HAKKO Desoldering tool

Electronics
#1

I watched this Youtube video and thought I have a ton of old electronics, the latest of which is a old security controller I’ve decommissioned, which I could recover some components from.

I started looking at desoldering methods and there are some methods I can do here at home, but I noticed we have a Hakko desoldering tool (OFR-300) at DMS which would make the job considerably easier. I downloaded the manual and watched a couple of videos on the tool and it seems straightforward but I wanted to consult the electronics folks to see if there are any things I need to watch out for?

Further, I’m curious if any of you think it is worthwhile to recover electronic components? I know I have a ton of analog components from the great warehouse event, and SMDs are not really worth the trouble, but are ICs or any other components?

In most cases I order the exact component I’m looking for from Mouser or another online vendor if I don’t already have it in my stash. Of course, I used to consult Tanner’s but alas its gone now. (I almost never look in the DMS stash and maybe I should.)

Most of the stuff I’m playing with now is microcontroller/IOT based but you can always use extra parts right?

Admittedly my background and education is computer science but I did a lot of device driver work in the old days and I love that I/F between hardware and software. I am still an electronics newbie but learning more every day. I loved Walter’s Mighty Mite class. Walter Anderson was an awesome electronics instructor.

#2

Check on ebay in sold listings, after a while you will intuitively know what is valuable. @TLAR

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#3

Desoldering tool is one method.
I’ve found using the heat gun to be far more efficient.
Set at 800+ F and have at it. There’s an attachment that works well on DIP ICs.
Is it worth it? Depends on what you got.
In my last salvage effort I successfully removed 16 Burr Brown (TI) analog multipliers from a board. Mouser list them at ~$26 ea. Studying the datasheets and hope to build some ckts soon.

#4

@artg_dms check with @Contrarian about those BB Multipliers.

He has modelled a Quantum Analog Computer, and may make use of a few of those multipliers.

Good grief, those BB chips used to sell for hundreds of dollars, because they could do the Maths in real time that digital uComps couldn’t begin to handle. I love it when weird old tech and new apps converge!

#5

Going a little off topic here -
BB IC is MPY634. Data/App Note at ti.com. BB’s main competitor at the time (prior to TI) was Analog Devices - which has/had some interesting analog math ics. Think these might be interesting to use in an analog synth ckt. One of the ckts in the app note is “square rooter”. Wonder if you feed it a sine wave, does the output go imaginary - jx? :crazy_face:

Back on topic - Is it worth it?
Boils down to “what’s your time worth” and how difficult the salvage is.
Also given that walk in buy at the last moment option is pretty much gone - having a personal inventory of parts for projects can actually save time.

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#6

I keep a bin of scrap PCBs here in case I need an odd resistor or random chip that’s not in the bins… usually works out well. Those small parts aren’t worth harvesting until you need them.