EEVblog #345 - Electronics Dumpster Diving

What's in Dave's garbage room?
Dumpster Diving time!

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[thenugget]

Electrical engineering hobbyists and proffesionals have to agree, checking out the electronics that were dumped out is one of the most exciting things

[aserta]

Back at work, we had the exact same type of room. My boss owned the building but we shared it with 2 other companies. Each two or three months there was always some electronic scrap lying down for the garbage men to pick up. I'm proud to say that that was changed and that with the help of a few buddies we restore the ones that can be and we donate them to poor people. It's better than throwing them out anyways and recycling hasn't quite cached up to the science yet, in my opinion that is.

[Geoxor]

5:48 I love how your know the first 12 digits of the number *Pi*

[RandyLott]

"Honey, I found a really good deal on a crib for Sagan."

"Did you find it in the dumpster?.."

"Yeah, but it looks good. We'll just wipe it down."

[EEVblog]

A neighbour did come in during the copier teardown and remarked that was probably theirs! Seems happy that it got some use, and wanted to see the finished video.

[drkastenbrot]

Damn, i could use so much of the stuff you find there. Like the monitors. Recently i got lucky and my school gifted me 10 old crusty 1280x1024 monitors. I threw away the white cases (more like yellow at that point), and have put 9 screens seamlessly together. They all work and are currently driven using 3 graphics card outputs and a bit of controller magic which needs to be optimized still...
Neat project and it would also work with your four monitors. You wont even need complex controllers, just get a good graphics card with enough outputs.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Beware the urge to unconditionally "Rescue" electronic things - you will fill all available space with stuff the might come in useful but never does (until just after you finally chuck it). At least stuff like monitors is fairly easily sellable. Dumpsters outside businesses are always better pickings than domestic as the value threshold is way higher, the more so towards the centre of cities!

[spagamoto]

If you happen to be at a university, you can find absolutely ludicrous amounts of good stuff the day after student move-out day. When I graduated I stuck around for a bit and went through the dorm halls. We're talking laptops, coolers, nice desk lamps, monitors, UPS units, stereos... Mostly all working or with little faults that any one of us could fix with an iron and some glue.

[joiseystud]

I love how he can find something good to say about everything. Even if he doesn't like certain parts of it he gave kudos on their display. I like this objective attitude.

[derkiro]

"We have.... A CALCULATOR! :D
Man you are so funny! 

[uNQuDZ]

thanks for reminding me to check the dumpsters of some companies in the area, 2 years back i scored a Panasonic wireless landline phone that only needed new batteries in the handset. i used that until i gave up the landline service.

[coondogtheman]

You should do more of these EDD videos. I love picking electronics from the trash and fixing it. I hate when ppl throw out perfectly good electronics when it just needs a little TLC and it's working again. Stuff that isn't fixable is great for parts.

[JaycoubbRulez]

If anyone's wondering, the specs of a Dell XPS 420 are:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.4GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM
500GB Hard Drive
ATI Radeon HD 3650
Windows Vista Home Premium

[ChipGuy]

Concerning these Samsung Syncmaster 204B: I got two of them which didn't work. Turned out that they just needed replacement of all electrolytic caps and a soldered in 3A fuse, shaped like an 0207 resistor. They work like a treat now.

[relishgargler]

Those 204B monitors are pretty decent once you replace the dodgy caps. I got one from a buddy a few years back because it would take about 10 minutes to power on fully. $4 in parts and half an hour of time and it has been rock solid ever since.

[RandyLott]

You make us proud, Dave. Great video!

[gominosensei]

i think there's a cog replacement kit for it somewhere around the interwebs.... it's supposed to reduce the notorious noise that is caused by them vibrating when they wear off. i assume excessive wear could lead to jamming....

[sghewari]

A benefit of moving EEVblog to new HQ ! Those gadgets sitting in garbage room are thankful to you for resurrecting them !

[gastarbieter]

I do not know why you call them bodges or aftertoughts. With big circuits, particularly when there are high amount of ICs involved (and not transistors and so on), single sided or doublesided pcbs its very difficult to sometimes to get a routing solution that does not involve some wire jumping across or the bloody vias.

[HardDiskLover]

Love the dumpster diving Videos! :-D It's always interesting to see what electronics people throw away.
I've also found so much fully working stuff people wanted to throw away.
If it's fully working and you really want to get rid of it, why not sell it for little money or give it away for free? At least it can be reused and not so much energy gets wasted for recycling stuff that doesn't need to be recycled.
I honestly can't understand this "throw-away society"
If it is completely broken and can't be fixed then it is time to throw it away.