# Who wants a crack at these?



## silversaddle1 (Jan 5, 2018)

OK, has anyone ever ran across these things before? From some older 80-90 telecom switch gear. I cracked one open just to see what they looked like inside. I see gold plated reeds and gold plated connector ends, but what got my attention was the little silver contact pads on the reeds. Humm, pretty small.

So anyway look at the photos. Are they worth messing with? Someone want to mess with them? I have a large Priority flat rate box full of these, hundreds of them!

Take a look, are you interested? What's the split?


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## snoman701 (Jan 5, 2018)

The contacts are just silver unfortunately.

http://www.datasheet4u.com/datasheet/E/B/2/EB2-9NUH_NEC.pdf.html


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 5, 2018)

Ok, In the scrap box then.


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## snoman701 (Jan 5, 2018)

It's the right kind of contact, the Pd based contacts need a swiping motion found in reed relays like that. 

I've been checking all the telecom relays I come across and am yet to find any. It's only going to be DC relays.


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## geedigity (Jan 5, 2018)

Snoman - The data sheet referenced actually indicates that the contacts are silver alloy with gold overlay. However, each contact is fairly small, so the yield would be small. 

Last year, I obtained a few boxes of low voltage relays that were used in the control stations at a former power plant. The relay contacts were silver (with some containing palladium) with gold diffused into them.

I did want to point out that the use of palladium in relays, contactors and interrupters does not require that the electrical current that flows through them be direct. For example, the Western Electric 1A2 Key Telephone System that housed interrupters with pure palladium contacts, carried alternating current ranging from 10 volts AC up to 110 VAC. Note that in high direct and alternating current situations, the contacts are typically silver, silver alloyed with W, etc. since they hold up better to arcing. 

I didn’t take any photographs of the interrupters, but found one on the internet at:
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/292324711301_/Western-Electric-Interrupter-w-Bracket-KS-15900-LI-93250-Used.jpg 

It probably doesn’t matter much, since these systems are a thing of the past, but in my experience, I generally seemed to find the palladium in relays, contactors and interrupters that were manufactured during the 60’s and 70’s and not so much in those manufactured in the more recent years. I know there are relays and such being manufactured currently with palladium and other PGMs, but those tend to be elusive.


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## anachronism (Jan 6, 2018)

One of my clients used to throw these in the low grade scrap bin. We amalgamated a tonne of these and refined them last year. He was getting £350 per tonne for them and we added a zero (I'm purposefully being very approximate here) to that which meant they were better than newer style PC boards by weight. Don't underestimate the enterprise telecoms peripheral and power switching equipment guys. It's still (in many cases) better than you will find on pc hardware!

Scott, stack them and don't scrap them off. 

Jon


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## snoman701 (Jan 6, 2018)

anachronism said:


> One of my clients used to throw these in the low grade scrap bin. We amalgamated a tonne of these and refined them last year. He was getting £350 per tonne for them and we added a zero (I'm purposefully being very approximate here) to that which meant they were better than newer style PC boards by weight. Don't underestimate the enterprise telecoms peripheral and power switching equipment guys. It's still (in many cases) better than you will find on pc hardware!
> 
> Scott, stack them and don't scrap them off.
> 
> Jon



See, I would have put these in low grade telecom or high midgrade based upon the connector, gold plated relay and chips on minimal board weight. 

So is it usually just the connectors on these that throw it over, or is it a combination of everything?


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## nickton (Apr 15, 2018)

Those would make really nice recycled art bugs of some sort. Possibly jewelry.


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## shmandi (Apr 15, 2018)

snoman701 said:


> See, I would have put these in low grade telecom or high midgrade based upon the connector, gold plated relay and chips on minimal board weight.


I don't think there are any chips. Those look like transformers to me.


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## silversaddle1 (Apr 15, 2018)

Whatever they are.


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