Imo, if the phone still works, it's not worth it taking it apart for parts A slow phone can be made faster by doing a factory reset or even installing optimized custom ROMs and still has a lot of uses Need a camera near a dangerous experiment? Want to monitor your home with an IP camera? Dictaphone? Alarm clock? Backup phone in case your main one breaks? Something to run some home-server experiments off of? DIY projects that need to display something on a screen? You essentially have a powerful computer to do anything you want that you can use as a server with lots of cool IO
This one phone doesn't matter in the bigger picture. I'm just trying to give out ideas that will hopefully make people think twice before taking apart their phones for components they can get for a few cents online
Exactly. It seems incredibly wasteful to pull apart a working phone for parts. If the owner had no use for it then it could be sold on Ebay, given away to a friend or family member, etc.
@@lucianodebenedictis6014 when i was 7 years old, my computer broke, turns out it was the power supply. I replaced the power supply (yes i replaced it by myself) and i opened the old PSU and i kinda remember many stuffed capacitors. I managed to salvage the cooler and my dad soldered it with USB. And i used it as a soup cooler. lol
@@ishanfernando3064 That instruct magnetic fields, you know... permiteability to flow current. Like students who oppose for a period... instructors can to? :-|)
Zack from JerryRigEverything: Be careful,don't go deep with the business card because you could damage important things inside. GreatScott!:So I removed the back of the phone with a flathead screwdriver
Hello I don't know if you'll see this sir. But you just made the understanding of so many components and things easier for me. And thank you for telling us about all the reasons. Your efforts are much appreciated ❤.
I have 2 of these phones. After watching the video I am completely happy using them as cameras, browsers, and everything except being a phone. The s6 camera (main) is quite a decent camera! AND, someone on a limited budget could use this phone forever if the OS updates keep rolling in.
But... what if the screen is dead? Why not scavenge the remaining parts? I agree, if a phone still functions there are plenty of uses for it as a whole.
@@ElZamo92 Thats what stress tests are for. But mostly the phone survive an entire teardown. Except for Phones with heat pipes and in display fingerprint sensor.
Tanmay Nemade what about the phones, game consoles and tablets he burns and/or snaps in half? IMO he’s the new generation of tech destruction channels. No one gives a rats ass about the testing, they just want to see some dude stab $1000 phones.
The phone's speaker usually has 2 pads under the flat flex that make it useful. Most silicon on these boards require Kwisatz Haderach level skills to reuse. Some of the passives are still useful though. The capacitors onboard can be high capacity and low ESR. However, they are easy to damage and even ceramics are super dangerous to reuse if any force is applied to remove them. You need a GOOD hot air gun for this. A couple of other things,.. A lot of the components that kinda look like crystals are actually "Surface Acoustic Wave" aka "SAW" filters. These are used for filtering the desired radio frequencies. I am not into radio stuff yet but I save them for later if I can find a datasheet. While I haven't used them much I also have a bin with the tiny radio conncetors/wires, and I save the 2-part EMI shielding cans. At one point I removed most stuff and semi-sorted it. Now I just keep a storage tote with lots of boards that are partially stripped enough that they store flat. Occasionally I go through them looking for some special thing I need or an example of a circuit element I just learned about. It seems like the stuff I don't find useful right now is simply the current state of my understanding of electronics. As I learn more, I often find the things I thought were useless are much more useful than I first thought. I have one rule when it comes to salvaging parts, "never keep more than you can store, access, recall, and/or inventory." If you 'forgot you had (x/y/z) part,' you're due for reassessment of your storage and hording tendencies. Thanks for the upload. -Jake
Replacing the battery and flashing LineageOS is the best way to go in my opinion. It keeps thr phone up to date and will fix the slow factory installed OS.
@@grunewurst7400 That´s why I bought an OnePlus and will buy it in future since it has excellent support and lifespan but most flagship phones are supported aswell so in case for an old galaxy s6 or s7 it is a good option
@@grunewurst7400 It´s a shame Huawei dropped their ability to unlock the bootloader of Huawei and Honor devices... Just go for OnePlus, run fastboot oem unlock and you don´t even need internet access.
@@MultiWirth I have a verizon samsung galaxy s4 and s7. Neither of them can have custom ROMs unfortunately. Keep an eye out for not just which model, but also which carrier can be flashed with custom firmware.
@@DaffyDaffyDaffy33322 You're right i've forgot that point. I'm glad we don't have this issue in germany, probably the whole EU since in worst case you'll find a software branding or simlock but will still have the standard hardware which is compatible with the standard custom builds.
