Salvaging components

Community General Discussions
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Hello, I'm new to this site and to robotics, it looks like a great place to find knowledge and inspiration about robots so I signed in.

I am currently waiting for an arduino board to start experimenting, so I am trying to salvage parts and componets from broken electronics (as much as possible) to save some money.

I have a broken DVD drive with some motors gears LEDs buttons etc... what I'm interested in is a motor that moves the laser back and forth, sort of like a scanner mechanism, is that a servo? what chances are there that I can get it to work with an arduino board? it seems to have four contacts instead of three.

what other parts you think I could use from that thing,,, with very basic electronic knowledge and a soldering iron handy?

 

thanks!

 

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** Hey thanks for the**

Hey thanks for the suggestions. … I will just buy servos online then,… maybe later I’ll experiment with that stepper
and yeah I already have a few gears and rollers I have collected :slight_smile: should give them some use soon.

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Salvaging parts
Since VCR’s are pretty much a dead science now, you should be able to get all you want for free. Generally, the older the better. They are full of motors, gears, photo sensors, LED’s, humidity sensor, motor driver chips, and lots of nice hook-up wire.