What did you throw out today - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: johnh
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 07:36:25 am
content: Finally got around tossing some stuff into the metal recycling bin at work today.2 IBM blade servers chassis and about 20 HS20 Blades and all the power supplies, network cards.The chassis had a inbuilt switch provide by Cisco. So you could vlan up the different interfaces on the cardsThey had a 2G memory and twin 36 ultra scsi drivesBeing sitting in some rack (powered down) for over 10 years after a project got cancelled. Never got out of the development phase.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 11:14:36 pm
content: I suspect everyone else is wondering the same thing, but too polite to ask - was there some company policy issue that prevented listing this stack of gear on the forum buy/sell area, as free for pickup?Pretty sure someone would have wanted it, if only for curiosity and salvage of some parts. Hard drive magnets even.Alternatively, where is your dumpster, and when is the next collection?

author: AlxDroidDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 11:35:03 pm
content: I would have collected your trash in the blink of an eye! There are lots of parts to be savaged from that pile, like those big caps, heatsinks, and so on.

author: OiD
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 11:54:33 pm
content: I guess that cleared up some space!I've been going through all my stuff and tossing junk out, having little mercy here, or I'll keep it forever saying to myself "this will be usefull for..."!!

author: M4trix
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 12:04:57 am
content: My wife...j/k

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 01:28:34 am
content: Quote from: M4trix on January 23, 2016, 12:04:57 amDon't be wasteful, recycle!

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 05:02:17 am
content: I still have the first two PCs I bought and the first PC I ever built. I have at least twenty power cords that I'll never use, and a 14 liter plastic storage box half full of various USB cables I can't imagine ever needing. And, as the saying goes, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

author: matseng
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 06:34:10 am
content: I just got rid of about 600 science fiction pocket books and a couple of hundreds of other books - actually I didn't throw them away, I gave them to a friend that promised to donate the ones he didn't want to keep for himself to others.I'm soon going to move, crossing an ocean, for the third time in 10 years and I realized that I haul around to much crap. The last move required three-quarters of a 40ft container. This time I aim for just a full 20ft :-)My wife is currently removing the DVDs themselves from the cases of our 2000+ DVD collection and inserting them into binders instead. That will free up considerable shelf space. And also leave us with a number of XL garbage bags filled with (the surprisingly heavy) empty plastic dvd cases....

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 08:40:26 am
content: I threw out an old Sony data projector. The kind you would find in a 1990 era university lecturer room. 1meter long and heavy.It still kind of went, but the lamp hour counter had already been reset on the same lamp and was at 1500 hours on a 1000hour lamp. So likely to explode any minuteAnd new lamps cost US$2000.It was also 800x600 so not all that useful any more.I couldn't bring myself to throw it out whole, so i took it completely to bits and found lots of useful parts including precision geared motors, fans, mechanical linkages etc..The most interesting thing was the optics. Have you ever seen beam splitter cubes this big?(AA eneloop battery for size)

author: station240
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 09:06:07 am
content: Past few days I've tossed out:1) 5Kgs of aluminium heatsinks, mostly T03 type, 1kg of brass, 2Kgs of copper. All to the metal recyclers. From stuff I'll never use and dead small UPSl units.2) ~10kgs of circuitboards and dead laptops I dismantled.3) A couple of Apple Mac LCIII era keyboards.The e-waste is going to a recycler, once I finish finding the rest of it all.They let me raid their bin, wasn't anything I wanted last time.

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 09:16:14 am
content: It must be something in the water, I have a sudden urge to get rid of stagnant stuff and the neighbour over the road has asked if he can borrow our recycle bin this week and openly declared that he was going to thin out some stuff, this people is unheard of as he is a prolific hoarder and never throws out anything, in fact he almost goes out daily to find things he will never put to any use.I will be getting the camera out for this never before seen event.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 12:13:23 pm
content: It was a couple of months ago, but I tossed out 6 computer cases that I had used to store parts from other computers. Imagine a motherboard at the bottom of the case and then multiple other cards, HDDs, etc. laid in a 3D tetris style. Nothing plugged in, just packed inside the case. They each weighed twice what they should have. I kept them around for a while in case I needed something - but I hadn't touched them in years and the tech in those was so old I probably never would, so out they went.I didn't throw everything out though....I still have my first computer, with a 486 CPU and Windows 3.11. I haven't fired it up for a couple of years, but the last time I tried it booted with no worries. I also have 2 other computers. They have bits missing and dead HDDs - but they are only 10 years or so old...

