How To Get FREE Electronic parts!

The cost of buying electronic parts for our projects from Radio Shack or Maplin are quite expensive now days...
And most of us have a limited budget in buying stuff.

But...

If you know the secrets of how to get electronic parts for free, you could be saving your self hundreds of bucks!

Heres how...

Step 1 Free samples

You probably have never notices this, but most manufactures and suppliers will give away free samples of their high quality electronic parts.

However, control your self! Don't ask for hundreds of components! No company will give you that much, just ask for a few.

Here is a list of some companies and manufactures that will give you some of their free samples...
Fairchild Semiconductor
Texas Instruments
STMicroelectronics
MARL
WIMA

For more information, check out this instructable! List Of **FREE STUFF** For your projects

Comments

[nurdee1]

I am interested in getting free parts but I don't have a company email adress. All I have is a gmail adress. Are there any places where I can get free parts without a company email adress?

Thanks.

[monty324]

i dont think laser diodes from dvd burners cost 200 dollars

[-max-]

i have seen the whole drive as high as 70 but not 200, either.

[ookid]

My walmart said that i couldn't have a camera because of liability but your might be different.. Just something to note :-)

[pyro man]

i went into walgreens one time and asked and the dude was like"no you cant have any because we send them into the factory and they recycle them"wat kind of crap is that?!?!!?!?!?!!?

[Wesley666]

Because the way they open them they can send to the factory and they good condition ones get new film and re-packaged. They also do this with disposable digital cameras.

[diy_bloke]

As a matter of fact they do. I have gotten disposed disposable camera's that were all taped together again. No doubt a more than once use. The paper cover is supposed to hide that all :-)

[alex-sharetskiy]

DIGITAL? do you mean the camcorders?

[Wesley666]

No they actually make disposable DIGITAL cameras!

[alex-sharetskiy]

i have already learned the error of my ways...

[Plasmana]

Some companies make one-time use digital cameras... They are like ordinary film disposable cameras, but it is in digital - with a LCD screen.

[geeklord]

So they have a little chip or whatever that stores the pictures inside the camera? If so,1)Theres probably a way to get them off the camera yourself and 2) Isn't that expensive?

[Plasmana]

Kipkay had found a way to reuse it over and over again, and it is not that expensive, although, you need a little bit of programming knowledge... I can find the video or instructable right now... it is just somewhere on youtube...

[alex-sharetskiy]

he didn't develop it

some guy has a blog about hacking digital camcorders, kipkay read it and made bank off of it....

here is the hack

here is the video

[Plasmana]

he also made a one-time-use digital camera hack, but he use the same wires he use for the video camera hack.

[geeklord]

thats awesome

[Zachintosh]

do you know if any of these companies give free conductive foam? :)

[ratgod]

You usually get semiconductor samples in conductive foam, I know microchip and maxim do.

www.microchip.com
www.maxim-ic.com

[wii552]

Don't forget Maxim for free stuff!

[teche]

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_parts_list.shtml this website gives you places to buy parts for stuff an this for free stuff http://www.dutchforce.com/~eforum/index.php?showtopic=13348 and more here http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=2197.0

[Nman120]

did you get any thing completely free?(product & shipping) cause my first try WIMA capacitors does like discounted samples-not free.

[doomday341]

where did you get the electric motors?

[frodobot]

Be careful taking apart TVs. They can keep charge for weeks and could kill you if you don't discharge the load capacitors (and don't use the screwdriver method cos you'll probably be electrocuted and fried. The screens also need discharging

[Tkdwn]

Ah, that flyback discharge <3 <3 <3 It shook me good lol!

[grampafish]

the other day I tore apart a crt monitor without discharging the screen. i just dropped a BIG rock on the deflection coils and broke off the neck of the tube then salvaged parts.

[Resident Expolsives Expert]

(removed by author or community request)

[frodobot]

no, just try turning it on without a power source, it should discharge

[dan11357]

I like that you included links for instructables made with the recovered parts. Add more if you can!

[lesizz]

I live in a SoCal city and one day I was at the local recycle place that takes e-waste along with the usual cans, cardboard, etc. A pickup truck came in while I was there with a city emblem on the side. In the bed of the truck was bunch of cool electronics, lights from LED stoplights, including red, green amber, and arrows and there was also a pedestrian walk/don't walk sign, which the city guy let me take, along with a few other lights. Also in the truck were PC boards from stoplight controllers, audio amplifier, and other miscellaneous electro-goodies. That was a real hit from outta nowhere. You might want to call your local city, maybe the traffic department and ask how they discard old lights or electronics. That is if you're a junk collector like me.

[zack247]

wow, if i were you, that walk dont walk sign would end up as one awesome lamp!
im gonna keep my eye out for one of those now...

[m.justed]

great idea thank you.

[zack247]

aah, do i know the art of selling free stuff.

ive gotten quite the abundance of surplus computer parts from my dad, hes got a connection at his workplace, he knows the guy there that deals with the computers and stuff, so he always gets the old or nonfunctional equipment when they upgrade to give to me. my desktop computer was built from free parts, and i bought my new laptop and the new battery by selling surplus parts.

ive become a master of the trade of selling computer parts, ive sold everything from whole computers to motherboard to lcds from laptops to modems from laptops, i can almost always sell what ive gotten in that i cant use.

ive made probably somewhere around $400 worth of profit from selling this stuff, but im pretty bad when it comes to money so it usually gets spent as soon as im dont saving up for what i want, my largest "save" was $200, $125 for my laptop, and another $47 for the battery, the rest was for activating the prepaid credit card to buy the battery on ebay.

[SIRJAMES09]

some states like Texas have laws that prohibit you from dumpster diving....

The state of Indiana as of DEC. 2010, it was not against the law....unless you made a mess of the area, then you got slapped with tresspassing & littering. so it would not be a bad idea to have a simple broom & dustpan with you to clean up any mess you make....or just do not make a mess in the first place. 8=D

[mdog93]

isn't it illegal to rummage and take stuff from other peopls bins or skips? mdog

[SIRJAMES09]

depends on the state you live in....
in texas it is, Indiana it is not....

I live in Maryland now, so I need to check out what the laws are.

[marc12868]

I'm pretty sure it legal at least if it is on a curb/sidewalk/street because that is public property

[uhsnamih]

it's not in Canada. Here we have services that will pay you like 10-50 for nicely despising your damaged , old electronic stuff. It's better for everyone if someone else use your unused items, or if u use others unused items. It save tons of money for the City hall. And home owners don't need to pay for disposing their big electronics such as refrigrator or tv. And the best part is that you are recycling and reusing to save the earth. What could be better then being a hero and saving the earth?

[wisenheimer]

ice cream and lots of it

[Davidl3]

It is but no one cares enough to enforce it. It IS legal however if you ask first, but if they're throwing it out anyway, they probably dont want it.

[Vinsu]

Once I was scavenging some awesome stuff behind an electricity-store when the police came. I told who I was, what I was doing etc. and they reported my actions, not knowing what to do, still letting me keep the stuff I found. Luckily it's not illegal in Finland to take stuff that is going to the dump before it's there.
When electricity arrives at the dump it's processed as dangerous materials (maybe because probable malfunctions etc.) thus illegal to take with you when visiting there. It sucks donkey's nose...