What should you Desolder? ... Dont Waste Expensive Components

I show you the most common, useful and expensive electronic components you will commonly find in the trash. I hope you find it useful.

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[armonfrohlich]

Because you said “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” My brother goes to the electronics bin every week where you can dispose of electronics. He always gets something out of it... Smart TVs from 30 to 50 inches where only the backlight, so that the screen is bright, needs to be replaced. Costs around €30-50. Great stereo systems where only one fuse is blown or the potentiometer needs to be replaced. Lots of stuff like that. Compressor, vacuum cleaner for hundreds of euros... All the things people throw away just because they think a repair would be too expensive or that it is even though you only have to replace a single, almost insignificant part.... Smart TVs, PCs, stereo systems, cordless drills, etc. Everything is repaired and sold on eBay. Or passed on to the family. Depending on who wants or needs what. Just awesome!

[Pintosonic]

Salvaging electrolytic capacitors might be a good idea when we intend to use them for personal electronic projects that will only be used for a few years but I often restore synthesizers from the 80s and the most common failure are the electrolytic capacitors followed by coin cell batteries. That’s why I just use high quality electrolytic capacitors bought new from a reputable distributor. When you make a repair and expect it to last several decades, you have to understand that these parts have a limited shelf life and service life. For other types of capacitors like film capacitors that tends to be on the expensive side there’s no problems re-using them.

[Labyrnthdom]

You shouldn't desolder anything until you need the part. Keep the pcbs in a box.
Easier to find the part.

[gregreynolds]

Personally, I find it easier to keep the whole board and then salvage at a later date - context is often a big clue to what a part is when trying to identify it.

For professional work, I think it only makes sense to use parts you can but new - otherwise you can end up with a design you can't take to higher volume.

[peterjantzer]

I've been in the tech industry for decades.
As time has gone on, I have assembled what I call the "magic box".
Doesn't matter what you need, look in the magic box and you WILL find it.😊

[vaclavtrpisovsky]

Always separate waste electronics into modules before considering individual components. You can use a 12V audio system and USB hub from an old monitor as-is. Same goes for internal power supplies and their interference filters, any daughterboards/expansion cards and CRT monitor modules in door video phones.

[ewen]

The nuts and bolts salvage is extremely useful. I have learned over the years that it’s not very useful to just put them in a container, because you really don’t know what you have available for your next project. I 3D printed (you can buy) different screw and bolt measurement tools and separated my reclaimed hardware into small ziplock bags (from the post office) with printed labels showing size and length. It’s saved me money and time.

[iindium]

I like switches and buttons. You can do a lot with an antique switch

[andrewkay]

Very good advice, nice to see this information in our throw away society. I have been in electronics for over 60 years & have been doing what you describe most of this time

[TheJohnDorn]

Back when the big plasma to led TV shift was taking place I found so many plasma TVs on the curb. I'd always scoop them up. Most times the TV didn't work but I really liked the selection of transformers available during that transition.

[davidfalconer]

You did not mention the batteries in disposible VAPES these litter the towns and roadsides .... the batteries are Lithium -ion and are FULLY rechargeable ( 4v2 max ! ! ) .... these can be used to replace ( HORRID LEAKY ALKALINE CELLS ) in small LED torches that use 3 to 4v5 Volts ( they do NOT leak fluids ) and many other projects DAVE™🛑

[pileofstuff]

It's good to see that there are still folks out there who prefer to salvage components when possible.

Takes me back to my younger days in this hobby when parts were a lot harder to get and much more expensive.

[christopherleubner]

The things you called LCDs are actually vacuum florescent displays. Mini vacuum tubes. ❤

[Enigma]

4:37 Those are vacuum fluorescent displays. I always salvage them. They are not too difficult to drive and produce a nice glow as they are essentially a form of triode tube.

[christopherleubner]

One thing i save are the little electromechanical relays from discarded microwave control boards. They come in handy for all kinds of stuff.

[xanataph]

I am more of the "keep the board and take the components off as I need them" mentality. Low power resistors are very cheap so I just buy them new. However...there always comes a day when I am building a circuit and I don't have the value I need in stock, so then those old circuit boards become an "electronics shop in a bin". Quicker to scour some old boards and lift that component you need than make a trip to the nearest Jaycar, about 30 kilometres from where I live.

Yes, the exotic components are great fun and sometimes quite useful. LF transformers, wall wart PSUs (switchmode or Iron core) always worth hanging on to and often get used up on projects, even if just converting a commercial something that's battery operated to powered by the line source.

Old inverters and UPS units are a fantastic source of high power MOSFETs. Some even have assemblies on heatsinks that you can de-solder and lift right out and use in your project.

Even the boards themselves. Maybe not so much with modern multilayer PCBs, but the older single sided boards, once stripped of components can be used to build a new project on. There are two ways to go about this. a) Lift all the tracks off, they come off pretty easily when heated with an iron, then drill new holes to accommodate the new components as necessary. And just wire up point to point below, just like simple punched protoype board. b) If your project and the donor board has relatively simple traces, you can even adapt those to connect your new circuit. Sometimes you might need to break a track and drill additional holes etc.

[TitanumIchigo]

For SMT ICs: it's good to run it under microscope and grab all names, then list all of them in some sort of document with source board identification. This allows you to quickly perform a search through your entire inventory of PCBs to check if you already have one. Then hot air can do a quick job if needed. (Recently did that to repair a broken 20W battery lamp of a friend with TP4056 I just ran out of, but had old breakout board with broken USB connector and working IC).

For electrolytic caps: I desolder only things with quality comparable to Rubycon and use it only when I don't have new ones, becuase I f-d up calculations :D

The things I love to take are crystal oscillators. Old quality is way better than new ones. Also opamps, but only ones that are audio-grade (even if I'm mostly prototyping diagnostic devices rather than audio equipment, but those op-amps are sometimes life-savers). Then it goes with CuAl - if it has copper or aluminum in it, it's probably worth salvaging (transformers, chokes, inductors, radiators etc.)

I rarely salvage device chassis/box. Mostly if it's a flat steel surface (can be used as raw material to fabricate something else) or plastic (dumping that into "recycle" bin, waiting to get a shredder and pellet extruder).

[hHUgSp]

7:46 "Even if you don't need a new large transformer, they're also great for weight training".
Who says an electronics nerd doesn't have muscles!

[dcmoisan]

Regarding toroid cores, there's a caveat: Most cores are designed for the 150 kHz frequencies that are found in switching supplies, while others are used for audio frequencies. If you're using them for RF, you may not have good results. Fortunately, there are cheap instruments (the NanoVNA) you can use to characterize your salvaged components.

[metricmine]

I usually blast boards with a heat gun then knock out the parts, or pull out with a pliers. If low value parts happen to fall out, I still keep them. Even ICs that I know I will never use, or data sheets are unavailable, I still keep them since they look cool and they don't take up much space. For plastic parts like connectors, I hand desolder them before using the heat gun. I always test and keep good electrolytic capacitors since many times faulty devices are due to bad electrolytics and it's a pain to go buy replacements, and it's too expensive to buy them new in bulk.