I thought it might be cool to create a “Donated Stuff” thread. Where we can mention stuff that we donated to infrom people that something is there and if they can use it…etc. It might work out like a little inventory as well.
2 Likes
I’ll start (and probably be the only one to use this thread, but I’ll find it useful.)
Today I dropped off a Toaster and Kettle
I don’t know how to use the current kettle and I don’t think we had a toaster. I didn’t get a chance to find some room for them yet since I was in a rush. If the space doesn’t need these I’m happy to take them back because they’re pretty nice.
2 Likes
Over the last few months:
- Tektronix TDS540A: a 4-channel 500MHz/2GSa/s digital storage oscilloscope, but without the FFT option mots TDS540s have - one day I’d love for someone to be adventurous enough to hack the software option that’d enable the FFT feature (here’s a link for propserity: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-tds-540a-repair/). It comes up with a calibration fault on power-up, that’s normal
- Hot-air rework & soldering station (from colleagues at work)
- HP Benchtop multimeter (from colleagues at work)
1 Like
Recent (ish) items from me
Garden related:
Watering can
Tap timer
Sprinkler hose
Spray bottle
Gardening gloves
Consumables (chilli and capsicum plants, garlic chive plants, fertilisers, snail stuff, Ivy treatment)
Food:
Cans of pepsi
Noodle bowls
Corn chip pringles
Bottles of red eye
Other:
First aid supplies
Drill \ jigsaw
Xbox 360 + bunch of games
Tusro board game
3 Likes
We scored this drone today, which I’m pretty excited about 
MHV’s very own Scarab Drone w/FPV - ideas
1 Like
Hey all,
I dropped a tablesaw into the shed tonight that was given to us by a friend. It is a bit of a beast and needs some TLC but it is going to be awesome. We will need to spend some money on some new blades and a better on/off switch.
4 Likes
I’ve got a couple of spare new E-stop switches I can drop in tomorrow night if they’re of any use?
2 Likes
That would be good
A number of items were dropped off by Iain McCleod for anyone to take if they would find it useful.
The items include:
Oscilloscope, Type RM503, in working order and has wiring diagrams available from Iain.
Oscilloscope, 20MHz Model 3502, condition unknown.
Stereo, Panasonic SA-AK27, has twin tape deck and 5CD changer.
AV Receiver, Yamaha RX-V657 Natural Sound, not working but wiring diagrams included.
AV Receiver, Sony STR-DB940 Digital AV Control Centre, has FM-AM receiver.
If anyone can use any of these items they should take them. The items will be kept for a short time and then will be disposed of. Iain can be contacted through me if required.
3 Likes
I wanted to make a tutorial for the Xbox’s that I donated a while back but I never got around to it. I’ll mention it briefly here though:
Original Xbox: This is Modchipped. Just hold the power button for 3 seconds to activate it. It comes with XBMC and a few Xbox games on it, the main beauty is that if you got to “Programs” you’ll find the emulators where it has heaps of old school NES, Megadrive and SNES games.
Theoretically it can also play videos and music but its a bit of a pain getting stuff onto it (You need to FTP it)
Xbox 360: Its JTAGed (mod) and has some games on it as well. Just turn it on and they should all be there. But Ian’s 360 is there as well and he brought lots of games too.
Feel free to play with the mods if you want.
1 Like
There’s also a bunch of little game things if you ever get bored there:
Cards
PokerChips
Monopoly
Game of Life
Rubix Cube
Chess, Backgammon, Checkers
1 Like
I’ve liberated a retired coffee machine from work: it does have a fault where it often pops its internal circuit breaker, which should be fixed before we start using it. But other than that it’s one of those machines that grinds the coffee and pours an espresso shot for you. It does make decent coffee!
prima donna xs de luxe - Fully automatic coffee machines, all products | De'Longhi AU
It had done 9,000+ cups and seemed a bit poorly - but we cleaned the internals and it seemed like a different machine, but kept popping the internal breaker (reset on the right-hand-side near power cord, IIRC) after all that.
User manual: http://www.delonghi.com/Global/InstructionManuals/EN/ETAM36.365.M%20Instruction%20Manual.pdf
1 Like
New power board if we think it would help:
- https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DeLonghi-Leistungsplatine-5213217741-fur-ETAM36/292633911142
- https://www.hapswangara.com.au/coffee-machine-parts/delonghi-coffee-machine-parts/5213217741-power-board.html - .au supplier
I’d be willing to purchase it if someone can say it has a >90% chance of fixing the problem
Measurements that would help us decide:
- Current draw on mains side during operation (sanity-check the circuit breaker)
- Current draw on DC side during operation (maybe there’s a faulty electromechanical part drawing too much?)
