Dumpster Diving finds.... what have you found? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:35:21 am
content: What have you found in or next to bins lately?Yesterday I got a great pile of good stuff. A local print shop had upgraded their high-volume copier and the old one was left outside. I ratted a number of big boards, full of mosfets and such. Also recovered was 7 dc motors of various sizes, most with rotary encoders. Also a little 3 phase motor. A very small pc motherboard with one pci slot, of ram slot and a little cpu was in it too. And the best bits, big power supplies. There is a 24V 31A unit, a 5V 20A and a 12V 8A supply. All are 'Meanwell' brand in nice cases, but will need to go in a rack case or something.I also scored 3 beaut bookshelves.What other things have people scrounged?

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:39:28 am
content: Unfortunately nothing as it's illegal here

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:41:28 am
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on October 04, 2015, 11:39:28 amReally? Trash still belongs to the original owner in the UK?

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:46:46 am
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on October 04, 2015, 11:39:28 amThat's crazy. Can you apply the "It's only illegal if you're caught" principle?

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:47:53 am
content: Yep, EU makes dumpster divers' lives difficult. Companies are not allowed to throw shit into the dumpster. They to pay a licensed recycling company to get rid of hazardous waste (read: ship it to third world countries in most cases). Only private people throw electronic things into the dumpster.I guess my best dumpster score (although not electronic) was an antique ornamental cabinet. After some cleaning and minor repair my mother-in-law loved it. I guess it could cost like 500Euro if I wanted to buy it.My friend scored a really high end FPGAa board from some telecomms equipment that had been dumped in the woods.Wys?ane z mojego HTC One M8s przy u?yciu Tapatalka

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:49:21 am
content: Amazing. Does UK still have television licences? It blows the mind.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 11:57:10 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on October 04, 2015, 11:41:28 amIt belongs to the owner of the bin, even if it's not in the bin. Then it belongs to the council/properly licensed collection company. Doesn't matter if it's on the street or not. Same with skips.Quote from: Halcyon on October 04, 2015, 11:49:21 amYup. I don't have one though, haven't watched broadcast TV in over a decade.Quote from: wagon on October 04, 2015, 11:46:46 amI could, but I'm the sort who gets caught as soon as I try anything the slightest dodgy lol. I once grabbed a PC out of a skip and ended up with a knock on the door from the police about an hour later :/

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 09:48:24 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on October 04, 2015, 11:57:10 amDid they do anything?

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 10:00:55 pm
content: I have never once heard of anyone being prosecuted in the UK for retrieving whatever they want from a skip. But, waste-transfer or recycling stations - oh yes, the council jobsworths have prosecuted people who go and drop of some tat in the correct recycling bins, then find something they can use and take it with them... Unbelievable...It's the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. A law decided by an unelected EU commission.

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2015, 10:44:11 pm
content: Quote from: Macbeth on October 04, 2015, 10:00:55 pmIn some parts of Australia we have 'council cleanup', when people are encouraged to put their crap on the footpath for collection. There's usually cars and trucks driving every street on weekends, looking at all the piles of stuff. I've scored some great stuff from that over the years, including multiple working computer monitors, a working computerised sewing machine, and a whole box of brand-new 36W flouro tubes. As long as you don't make a mess, nobody cares. (Except for wives, when you bring home 'more $hit')

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2015, 12:19:23 am
content: I rarely find anything good, but have certainly contributed my share to the dumpster divers over the years. A couple of years ago I threw away a working 17' NEC crt monitor just because it was too heavy to move. I also put some 15" 3-way Technics speakers in the trash when I replaced them with some better sounding Polks, mostly because they were too big to use anywhere else.The only halfway good thing I remember finding was one of those fancy heat-pipe cpu coolers, brand new, still in the box. I took it home, dusted it off, and sold it on eBay for $30.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2015, 03:20:59 pm
content: Quote from: wagon on October 04, 2015, 09:48:24 pmThey started telling me off while I was trying to tell them I had permission. They weren't going to charge me but they were making me put it back. Luckily the neighbour who hired the skip was in and let them know that he had actually told me and others on the street we could scavenge from it. After that he left a sign on it saying "If you want anything take it." It seemed to really piss the fella off they didn't even check with him before bothering me.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 05, 2015, 05:12:48 pm
content: Quote from: rdl on October 05, 2015, 12:19:23 amI have contributed my share also. The best was a 60" rear projection TV that failed and SWMBO said get rid of it so we could get an LED TV. Put it out on a Friday which is trash day and yard sale day, left the house, returned 1.5 hr later and it was gone, thank God. I have never found anything good myself. Last attempt was an Element 32" LCD tv found in my sub division. Brought it home, opened it up and found a gaping hole through the power supply board. Put it back on the curb next trash day and someone snatched it up. I think I will limit myself to contributing.

author: Derick Freese
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2015, 07:46:51 pm
content: I mostly get TVs and computers. No one around here tosses anything truly worth having.

author: bitshape
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2015, 09:00:00 pm
content: In Holland dumpster-diving in the local dump-yard is prohibited.

