You'll find: different size cabels with contacts/connectors, gears (if you're lucky they're mounted in a frame that can be easily reused as a gearbox), LED or LCD display. Transformer(don't use it if you're not 100% sure what you're doing), buttons, LEDs, microswitches, screws, nuts, bolts, spacers (you can never have enough spacers, plastic rivets.
-And if you desolder everything (a heat gun is usefull), the PCBs are quite rigid and lightweight boards for making robot bodies with.
It will have at least 1 motor and several rubber belts that you can salvage. I took a VCR rewinder apart and got a pretty big motor. It had decent speed and a lot of torque.
The head drum of a video recorder is usually made of aluminium. For the full effect, it would be better to use a heavier flywheel, such as a steel one. Maximise the angular momentum, and all that. Or even use lead, or some other dense metal. Only the truly hard-core would use depleted uranium.
The really nice parts of a VCR head drum assembly are the bearings. They're amazingly smooth, and have almost no play in them. The motor is usually a brushless DC motor, which can be tricky to drive.
Yes, but we're discussing the parts of a VCR. Unless they start making VCR heads out of lead now that VCRs are vitually redundant, it leaves us in a bit of a pickle...
VCRs have tons of cool stuff in them. I recommend trying to figure out what every mechanical part does int there. The level of ingenuity that has gone into making a VCR is absolutly amazing
It's great to recycle parts from old electronics into something like a robot! CD players will have all sorts of useful stuff -- if it's a non-portable, it'll have the motor that ejects the disk, and that's usually quite a good thing to get. To give you an idea, I have a photo of the parts I recovered from a computer CD-ROM drive:
I've just taken apart an old monitor picked up on a garage sale. Boy, what a joy! :D (I'm a software guy, and haven't been touching soldering iron and PCBs for more than a decade by now...)
What I particularly love about older electronics, there were no SMD those days, and there is always plenty of space on the board, so you can re-use all those parts, including maybe the PCB itself. :)
Like, I also took apart a broken cell phone, and most of it was useless: even the tiny LEDs are surface mounted, and hardly can be desoldered. Got the case with the battery and power supply for it though.
Assuming it was a CRT, that is. Mustn't show my age with assumptions like that :-) Anyway, hope you know about the safety issues with old monitors: the CRT stores charge, at something like 25kV. If it's been switched off for a while, you're OK, but if not, it's best to discharge the final anode cap on the side of the CRT, through a resistor, to the chassis ground. Discharge it through a resistor, not your body!
I think CD lasers are infra-red. No beam that you can see! If you want to burn hoeles in things, it's possible with the laser diode from a DVD writer. They're much more powerful than the laser diodes in CD readers or writers. If you want a visible beam, try using the diode from a laser pointer.
OOOOOOh now you've hit the money. Cassette players generally have a plethora of salvagable parts including motors, grears, belt drives, switches, and the metal chassis comes in handy.
I also took apart an old and broken RC car last week. the PCB still has everything soldered on, but I clipped the wires leading to the motor and gearbox, steering solenoid (I think) and tiny light bulb.
Sure is! You'll want to
actually, wouldn't it be
scavengers will save the earth from drowning in its own garbage
You'll find: different size cabels with contacts/connectors, gears (if you're lucky they're mounted in a frame that can be easily reused as a gearbox), LED or LCD display. Transformer(don't use it if you're not 100% sure what you're doing), buttons, LEDs, microswitches, screws, nuts, bolts, spacers (you can never have enough spacers, plastic rivets.
-And if you desolder everything (a heat gun is usefull), the PCBs are quite rigid and lightweight boards for making robot bodies with.
/ vzz-clck-"Maneuver"
What about a couple of old
What about a couple of old VCR's? My parents tried to throw them out but I saved them from the garbage man. Anything robot-worthy in those?
Open them up and find out :)
Open them up and find out :)
Dan
It will have at least 1
Flywheel
Flywheels
Need more mass
The head drum of a video recorder is usually made of aluminium. For the full effect, it would be better to use a heavier flywheel, such as a steel one. Maximise the angular momentum, and all that. Or even use lead, or some other dense metal. Only the truly hard-core would use depleted uranium.
The really nice parts of a VCR head drum assembly are the bearings. They're amazingly smooth, and have almost no play in them. The motor is usually a brushless DC motor, which can be tricky to drive.
Ummm...
VCRs have tons of cool stuff
VCRs have tons of cool stuff in them. I recommend trying to figure out what every mechanical part does int there. The level of ingenuity that has gone into making a VCR is absolutly amazing
/ vzz-clck-"Maneuver"
Recycled parts are good!
It's great to recycle parts from old electronics into something like a robot! CD players will have all sorts of useful stuff -- if it's a non-portable, it'll have the motor that ejects the disk, and that's usually quite a good thing to get. To give you an idea, I have a photo of the parts I recovered from a computer CD-ROM drive:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/282293157/
And a whole set of photos of recycled parts fro old electronic stuff:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/sets/72157594349941613/
Just took apart an old monitor
I've just taken apart an old monitor picked up on a garage sale. Boy, what a joy! :D (I'm a software guy, and haven't been touching soldering iron and PCBs for more than a decade by now...)
What I particularly love about older electronics, there were no SMD those days, and there is always plenty of space on the board, so you can re-use all those parts, including maybe the PCB itself. :)
Like, I also took apart a broken cell phone, and most of it was useless: even the tiny LEDs are surface mounted, and hardly can be desoldered. Got the case with the battery and power supply for it though.
Discharge that CRT!
Assuming it was a CRT, that is. Mustn't show my age with assumptions like that :-) Anyway, hope you know about the safety issues with old monitors: the CRT stores charge, at something like 25kV. If it's been switched off for a while, you're OK, but if not, it's best to discharge the final anode cap on the side of the CRT, through a resistor, to the chassis ground. Discharge it through a resistor, not your body!
Lasers
is the CD reading laser any good? it is tiny, but does it produce a good beam?
my player also has a cassette player/recorder- must be a motor or two used to move the tape along, as well as some controller
or switches to control the play/rewind.
Infra-red
OOOOOOh now you've hit the
RC car
I also took apart an old and broken RC car last week. the PCB still has everything soldered on, but I clipped the wires leading to the motor and gearbox, steering solenoid (I think) and tiny light bulb.