Comments on: Salvaging a Pile of VCRs

By: john c

john c — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:43:34 +0000

The large stators could possibly be used for direct driving a rc helicopter’s main rotor. Finding two that match can often be a real challenge! Few motor builders ever attempt dd heli builds so they’re pretty rare. Tape backup drives are another good potential source for larger high quality stators.

Re-purposing a vfd is on my to-do list.

By: Keith Neufeld

Keith Neufeld — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:05:12 +0000

Karen, there are probably trace amounts of precious and semi-precious metals in a VCR, like the tiniest amount of gold plating on some of the contacts, and copper in the circuit boards. But consider how inexpensive VCRs are and realize that the metals aren’t going to make you any money on your own. Best left to recycling centers that can barely scrape a living hauling tons of them off for metal reclamation.

By: Karen LaFon

Karen LaFon — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:42:24 +0000

Do VCRs have any precious metals that can be salvaged?

By: Keith Neufeld

Keith Neufeld — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:42:56 +0000

Abby, I’m delighted you have something worked out! If you’re blogging or posting photos of your project, I’d love to have you post a link here in the comments so I could check it out.

By: Abby

Abby — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:57:59 +0000

Thanks for the advice. I figured out a workaround for my project, so it’s not as urgent, but I’m still interested in the idea and have acquired some broken VCR for the destructive tests. I am using a motor as a wind speed sensor and doing POV on the spinning part. So I need to connect the wires on the base of the motor to the micro and also connect the LEDs. The brilliant solution (suggested by a friend) was to hold the spinning part still, so the base will rotate instead and all my electronics can be in the same place.

By: Axeman

Axeman — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:55:48 +0000

@Abby… yet another propeller clock? )))
Yes, inside the assembly there is a sort of transformer (one winding in the base and one in the drum) for each head. But I think that you will need some “destructive” tests to find out maximum current that it can handle whitout melting. It’s easier to take some alternative road: for example you can generate power on the rotating part (using a coil and some well placed magnets, or another motor used as generator, if it’s possible)
Or you can modify a normal *brush* motor, stealing some current from the collector…

By: Keith Neufeld

Keith Neufeld — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:29:58 +0000

Abby, interesting question! I’m guessing you’re referring to the spinning read head.

I think they may actually use inductive coupling these days, but I’m not sure. I do know that I haven’t taken any apart, so I’m not certain what’s inside. If you want to email me your postal address, I’d be happy to mail you one for you to dig into and see what you find.

You might also look at some of the spinning persistence of vision (POV) projects that have been featured on the Make Magazine blog. It’s possible they all put the POV controller onto the spinning part so they didn’t need slip-ring contact.

Are you hoping to find one that you can salvage, or find enough information to build your own? How many contacts do you need? What sort of size restrictions?

By: Abby

Abby — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:02:17 +0000

I would like to find a slip ring to use for a project, in which electricity needs to pass from something stationary to something spinning. I’ve been searching all over the internet for information about using slip rings from VCRs and found nothing. It seems that you would have come across one, if they could be found in VCRs?

By: Wholesale Electronics

Wholesale Electronics — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:24:49 +0000

Damn.. quite a project there. You’re building a robot right? Kidding..

That looks like soo much fun! I’m glad you’re putting old components to use.

OFF TOPIC:
I was watching a show on TV the other day about horrible conditions in countries like China. It showed impoverished citizens heating up old computer parts to extract the precious metals such as lead and tin. They used the same pans to eat with that they used to extract the metals… sad.

Since my server logs show this commenter arrived at my site via a Google search for “electronics blog,” spent only five minutes on my site, posted a comment, and hasn’t been back; and since the commenter supplied name, email, and URL all of a commercial nature; I’ve taken the liberty of removing the link to the commenter’s web site from this comment.

If the comment was genuinely intended to contribute to the community discussion, I’m sure the commenter won’t mind.

By: Keith Neufeld

Keith Neufeld — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:17:11 +0000

Nick, nice find! I’ll have to go back to the DVD and compare.

I thought I remembered that her “doorknob” has a chord of the upper circle as an RGB-lightable strip that indicates the status of what she’s attempting, but I could be wrong. So they may have started with one of these, cut a slot into it, and added a piece of something to it.