List of Electronic Supplies From Junk

Easy: Soldering iron, propane torch and a good pair of tin-snips. Bolt-cutters may be useful in some situations. And don't forget a hammer. :)

.....and a first-aid kit for when things dont go your way ;-)

Chris

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In article , snipped-for-privacy@aol.com mentioned...

All you have to do is heat up the soldering iron. If you haven't had much practice soldering, the discarded consumer 'junk' is a good place to start practicing.

I took a tour to the Discovery Science Museum and in one corner there were a few people sitting at a big table. The idea is that if you're the consumer, you can sit down and disassemble, by just about any means, screwdriver, pliers, etc., a piece of consumer 'junk' that was donated or scrounged. A lady was disassembling an elecronic typewriter, might have been a lexmark. It had a RF modulator that allowed the TV to be plugged into it, sort of like the old Atari game. She didn't know what she was taking apart so I showeed her where the chips were and what they did. Another guy was doing his thing with a toaster, and someone else was playing with the leftover parts. It's quite educational for people who have never seen the insides of a piece of electronics.

Let's say someone wants, say, a small full bridge rectifier.

This list would say, you can find the full bridge rectifier in these power supplies . . .

Bret Cahill

What's interesting is the fact that so-called ordinary people were fascinated enough by taking something apart, and maybe gaining an inkling of how it works. It really makes me wonder...how many people would now be engineers or at least intelligent technology users, if they had done this as a child. I know it was at least part of the reason I got into engineering. Especially the part where I decided to brush together two wires carrying house current, and realized I needed a bit more understanding if I were to survive...call it a flash of inspiration.

A hot air gun as used for paintstripping gives a more controlled heat than a propane torch and less flames and smoke. (and it is cheaper and smaller) The fumes of burning epoxy are not very pleasant.

Wim

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I dunno. I cannot get any intelligent people involved in politics when just about everyone should be a citizen-activist under our form of government.

At 5% donation rates even the Red Cross blood drives are more successful. And all they give you is a lousy t-shirt.

Bret Cahill

"Can't figger out why our readers are so ignorant."

-- Any corp. media editor or broadcaster

But, if someone knows they need a bridge rectifier, surely they would know that old power supplies might be a good place to look.

Or are you trying to say this would be more of an actual part list, containing part numbers and component values for specific equipment? That would be a really tough project.

So you pull the bridge rectifier out of a convenient switching supply from a computer; I've found them lying by themselves on the sidewalk.

In many cases, switching supplies are overkill for small projects. So once you've saved a few, the rest can be scrapped. I've made nice analog supplies out of them, using transformers I've pulled out of consumer equipment and the bridge rectifier from a switching supply. The regulators come out of some other scrap equipment. I leave the switch in the box, along with the socket for the line cord, and much of the work is done.

Michael

Certainly, some of the "I won't even go near it" is because something is seen as beyond them. I knew someone who wouldn't even try to connect the keyboard and mouse to her Macintosh, and she was basically a slave to technology, because she didnt' want to even try to evaluate what she could do and what she couldn't. It was amazing when a sink faucet was all clogged with junk, and she actually got up the nerve to open the thing herself and see how simple it was to clear out the junk. But her problem was that she wouldn't take the first steps.

Taking something apart may not teach much, at least not to someone who isn't also doing other things in the field. But I think it demystifies it. There is a box, I musn't touch it, so they don't. But if they do it when it risks nothing, on a piece of equipment that is going to be junk anyway, then they may learn it's not nearly as scary as they perceive, and it may let them try other things later.

In our society, there may be a bigger need for people in general to pick up this level of comfortableness than it is for people to become fully capable in such fields.

Michael

Representative goverment is a thing of the past. The people's wishes are no longer materialized in the form of an elected official; rather, the people believe that it does not matter who holds office. Their wishes are conveyed to the politicians through the filter of the media, and the politicians simply slavishly follow the polls in order to maintain their position. The media is the fourth branch of government....

They give you a T-shirt now?!?!?!?!?

Hell, back when I still bothered, you got a sticker, and MAYBE a petrified Archway cookie accompanied by a 3-4 ounce glass of something that was at least somewhat like, but not quite really, orange juice!

Whereas On 20 Oct 2003 07:52:56 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@macetech.com (Garrett Mace) scribbled: , I thus relpy:

Or depending on their needs, in the front ent of a telphone modem.

Whereas On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 15:31:17 +0100, "Wim Ton" scribbled: , I thus relpy:

I use a small hotplate, in a building separate from the house.

First, put on the eye protection.

When soldering: not so important; when UNsoldering: I can't count the number of people who discovered Hook's Law, elastic rebound, specific heat of molten solder, and the fragility of the human eye--all in one quick lesson.

A propane torch can be better.

Especially when desoldering connectors, a blowtorch can get the job done faster, as it heats the large solder mass quicker, and can avoid overheating the connector due to the rapidity.

Propane torch is around the same price as the cheapest hot-air guns.