What to refine in a computer ?

[tranqmorne]

Below is a pdf full of information about the different types of Monolithic Capaciters made by a single manufacturer.. hope it helps.

http://www.avx.com/docs/masterpubs/smccp.pdf

 

[Grelko]

Here's another easy source of gold scrap in computers and other electronics, especially those with keypads or menu buttons. In the picture, each of these chrome squares with a black rubber center are hiding a nice gold plated disc underneath. These are the button switches that depress and make contact when you push on a keypad. The discs are very small, but they add up fast. The best ones, like on this Canon scanner board, are a deep yellow gold, indicating a nice thickness of plating. Some cheaper machines may have copper-plated discs, and some will be plated with silver or nickel, both of which have no gold at all. The best way to determine what you have is to pop one of the lids off of the chrome squares with a pliers and see what kind of disc it has. I usually don't bother with the silver/nickel ones, but I take the time to get the gold discs when I find them.

Happy hunting.....

Fever

I stumbled across this post and had to bump it.

I always thought the small push buttons only had that tiny dot of silver in the bottom. I never knew that those small discs "that I've been throwing out as scrap " could be gold plated... I must have tossed out a couple hundred of those discs while tearing the buttons apart. The good thing is, I still have a pound or 2 of the push buttons and many more on boards, so I'm definately going to be adding another container specifically for those.

I also found a few silver mica caps on some old boards earlier "now that I know what to look for". So I guess I should go through my pile of boards, that I was going to take to the scrapyard yet again :lol: