* Repurposing & resuse: Taking things apart
Here is some common consumer electro-trash with lots of useful components. In general, the older the equipment, the more useful parts it will have.Useful elements found in lots of consumer electro-trash:
- printers
- scanners
- pen plotters
- CD/DVD players
- big old disc drives
- cameras (film, still, video)
- mechanical & remote control toys
- robot vacuums
- kitchen appliances (blenders, mixers, battery operated gizmos)
- old electronic musical instruments
- ANYTHING WITH MOVING PARTS!!!
Some advice for fruitful repurposing/reuse:
- power supplies: found in everything
- battery packs: found in rechargeable toys/appliances
- stepper motors: found in printers, scanners
- DC motors: found in printers, scanners, toys, remote control vehicles, CD/DVD drives
- hobby servo motors: found in remote control vehicles
- gears, pulleys, belts, drive trains: found everywhere
- small hardware: screws, nuts, standoffs, connectors, etc.
- glass plates: found in scanners
- hardened steel bars: found in scanner, printers
- object detectors: found in printers, scanners
- rare earth magnets: found in old disc drives
- mirrored metal plates: found in old disc drives
- buttons & switches: found everywhere
- springs: sproing!
- electronic components: LEDs, ICs, resistors, capacitors
- Does it already do something you're interested in? THEN DON'T BREAK IT! Figure out how to isolate the useful actions and bypass/disable the non-useful actions without letting the magic smoke out.
- Almost everything has a useable power supply. And the power supply is the part most likely to hurt you. SO FIND THE POWER SUPPLY FIRST!
- In general, don't cut wires. Instead disconnect them using the connectors that they're very likely connected to/with. It's much harder to un-cut a wire than it is to re-connect a connector, and you will often realize that you want to reconnect something you've disconnected.
- If you want to put it back together, put all the screws in a container. If you don't want to put it back together, good, because you will lose some screws either way. Screws are a pain, sorry.
- Don't just whack away at something to open it. Alost everything can come apart without (much) whacking, you just need to find all of the screws/attachment points and then use a little ingenuity to pry everything open. If you just bash something open you have little hope of getting it to work again or understanding how it worked before you bashed it.
- Sometimes you just need to bash it though. WEAR EYE PROTECTION!
- Avoid all fluids you find inside. Don't lick your hands while working. Wash before eating. Particularly with older gear, there can be some nasty substances inside.
- HAVE FUN!
Afternoon
* Sound/Light/Video
We'll cover the basics of hooking up sound and video:
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Assignment: Repurpose something. You will present your repurposings in class next week.