best cheap/free scores 1.1

[goontron]

my mouse has more transistors than this thing!

[ratdude747]

Scored a Realistic TRC-415 CB for $15... It's in really good condition. Never been opened. Had the mount bracket and original Mic... and it works too!

Sure, it's pretty plain, but it's compact and works well. A nice upgrade from my venerable Realistic CR101 from 1975 (but this is going in a different vehicle).

[Compgeke]

Got two lawn mowers. One's a nothing-special MTD with some old Tecumseh on it. In typical Tecumseh fashion it decided to leak gas in the car, not when it was sitting in the persons garage and not when we were carrying it.




The other one that's actually a decent mower is a fairly recent Craftsman with a 6.5 briggs quantum, sans a bag. I'll find a bag eventually or swap the motor onto another deck.

Due to large images I have an imgur album of pictures of it.
http://imgur.com/a/3JY1F

And a video of it running. I did notice it didn't want to die off when I released the bar; I'll have to grease the mechanism on the mower side to fix that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iLafKkk3DU

[momaka]

This was several weeks ago, but I got a free "full-size" office chair (arm rests and high back support). Has "fake" leather, but it doesn't have much wear and needed minimal cleaning to make it look good again. Will be going to my dorm house as I probably will be doing a lot of work on the computer this semester.

Also with the chair came two old beige keyboards. Both use rubber domes, though, so nothing special. One is made by Micron and is actually quite decent. It doesn't have a Windows key and a split Backspace key (shared with "\" due to big Enter key), so not my favorite layout. Nonetheless, I still gave both of them a good wash. Why not?

And finally, from the same office building where I got the keyboards and chair, I also got an old Pentium 4 computer (1.4 GHz, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 MX, and crappy Channel Well PSU). It's nothing special either, though I did have some fun repairing it. The motherboard had a few bulged 6.3V, 3300 uF KZGs, which I easily replaced with my ever-growing stock of used Nichicon HN and Rubycon MFZ.
The PSU was a Channel Well special, with a partially-seized Rulian Science fan, causing all of the Fuhjyyu caps to bulge. Did an experimental recap job on that with Chemicon KZJ. It appeared to work okay with a light load, though I haven't tested it yet more thoroughly than that.

Also found that that office building has a large dumpster where they regularly throw away some small appliance-related scraps (i.e. wires, relays, screws, etc.). Picked up a few stuff from there as well, but that's for the dumpster thread, because it needs revivng .

Oh hey look, my post count just hit 4444 (four fours) from posting this crap. I almost feel special .

[momaka]

Last week, I got myself all of the working boards from a Sony KV27FS100 27" CRT TV. TV was sitting at the bottom of a large industrial-type dumpster. Probably been there for a while since it had plenty of rain water in it. Since I don't exactly have the space for such a large item at home (plus I didn't know if it worked or not), I just brought my tools with me one day and stripped it in the dumpster. I took out all of the boards, including the speakers, horizontal deflections coils, yoke, and even the degauss / ground / safety straps on the screen. Such a shame to leave the tube like that, though . Label says Made in USA . I'm pretty sure it probably was working fine. And if not, you can tell it was made to be repaired - everything came off and apart so easily. No silly plastic clips like LCD monitors, or flimsy fragile cables and screens. No - I slid this thing halfway across the dumpster to get it in a locations where I had enough space to take it apart, popped 8 screws, and off came the back and all of the boards. If I had the space at home (or more like a warehouse ), I would take all of the CRT TVs that are thrown in dumpster, on the curb, or being offered on Craigslist right now - my area is literally flooded with large screen CRTs.

Anyways, so now that I saved all of the boards, I don't know what I am going to do with them. The PSU/amplifier board on this one is nice - the 4-channel amp IC can pump up to 20W into two channels in BTL mode with 4 Ohms load (and at 0.5% THD, which isn't too bad for a single IC amp). PSU is also made by Delta Electronics, so it is full of Rubycon and Nichicon capacitors. But I will probably keep everything from this set as-is... maybe in case if I ever get a Sony TV that needs repair, many years into the future. Or perhaps use for experiments with high voltage. I haven't looked at the service manual yet, but I'm willing to guess 25 to 30kV output from the flyback.

