JohnS_AZ

@johns-az.bsky.social

260 Followers 307 Following

Democrat Progressive Agnostic Humanist Married Geek (he/him) near Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Majorly into electronics hardware, minorly into embedded software. Scrap/surplus auctions are my happy place.

Remember back in August, I won the mystery printer part at auction for $6.00 just because I wanted the stepper motor I could see poking out from one end? I finally got around to tearing it down: 2 stepper motors 3 limit switches 2 temp switches 2 temp sensors 3 ir beam break sensors 1 load cell w/amp 1 blower 3 solenoids and about 100 lbs of scrap steel that will fetch about $4.00 the next time I go to sell scrap. Not bad at all. 🙂
So, we have a second refrigerator that is probably on the order of 35 years old. Last week, the City of Mesa surplus department had a few fridges that were only about 7 years old, certainly MUCH more efficient, and looked to be in great shape. Won one for a great price. The argument around here now? I find the drawer labels really funny and want to keep them. Lisa wants them gone. 🙂
Neighbor: "You want this old monitor or should I put it in the trash?" I said I'd take it figuring it's crap but I'd get it to Ewaste instead of the dump. Turns out it's a Dell 17" 3:4 SVGA (SXGA) unit that looks absolutely brand new! Built May 2006. So, how long before stuff like this is on the vintage computer folks' radar? :-) Think I'll fire it up before getting rid of it. I have a couple of RS-232-to-VGA terminal emulators that would be ideal for this. :-)
USPS forced me to update my account, which I use to print postage at home. It asked if I wanted some sort of 'monitoring' and I said sure. Now, every day I get an email from the USPS that includes a picture of every piece of mail coming that day. So, not only do they scan my mail, but they save the image of it, and analyze it to the point they can include a link in the email to the sender. I get that mail is sorted using computer vision now, but not sure how I feel about this. 8-/
Auction Risk: There were 2 tables in the sale I was confident I'd win since I was willing to pay $75-$100. Since I'd have to drive over there, I also bid $5 (min) on a few electronic lots. The tables were at end, and they finally sold for well over $200, too rich for me. But I did will all but one of the electronic lots, which I never would have bid on alone. I made the 70-mile round trip to pick them up yesterday. If the VFD in the BERT is salvageable, it's worth the $33. total invoice. :-)
Cleaning up the old hive box and some frames.