Free Electronic Stuff

For me, there's nothing better then acquiring a whole load of assorted electronic items and devices, especially if its all free. Recently, a friends of my family came across someone who was throwing out 2 large cardboard boxes full of technology, naturally, this friend decided to take the items off this persons hands and gave it all to me.

At first I didn't actually think much of it. This was because there was so much stuff and all of it was so useful, the items must not be working else they wouldn't of gave them all away for free. However, to my surprise all the items actually did work which was fantastic!

The best items include a VGA monitor, 5.1 surround sound sub woofer, 3x 5.1 logitech speakers, loads of headphones and tones of useful cables including 5x IEC power cables! There was even 5 of the special type of USB cables that Arduino's use so they will come in handy.

Other items include:

• Keyboards
• Webcams
• Microphones
• Cassette player
• Other speakers
• Telescopic Lamp
• USB hub
• Other random cables (Cat5e, Aux, RCA, etc)

There was also a very old digital picture camera and a camcorder. Both are too old really to be of much use since the camcorder uses cassettes (not even the mini DV cassettes, like the REALLY old massive ones) and the picture camera has a 2mb memory card that has the physical size of a credit card. However, they may be cool to have as tech antiques or just for parts.

There were lots of useless cables such as Scart, ADSL and some I don' even know what they are, these can still be re-purposed however.

Some stuff I have no idea what I will do with such as the joystick and the DVD player as I have no use for them and they don't really have any useful parts.

Despite this, most of the stuff is great and all in working order. The speakers and giant sub woofer will be excellent for the lab as well as some of the other stuff like the USB hub and VGA monitor.

Finally, on top of all of this there was some vintage shortwave radio equipment which is actually quite pricey. I could sell it but a more fun idea would be to set up my own short wave radio for the lab by mounting an antenna on the roof. I feel another project idea coming along! 

Either way, this was a spectacular find, all free and all working and useful. When its time to move into and setup the lab, I will point out where the free equipment is used. Speaking of which, the builders will be coming over to fit the work surface and do the floor soon, once that's done I can finally move in and start on more projects. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Lab Build : Electrics Phase 3 - 30-31/07/17

The electrics took longer then expected, two whole days instead of one. Never the less, all the electrics for the lab are now complete and operational.

Firstly, I uncoiled the armoured 40m cat5e cable and ran it parallel to the power armored cable along the garden. 

Me and the electrician then fitted the 4 LED strip lights as well as the central LED dome light. Outside, a bright LED security light was fitted above the door and two decorative LED lantern lights were put up equidistant from the door. A 4 gang light switch was then installed inside to control all the lights from one panel.

Now that the lab side was complete, work in the house could commence. I connected a 30m cat5e cable into the houses internet router and secured it to the wall. The cable then passes through walls and floors until it enters the garage where it meets the labs power cable. A 40 amp breaker was then installed in our houses consumer unit dedicated to the lab. The power cable and network cable then travel through the rest of the downstairs through plastic trunking until it reaches the garden. The power cable connects to the isolator switch and thus to the armored cable, the network cable goes through a different hole and connects up with the armored data cable. Both then go on down the garden, through the trench and into the lab.

Inside the lab, I did some finishing touches such as repainting the roof, putting the skirting boards back on and vacuuming up all the dust that has coated the floor due to all the work that has been taking place in there.

Finally, I rigged up an old router to the end of the cat5e cable to provide internet to any device that connects up to it. The routers wireless capability has also been enabled allowing wifi for any device inside the lab and even out the front.

Here are a few pictures of the ambient lights, inside lights and security light a night.