Taking and salvaging electronics on hard rubbish collection days. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Mint.
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 06:03:55 am
content: Not sure if the rest of the world has hard rubbish collection days, but what it basically is that people throw out unwanted goods which are too big too fit into a rubbish bin and the council will pick it up and dispose of it for you. People throw out loads of stuff including electronics, so I thought this was an excellent opportunity to grab some goodies! The main items being thrown out include old televisions, vcr/dvd players, fans and heaters. There are other things too, but some are not so common. What are some good things to take and what should I avoid?

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 06:10:56 am
content: I usually collect power electronics (power transistors boards, big transformers e.t.c.), boards with relays, stepper motors and liquid crystal displays.Alexander.

author: Balaur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 06:23:55 am
content: While I had a few promising items retrieved from my living complex's "green" dumpsters (i.e. those with items that are supposed to be recycled), most of my "treasures" came from my work, when IT equipment is renewed or things like that.Here are my 2 cents:- CRT monitors/TVs have quite useful stuff inside: nice radiators, some connectors & buttons, discrete components. The downside is that you basically have to throw away most of the unit and only salvage a board or two; most of the ICs are specialized.- Low power stuff such as TV receivers, VCRs, radios have very useful LDO regulators, discrete components, switches, some nice connectors, etc. Mechanics from a VCR can be interesting if you find some usage for it.- Hi-Fi stuff such as a nice amplifier can be a very good find. The transformer + the associated rectifier diodes and caps can be very welcome and most of the audio components are highly useful- PCs have marginally interesting PSUs (the "re-usability" varies a lot). I would not bother too much with the motherboard or other cards. I usually like to collect the PSU wires, I just like the colors.- Some industrial boards are potentially very interestingGood hunting,Dan

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 06:45:17 am
content: Our Council (Baulkham Hills) switched policy on this a few yeas back.They used to have every put their stuff out at the same time, several times a year. And it was great, the scavengers (like us :->) went around and collected stuff, and half your shit would be gone before the truck turns up. You could spend a day driving around and pick up all sorts of neat junk.But now they have an "on-demand" system were you can requests a pick up twice a year or something.Maybe convenient for many, but now it means there is junk out the front of a house on the street every week of the year, and you the scavengers don't know when or where to look, so more stuff ends up in the tip.Stupid.Dave.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 07:12:29 am
content: It cant be done in the UK any more,or at least the part I live in as all items like TV's, computers etc have to be taken to a local center. The Company's that run these recycling centers wont allow any one to remove items from the sites on health and safty grounds, which translates at my local center as no you don't as we want first pickings on any good stuff, the office is filled with anything that the personnel working at the site think may work and or they can sell on.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 07:25:56 am
content: same in france, no more easy pick up...you must grab before the people send it to the garbage collector ...or you must have some friend(s) that work for the collector company -like I have ...

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 07:35:38 am
content: Got a 42" LCD TV from outside someone's house, junked, they gave me the remote control and another IEC mains power cable too, just wanted it gone (had arranged pick up but I saw it before then.) Had water damage (powered on but stains on screen), had to disassemble the TV down to the backlight tubes and clean the filter elements, but wallah - 42" 1080p LCD for FREE.Can hardly beat that.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 07:42:12 am
content: VCRs are full of cables of all sizes with connectors on each end.If you take it home and unsolder all the PCB mount headers you have a nice collection of cables, connectors and matching headers.

author: Kevin.D
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 07:58:04 am
content: I used to scavenge all my big expensive parts like Trannies,inductors,switches and large filter caps ,a few old Television wiring harnesses also will provide you with a good source of pre crimped wires with matching plugs and sockets on the boards . in the 80's you used to be able to go to the council tip and ask for an old microwave or old television's and the guys used to just say yeah take it ,you go now and they have loads of skips full of old electrical goods and wont let you have anything.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 08:02:27 am
content: One safety issue to keep in mind is that TVs and Microwaves may have just been tested hours before being put outside for collection.So there can be deadly voltages on CRT tubes and microwave capacitors.Also idiots love to smash the CRT tubes to get the copper yoke off. So watch for cuts from broken glass.

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 08:09:16 am
content: We have an electronics recycling center on my area. It is heaven for scavenging parts. I usually collect electronic devices (radios, old TVs, printers) from my neighborhood just to have an "excuse" for a trip to the recycling center. When leaving the place I have collected more stuff than the ones I dropped for recycling.Alexander.

author: Mint.
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 10:14:40 am
content: I'm going to avoid microwaves as they are a bit too dangerous and I don't need anything inside of them, also probably going to avoid the ridiculous amount of CRT televisions. Main goal is to try to find a vintage radio... don't know why!!!