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2016, 02:14:55 am
content: Quote from: station240 on January 23, 2016, 09:06:07 amBugger! I could have used those.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2016, 05:57:34 am
content: About a fist sized lump of fat (in total, not all in one glob) that I trimmed off a pork shoulder.I didn't think anyone wanted it.

author: Mr Smiley
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2016, 08:22:46 pm
content: Many years ago, when I worked as an electronics Tec at a university. I shared the lab with my boss. With it being a university, they throw away thousands of pounds of perfectly good equipment/parts without a second thought. When I was even younger i started making things from skip finds.Anyway, I had my desk covered with all sorts, on the desk, under the desk, on shelves over my desk and in the surrounding filing cabinets. But it was all work related useful stuff and everything had good reason to be there. I always had several projects on the go at once. One day he looked at me and said my desk and work place were covered in crap and told me to get rid of all the rubbish. Well I looked at it, and I looked at it. After a few days I told him there wasn't anything that I could throw away. He would pick something up and I’d say why I had it and what it could be useful for. So that led to all sorts of fall outs.In the end I offered a solution. I would go to another department and get another Electronics Tec to come and he could throw away anything he thought was useless rubbish without question.He was there a full day.All he could suggest was a few sweet wrappers and nothing was said after that.

author: Skimask
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2016, 10:39:21 pm
content: 6 cars...

author: OiD
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 01, 2016, 10:20:25 pm
content: Quote from: Skimask on January 25, 2016, 10:39:21 pmAm I the only one who sees a guy with sunglasses in the grill of the vehicle to the left?

author: bitslice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2016, 03:58:00 am
content: Quote from: johnh on January 22, 2016, 07:36:25 amhmm, that flat heatsink is just what I need to mount a 100W LED onto.I wish such magic skips existed near to me.

author: mojoe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2016, 05:14:19 am
content: Quote from: matseng on January 23, 2016, 06:34:10 amYears ago, I decided that keeping dead tree books and plastic CD's/videos wasn't worth it any more. I have been doing ebooks, MP3 and MP4 ever since. I don't miss the physical items one bit.

author: Carl_Smith
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 12:50:05 am
content: Quote from: mojoe on March 02, 2016, 05:14:19 amI recently went through hundreds of CD-ROMs I had accumulated over the years. I looked at each one and decided if there was any reason I would ever want the files on the CD. If so, I made an ISO image of the CD, and backed the ISOs up to a portable hard drive.But did I throw the CDs away? No.I put the CDs into several empty spindle packs I had, and put the empty jewel cases into a box. Someone might need empty jewel cases sometime. Then I figured there might be interesting things I could do with hundreds of unwanted CD-ROMs. So they are still sitting there on the shelf. So that was a cleaning failure.I have another box that has maybe 50 databook CD-ROMs I accumulated between the dead-tree databook times and the download-the-PDF-online times. I figured if there were any datasheets on those CDs that I couldn't get online, I shouldn't be using the parts for anything anyway. But I couldn't bring myself to throw them away either.

author: PointyOintment
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2016, 09:22:13 am
content: Quote from: Carl_Smith on March 03, 2016, 12:50:05 amCD lamp. Woodturning blanks, both CDs and jewel cases (Templeboy Turnings channel on YouTube). Curtains, Christmas tree ornaments, or other decorative items. CD exploder ammo (?).

author: Carl_Smith
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 03:17:41 am
content: Quote from: PointyOintment on March 03, 2016, 09:22:13 amOooh, another YouTube channel to watch. Dave makes a living putting videos on YouTube. I need to figure out a way to make a living just watching videos on YouTube.

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 03:37:40 am
content: Reaction videos.

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 03:53:29 am
content: The In and Out bag dinner came in.

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 04:37:15 am
content: Yum!

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 05:09:03 am
content: I threw out about 15Kg of old computer bits, including a ZIP drive, several mice with balls, a motherboard I'd harvested the power header off, various PCI cards such as USB, network, 4 dead power supplies as well as other ancient trinkets of dubious functionality.

author: FLIP
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 08:22:34 am
content: about 25 old VHS tapes, with crap dating back to the 80`s, when Australia won the americas cup

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 08:32:04 am
content: I threw away a bunch of VHS tapes a couple of years ago. They were all really good movies. I tried to give them away on ebay first (free except for the shipping) but no one was interested. These days, it's pretty much the same for DVDs.Quote from: FLIP on March 04, 2016, 08:22:34 am

author: hendorog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2016, 08:47:56 am
content: Quote from: FLIP on March 04, 2016, 08:22:34 amI remember that, it was fantastic. We watched it at high school here in NZ and were all barracking for the Aussies.

