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Junk Yard Dog


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#1 Inquisitor

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Posted 04 September 2011 - 12:31 PM

For those on a budget… and I’m assuming that probably covers everyone. I offer this thread as a place for anyone to offer suggestions of where to get parts at little to no cost. Maybe if enough people find this thread of value, it might become sticky someday. I've seen several posts where someone found something on sale and I forgot to bookmark it and now I can't find it. I hope you'll also add your "finds" here as well. Some things will be obvious. Some... will be so obvious; you'll bang your head.

Now! I've got to rush out and get a solder sucker! :D

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#2 Inquisitor

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Posted 04 September 2011 - 12:35 PM

Big Score – The plight of the Disposable Ink Jet Printer

I don’t know about you (or in your country) but the idea that we have become a throw-away society bothers me a great deal. And then there is the opposite aspect that you can’t afford to do the right thing. The other day, I saw an Ink Jet Printer at the grocery store (of all places) for $19.95. It came with a small pack of Kodak glossy photo quality paper and a full complement of ink cartridges. We happen to have one of those office supply stores next door, so I popped in there to see what the refills were. Replacing the cartridges alone would have cost $65! I’m glad I didn’t really need a printer! But the point being… you, (like I) probably have either thrown out or have several of these lying around in your junk yard. So while we all were watching the football game, my daughter and I dissected one of these printers. It’s been up in my attic for so long… I don’t even know why its ups there.

Haul

  • 1 Stepper motor
  • 2 DC brushed motors
  • 1 Linear Encoder (Thanks CW2 for cluing me in)
  • 2 Photo interrupter
  • 2 micro switches
  • 3 switches like on Netduino board
  • 3 LED
  • 2 High Current Transistors
  • 1 Power Supply
  • 1 low capacity Peristaltic Pump (Had to look it up). It looks like it's to drain away your ink and put is in some huge absorbent pad looking thing. Surely it’s so you have to rush out and buy new ink cartridges!
  • Mess of connectors, capacitors, plastic gears, rollers, belts, and screws
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Doing my best to keep the smoke in the little black boxes.
If my message helped you... how 'bout giving me a Posted Image
www.MessingWithReality.com

#3 Inquisitor

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Posted 04 September 2011 - 12:38 PM

Score – Wireless game controller

Many of you younger members probably have many of these cluttering up the closet. Me… I had to go to Goodwill and found this little gem for $1.99. I’m not about to get caught even touching thinking about the kid’s Wii controller.

Haul

  • 1 Wireless transceiver - Don’t know what its compatible with yet. Crystal says “JF26.000” Plastic casing says 2.4 GHz.
  • 2 Nice analog joy sticks with “fire” buttons built-in. They’re not made of plastic and have good feel.
  • 1 D-Pad that can be detached
  • 2 switches like on Netduino
  • 1 slider switch
  • 1 White LED
  • 2 near frictionless potentiometers
  • 1 AA battery holder that can be detached
  • Several capacitors, screws

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Doing my best to keep the smoke in the little black boxes.
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www.MessingWithReality.com

#4 Mario Vernari

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Posted 04 September 2011 - 01:08 PM

I really like this idea. I feel there is TOO MANY "uselessly" garbaged stuffs. The ink-jet example is one of them: it is true that 20$ is a low-price, but many of us don't take in account the indirect cost of recycling, polluting. etc. That's the way I cannot be against the Inquisitor proposal! I have an little example of "recycling", even it is not as Inquisitor suggests. Time ago I need a simple serving-queue display board, for our village party. My first thought is about Netduino, but the major problem was about the display. So, googling around, I "stolen" the idea to use a common picture frame. In the store there was one for just 25 Euro, that is a lot fewer than a lcd shield. However is not the same, but it may be worthwhile to consider the aspect to browse better everything is around us before considering to shoot the mosquitoes with a bazooka. Here is the link: http://highfieldtale...-display-board/ Good point, Inquisitor! Cheers PS: I remember, time ago in Santa Cruz (CA), many yard-sales: soooo funny!...here there are not...SIGH!
Biggest fault of Netduino? It runs by electricity.

#5 ItsDan

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 03:41 AM

I have 3 broken printers at work, big laserjet ones too. I hadn't even considered tearing them down to get some free stuff. I know what I'll be doing this week :)
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#6 Inquisitor

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 01:01 PM

Be the Top Dog

This little Harbor Freight volt meter is dirt cheap even when it’s not on sale. When it’s on sale, it’s usually in the $3 - $5 range. It’s often given away for FREE in magazine ads or like this past Labor Day sale. It comes with a 9V alkaline battery that costs more to replace than the whole meter.

Score 1 – I’ve got about a half dozen of these from over the years. I now use them to great advantage with the Netduino. I can wire them in all over my circuit and check voltage and/or current at multiple locations while I test my software/hardware configuration. And for those with dead batteries, I’ve hard-wired them to old 9V power supplies that I’ve kept from other long dead equipment.

Score 2 – This is way above my abilities… Is there way to use this LCD display for our Netduino’s? Obviously actively creating some circuit and software driver would be great. But maybe… there is some way to use it passively (similar to the way Mario used the picture frame above) by using some particular volt meter setting and the two input leads. Just a thought. If you come up with a method to provide this FREE display… you might even be revered as a god in the eyes of the Netduino and Arduino world. B)

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#7 CW2

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 01:36 PM

Is there way to use this LCD display for our Netduino’s?

I assume you are interested in using the LCD alone (otherwise a little bit 'hacky' way would be to leave the meter switched to say voltage and 'measure' Netduino PWM output, perhaps with some smoothing filter), so you may want to check out Direct Driving of LCD Using General Purpose IO (pdf). The tricky part is that the LCD must be supplied with AC signals (square waves), if you connect DC signal you will probably damage it, and it requires the inputs to be biased at several levels of VCC. I guess there are segment LCD driver ICs available too...

#8 Mario Vernari

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 01:39 PM

I would bet a pizza on how that multimeter is internally built: there is a PCB, and a silicon chip glued over, and covered by a big drop of resin... Anyone is on the game? I don't think would be easy to reuse the LCD itself. The LCDs are pretty complex to drive without a proper driver, it is also very easy to damage them. The simplest way to reuse the multimeter is to connect it to any PWM output, by a good voltage divider. Afterward, when you set duty-cycle to 100% the display should show 100, 50% shows 50, etc. Not a big deal, though... EDIT: I guess there should be some kind of electro-magnetic transfer between CW2 and me...

Edited by Mario Vernari, 06 September 2011 - 01:41 PM.

Biggest fault of Netduino? It runs by electricity.

#9 Stefan

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 01:40 PM

Very nice topic, good suggestions! I think I'm going to destroy some devices after my vacation :D
"Fact that I'm a moderator doesn't make me an expert in things." Stefan, the eternal newb!
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#10 Mario Vernari

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 01:59 PM

Perhaps a less-stupid application would be a tachometer, leveraging a chip such as the LM2907.
It gives a voltage proportional to the frequency applied.
Cheers
Biggest fault of Netduino? It runs by electricity.

#11 Inquisitor

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Posted 06 September 2011 - 06:39 PM

... (otherwise a little bit 'hacky' way ...


I'm not proud! :lol:

So far the my output's consist of blinking LED's or the Debug.Print statements. I'll take what I can get. :P
Doing my best to keep the smoke in the little black boxes.
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