# Are these chips worth the effort



## ChrisBcritter72 (Oct 6, 2018)

I have thousands upon thousands of these. They are difficult to isolate the board and have been having problems with aqua rigia being really dirty. I am wondering if it is worth it to try and get the gold out of them. Does anyone have an idea if it is worth the time and effort. They are chips from an old digital billboard. These are specifically the chip for the actual LED lights.


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## cosmetal (Oct 6, 2018)

They look like losers to me.

Have you busted one open to see what's inside? If that black stuff is epoxy, try to incinerate one, wash off the carbon ash, pan the residue and see what you have. 

Peace,
James


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## ChrisBcritter72 (Oct 7, 2018)

The gray stuff around the LED lights is silicone and the black little bit is just plastic I think. I can chop the lights off pretty easy and just have the board left. I will do that and then incinerate one to see what happens then post the results asap. Thanks


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## galenrog (Oct 7, 2018)

In my opinion, these boards are NOT worth the effort. I see low grade boards with a few LEDs attached. 

Time for more coffee.


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## Shark (Oct 7, 2018)

Based on what I can see the only gold there is in the lights (led's). A single gold bonding wire per light is the usual type. If you had the led's by the hundreds of pounds on a regular basis, MAYBE. The best bet is to look for something better to work with. 

By the way I saved led's for several years and barely filled a coffee can with them. Watching that can fill up was about as fun as watching paint dry. I voted for the paint as being the most fun for the effort involved.


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## nickton (Nov 15, 2018)

I was wondering if LED's were worth processing or not too. Looks like a waste of time, especially since they are so small, but they do contain some AU I understand. I'm beginning to wonder if any of this computer scrap processing is worth doing.


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## anachronism (Nov 15, 2018)

nickton said:


> I was wondering if LED's were worth processing or not too. Looks like a waste of time, especially since they are so small, but they do contain some AU I understand. I'm beginning to wonder if any of this computer scrap processing is worth doing.



Well you need to find the right stuff and that's down to you to be successful at doing. If you can't then it's not the product that's at fault.


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## Shark (Nov 15, 2018)

anachronism said:


> nickton said:
> 
> 
> > I was wondering if LED's were worth processing or not too. Looks like a waste of time, especially since they are so small, but they do contain some AU I understand. I'm beginning to wonder if any of this computer scrap processing is worth doing.
> ...



I have to agree with Jon. I have ran some computer stuff that I came out good on and some not so good. If it is a hobby, then a trial run on a batch or two of the same stuff is worth the effort. And that effort will tell you exactly if it is worth it to you or not to process it. But wait, isn't that how you collect data? So having knowledge of what you can produce from a given material has a two fold meaning. On one hand you know if the cost is good or not, and you know how much you can profit from that given material. Don't think that I threw my led's away, I just don't collect them anymore personally. I just haven't had time this summer to work on much computer scrap for processing, but I do still collect it, and it is always there when or if other material slows down.


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## nickton (Jan 30, 2019)

user error is definitely a problem at my hobby house. :mrgreen: Sorry about my posts.


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