Scanner Parts Sign

I love old derelict scanners. There's plenty of useful parts inside - shafts, belts, pulleys CCFLs, power supplies, glass etc.

This sign was made almost completely out of an old scanner - pulled from a Stanford dumpster on move out day.

I got a great compliment on this project - I was told that we'd have to get more nice things to go along with the sign. Amazing, as this thing is made from a derelict scanner,some scrap plastic, a bit of grubby scrap paper and hot glue.

Step 1: Parts

You'll need a few critical, equally important, items.

• CCFL Bulb - preferably in it's holder assembly
• CCFL inverter - will have some wire going in, and some high voltage wire going out (to the bulb)
• Power Supply



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Where to find?
The bulb will be on the scanner carrier along with the scanner CCD. It's likely to be in a plastic housing. The inverter will be close by too.

The power supply will be a little more tricky. You'll need to determine how much power your inverter requires. It may be printed on the inverter - or not. In this case, it was not. First, I tried 12 volts - any 12V source will work. This resulted in a half lit bulb - the center of which being dark. Then, I tried the 30V power supplied that came with the printer. Voila, it worked.

Comments

[Derin]

The Ban Hammer...

[Gjdj3]

That's pretty cool. Now to find the old scanner.... Attic, here I come!

[incorrigible packrat]

Groovy!! By the way, if you obtain a newer scanner, it may contain a funky, 3 colour, super bright led module, akin to the multicolour flasher on some cell phones (I don't really know about some, there is one on my LG8100, and it kinda freaked me out when I turned it on in the dark) HP all in ones have these leds and seem to have a high failure rate for other components (I've got 3 from the dump in the last year or so) By varying the on/offness and brightness of the leds, you can generate any colour light you wish, even random changing colours and so on. Far out, man... Oh yeah, the led unit will be stuck to a chunk of acrylic that directs the light into a nice band for scanning. This may provide even more artistic possibilities...

[skegger]

Thanks for this. I knew there was a reason I kept my old faulty scanners!

[technick29]

Awesome job! This is pretty sweet, and I just happen to have an old scanner....

[Erik Lindemann]

Funny, I just got a new scanner so I took apart my old one and somewhat like you, turned the scanner bulb into a regular light. My only problem with your instructable is that I used a 6 volt lantern battery. One of these huge things. And it worked fine, I soldered a switch to my wires and it works great, I'm just working on housing, but I like your idea to make it into a sign. I might just do that.

[trebuchet03]

I first tried using a 12V battery - just to see if I could work off 12V.... The bulb didn't light completely, instead the two edges were lit, and the center was dark. I used the 30V power supply that came with the scanner, and the entire bulb lit ;)

[Erik Lindemann]

I know what you mean. I had connected two AA batteries to it at first and it only lit where my hand was touching the bulb. Gave it a cool, yet impractical result. It was fun knowing that the bulb was taking power from my hands.

[rimar2000]

Nice job, Trebuchet03. I didn't expect from you less than that.

[noahw]

You are on FIRE today! Awesome!

[zachninme]

I believe the correct term is "FI'YAH!". Whats the hammer from? And why is it orange, was there something orange behind it? From the pix in the other instructable, I thought it was cut out or something, it looks the same as the wall behind it.

[FrenchCrawler]

Step 2: "I'm using this uber cool part cut on a water jet. Behind it is a scrap of orange paper and a semi opaque white diffuser."

[FrenchCrawler]

BTW: Excellent Instructable, as always :)

[tiuk]

I was wondering what that thing on the shelf in your previous instructable was ;) Cool idea. I have an old scanner that I've been trying to figure out what to do with, I was thinking maybe a desk lamp.