- Current draw on internal AC circuits during operation (maybe there’s a problem with AC-powered heating elements or something)
1 Like
Hey Guys,
I haven’t been in a long time.
I’m moving house and downsizing.
I’ve got scrap steel for welding, a Washing machine (still works), Chest of draws, low lying bench/storage, styrofoam (i’d be collecting with the intention of doing aluminium pouring and hot wire cutting), 5 buckets of Trampoline springs, 4 trampoline tarps (round and square), a slow cooker, steam mop, wooden poles… the list goes on…
Should I donate some of this? or toss it? any of it sound useful to anyone? Need to be out by Tuesday next week, so the only chance I’ll have is this Sunday to toss or relocate.
- Daniel
What is the scrap steel like?
Also storage space is good so maybe the draws.
I can bring around the chest of draws and bench (credenza?) tomorrow sometime. The steel is galvanized pipe from trampolines. Good strength and weight for bike frames and buggies.
Just dropped off the steel and the draws as well as complimentary stool.
BTW… whoever’s doing the organising and clean up, it looks great in there!
2 Likes
In regards to that DeLonghi superauto espresso machine, I had a peep inside it (What with having worked as a DeLonghi certified repairer for a year, and priding myself that less than 1/100 machines I repaired came back a second time, hope this gives my opinions here some weight) and while it isn’t currently tripping anything (however I don’t know what breakers we have at MHV, GFI or RCD, hopefully both) I’m pretty sure I can tell you what the fault is.
What I can say is that the machine has two main banks of heating elements: One for heating up water for brewing coffee and dispensing hot water, the other is for frothing milk and producing steam.
The latter, the “Vaporiser”, has gone open circuit.
I’m guessing that at some point, when this was wet, water was bridging between the element in the vaporiser and the vaporisers grounded metal frame, causing a GFI to trip.
However, as it is now dry, no such short is detected.
Unfortunately, the older machines would work by heating up the first bank of heating elements, so you could brew coffee, then giving you control of the machine, letting you make black coffee’s while the second bank, the Vaporiser, heated up. If you asked for steam, or a drink with milk, it’d say “Please wait…”, but for black drinks you could still use the machine.
With this model, however, it does not let you control the machine until both have heated, rendering this useless.
If we just wanted black coffee, it WOULD be possible to replace the thermistor on the vaporiser with some fixed value resistors, however the machine would behave somewhat strangely if you tried using the steam. It would make black drinks just fine though.
The other option is simply replacing the Vaporiser, which shouldn’t cost all that much, depending on how much my old boss wants that Ducati vs his thankfulness to me.
This could also let me order some o-rings and general servicing stuff, along with a transmission that may be of use for the can crusher project, however it may be cheaper for me to just watch ebay and gumtree for a broken unit to salvage parts from, or wait till the next time I’m back in Victoria and grab what I need from my storage unit.
I’ll keep you all posted if there’s anything to report.
1 Like
Also for donations, it might be worth me mentioning some of the items of interest I brought with me from Melbourne.
There’s a box of PLA filament, maybe 10 or so rolls, with a roll or two of ABS thrown in for good measure. These were all factory seconds, and some have been exposed to the elements for some time.
If we had a vacuum desiccator, it’d be worth throwing any rolls you plan to use in it for some time before printing. (A vacuum desiccator’s on my personal shopping list, but it’s a big list)
Additionally, a 3D printer, an acrylic i3 clone, which I have spend the last couple sessions restoring and hooking up to octoprint. Short what I think is a slicing error, it’s working fine.
On top of that, I’ve donated a cardboard box of various electronics, including some Orange Pi One’s, some cubieboards, a handful of Sparkfun Pro Micro clones, various i2c sensor and peripheral boards for arduino’s/et al, some lithium charger circuits, LED drivers, LED’s, and a whole bunch of other goodies/jumper wires/pcb’s/SMD stuff.
There’s also a box of one of my old PCB designs with all needed components, so if you ever feel like touching up your SMD skills you’re more than welcome to burn through as many of those boards as you please for practice.
I think most of the other components have been sorted into relevant boxes, but it just might be worth having a once-over of what’s been added, could save you holding up a project for a week or two waiting for parts from china. I usually order multiple different types of each component I use, pick the one I like the most, and the rest go in the spare parts bin, and now, the spare parts bin has come to MHV.
Additionally, I am still holding onto quite a few parts just for myself, for the projects I’m currently working on, so if you need some semi-obscure component, feel free to ask. There’s more than enough original 6502’s to go round.
1 Like