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 11:56:57 am
content: Bloody EU makes is harder and harder to get useful scrap to salvage parts. Like a year ago there was this action where they collected 'electronic waste and scrap'. And for some reason these special dumpsters were made uin a way which made it impossible to recover anything from inside without completly valdalising the dumpster.fortunately (orly?) in my country many people yet don't give a crap about ecology and they throw stuff away in any random place (forests, some remote areas nearby the city etc.). This gives opportunity to scavenge something, but it involves a lot of luck. Myself, i never scored a really extreme hit, but a friend of mine did. He was cruising to some distant location and stopped over in forest road to take leak. What he found was pile of garbage where he found some kind of ethernet/networking stuff from which we have scavanged 3 Virtex 4 FPGAs (that was some pretty expensive stuff back then).btw. I also like PC PSU cables. They are nice for connecting stuff and usually quite decent quality. And of course they come for free

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 12:56:58 pm
content: Here, everybody has to actually haul it all to county landfill for disposal. Wonder how much stuff just goes in the regular trash or into the woods, or just gets stacked up in the garage (the most popular solution...nobody can park in their garages around here).I just let it be know to my friends that I will kindly haul their stuff off for them (if they have nice stuff) and voilà! I have plenty of stuff. Strip out the usable electronics and move on.

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 01:33:37 pm
content: Ya, but in not so distant past you could just go to institutions like technical schools, high schools, workshops etc and simply ask if they have any electronic scrap to dispose of and in most cases they would be happy to get rid of those. Once i got like 30 blown computer PSUs (heatsinks, wiring looms, current diodes, fans, iec connectors, switches) like that.Nowadays companies and institutions need to get some kind of paper when disposing of stuff that confirms that stuff has been recycled in an ecological manner which doesn't make furry bastards living on the forests sad. And the reality is that this waste is either getting transported to developing countries or dumped in the woods, only in bigger quantity at a time or simply buried in ground (ya, take money for recycling, dump stuff in forest -> no cost)

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 01:40:58 pm
content: Quote from: G7PSK on August 20, 2012, 07:12:29 amMy local recycling centre is happy to let me take whatever I like. Nearly all the electricals get crushed and put in the landfill, so they don't care if people want to try and fix them instead.

author: Architect_1077
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 01:55:09 pm
content: Quote from: Mint. on August 20, 2012, 10:14:40 amThey do have some cabling, components, motors, and a nice beefy HV Transformer.

author: vis1-0n
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 03:02:41 pm
content: With a junked VCR or TV I would strip out the tuner and make a radio scanner. It is kinda hard finding the (right) part, the repair/spares shops are too expensive. Ebay would be hit and miss, and also the cheap tuners are not shipped over here cheaply. Here is Africa, and junk is not easy to come by.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 03:35:17 pm
content: Microwaves are nice. High current mains cable, nice loon with spade connectors, V3 microswitches, 2 high strength ferrite magnets. As a bonus afterwards you have 2 piles, one steel one copper to take to the scrapyard.Vis1-0n, Where are you located, turn it on in your preferences.

author: prenato
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 04:37:07 pm
content: I like old PC power supplies as sources for heatsinks, power diodes and MOSFETS, inductors, optocouplers, etc. As noted earlier, audio amps, especially older ones, generally have a nice "beefy" transformer inside that can be reused for a number of projects.One item that was very interesting to me was an Audio "power conditioning and backup" system. It had very nice power transformers and low Ron 50N06 N-Channel Mosfets with beautiful heatsinks (for the inverter circuit). I suppose UPSs must have them too?

author: Mashpriborintorg
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 07:44:13 pm
content: I used to get lots of stuff from the garbage day street piles. But now, e-waste is not allowed anymore in street junk, it must officially be dropped in "proper collection centers", aka Fort Knox like sites, with fences, keepers, dogs, miradors, body scanners... so finding stuff in the street is becoming more and more difficult, though I have been quite lucky in the past few months.

author: FenderBender
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 09:26:37 pm
content: You have to take electronics to a dedicated recycling place in my city and then you just throw it in a heap...so I just camp out there sometimes...see if anyone brings anything nice.

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2012, 09:56:20 pm
content: Heh, It may sometimes be worthy to do a classic 'dumpster dive' for e-waste. Sadly most of the items thrown away these days are consumer junk, which in most cases contains higly specific parts, which obviously reduce the cost when you're producing 10M of something. On the other hand finding anything useful in those is hard.My main hit list for stuff is following:-lcd/plasma displays -> power supplies, backlighting inverters, sometimes quite fat wiring harnesses, programmable logic (like 15% chance, rest being 'one-fat-asic' sulutions)-PCs -> PSUs for various stuff, fans, heatsinks, some nice sheet metal when you cut up the case-automotive electronic units -> various high spec parts (smps controllers, mosfets, intelligent power switches). Downside is that in most cases they have conformal coating or (worse) potting. While conformal coating can be usually removed with this solvent or another, potting can not.-networking gear (switches, routers, adsl modems) -> high chance of scoring high-spec programmable logic, especially in premium brands-laptop mains adapters (very useful power suplies, if they are functional)-printers and scanners -> electronics usually useless (custom parts), many high precision mechanical parts. Good source of UV-transmitting glass for photolitographc PCB techniques-emergency lighting -> rechargable cells, battery controllers, relays, useful connectors (in most countries there are some regulations as to what is the lifetime of such lighting equipment, so you can get entirely functional units)-audio equipment -> sound processors, power transistors, FAT heatsinks, FAT transformers-industrial equipment -> almost anything possible, depends on your luck. Almost anything like that is a goldmine, since these are often manufactured for reliability, not for cost.-premium brand power tools -> motor controllers (usually the motor/gears are the parts that fail)-cellphones -> lcds and touch panels when they are not fused with enclosure-satellite tv/ DVB-T tuners -> programmable logic, high frequency ICs and discretes-various home appliances (washing mashines, AC machines, refridgerators) -> fat wiring looms, motors, valves, copper tubing

