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Peter writes - "Since receiving my Arduino I've found myself looking at technology a little differently. As your post-production skills increase you tend to watch videos thinking: "I could do that", or "I could do that if someone gave me lots of money and got out of my way". In my post-Arduino life I now look at technology and think either, "I wonder how I could interface my arduino with that," or "I wonder if anyone will mind if I pull that apart."
My partner in crime from Australia, James Loveday, disassembled an old inkjet for parts. It always seemed like a good idea to me and is well-known as a source of stepper motors, but lay out all the parts, and you'll see there are lots of usable bits, the couple of motors being only the beginning!" - Link.
Old: When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
New: When you have a micro-controller, everything looks like parts.
Related:
- Procuring Electronic Components - Link.
- Procuring lowtech sensors and actuators - Link.
- Inexpensive and abundant LEDs - Link.
- Dumpster World - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Link.
Arduino @ MAKE:
From the pages of MAKE:
- Arduino Fever - The tale of a cute, blue microcontroller that fits nicely in the palm of your hand, and the expanding community of developers who love and support it. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition!
oh, you think that's good? When I moved into my house, the previous owner left us a broken copier. I about threw my back out getting it to the garage, but once there... JACKPOT! I've got lenses, steppers, gears, hydraulic lifters, killer power supply components, LEDs, buttons, three digit LED displays and solenoids. Also, tons of sensors and a really cool 6 inch long linear variable resistor.
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Hehe. My makezine controller has already devoured three floppy drives and one inkjet printer. It's now looking greedily at my old SCSI scanner.
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I have a Canon Photo Stylus R200 that (although it won't print) probably still has lots of life left in the stepping motor and other parts. I'd gladly send to anyone who's willing to foot the shipping costs...
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I just finished dissecting a combination printer\scanner\fax machine, and what fun that was! As well as the usual stepper motors and gears, I found a speaker, LOTS of ferrite chokes, a nice power supply, a 2x16 LCD, and what I believe is the "scanning bar" (not sure what the correct term for that is). That last item in particular caught my attention. I can imagine a lot of uses for it...
The reason I took it apart was because it was seemingly broken, and wouldn't pull in paper to print. Upon taking it apart, I found a rubber band stuck deep in the paper feed. Oops. Well at that point there was no way to put it back together. Guess I didn't have much use for a fax machine anyway.
A WORD OF CAUTION: Though I'm sure plenty of people know this already, I think it should be repeated: Wear safety goggles when dismantling an unfamiliar device! This is particularly helpful if you're like me and like to pry things apart, which is sometimes the only way to open something. Not to mention the ocassional spring-loaded part that pops out and flys across the room!
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