Gaetan said:
Hello
Anybody do have any electronics parts, IC's, transistors, capacitors,
resistances, etc... that you don't need anymore that you want to get rid
off them and that you would give or sell for very low prices ?
It's to do experiments and try projects.
If so, send me an email.
Thank you
Gaetan (Canada)
You can get a really good supply of parts just from scrap equipment.
SOme of it will be useless unless you have their specific need, and
some esoteric stuff that you want won't be available, but you can
really build up a good assortment of common parts this way.
I went and bought parts for the first few projects I tried to
build when I was a kid, but mere months later I was buying computer
boards (surplus from mainframe computers) for the transistors and
other parts. Ironically, the first thing I actually got to work
was put together from such parts, rather than the things I built
from parts I bought fresh from the store. Those boards also supplied
a good set of resistors.
I passed a tv set the other day, the back cover was already off. If the
board had come out easily (or if the weather had been nicer so I felt
like fussing over it) I would have taken it. Because I needed a horizontal
output transistor and had hopes this one's would have been fine at least
for a test session. It would have been a good source of resistors (if I
actually needed yet more resistors), bypass capacitors and electrolytic
capacitors (so long as you test them before reusing). Lots of transistors,
and for a lot of things one can make do with the same general type of
transistor. Though I have far more than I'd actually ever use, other
times I've been known to pull the tuner modules out, because they
are standalone modules and either easy to figure out the pinout, or
the pinout is actually marked.
I did grab a module that came off easily, and it turned out to have a
"super cap" that supplies voltage to some RAM to hold settings. I
needed some for something a few months ago, and couldn't find where
I'd put my collection (all out of tv sets and VCRs), so I was glad
to get this one.
VCRs are plentiful, and likewise have a lot of common parts. Tuner
modules and rf modulators, if you need those. Various motors and
gears. I've pulled lots of small switches and LEDs out of these.
Old equipment can be a source of power transformers, though sometimes
you have to live with somewhat odd AC output voltages. Clock radios, for
instance, have pretty tiny transformers, but transformers bought new
can be so expensive that they cost more than the rest of the project
so you won't put in a power supply. If you can pull a suitable
trnasformer out of something, you are more likely to toss in
a dedicated supply, which can be convenient at times.
More recent items have switching supplies, that usually are more
suitable for hobby work than the readily available computer supplies,
because they are designed for lower current capacities. I needed an
AC adaptor for a Mac Powerbook I got at a garage sale, and found
a suitable 24V switching supply in an inkjet printer, which are
also readily available in the garbage.
Dot matrix printers, which seem to be fading too (they used
to be really common as garbage and at garage sales, but I see
less of them these days), have a lot of power transistors, nothing
exotic but fine for a lot of switching work. Again, they also
have some heavier stepping motors.
If you work with radio, then old radios can be a source. Especially
for variable capacitors and timmer capacitors.
Cordless phones will offer up various radio components, including
complete FM receivers that could be reworked. Older cellphones,
the clunky kind, have lots of parts, though they seem to have
fairly disappeared by now. The more recent ones are too compact
to supply many parts.
If you needed solar cells, then you'd be looking for solar powered
calculators (I don't know how reusable the cells in those are)
or the now relatively common (but not yet in garbage) solar powered
LED garden lights.
Computer boards, home computers that is, can supply various parts,
though these days there is enough integration that many of
the parts can't be used for other things. If you need crystals
and crystal oscillators, they are a good source. Floppy drives
can supply various motors, and don't forget the really strong
magnets inside hard drives.
I have found all the computer power supplies I could ever need,
and I actually have stripped them of parts and used them as
project boxes, covering the "front panel" with a piece of circuit
board (which is easy to work). Indeed, I've built a number of
power supplies in these, supplies more suitable for low current needs
than the original switching supplies, using the case and then
parts (including transformers) I've pulled out of scrap
equipment.
If you can't find this stuff waiting for the garbage trucks,
a lot of it is cheap at garage sales and rummage sales. The
moreso if it doesn't work, and few will be in competition for
it.
You will have to buy some parts, but you can do a lot with
the parts you can pull of scrap electronics.
If none of this helps, you might find cheap parts at amateur
radio club fleamarkets. Not just parts, but scrap electronics
and surplus boards. The Radio Amateurs of Canada keep a list
at their website at
http://www.rac.ca and I do know there
is at least one in Ottawa, on September 1st.
Michael
