Any use for Cable Modems? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2023, 06:19:48 pm
content: Greetings all. My local Cable / Internet provider has installed fiber optic to my home and I now have a Motorola SB5101 and an Arris CM820 which I had to buy from the cable provider some years back. They offer no 'buy back' program which sucks!! Other than the power cord on the Arris and the 12vdc@.75a Motorola wall wart do these units have any value? Anything inside to salvage? Can they be R.F. (RG-59 / RG-6) cable connected to each other to provide my own network via coax? The Motorola does at least link data between the rear panel USB port and the Ethernet RJ-45 connector so that may be of use. Thanks for any info!! Cheers mates!!

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 12, 2023, 03:53:41 pm
content: dump it sorrybut was made for the previous setup you had, find some buyer who as the same setup .... or rip parts from it ??the provider may have changed a few things over the time, frequencies, amplitudes, protocols etc ....even if say you have many models on fiber optics, they wont work at the same spectrum ...

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 12, 2023, 04:06:07 pm
content: You have the plastic box itself. The PCB probably has a SMPS to make 3V3 and/or 5V and both could be reused if you hack in some project of yourself. But the 12V brick is probably the most usable part of the whole thing.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 12, 2023, 04:16:28 pm
content: If they support a recent DOCSIS version you might be able to sell them.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 12, 2023, 04:39:19 pm
content: If it has multiple Ethernet jacks, it might be able to be used as a 4-port Ethernet switch with no connection to the network coax. I did this with an OLD ADSL modem.Jon

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2023, 12:54:31 am
content: One of them is DOCSIS 2 and the other newer one supports DOCSIS 3. Both have only one RJ-45 sadly. The Arris with the A.C. line cord does have a nifty SMPS built onto the mainboard with air space isolation cutouts. I was looking at if I could saw it off but of course the control circuit driving the opto-coupler is part of the low voltage main board on the user side and I would have to include that during 'surgery'. Sad these things can't handshake with each other to provide a coaxial linked set of modems. Ethernet on each end and coax in the middle. If I lived closer to Higgens Pennsylvania I'd donate them to the 'Higgins Appliance Shoot'! P.E.T.A. was against the pidgeon shoot they held each year so they devised the 'Appliance Shoot'. Sorry, proper name is Hegins Pa.

author: retiredfeline
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2023, 01:32:51 am
content: No, not really. Same story with old ADSL modems here (we've all gone to VDSL where DSL is used). Even if they have multiple Ethernet ports they are too power hungry to use as switches, and besides fewer and fewer appliances need wired Ethernet with time. Put it in the e-waste stream. ☹️