Is There a Way to Salvage Cell Phone Parts?

Shouldn't this question be in the Communication and Electronics section?

I cannot think why not?

http://tinyurl.com/d9jwk4

One problem, I already took it apart

The web site www.instructables.com generally has a whole lot of funky things that can be done with old cell phones, old hard drives, and just about anything else you can think of. Some of their stuff may actually be useful...

Been there, done that.

That's why I came here.

I'm sure there's a way to use cell phone parts rather than just throwing the phone(s) in the trash. Maybe you should also consider donating the phones. Many organizations and businesses accept them, ie women's shelters, Staples Office Supply, police departments, etc.

Best of luck,

Kim

Hi Default, Assume that you are able to savage some of the parts, what happens to the balance Components.Will they go to landfill ? You are not alone. I am also Keeping a few old ones, trying to find some use since many years. Like us there may be millions & millions of people on earth holding on to these waste. There may be some hazardous substances in them which are harmful to the environment. Recently NOKIA collected TONS of them from our city & sent to NOKIA factory for RECYCLING. They know better about such parts which are harmful or not. Some more mobile phone manufacturers have also started to follow the NOKIA way.For more guidance, you may visit their Website : www.nokiausa.com. Hope this helps you. Rangasamy

Hello,

I design and build home security systems from scratch as a hobby. I recycle everything possible when it comes to electronics and it looks like a possible security system device. I use slim line phones that I pick up either second hand for nothing or from the dollar store for 5 bucks. By manipulating the phone with a couple 555 timers I create an auto dialer for under 10 bucks that automatically calls you or the police when your alarm is triggered. ("Use a hobby voice recorder from Radio Shack optional"). A camera on a camera phone is operated with a momentary push button switch. On the circuit board the push button switch is nothing more than two carbon traces. The button is nothing more than a conductive disk that when pushed makes the connection across the two carbon connections completing the circuit. If you solder two wires to these two traces on the circuit board and out to a single poll single throw normally open relay, then every time the relay is activated the camera takes a picture. The relay can be triggered by either your alarm or just an infrared motion sensor and can be mounted anywhere, hidden, may it be in a clock or where ever you want to be used as a security camera. The pictures taken when triggered can be downloaded to your computer. Your charger can be hooked up to keep the battery charged, but if the electricity goes out you still have battery backup from the phone battery. A lot of people might think this is a lot of trouble, the way I look at it is, you just created a security camera for free and saved the environment by recycling.

very cool... please post schematic GA

If the phone happens to time out and go back to blank screen, you might have to add a second relay to refresh the camera function when the alarm is activated before this relay is triggered. Would have to see the particular phone to see what is needed to manipulate it, no big deal.

If not then this should do it.

Hi Jerry 48, Congrats ! Your hobby can be converted into a big " Security System Business ". Just see the statistics about 4,26,000 { four lakhs twenty six thousand ) Nos.per day in US alone are getting disposed off ! Imagine what the world figures are ! Good Luck. Rangasamy

Thanks Jerry,

so I assume that is the 555 on the left? output pin 3?

Chris

No I had just drawn the alarm as a package unit here. In my alarms I use 3 555 timers. One for entry timer, one exit timer, and one for siren duration that automatically rests the alarm after its cycle, usally 4 minutes. You shouldn't try to run a siren off of pin three of the timer because you are trying to source to many amps, my sirens are fairly large, upwards of 1 amp or better so you coulkd burn the timer up. I have my timers run a transitor relay setup. That way my relay contacts can source what ever amps I'm after. So in the other diagram, my output of the alarm would be comming out from my relay and not pin 3 of the timer. They make dual and quad timers but I just like 555 packages, gives me more options on my circuit boards.

I've included a diagram for you showing the siren duration timer. This is my alarm output and operates my siren, strobe lights, cameras, auto dialer, whatever you want. It runs for 4 minutes then automatically resets my alarm to the ready state again.

555 Timer

Relay

NPN Transistor "4401 package" good switching action

15k ohm resistor

Diode reverse biased across relay coil to protect your circuit

Big siren, 3 wire, burglar alarm and/or fire alram tones

Sounds like a great hobby.

I was hoping to do my own home security system when I own a house. Maybe hook it up to an autonomous turret system (non-fatal of couse).

Regards.

To retrieve components you need "Hot-Air-Rework-Tools" for removing small components.

And Plug-in components; eg Diplay, Camera, speaker. Mic etc can be plugged out; but you should also retrieve their socket with "Hot-Air-Rework-Tools".

Displays have different type of Mating with main PCB. Some Conducting rubber is used between display & PCB contacts.

You may have to keep that part of PCB or the whole PCB.

I Hope that it is of any help