Electronic – How to build stuff with random components

components

I have a LOT of junk, with all of these broken electronics and random components (transistors, resistors IC's, you name it)

It always seems like when I want to build something, I need a specific component and I need to go to radio shack and waste some more and more money component at a time.

How can I salvage these components and make cool things out of them without buying a fortune worth of stuff just to get started on something?

Best Answer

  • One approach is to ignore the components and focus on all the IC's that exist on the board (i.e. encoder, decoder, adc, dac, eeprom, drivers, 555 timer)

Then look up their datasheets to see what kind of other application each individual can be used for. Many IC's datasheet do explain common applications that these components are used for, or google "[IC-Model] circuit applications" and see where that can take you

  • Other cases where these parts are sensor or motors/actuators, you just have to think about making other application that could use sensing or actuating abilities.

for example, you're taking parts from a lamp which uses an infrared sensor to detect when to turn the light on. So now you can take the infrared sensor, and reuse it as a trashcan opening sensor by having it detect nearby users. You can have a general purpose micro controller to test salvaged components

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