A good source for Mod parts

[bstedh]

You can find a lot of useful parts on an old computer.

Items I have scavenged from dead computers are mostly SMD components.
Resistors - usually only a few of the size you want
N-FET Lots of them around the cpu socket
P-FET only found 1 on 3 boards
Capacitors - Get a capacitance meter for the small ones, I found many tantalums and plenty of big electrolitics.
tactile switches - both on the board and the computer case
Wire - Power supply cables
I have yet to pull open the power supply but I'm sure there are more goodies there.

The best method I have found for removeing the parts are as follows.
Use a hot air gun "not a blow dryer" to remove the small components. Just point it at the components until they come loose. The narrower the nozzle the better.
Use a pencil torch on the back side to remove large components quickly. You can also do this with the small components if you are very talented and quick.
You may have some luck with an iron and solder wick but it never works very well for me.

 

[NicksVap3]

put a knife tip under the component while heating, apply GENTLE leverage. that helps.
i have an old 1000w amp i fried, and a dvd player waiting for more complex mods. i know both have fets, caps, resistors etc... just dont know what ill need and be able to use. save for later

 

[gramakittycat]

Okay ,just a simple question but I can't wrap my unelectronic brain around the answer...On plain old simple generic 3.7 volt box mods what differences are there between useing a single 14500 battery or two of them.Longer battery life between charges? Thank you for your replys!

 

[NicksVap3]

2 14500s in series will double your voltage, 2 in parallel will double capacity. series would be one batteries positive connected to the other batteries negative. parallel would batteries connected positive to positive

i dont have 14500s , but say they are 900mah, two in parallel would make them an 1800mah battery pack essentially

 

[NicksVap3]

had an old speed controller for an RC car, "mosfet speed control" was written on it. hmmm.... 12 n channel fets in it. 15 n-channel and no p-channels yet
black & decker quatro drill motor, variable speed trigger(curiosity killed the trigger :/). makes me think a nice little 6v pocket driver with variable speed would make for a good mod, if i could find one for cheap