author: Carl_Smith
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2016, 01:51:47 am
content: Quote from: FLIP on March 04, 2016, 08:22:34 amI have a lot more than that. VHS tapes I recorded whole TV series on, then never watched again. I thought about erasing them and selling them but I don't think anyone would want blank VHS tapes. I thought about building a VHS tape degausser that could erase a whole tape with one big thump of magnetism. Never got to doing that either. Suppose I should just pitch all the tapes in the dumpster and free up some space in the closet.

author: PointyOintment
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2016, 06:54:19 am
content: Quote from: FLIP on March 04, 2016, 08:22:34 amI wanted to make some clocks out of old VHS tapes several years ago, but never got around to doing it.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2016, 06:50:54 pm
content: One HP printer and an Onkyo home theater controller. Printer crapped a gearbox, and HP says it was obsolete. Still have a new fuser unit for it, sealed in box. Anybody want a HP3500 series fuser, 220V version. Would ship it to Dave for his one but postage will be a killer, though the HP packaging means it would arrive fine.Onkyo had a failed amplifier section, and as it only supports analogue video and I rarely use a TV set it was converted into 4 piles, 20kg of steel scrap, 5kg of aluminium scrap and 2kg of copper ( did I neglect to say it was bloody heavy) and then a collection of boards ( with Onkyo branded capacitors as well) that will likely go ewaste bin wise. Has a nice motorised volume control I might keep, and Dave's favourite VFD display. They really wanted to keep the board cost down, some boards are more wire link than component, especially the front panel, where they routed odd things like digital data, VFD drive and video through it. Even made a cable management unit out of SRBP board with wire jumpers providing the hinges.

author: jfasoc
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2016, 10:03:49 am
content: I did some fairly big cleaning a few months ago. All kind of things that has been stored for the better part of 10 years in my home country. What was 40 boxes + loose things is now 10 boxes. Had several old computers because maybe they could be used for something but today you can buy a Raspberry Pi or something similar that is much smaller, faster and uses less power. Can't imagine what I would actually use a old 386 or 486 PC for. Though I still kept my Commodore 128 and IBM PS/2. Some day I have to install DOS and Kaptajn Kaper on the PS/2.

author: silmartap
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 07:30:41 pm
content: I was throwing some old junk away and found out that I own TK-70A K E W Tester. Did not throw it away.

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2016, 02:47:00 pm
content: An old Dell 922 inkjet printer. The print head finally decided to bite the dust. The last time Dell provided drivers was for Vista. I was able to get to run in Win7. I tried it on a Win10 machine and it was no go so it's days were numbered anyway.

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2016, 02:49:41 pm
content: Quote from: jfasoc on March 08, 2016, 10:03:49 amWhy not OS/2 on the PS/2?I had the install diskettes until about 5 years ago when I tossed them.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2016, 06:25:47 pm
content: 2 Seagate 500G drives. First one is very dead, will not boot up, and clicks of death. Open up and the one head came adrift and left a nice grinding mark on the platter, and the debris did a matching number on the bottom side as well. Just out of warranty as well....Second one I did a little data recovery on, using a live Puppy linux CD, and got off the data I wanted, two copies just in case, then started gsmartmon and left it running to check the drive for the first time ( 67k of runtime, not sure if this is minutes or hours but the drive is over 6 years old in any case) and it started complaining around LBA 32000 of unreadable sectors.Think it is dying, as Windows would **NOT** do anything on this drive aside from showing the root directory. Puppy was quite happy though reading NTFS, reading the data, compressing the directory wanted ( rest is already backed up, but not the clocking data which is not in the user directory, but now it is saved as a directory in documents for next time) an giving me both the directory and a zip and Gzip copy onto a USB drive, vanilla windows now can read a zip by default, but certain zip formats it will barf at, but luckily the reinstall by the IT section included 7Zip as default zip handler, along with teamviewer and a site licensed copy of Win7 and office, so it spent a day on teamviewer gettingf updated and niggles sorted. Now she can catch up with the 2 days of work that has piled up, and the loaner machine is in for the black screen of "this copy is blah blah" and the red office line of the same. Switched off and in a box for 2 years does that.....

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2016, 06:59:23 pm
content: Did you at least save the magnets first? I recently found a small stack of HDD magnets I salvaged from years ago.