I would totally do that.
We could list common product types with links to the useful common components in them, along with specific products that people have dismantled and the components they have got from them. Also some pages on how to identify the components you have would be good.
There is one major drawback, particularly for beginners, when dealing with salvaged parts that is rarely discussed. When you put something together for the first time and it doesn't work, is it because you assembled something wrong or because one of those salvaged parts was broken (which may be why the original device was discarded?)... Without the experience nescessary to test the devices you really will not know which is the case.
What is worth salavaging depends on a number of factors, the primary being your ability to afford new parts. New jellybean components are really cheap, so when salvaging something you should always ask yourself is it worth the hassle fixing a bug if this device doesn't work? If it is keep the part, if not then go elsewhere. Personally, I don't salvage anything unless the original device is in full working order... I don't want to spend my time debugging bad parts. Your mileage may vary.
If you do decide to salvage parts, it is especially important to have some kind of system for organizing and finding those parts... Doesn't help having them if you don't know you do...
I like the idea of a 'things in a thing' wiki. I will add some info to it. I cant remember everything that I have removed from what because is all combined in organizers now. Got some interesting stuff from a garage door opener circuit board a while back and a interesting ac motor.
You could really go crazy with something like this if you were inclined to. Add a search that allows a person to type in a product code and return a list of things that contain it.
I think motors \ steppers are among the more interesting things to recycle. They can be silly expensive. I picked up some cool bipolar steppers from the Reuseum here in Boise for $4 that were recycled. When I looked them up on line, one place that still sold them wanted $74 for one.
I think the best thing I have taken apart was the HP OfficeJet G85 that I mentioned previously. I will try to put together the things I got out of it.
