Recycle Electronic Components

[LarryDalooza]

Is it possible to recycle electronic components needed for electricity harvesting like "blocking diodes" from common household electronics. Do things like microwaves or treadmills have "blocking diodes" somewhere on them that can be used? Are there other useful components in electronic devices that I can warehouse in case I need them?

Lar.

[dnix71]

There is a HIGH voltage diode in microwave ovens. It works with a HIGH voltage cap to get the vacuum tube/magnetron going. The coil chokes the current to limit power.

The caps usually have an internal resistor to drain the charge when you power down the oven, but don't bet your life on it. If you want to salvage those parts, drain the cap by shorting the top tabs with an insulated screwdriver.

Those diodes aren't suitable for blocking diodes on a solar array, unless maybe you had a high voltage series array feeding a gridtie inverter. Radio Shack sells packs of cheap blocking diodes more suited to 12v panels.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062591&cp=&sr=1&kw=diode&orig
kw=diode&parentPage=search

would handle a 50 watt panel. There is also a 3amp diode that would handle a 25 watt panel.

[richhagen]

Sometimes old battery chargers, and other transformer based power supplies in things like clock radios and tv's have blocking diodes or bridge rectifiers (4 diodes in a package to convert AC to DC) which might be of use to you.  Also switching power supplies such as old computer power supplies often have rectifiers.    Rich

[micro mechanix]

anouther source for bridge rectifiers is old electric lawn mowers.

They usually have a 1200watt rectifier used to change the ac house current to DC for the motor. I know I had to replace it at 40 bucks it was half the cost of the mower.

[kurt]

don't use a diode out of a microwave for a blocking diode they have a voltage drop of about 6 volts that would be very wasteful and they won't handle very much amperage without burning up even if you figured out how to put a heat sink on them.....

[mixerman]

I have been cleaning junk out of the house for about 3 weeks now! I found a old ink jet printer a grabed the moters out of it, also got the DC female plug in thingie! I remember reading somewhere on here about making a small project wind genny just for fun.

[Norm]

....and the motor was about 12 volts?...for $40

could have bought a 75 amp/hr deep cycle 12v batt.

and had a cordless mower?

[Norm]

That's right....at about 450 rpm they'll put out

enough to charge a couple of AA batteries or

light a 3LED light (8 bladed CD disks 18 inch

diameter 8-10 mph wind) nice little hour or two

project !

[wooferhound]

Here is a story about about getting usable parts from a TV or computer monitor.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/12/25/162750/50

[Capt Slog]

I always salvage thrown away computer scanners for the light tube that's in them.  This is usually a thin glass tube around 3mm diamter and 200mm long, and is attached to the scanning heading which moves along under the platten.  You also need to retrieve the tiny driver board that goes with it.  Plugged into 12v these give a lot of light after taking a few seconds to warm up.  I haven't run one for long periods though (yet), so I don't know their longevity.

.

[zap]

Norm

On all the ones I've seen the motor is hooked up directly to the bridge.  For all intents and purposes, it's a 110vdc motor and wouldn't cut much grass running at 12vdc since it would be running too slow.

[RUFUS]

Lexmark claims 10000 hours

for thier light tube

                     Rufus

[wooferhound]

The Scanner that I recovered a CCFL bulb and driver from kept the light on the entire time the scanner had the power on.

Nice full color of light too . . .

[mixerman]

I have looked around and have found no info on making prop from CD disks. Can  you explain?

mixerman

[jonas302]

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/10/23/132059/52

[paborralho]

I confess I am a natural colector of these kind of stuff.

I've got some electronic parts for decades, waiting for their momment.

In the old manual microwaves you have a timer,

mecanical swithes (one in the door) that can handle

several hundreds of watts (inductive load).

Here is one I love - the motherboard of a washing machine (vertical axis).

My electric well pump 220V AC, 1/2Hp, 300w, is controled by the relay I took from one of these. The relay is activated by a 5v celphone charger and a level sensor (inside the tank) taken from the horizontal axis washing machine type.

I can take pictures if anyone is interested.

[bsafe]

Yes please!