Component giveaway for beginners

[Alex Eisenhut]

OK, let's be real here, most of us have WAY too many parts that accumulate over time, that we know we'll never use, and selling them on ebay is prohibitive.

So following on the excellent DMM giveaway idea, would there be a similar interest in a great Spring Cleanup Giveaway for Newbies?

I'm sure I could scrounge up a 6 inch cube Digikey style box full of LEDs, old TTL ICs, some LEDs and resistors and stuff. Either for local pickup in Montreal or free shipping within Canada.

Make sense?

[dentaku]

My old parts come from "big garbage day" twice a year when the municipalities in this part of the Maritimes let people put out stuff that's too big for regular pickup.
I can only imagine what kind of interesting stuff people who live in places like Montreal can collect over the years.

[Falcon69]

makes no sense at all!  You should give it to the US Forum Members!  Now that would make sense!

Seriously though, it's great seeing people do this, to help out beginners.  I'm a beginner to, and appreciate it, even though I don't qualify for this giveaway.

Thanks.   

[Shock]

FYI a similar idea was just posted (not specifically targeted at beginners however).
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/the-parts-trading-thread-pay-it-forward!/

Perhaps an idea to put freebie threads in the buy/sell/wanted forum, where they are being posted already? Might be less "can you send here", "how much is postage", "what country are you in" cross chatter.

Aside from that, giving away stuff you don't use is a great idea, especially if it genuinely helps someone in the process.

[tautech]

FYI a similar idea was just posted (not specifically targeted at beginners however).
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/the-parts-trading-thread-pay-it-forward!/

Perhaps an idea to put freebie threads in the buy/sell/wanted forum, where they are being posted already? Might be less "can you send here", "how much is postage", "what country are you in" cross chatter.

Aside from that, giving away stuff you don't use is a great idea, especially if it genuinely helps someone in the process.

+1
IMO it would be best to have a thread in the BUY/SELL board and members would know where to look.
Lightages idea was a good one but it didn't fly, shame cause it needs to be pinned in the BUY/SELL board.

I have some scopes I will give away to Kiwi newbies:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/aaron-bs-310s-cro-mini-teardowm/

[Psi]

I also have way to much electronic junk (components and useful things).
If anyone in Auckland, NZ wants a box of junk let me know


I will probably be moving house in the next 6 months and will have to get rid of a fair amount of stuff.
I'll sort through everything and throw all the stuff i dont want into a box and post pics on the forum before throwing it away. In case anyone local wants it or anyone international wants to pay shipping.

[dentaku]

A while ago Dave, Chris and Laen Neal of OSHPARK spoke about The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk http://tgimboej.org/ on The Amphour.
It worked for a while.

[edy]

I'm in Toronto and certainly would enjoy having a bunch more electronics stuff to play with. But I wouldn't feel right having someone else pay for postage. My other problem is I barely have time to use the junk I already have so I need to find stuff to give away too.

Also, I have noticed at local BestBuy and Staples they have collection boxes of old electronics to recycle. However I guarantee 90% of that stuff is either totally good or needs minor maintenance, and the other 10% would be good beginner troubleshooting repair material.

What we need is a system for people who like repair to be able to rummage through those electronics bins and pick stuff, and get to open them up and try to repair them if they are broken.

I've learned the most electronics from troubleshooting and testing and repairing components and boards. That is more useful than having just raw components (although that is needed too) because sometimes I don't have anything I want to build from scratch... But I want to see how something broke, understand what failed and do some soldering and fix it. And at the end of the exercise I would end up with some cool gear I could either use or give away!

I've had the most fun repairing 2 TV's (one that just needed a few caps changed and another that had a whole section of interconnected components that blew and shorted the fuse... I had to learn and build a dim bulb tester too), repairing an XBOX motherboard (also blown caps), washing machine (soap shorting power supply but no actual component damage, just needed alcohol cleanup), phones and many more.

I would LOVE to be able to dive into a dump of electronics stuff and be able to reuse most of the stuff other people trash because they just bought the latest thing. For example, perfectly good music players, ipads, PCs, laptops, etc... All because someone doesn't want to bother changing a button or a battery or had used it long enough they feel they got their money's worth and want the next thing.

I scored a Tuner and a couple of nice speakers from a guy down the street who was dumping most of his garage contents. I happen to be driving by and asked and he said to go ahead and take it. He was also dumping VCRs and CRT monitors (looked like security cam monitors) but I had no room for those and no obvious need.

So what I would like to know is what happens to that BestBuy recycling stuff. I am not sure if it is ethical to dive into that, does it truly get recycled or do they have people sorting through and trying to resell working gear? How do they make money from it? That would be a good way for beginners to learn practical repairs and I'd be totally into being able to visit my local BestBuy recycling dumpster (once they have it laid out on a table) and seeing what phones and hard drives and MP3 players and other gear I can re-purpose or hack or repair!

[edy]

Dave is lucky to have a dumpster in his commercial complex... Beginners who like learning repair like me would welcome the opportunity to have a dumpster of their own which they can check out weekly or monthly, and bring home stuff they can try to fix. It is just too expensive to ship gear like this around by mail... so components are much cheaper and lighter. But having access to a local electronics dump of your own to scavenge bits and pieces for free would be nice.

[edavid]

makes no sense at all!  You should give it to the US Forum Members!  Now that would make sense!

US people should check out these eBay items:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electronic-parts-lot-Free-Medium-Flat-rate-USPS-Box-/351333581210
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electronics-parts-lot-Free-Large-Flat-rate-USPS-Box-/151609924034

Oops, I bought one of those myself, and it was pretty disappointing - mostly uninteresting cables.  Sorry about that.

[Alex Eisenhut]

makes no sense at all!  You should give it to the US Forum Members!  Now that would make sense!

US people should check out these eBay items:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electronic-parts-lot-Free-Medium-Flat-rate-USPS-Box-/351333581210
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electronics-parts-lot-Free-Large-Flat-rate-USPS-Box-/151609924034

Well that beats even my collection of crap.

[drcheap]

Not that it's a bad deal at all, but $0.99 for a "free" box? 

Amazing I've never seen these auctions before...I just might get one of these!  Even comes with its own storage container 

[apelly]

I also have way to much electronic junk (components and useful things).
If anyone in Auckland, NZ wants a box of junk let me know


I will probably be moving house in the next 6 months and will have to get rid of a fair amount of stuff.
I'll sort through everything and throw all the stuff i dont want into a box and post pics on the forum before throwing it away. In case anyone local wants it or anyone international wants to pay shipping.

What a coincidence. I live in Auckland, and I don't have enough junk. I'd be delighted to give some of your unneeded stuff a happy home.

I have acquired a reasonable amount of test gear over the last year or so, but this is a fairly recent hobby so I haven't got those storage boxes with years of left-over and scavenged bits and pieces yet.

Edit: Of course I'd be happy to trade a box of beer