[goodpsusearch]

Meh.. All the Japanese caps I found in CRT boards were 85 C and/or general purpose... I have no use for them.

Btw, 4445 post :P congrats!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by goodpsusearch

Meh.. All the Japanese caps I found in CRT boards were 85 C and/or general purpose... I have no use for them.

Well hold on, right now. I guess I failed to mention that the primary caps on that PSU board were two large 200V 560 uF Rubycons. Sure they are rated 85C, but I would still gladly use them in any PSU that has crappy caps on the input.
Also, I do like to dabble a bit with amplifiers. Those don't care too much whether you use 85C or 105C caps.

Not to mention that CRT TVs have a good amount of X and Y safety caps, as well as EMI/RFI coils. Have some otherwise decent PSUs that could use those.

Originally Posted by goodpsusearch

Btw, 4445 post :P congrats!

lol, thanks . I think 4444 was better, though. Wish I could lock it down to that number .

[kaboom]

Originally Posted by momaka

Last week, I got myself all of the working boards from a Sony KV27FS100 27" CRT TV.
...................

Anyways, so now that I saved all of the boards, I don't know what I am going to do with them. The PSU/amplifier board on this one is nice - the 4-channel amp IC can pump up to 20W into two channels in BTL mode with 4 Ohms load (and at 0.5% THD, which isn't too bad for a single IC amp). PSU is also made by Delta Electronics, so it is full of Rubycon and Nichicon capacitors. But I will probably keep everything from this set as-is... maybe in case if I ever get a Sony TV that needs repair, many years into the future.

Those Sonys get bad connections on the horiz drive transformer, and the resulting improper drive to the horiz-out transistor eventually kills it (shorted). The two transistors in the power supply then short, which blows a little white axial fuse.

You should check the h-out, and two heatsinked transistors in the power supply.

These were ones that you really needed to fix, resolder, before there were problems.

A neighbor's Sony did this back last winter. Not worth fixing, since the CRT had very high hours. I adjusted focus and G2 almost two years before it died- even then, the CRT was tired. But far worse was the cabinet. Quite possibly the most brittle one I've seen. Even handling it was iffy- I was even quicker to "devac" the CRT than I was in removing the boards!

But I did heave it into a dumpster before the CRT fell out...

Originally Posted by momaka

lol, thanks . I think 4444 was better, though. Wish I could lock it down to that number .

That's ok, just wait a bit for "4567!"

[shovenose]

I am willing to trade my mom's 22" LCDTV for a working vehicle. More info!
http://badcaps.net/forum/showpost.ph...6&postcount=10
Yes, unless you are nuts, I'm kidding. If you are nuts, and have a spare, PM me

But more seriously my latest free score was an 8GB brand new in package USB flash drive, and a brand new in package hdmi cable, found these in the lobby of the apartment building. the note said "not sure what these are, moving, don't need them anymore, hopefully it can help somebody" can't complain about that

[Sparkey55]

Originally Posted by shovenose

I am willing to trade my mom's 22" LCDTV for a working vehicle. More info!
http://badcaps.net/forum/showpost.ph...6&postcount=10
Yes, unless you are nuts, I'm kidding. If you are nuts, and have a spare, PM me

But more seriously my latest free score was an 8GB brand new in package USB flash drive, and a brand new in package hdmi cable, found these in the lobby of the apartment building. the note said "not sure what these are, moving, don't need them anymore, hopefully it can help somebody" can't complain about that

What part of the vehicle do you want working?

[Gabriel]

Found this at the dump, nice looking piece of equipment - no fans.

12V 37.5A x2 875W

Love the three testpoints on the riser board in the middle of picture 5.


Hmm I see no use for this, perhaps make a tab spot welder ?

[shovenose]

Originally Posted by Sparkey55

What part of the vehicle do you want working?

Preferably all of it, including a 100,000 mile and 10 year bumper to bumper warranty with 10 years of insurance paid

[ratdude747]

Today's scores:

Brand new in box Dell D/Dock + PA-10 (later build, black 2 prong long wall cord): $7.50 (gave everything but the PA-10 and wall card to my buddy's brother, I already have 2 of those and just wanted the new PA-10)

Beater Toshiba Satelite U205-S2808: $4. Runs, bought untested with no battery or power cord. Using the parts for a dell XPS of the same tiny size that need rebuilt (which said buddy gave me for free, no HDD, RAM, or power cord (which I have tons of dell power cords).

