Im an absoloute beginner, a complete noob if you will at building robots and everything that comes along with it. This is actually the first post i make and i am new to this site. I am looking through the guides and stuff on the site but had a question i'd like to get out of the way as soon as possible. I want to scavenge through electronics and such to find things which can be useful to build a robot before going out and buying anything. So far i have taken apart an old cell phone, a Zune mp3 player, and a usb portable phone charger. I see wires here and there, motherboards, lithium batteries, HDDs, screens, and what seems to be some good chassis'. So far all ive got are a couple of flat heads, and phillys of different sizes as tools (lol and i know i will need more in the future, but again i dont just wanna go out and buy everything i might need later, i only wanna get what i would need in the moment. So the question is: are any of these things useful? and how? or was i just wasting my time?... If so then what should i scavenge for? where? in what? why? you feeling the noobness radiating from my questions yet? haha.
bdk6 already told you, that
bdk6 already told you, that kind of activity is how the most of hobby robotic engineers got started. Taking apart old devices will give you parts/components you might need in one of your next projects. Stepper motors from old printers, battery holders, electronic components like transistors, caps, resistors, LCDs and a lot more. But that’s n ot all. I am even asking my colleagues not to throw away old ball pens or other pens since there are springs, plastic tubes and little caps you might need later.
The best is to sort that stuff a little bit in some boxes or you will lose track of it when it gets more.
Welcome to LMR and happy scavenging 
Hit up the toy section of
Hit up the toy section of the dollar store or goodwill. Any motorized toy will have some goodies in there!
im grateful!
Thank you for the info guys, really helpful. Im glad i didnt do the scavenging for no reason. I shall continue to learn and scavenge! Its quite fun, and interesting what these little parts do, and what they can do when working together with other parts you find around.
Yeah, there is a reason for
Yeah, there is a reason for everything :-)
Another good reason to scavenge parts is that you can learn how to handle a soldering iron by de-soldering components and even solder them on that old board again, just for practise. So you will get skilled and you will burn less new/expensive components later
Only one comment that I can
Only one comment that I can add to this, PRINTERS, you can never take apart enough printers, lots of nice motors in them, you get some electronics to - but its the nice stepper motors, encoders and switches that you get from printers that I like. You will also pick up some nice hardened steel rods, gears, and belt drive mechanisms.
Enjoy your new hobby, and we look forward to see what you can come up with when you start building.
G
Having failed to sell an
Having failed to sell an operating and theoretically perfectly good B&W laser printer for $1 on eBay, I took it apart today. The main things I fetched out were a whole bunch of nylon gears, a large-ish stepper (surprised there was only one), microswitches, solenoid and some good heatsinks plus random metal rods and springs and a sizeable metal plate. The metal bits are mainly to be cut or turned when needed. I avoided all electrolytics, 20-year-old caps not being my first choice on which to rely in a new project. The rest has been searated into plastics and electronic recycling piles for the local recovery centre. I presume inkjet printers have more steppers than a laser.