author: cwalex
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2012, 11:47:51 am
content: If you want PC power supplies for parts and don't mind if they are faulty a computer shop will probably have quite a few in their bins.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 21, 2012, 12:06:47 pm
content: Quote from: Monkeh on August 20, 2012, 01:40:58 pmyou live in a rare part of the country then. round here when you tip stuff they will take "good stuff" off you to resell before you get to have that sense of satisfaction derived from launching it as far up the skip as you can. There is a shop in town which buys stuff from the tips to resell and the tips have stopped selling stuff themselves. I don't take anything to the tip that is not landfill material. I will resell any metal I can, give away stuff I think is worthless and try and sell it first. Nothing gets wasted in my house.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2012, 12:23:51 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on August 21, 2012, 12:06:47 pmThey used to sell stuff. They stopped bothering for whatever reason (I guess farmers aren't very good at repairing TVs).

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2012, 06:26:45 pm
content: Something like freecycle.org might be a way to find scavengable gear before it ends up in a landfill.

author: Pat Pending
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2012, 06:53:44 pm
content: Its seems that as more and more products get manufactured with minuscule surface mount parts and specific SoC IC's, that the value to behad from scrapping is getting worse with every technology improvement.In my dumpster diving only the ferrites, big electrolytics or complete SMPSU seem worth the effort.When it comes to removal, nothing beats a hot air gun for speed and cleanliness of the parts removed.

author: prenato
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2012, 08:05:00 pm
content: Quote from: Pat Pending on August 21, 2012, 06:53:44 pmI second that. I've seen that tip first in this article from Keith's Electronics blog:http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=213I've been using that technique ever since with good results.As for things getting worst with every technological improvement... I agree there is an increasing number of devices that are not worth even bothering with (mostly BGAs and tiny smd components inside). That said, there are still many boards that are worth the effort, If you choose what to salvage. I think we never had it this good overall. When I was a kid, electronics were much more expensive (in today's dollars) and people were not throwing as many things away. It's a great time to be an Electronics hobbyist IMO.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2012, 11:01:22 am
content: Quote from: poorchava on August 20, 2012, 09:56:20 pmIf the panel is unusable they're still a good source of VGA/DVI/etc. to LVDS converters, which used to be ridiculously expensive (more than a new monitor) when purchased separately new.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2012, 01:17:06 pm
content: Some newer microwaves have chunky IGBTs for the high voltage switching.They can be expensive to buy in 1off quantity so, if you need that sort of thing and are aware of the safety issues it's a good place to get them.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2012, 04:20:47 pm
content: I will keep that in mind, mostly I get the OHL cheapies.

author: siliconmix
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2012, 07:57:59 am
content: its why i usefreecycle.i'm not happy with my local council.they make loads of cash on scrap metal .but it doesn't reduce the council tax bill.yet .i have to put food in a seperate container ,plastic and metals in one bag .if the bin men see things are in the wrong bin or bag .it gets left there.this council has got it made .residents sort the scrap and dont reap any of the rewards .meh

author: Jimmy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2012, 10:29:43 am
content: Don't get cought doing it as technicaly you are stealing council property and a mate an me got questioned by the police and lucily we hadn't put any in the car and we said we were just looking at the old stuff. We nearly got $250 fine eachhttp://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vacuumcleaner-man-wont-be-charged-20110322-1c4d9.html

author: KD0CAC John
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2012, 01:33:24 pm
content: I've kinda lucked out , shortly after getting my ham radio licence , I starting hanging out at a nearby shop that the owner did repairs to mostly old tube radios and added to that started taking in all kinds of electronics and reselling , so kinda a surplus place .Then he decided to just do repairs and rent sell part of the building , so he had to scale down , so he had reduced prices , then the last few days we put stuff out on the parking lot mostly for free , well by then I had started a friendship with another ham that was into scrapping [ he would separate everything to separate metals & boards ] and we got to take lots of this stuff back to his place to take apart .The next step was the owner of the shop made a deal with one of the regulars to buy the cream of the crop , and we got hired to haul it over to his new storage , at that point we got a few more goodies and he would call us about every 6 months to pickup even more , lots of this was old test equipment & military & commercial electronics gear .Added to all that [ its still going on , we moved him to a new location ] , my ham scrapper would watch for local estate sales and all kinds of ham radio / electronic guys would call him to clean out storage / garages .My 2 biggest problems were not knowing enough to collect what would help build a repair bench [ have leaned a lot the last couple of yrs. ] and then living in a RV and not having enough room [ that seems to be a common issue ] .