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

Today's scores:

Brand new in box Dell D/Dock + PA-10 (later build, black 2 prong long wall cord): $7.50 (gave everything but the PA-10 and wall card to my buddy's brother, I already have 2 of those and just wanted the new PA-10)

Beater Toshiba Satelite U205-S2808: $4. Runs, bought untested with no battery or power cord. Using the parts for a dell XPS of the same tiny size that need rebuilt (which said buddy gave me for free, no HDD, RAM, or power cord (which I have tons of dell power cords).

Fixed the XPS M1210 mentioned... it doesn't count as it was a freebie from a friend (we trade and give eachother computer crap all the time)... but the Toshiba's 160gb HDD and 2gb of RAM work... although I have a spare 2GB module and I bet I can snag another one for peanuts (and I'll throw in an intel 4965 AGN and dell truemobile 360 BT module).

Cute little laptop... like a netbook only durable and functional (XPS but built like a latitude, mag belly and lid).

[LLLlllou]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

Found this at the dump, nice looking piece of equipment - no fans.

12V 37.5A x2 875W

Love the three testpoints on the riser board in the middle of picture 5.


Hmm I see no use for this, perhaps make a tab spot welder ?

Now THAT is what a power supply is supposed to looks like, although I could do without all that grey silicone. What are the output caps KZE?

[stj]

Kzh

[shovenose]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

Fixed the XPS M1210 mentioned... it doesn't count as it was a freebie from a friend (we trade and give eachother computer crap all the time)... but the Toshiba's 160gb HDD and 2gb of RAM work... although I have a spare 2GB module and I bet I can snag another one for peanuts (and I'll throw in an intel 4965 AGN and dell truemobile 360 BT module).

Cute little laptop... like a netbook only durable and functional (XPS but built like a latitude, mag belly and lid).

XPS are not always built like that some can be quite horrid.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by shovenose

XPS are not always built like that some can be quite horrid.

That's what I feared... but having rebuilt it I was quite surprised.


Also surprising... That toshiba ISN'T the same size after all... it's a 13", not a 12". Whatever. I guess I have a 13" glossy panel (not to mention the 160gb HDD and 2 1GB DDR2 modules) if I ever need one... you know a laptop is a beater when even I of all people won't rebuild it... I may have to upload pics later, it's that priceless *cough* worthless

[Compgeke]

Picked up yet another computer (I should quit getting these things).

Today I got an Inspiron 537s, but only for the ram. Has a 2.7 GHz Pentium Dual-Core, 4 gigs of ram (2x 2 GB DDR2 - why I wanted it) and had no hard drive.

Also got a Lenovo L201p monitor. A tad beat up around the edges but the panel isn't cracked or scratched. 20" and 1600x1200 and a fairly decent picture.

Weirder stuff I got were 2 more nComputing XD2 terminal boxes, 2 120 gig hard drives, Pentium 4 641 chip that doesn't work in my SurePOS 500, DB9 to DB25 adapter to use with my Wyse 55 terminal and a TI Silverlink cable. Almost forgot, 1 GHz Titanium Powerbook G4 with a gig of ram and a dead hard drive and an old Micron Pentium 133 laptop. Paid a whole $2.

Last week I also got the SurePOS 500, 4846-E45 model. Has a 2.53 GHz Celeron D, 80 gig hard drive, 2 gigs of ram and the stock 15" screen. Wasn't ordered with the sound or upgraded graphics model.

Originally the heatsink was completely full of grease and dust, like it was kept by an deepfrier. Unfortunately IBM decided to clip the heatsink into a plastic shroud and then screw it down using screws in the shroud. As one might expect the plastic shroud broke and two of the screws were stripped out, leading to fun to make the thing cool properly. I have it working alright now, albeit a bit warm, with a heatsink from a Lenovo H3000 and a mounting bracket from a dead Inspiron 560. I also tapped into the power from the hard drive and added a small 80mm fan as an exhaust fan and that helps a bit.

[kc8adu]

yardsale score!
i already got it running and tomorrow will hook up real speakers and see how many fluorescent tubes we can shake out of their sockets!