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2015, 09:12:54 pm
content: When I was a poor uni-student the local dump-scrounger used to put good stuff aside for me. I would fix the stuff, if I could and sell it for cash. I'd give him a bottle of rum from time to time to keep things moving.

author: sony mavica
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 08:34:20 am
content: i found a sega mastersystem with cables and controller and boxed complete megadrive games all in great condition a satellite set top box brand new wifi modem a sony bravia KF-55E200A works fine drums for guitar hero xbox 360 in good condition works fine brand new small barbecue grill and a box full of beyblades and some gps systems and a old sony hi-8 video camera will play back tapes and rec fine but the viewfinder is broken and a chipped original xbox xbox just the console has a 160gb hdd in itand also found a ps2 everything but the controller and a like new dvd player and 2 very good condition high end vhs players and some kids toys and some ray ban sunglasses and like $7 in change all in the one dumpster there was a sega megadrive and computer in there too but it was way at the bottom i would have had to remove all the rose plants and other garden waist to get to them

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 10:23:54 am
content: That reminds me of a find a while ago. A Sega Mega Drive 2, ZX Spectrum+3, and a Tamiya Hornet RC car, all boxed. It would appear to be someones childhood prized possessions from the 80's that was stored in the loft for another few decades.The RC car had a locked differential. I opened it up and found the gears stripped and held together with a big gob of blu-tak. I've no idea if this was intentional (for stunts) or just a bodge repair. I got the proper parts on ebay for a couple of quid and replaced the AA battery holder with a 7.2V NiMH battery pack.The Mega Drive would fail booting the carts. Switch cleaner and re solder for the edge connector fixed that.The Spectrum FDD was dead. I repaired a sensor but then found it wouldn't load reliably. The rubber belt had perished, I bodged in a temporary rubber band and got it working (just). It still needs the proper belt.Then I put them in my loft where they remain...

author: aargee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 11:42:48 am
content: Apparently scavenging from kerbside pickup here is illegal, though I've never heard of anyone being prosecuted over it.Observations from our last one... (the joys of working mostly from home)A ute (pickup) with two couples and three lounges on the back, stopped across the road and studied the lounge on the footpath, lots of discussion, then unloaded one of theirs off the ute and loaded the one from the footpath - they were shopping!Also a bloke with a trailer full of odd assorted BBQs and another with assorted white goods collecting.There was a story about a couple moving house (not during the kerbside pickup), started stacking their gear on the footpath in anticipation of the removal truck arriving, only to come out and find some of it missing. It seems anything on the footpath is fair game.Then on the other hand, my sister had an old table and chairs she put on the footpath with a "Free - giveaway" sign on it. Sat there for a week until one of her friends told her to put a price on it for sale. It disappeared that morning.

author: jwm_
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 11:50:39 am
content: There was a big CRT television in the allyway outside my house near the trash I had been eyeing, the other day. A guy pulls up in a pickup, takes out his electric screwdriver, pops off the back and pulls out the flyback transformer and a few boards/cables and re-attaches the back nicely leaving it in the alley where he found it.He was fast, took like a minute and he knew exactly what to pull from the back and took the time to clean up after himself so was pretty considerate, I think he must have a lot of practice as the back of his truck was filled with various scavanged electronic parts. Next time I see him I'm gonna see if he will let me look through his stash and maybe buy anything prime before it ends up being melted down for copper.

author: JoeB83
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 01:28:01 am
content: Back in the day when 5-disk CD changers were the coolest & most prized audio equipment you could get, I found 3 Sony 5-disk changers and 2 Yamaha 5-disk changers in a dumpster behind Best Buy (an American consumer electronics store). This was probably 1996, or '97.Last year I found a 52" Samsung Plasma TV, worked perfectly, don't even know why it was thrown out.And last, while I was still in college I found a Tek 2445, a couple Tek power supplies, and a Tek 10MHz frequency counter. I also rescued a (broken) TDS540 right before it was going to be thrown out, but I never tried to fix it and gave it away.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 04:53:42 am
content: Back in the '80s,we were doing a major cleanup of the "deli with accommodation" (corner shop plus house) that we were operating.We hired a "skip" which was placed on the verge.We put some stuff in it,& were going to finish the job in a couple of days time.When we next looked at the "skip",various neighbours had 1/2 filled it with crud,including building materials.Maybe they thought it was a Council initiative,(but it did have the Hire firm's name on it),or maybe they were just@##$$@$%$$^%&$@%!!!s.They were also our customers,so we couldn't really yell at them!The only thing of any use in their junk was a small "Stereo" which had a couple of useful speakers,a power transformer,& various other good bits.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 07:14:50 am
content: As a kid I once found an Atari 2600 in the street. It looked like it may have taken a glancing blow by a car and the difficulty switches were broken off, but it did work.

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 11:28:46 am
content: Quote from: JoeB83 on October 09, 2015, 01:28:01 amI scored some nice Tascam rack-mount CD players out of a bin behind a radio station. I all work, sort of. Probably minor faults, like a dirty mechanism. I should get them going properly.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 11:39:53 am
content: Quote from: jwm_ on October 06, 2015, 11:50:39 amOver here they hack the back open with an axe, smash the neck off the tube and rip off the deflection coils then just leave the broken, shattered parts everywhere.

author: gildasd
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 08:56:19 pm
content: Illegal in Belgium (not sure of the legalities, but police come and tell you to go away), at the recycling yard illegal too.People do put stuff on the street with a "take it" sign, but it's never a working 100Mhz scope.But I've had great luck simply asking companies I work for in the summer or am client of...I have got a switch board (100+ metal toggle switches), 3 working G5's (until I drooped a screen that then blew a supply), a soldering Iron and loads of other small stuff.Simply asking nicely often works.

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2015, 06:06:15 am
content: You'd think with all the 'green'sentiment that abound nowadays, it would be encouraged to dumpster-dive. Have OH&S people killed it? What is behind the 'no scrounging'rule?

author: sony mavica
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2015, 06:52:25 am
content: Quote from: BradC on October 09, 2015, 11:39:53 amthey do the same here in new zealandi was able to save a 21'' crt yesterday only reason i grabbed it was it had a built in dvd player and i have lots of dvd and no where really to set up a dvd player and it works fine

author: JoeB83
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2015, 12:37:25 am
content: Quote from: wagon on October 09, 2015, 11:28:46 amGo for it-I still use mine!