instructables

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts

by Jule

In this instructable I will briefly give you some ideas
on how to reuse some parts of old computers that
everyone is throwing away.
You will not believe, but these old computers have
many interesting parts inside.
This instructable will not give full instructions on all
the project,because it will get too long. But it will give
you many new ideas on how to use these old
components you will find inside. Maybe I will cover
some of the projects later in following instructables.
Post in the comments what do you want to see in
detail.
Here you will see some of my past projects I made
with these recycled parts. some of them are
"mainstream", others are not so much :)

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 1

Step 1: Convert the ATX Power Supply to Benchtop Power Supply

This is the first project I made, many years ago, when - black wires are ground (negative)
I was still in middle school.
- red wires are +5V
The project is very easy to do. Just chop off the
connector and identify the wires: - orange are +3.3V

- yellow are +12V - grey wire is +5V POWER-OK. Connect a LED here
if you want to see when the power is OK. If you
- blue is -12V (comes handy in rare cases) overload the power supply, the LED will turn off and
you will know that there is no sufficient power.
Connect the above wires to some connectors or
therminals, so it will be easy to connect your project Most of these ATX supplies need to have some load
boards to them. I put just ordinary screws on some present on +5V(red wire) if you want to get the full
plastic board, because back then I had no money to power out on +12V line (yellow wire). So if you want
buy banana plugs. to extract the full power out, you need to draw an amp
or two from +5V, so just put a few power resistors (10
- green wire is important. It needs to be connected to ohm or so) or some 12V car headlight bulbs on the
ground - black wire in order for the power supply to +5V line and you are good to go.
turn on
It is good to leave one or two 4 pin HDD power
- purple wire is +5V standby power. If you connect the connectors hanging out. You will see later that they
LED on it, it will turn on if the power supply is plugged come in handy.
into mains. You don't need to connect it if you do not
need it.

2 2
3 1

1. Green wire to grount for the supply to power on
2. Purple wire is 5V standby. Use this with an LED to see when the mains
is connected.
3. Grey is "power OK". Connect to LED. LED turns off when you short or
overload the supply. Useful feature.
1. HDD power connector comes in very handy.
2. At that time, I was short on money and instead of installing banana
plugs, I just put the screws for terminals

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 2

Step 2: HDD Mini Grinder
Now that you have a power supply, you can put it to
some good use.
Take an old HDD and plug it to the power supply you
made earlier directly to the HDD connector you left
hanging (I told you it is going to be useful). You want
the HDD to start spinning. If it does not start spinning,
try to switch a jumper on the rear side in order to spin
when the power is applied. Just try all the
combinations, one should work.
Then, disassemble the HDD drive.
In the guts you will see the plate, arm and two metal
things that are magnets that move the arm. You can
rip the arm off because you will not need it, or you
Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 3
can just leave it in.
You can take the magnets out. They are very strong
and can be used for many cool things. Watch your
fingers!
Then unscrew the plate off the motor and glue some
fine sanding paper on it. Cut it to shape and
assemble it back on the motor. Now you have a mini
grinder. I made a slight modification and added more
plates from many drives on the same shaft, so the
grinding plate is heavier and has more inertia.
The older the HDD, the better it is, because it usually
has stronger motor inside.
1. Strong magnets

Step 3: Convert Old CD-ROM Into Music CD Player
If you have one of that older CD-ROM drives that
have headphone jack, then you have some cool old
junk :)
These players can play regular audio CDs all by
themselves!
Just plug them into your converted ATX power
supply, or create separate power supply that supplies
Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 4
1
1. Added more plates to increase mass. But its not necessary.
5V and 12V and you are good to go.
Just insert the CD, plug the headphones in the jack
(or connect it to an external amplifier via this jack)
and press the play button. Voila! Music plays! You
can ajdust the volume with built in potentiometer and
you can also skip tracks with play button.
 2

1 3 4
2
1

1. Volume 1. Found this CD inside the unit from junkyard. Weird music :)
2. Headphone jack 2. Powering from power supply
3. Play/next
4. Stop/open tray

1. Power connector pinout

Step 4: Convert CD-ROM Drive Into Headphone Amplifier

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 5

This was some quick fix project I did in middle school. is bound to be an headphone audio amplifier.
I needed to make a headphone amplifier for a TV that
had only LINE OUT audio output in the rear. The "line
out" output does not have enough power to supply
the headphones with enough volume for normal
listening, so I needed an headphone amplifier. Fast.
I opened one of this old CD-ROM drives I had laying
around. Don't be affraid to void some warranty :)
I assumed, that if it has headphone output, it should
have headphone amplifier inside. I was right.
Then you open the thing, you will often see 2
separate circuit boards. One big, and one small, near
the front face.
This smaller one is the right one.
Just start googling the IC markings and one of them
Then I quickly put the boards in some old plastic box I
had laying around. I just hot glued everything
togheter, since it was just a prototype and needed not
Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 6
In my case it was MS6308 in one device and BH3540
in the other. They are all pretty simillar.
Open the datasheet and see which pins are inputs
and which are outputs and which are power pins and
what supply voltage is recommended. Follow the
traces on the PCB to see where are they connected.
Then you can break those traces and solder your
wires to them. Inputs and power often go to the
connector that goes to the main board. Unsolder the
cable and there is a good place for you to solder your
wires. Output is of course on the headphone
connector.
You basically need to supply the power(often 5V) and
left and right channel signal wires and signal ground.
I also had the option to shorten the PCB since I
figured out that it has the part of PCB where none of
my connections go. Although this step is not
necessary an could be risky.
I also made a small 5V voltage regulator board, so I
could power the board with wall adapter which had
9V output. but you can avoid this step by using 5V
cellphone charger.
to be pretty.

Now, about 10 years later, the amplifier still works :)

Still hotglued though.. :)

1. VOID THE WARANTY!

1. Audio amplifier IC. Google the markings for datasheet

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 7

 1

1. Shortened PCB

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 8

 1

1. Voltage regulator for 5V

Step 5: Use Computer Case for Something Else

I re-used my case by installing my CNC router electronics inside the case. Including the inverter for the spindle.
Everything fitted nicely inside.

These cases are great for some bigger projects. I have seen people use them as bird houses, post boxes, you
name it.

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 9

Step 6: Do Something Cool With Old Printer Parts

The printers have all sort of cool parts inside. Guide
rails, motors, gears.. you name it.
I converted one of those old inkjet printers into the
Most Useless Machine - Advanced Edition :)
I stripped the printer of all of the plastics and left only
the base, the guide rail, the print head carrier, the
motor that drives the head and the optical encoder for
positioning the head.
encoder and drive the motor with Arduino motor
shield, added a servo motor on the print head carrier
for moving the arm and in few stormy weekends, and
the useless machine emerged!
See it in action in the video above!
This project is too big for just one instructable step. I
will probably need to make a separate instructable on
this one.

I figured out how to read the incremental optical

https://youtu.be/sC8sxy9vP_w

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 10

 1

1. The donor

Step 7: Save Some of the Components for Later

Save the fans, heatsinks, LEDs, switches and simillar stuff for later to use on different occasions.

Old CPU heatsinks are ideal for cooling powerful LEDs, power supplies have many smaller heatsinks that you can
use for voltage regulators, also the wires come in handy

1. This heatsinks are awesome for power LEDs

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 11

I love your way of thinking, thanks for sharing. Got some old printer's, scanners and desktops here,
time to explore!

Cool Ways to Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Page 12