Other uses for old CD Rom Drives ?

1968neil

1968neil

Senior Member
Evening all (21:18 here).

I appear to have gained a small stack of old cd rom drives over a few years and hate to throw useful devices away !

Does anyone have any ideas of other uses ?
Obviously the motors are useful but for what ? (worm drive stepper type)

I'd like to use them for something useful, i noticed a post regarding macro slide rails for photography, a great idea !
Ideas along that line would be appreciated, the more of the drive i can put to good use the better.

if anyone can think of a good use i'll gladly post a finished project for all interested to have a go at.
Maybe it would be a great forum add on ? Area for projects made by re-purposing old devices !
It's amazing the devices that can be interfaced with the picaxe.

Regards

Neil
 
T

tiscando

Senior Member
Are they computer CD drives?
Perhaps removing the decoding ICs and tapping into the motor driver ICs is an idea.
 
G

geoff07

Senior Member
I re-purposed an old record player turntable with a stepper out of a 5 1/4 in floppy drive to make a photographic turntable to make videos of revolving artwork for web sites, now in use by an art college. The Picaxe controls the steps and flashes the IR to control the still camera. Step calibration was a bit of an art (had to use a burglar alarm reed switch to mark full rotation) but the result is good. It is easy to convert the images into video with ffmpeg. Code available if anyone wants it.

There is a lot of very useful hardware in most items of consumer electronics that can be reused.

My last little project used the tiny SMPS out of a phone charger (which seem to breed in this house) to create 6v that I regulated to 5v to power a 14M2. No noise problem, no heat and virtually no power consumed.
 
premelec

premelec

Senior Member
They have wonderful little rare earth magnets in the positioning head which can be used with the the coils as seismic detectors or light directors - but seem to need pretty high current when used to direct light and have a high mechanical self resonant frequency - maybe good for glass smash detection... I've got heaps of this stuff... I took an old crt monitor to a recycling place yesterday [$10 drop charge!] and they had tons [really] of old electronic stuff - it would be nice to find more uses for these things... good luck with it...
 
1968neil

1968neil

Senior Member
It's a shame that the human race are so wasteful, I try not to throw stuff away unless I really have too.

The mechanisms in the drives are precision engineered and such a waste to strip down when the mechanism could be used for other things. Its "the other things" that I can't think of ! :confused:
Some sort of robotic platform maybe ? open to ideas.

Geoff, like the photography angle, would be good if you could post your code and schematic as i'm sure others would be interested in your project.

On the subject of re-cycle/re-purpose :

Dove deodorant bottles, the white opaque ones make great diffusers for rgb leds, I made some xmas candles last year and got some great comments on the effect and no-one noticed what they where made from ! (project was posted a while back).

Recycling can be fun and great for the kids to get in on, teach them now whilst they are young enough to be interested and before the "teenage can be bothered gene kicks in !"

@ Tsicando: yes they are pc cd roms drives with the worm type of sled drive

Regards
Neil
 
T

terrapinlogo

Member
You could use one as a cd player. Give it 12v 5v and either tap into the headphone jack or the audio out on the back for line level output.
 
1968neil

1968neil

Senior Member
Nice idea, however the electronics (optics) are faulty hence the reason for re-purpose of the mechanics.
Replacement of the optics is cost prohibitive (cost more than the drive !)
 
J

Jamster

Senior Member
What about a miniture CNC router or some sort of arty platform thing for drawing in miniture (mini printer)?
Practical joke of somesort (in time for April ;) )?

Many ideas :p
 
J

Jamster

Senior Member
Prehaps you could encase the motors in a doll, and then have the head follow the Trick or treaters (could use pressure sensors, or a IRbeam break to send their rough position to the doll).

:D
 
R

Reloadron

Senior Member
I know a guy in another forum who using a PIC and the carriage drive motor and tray from a CD ROM built a pretty slick agitator for making his own Printed Circuit Boards. It really worked out quite well. A PIC, H Bridge and some mechanical linkage and away it went.

Ron
 
M

MPep

Senior Member
Jamster said:
Prehaps you could encase the motors in a doll, and then have the head follow the Trick or treaters (could use pressure sensors, or a IRbeam break to send their rough position to the doll).

:D
Click to expand...
Chuckie!!! He's BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
J

Jamster

Senior Member
You could add a couple of high power LED floodlights and flash them as the doll moves!!! :D

Admittedly the doll may be hard to live with though...
 
B

bluejets

Senior Member
Jamster said:
Prehaps you could encase the motors in a doll, and then have the head follow the Trick or treaters (could use pressure sensors, or a IRbeam break to send their rough position to the doll).

:D
Click to expand...
Friend of mine had a scale SE5 aircraft with a "doll" pilot fitted with a servo in the nether regions that would turn the head and raise the left arm with a second finger "up yours" salute. At scale comps he would wait until 2 of the three judges were busy talking to eachother and then flick the switch. Third judge would try to get other judges attention but by then the doll was "back to normal".
I heard the judge was dismissed due to suspected overuse of hoochy cooch.
 
M

Marcwolf

Senior Member
I was faced with an interesting task of making a costume head that could extend it's tounge.

The laser slide mechanism worked very well as a prototype. Esp the ones that used the worm drive concept like the old 3.5inch disk drives.

Another small servo then made the tounge go up and down - perfect for similating speech

Take Care
Dave
 
S

SAborn

Senior Member
Someone on a different forum wanted to make a small hidden compartment in a desk and asked how he could electrically control it, i suggested using an old CD rom carriage, dont know if he ever did as the thread went cold.
 
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