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Tear Down or Build Up Dilemma — Parallax Forums

Tear Down or Build Up Dilemma

HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
edited 2012-08-13 11:07 in General Discussion
Your projects - tear down the current project to recycle it and make a new one, or keep all projects and just build new ones?

Comments

  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2012-08-13 02:23
    I recycle as much as I can -up to 90% of components on some boards. Since I was a kid all my wirewrap wire has come from a 1960's vintage mainframe computer my dad found in a dumpster. Old PC motherboards are great for capacitors, and even VGA sockets. I hardly need to buy 0.1uF bypass caps.

    It is getting harder though - I'm not sure what old iphones are going to be good for in 10 years time.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-08-13 02:41
    Ha! Old iPhones are pretty much no good for anything after one year. Fashion dictates they are replaced with newer shinyer ones after a year. After that they are landfill.
    I have opened up a few old phones, nothing salvageable in there.

    However Android phones may have a "life after phone" use them for displays for example. If you can some kind of connectivity to them and sort out a permanent power supply.
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2012-08-13 04:15
    Ha! Old iPhones are pretty much no good for anything after one year. Fashion dictates they are replaced with newer shinyer ones after a year. After that they are landfill.

    LOL. I've just had three patients in a row come in and put their iphones on the table, and they all seem to be running the "cracked screen" screensaver?!

    Hmm - a thought re recycling. When I learned to solder I was taught to bend the leads of resistors so they don't fall out when you tip the board over to solder. But that makes them harder to unsolder. Now I use a bit of tape to hold them in place and don't bend the leads. Am I weird recycling resistors?
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-08-13 04:29
    Dr_Acula wrote: »
    Hmm - a thought re recycling. When I learned to solder I was taught to bend the leads of resistors so they don't fall out when you tip the board over to solder. But that makes them harder to unsolder. Now I use a bit of tape to hold them in place and don't bend the leads. Am I weird recycling resistors?

    Here in the lab, it's common practice to use piece of masking tape on the board's top side to hold components in place for soldering. I noticed IBM made a practice of bending the leads over on their mainframe computer boards which makes removal of components for recycling more time consuming.

    But my question is more about what to do when you build another project. Maybe it's not a critical question with small projects using a single prop chip.. just buy another for less than ten bucks. But what to do when you have a prop project with 100 chips and you want to build another with a different design? Would you tear down a project which took considerable time, effort and is useful?
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2012-08-13 04:56
    But what to do when you have a prop project with 100 chips and you want to build another with a different design? Would you tear down a project which took considerable time, effort and is useful?

    Not the big brain? No, that is a work of art! Leave the 100 chip project as it is :)
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2012-08-13 05:46
    If you're still interested in what it does,and don't the parts right now, leave it. I still have a BS2 projects that has not been touched since I moved to the prop. But its too much effort to take bits off it, so it remains intact. I routinely rob EEPROMs and prop dips from a multi-prop build, they are socketed so I can put them back and have a couple times.

    In the case of a 100 chip project, I would say leave in in a place of honor in the corner, and wait till the next 100 prop project begin harvesting. That way, you you have less work to do on the next build. With luck the new project will involve software changes and only a few wires resoldered. Something to do after Xmas.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-08-13 05:53
    Dr_Acula wrote: »
    Not the big brain? No, that is a work of art! Leave the 100 chip project as it is :)
    Your words of wisdom are correct as usual. The Big Brain has already become indispensable in handling the GT and paving the way for DISP.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-08-13 05:57
    Yep, don't demolish old projects unless you reall, really have to or you have a replacement up and running.
    So many times I have regretted gutting something for emergency parts only to find that it would have been very useful later on.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-08-13 06:07
    prof_braino wrote: »
    If you're still interested in what it does,and don't the parts right now, leave it. I still have a BS2 projects that has not been touched since I moved to the prop. But its too much effort to take bits off it, so it remains intact. I routinely rob EEPROMs and prop dips from a multi-prop build, they are socketed so I can put them back and have a couple times.

    After starting the Propeller projects, I also kept the BS2 projects intact. I have a small space in the Lab designated as a showcase with these machines.
    prof_braino wrote: »
    In the case of a 100 chip project, I would say leave it in a place of honor in the corner, and wait till the next 100 prop project begin harvesting. That way, you you have less work to do on the next build. With luck the new project will involve software changes and only a few wires resoldered. Something to do after Xmas.

    Good advice. The Big Brain was built with 3 partitions designed to max out at 50 props each. The first two partitions function best with 50 props each. However, the third partition functions with any number of chips - it was designed that way so chips could borrow off this machine and workings could continue, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

    One advantage of solderless breadboards is they are easily rewired. There's a new design that functions without any solderless breadboards or printed circuit boards. Rewiring will become a consideration when making one of these new arrangements.
  • NurbitNurbit Posts: 53
    edited 2012-08-13 06:26
    I tend to leave all my projects as they are one they're finished.
    I do strip down lots of old electronic gubbins for parts though, in fact, most of the parts I use for my projects have come from old equipment.
    I hate having to buy components unless I really have to.

    I'm planning on building a new amp soon to replace the last one I built, I've managed to source most of the parts so far so I can still leave the original intact to either use for something else or just dump it on a shelf for nostalgic purposes :)
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2012-08-13 09:17
    My projects that are soldered stay assembled. Solderless BB projects get recycled.

    -Phil
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2012-08-13 09:28
    I used to recycle, but lately I've been keeping old projects around and things are starting to get crowded.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-08-13 09:33
    I have a VERY poor record of actually starting and finishing projects.......but I do have a very good supply of NEW parts in little random collections!
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2012-08-13 10:55
    ...I'm a bit of a "pack rat", so I keep just about everything - working or not, finished or not.
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2012-08-13 11:07
    I am mostly with Phil on this one but I have had times were I desperately removed something all ready soldered on an old project because I can't wait for shipping for the new project!
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