Successfully repurposing mobile dvd drives and other hardware you'd otherwise bin.

5rtytry56

I've own a portable ASUS DVD drive/recorder for a number of years. The one grace it has is that it was bought cheapishly enough in 2014, for €45 euro.
I was going to scrap it...but it has got a stay of execution through being used with my Raspberry Pi 3 setup.
I will have pics of it this evening.

Have you any similar tales of reprieve?

Johnboy1951

In what way have you used it with the R-Pi?

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

In what way have you used it with the R-Pi?

Not sure about the OP but I've used them in the past with R Pi's running Openelec (Kodi) as a standard dvd player within that media center.

It's an interesting topic to raise, I've a bunch of stuff tucked away in boxes. Old phones which I use as remotes for the R-Pi media center boxes. A rubbish tablet I use as a clock.

beauf

I was hoping for something like this - http://makezine.com/2015/07/20/build-drawbot-two-cd-drives-raspberry-pi/

stimpson

I'm planning on picking up one of these:

http://b.truzzi.me/product/atx-breakout-board-v-1-2-complete-kit-customizable/

I have an arduino kit on the way and I'm hoping to get my eldest interested in electronics. I have a 250W PSU which is otherwise useless so this might give it a new lease of life.

Johnboy1951

stimpson wrote: »

I'm planning on picking up one of these:

http://b.truzzi.me/product/atx-breakout-board-v-1-2-complete-kit-customizable/

I have an arduino kit on the way and I'm hoping to get my eldest interested in electronics. I have a 250W PSU which is otherwise useless so this might give it a new lease of life.

That's a handy looking simple board for connecting wires to the various voltages from the PSU.

I would like to see some current limiting too but I guess that is a bit much to ask.

stimpson

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

That's a handy looking simple board for connecting wires to the various voltages from the PSU.

I would like to see some current limiting too but I guess that is a bit much to ask.

There are 1.35A resettable fuses on the outputs.

witnessmenow

stimpson wrote: »

I'm planning on picking up one of these:

http://b.truzzi.me/product/atx-breakout-board-v-1-2-complete-kit-customizable/

I have an arduino kit on the way and I'm hoping to get my eldest interested in electronics. I have a 250W PSU which is otherwise useless so this might give it a new lease of life.

Pre made ones of these can be bought cheaper on ebay/Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Arrival-Electric-Circuit-24Pins-ATX-Benchtop-Power-Board-Computer-Power-Supply-Breakout-Adapter-Hot-Sale/32643957171.html

Got one and still haven't used it

I haven't looked into it but you could possibly add this to make it adjustable (both voltage and current)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-CC-12A-300W-Step-Down-Buck-Converter-7-32V-To-0-8-28V-Power-module/32247251105.html

For Arduinos, Aliexpress is super cheap, really recommend it, but deliver can be very slow. Check out the Wemos d1 mini, they are arduinos with wireless built into them for $4! I've started to make videos about them on youtube but so far they are kinda for people familiar with arduinos but they might give an idea of the types of things you can do , I want to start doing introductory ones soon. Let me know if you have questions on these via PM or whatever

This is on my todo list

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFo5MKSrM-k

My Dad did have a few pcs lying around his office that I could take the drives from.

There is other builds that are fairly similar except they use a laser from a DVD writer to burn designs into wood etc

stimpson

witnessmenow wrote: »

Pre made ones of these can be bought cheaper on ebay/Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Arrival-Electric-Circuit-24Pins-ATX-Benchtop-Power-Board-Computer-Power-Supply-Breakout-Adapter-Hot-Sale/32643957171.html

Got one and still haven't used it

I haven't looked into it but you could possibly add this to make it adjustable (both voltage and current)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-CC-12A-300W-Step-Down-Buck-Converter-7-32V-To-0-8-28V-Power-module/32247251105.html

For Arduinos, Aliexpress is super cheap, really recommend it, but deliver can be very slow. Check out the Wemos d1 mini, they are arduinos with wireless built into them for $4! I've started to make videos about them on youtube but so far they are kinda for people familiar with arduinos but they might give an idea of the types of things you can do , I want to start doing introductory ones soon. Let me know if you have questions on these via PM or whatever

This is on my todo list

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFo5MKSrM-k

My Dad did have a few pcs lying around his office that I could take the drives from.

There is other builds that are fairly similar except they use a laser from a DVD writer to burn designs into wood etc

Nice one. I may pick up a few cheap Chinese knockoffs as they are disposable at that price. I'll sub to your channel too as that looks like the level I'm at.

I've also plans to build a Raspberry Pi controller for my Gaggia coffee machine. I had fitted a PID controller before but it stopped working a while ago and it should have most of the bits needed (solid state relay, thermocouple, high temp wiring etc) and I have a spare Pi that I rediscovered recently. There is a project with touchscreen and web server, so that's the ultimate goal. Just need to ease myself back into it.

witnessmenow

stimpson wrote: »

Nice one. I may pick up a few cheap Chinese knockoffs as they are disposable at that price. I'll sub to your channel too as that looks like the level I'm at.

I've also plans to build a Raspberry Pi controller for my Gaggia coffee machine. I had fitted a PID controller before but it stopped working a while ago and it should have most of the bits needed (solid state relay, thermocouple, high temp wiring etc) and I have a spare Pi that I rediscovered recently. There is a project with touchscreen and web server, so that's the ultimate goal. Just need to ease myself back into it.

The Wemos is actually a good candidate for your coffee machine project, I haven't used a touch screen with it yet, but it can host a webserver for sure. its so cheap as well that you don't mind breaking them!

stimpson

witnessmenow wrote: »

The Wemos is actually a good candidate for your coffee machine project, I haven't used a touch screen with it yet, but it can host a webserver for sure. its so cheap as well that you don't mind breaking them!

There's already code written for the Pi so I think I'll be going that route, at least initially.

5rtytry56

5rtytry56 wrote: »

I was going to scrap it...but it has got a stay of execution through being used with my Raspberry Pi 3 setup.
I will have pics of it this evening.

here's the vid just a wee bit later than advertised, enjoy;):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Wyo178zo0