Since Ike has me stuck in the house today, it gives me a chance to get to some badly neglected projects. I ripped these two circuit boards out of a couple of dead UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) units that my friend Barry gave me to salvage. The batteries are currently being used in a fox hunting transmitter unit. Here’s the before shot before I started doing the recovery:

(Click for full size image)

You may look at this and think it is total junk. In our modern day ecosystem, the techno-trash our species has produced is causing an overwhelming impact on our landfills, and everything downstream of them. The toxic lead runoff from a circuit board can seep into our water supplies and can have negative consequences on many other things. No, I have not become a hippy, and I’m not encouraging you to go lead a life of poverty just to give back to the environment. What I am saying is, please be careful about what you throw away. If at all possible, recycle it. Be mindful of where that trash is going to go.

That being said, if you are still here, I will continue.

One of my hobbies to keep all of that techno-waste from hitting the landfill is to recover parts that may be of use to future projects of mine. I’ve been stockpiling the circuit boards in boxes, with the intent of taking them to a recycler to reclaim the hazardous materials on them. If anyone knows of such a place in Dallas, let me know. Here is what I reclaimed in about an hour off of the above boards:

(Click for full size image)

A great bag of loot from this one! About 8 LED’s (light emitting diode), a few LM317 voltage regulators, some N-Channel MOSFET(Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) power transistors (60V 10A, AWESOME!), a few 30 amp fuses, transformers, bridge rectifiers, 5 watt resistors, and so on. These parts would probably be about 25 to 30 dollars total if you bought them new. I know your time is worth something, and maybe I came out a little under in that regard. The way I see it though, I am keeping my junk box stocked up for future projects, and keeping a little bit of volume out of the landfill. If it’s your thing to help the environment and have a little fun in the process, this may be something you want to do as well.

This also reminds me of the scrounging I did when I was in school for things. It’s no secret that a lot of students aren’t rich, and a lot of times, this was the only way I could afford the things I needed for projects!

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