Coin type vibrators are now more common, because regular tiny motors with a weight are too thick. The vibrating module you mention was used long time ago, when Nokia was the king of the mobile market.
I appreciate the link to the dsi to hdmi screen project. I think it can be very worthwhile to discover how to use flagship smartphone screens in arduino projects because we could honestly just start making our own custom smartphones. A battery, memory devices, basic cpu, antennas etc could all be easily fit into a decent form factor.
definitely, not getting why this isn't more popular as there exist control boards which can be used to repurpose old laptop screens into portable monitor
@@Etienne85I would be happy to reuse any of the screens lying around, but it takes too much effort to reverse engineer the proprietary protocols used with them, there are no datasheets available, which is a crime in itself.
I feel like a video on how to repurpose some of the items (camera and screen) would be an interesting and useful video or series. As you say it would be too difficult to figure out for a simple project, however if the project itself is to repurpose them then any knowledge you would gain on the topic would then be passed on to all your viewers who could then utilize the info themselves.
When I have a broken phone with a broken screen, I always strip out the backlight panel of the LCD Screen and use the led's as additional light for flashlights, bike light, etc. Anyways, great video GreatScott!
My Nexus 6P went in the bootloop of Death. Since this phone has a very nice camera I hoped Scott would explain me in this video how I could use it. Which would be awsome! :)
If the phone still (mostly) works, the easiest way to reuse it is to connect the USB to a USB host like a Raspberry Pi or even certain high end microcontrollers. Then 3D print a holder to mount it on the enclosure of your project.
That coin-cell like component is a LRA (Linear Ressonant Actuator). They’re the kind of vibrators used for haptic control. Precision microdrive has great documentation and infographics on them
Not really, depend on project you want go for... Eg audio or charging ic can be used in adaptors (pcb that convert them to normal solder pinouts) or as tiny parts for projects that need to be compact, as well the buttons, with neat look of them, many phones use backing plate on back of the buttons so you can easily reuse those as well to securely mount them to the housing of your project. Cameras and lcds are worth it if you know pinouts (easily to find for majority of brands and models, especially iphones and samsungs). Still reccomend pcb adaptor for it.
Not at all , just sell it to a person who might need it or even dead phones can sell for parts . The money you will get back would be equal to many more parts and surveillance Systems are the most common uses for there and that's a good option how ever not the most reliable CCTV in my opinion but gets the job done
Your videos are excellent, I tip my hat to you not only doing videos in English but German too. I just wanted to say thank you for not only the effort but the level of detail in your videos!!!!!!
Great video. Loved that you did component by component with clear enough examples,that if someone took apart a different phone, they could reasonably understand what they are looking at. Also this is a great way to get the most out of broken phones.
i would actually like to see you utilize a salvaged smartphone screen with a custom hdmi to dsi converter this would be the one really useful part of most all smartphones available out there id think?
Sir, I'm having 2 old phones. From last 2 years I'm trying to find out what I can do with the camera, TFT LCD and fingerprint module. But didn't got any help from internet (got only: reusing the display backlight). But I don't want to throw those nice camera modules. I did lot of research to use camera module with Arduino & raspberry pi. But didn't got any help at all.
Lol, the S6 is perfectly capable. You should have just tried to put LineageOS on it. The S7 is not that much faster. You could have used the S6 as a small Server, just a network connected display, of maybe a simple media center/streamer permanently connected to the TV(Via the MHL connector).
You can reuse old phone as linux server - remove the battery and make it work directly with 4.0 v . Linux server or IOT /Mqtt server, also IP camera (tested by me)
3:51 and a few seconds after are the best thing I saw In quite a while. I have or more exactly had this problem where I couldn't find a new battery for my grandma's phone, so after seeing that it's just that simple I soldered in my headphone's battery since they don't work as of rn. And so far it works perfectly. Wish I watched this sooner but oh well.
Thank you good sir. You saved me countless hours trying to salvage the 7 old cell phones I have. You are a great teacher though! I am proud of you for learning english so well. I know it isn't an easy language my friend! May Christ's peace be with you GS!
If it works, probably worth it to keep just for apps and stuff. Now that 'old' phones include quite a number of phones which can snap pics in RAW image format, it's great to keep a couple around for quick project documentation pics. (Especially with Adobe Lightroom installed, the images go to the cloud, and are available on your PC near-instantly!) Or you could just keep it around as a music player without running down your current phone... Or, with the right app, use it as a dedicated screen for a USB oscope/LA. Or a dedicated screen for a cheap USB microscope, so you don't need to get one with a screen... Heck, you could even use it to add a touch interface to a 3D printer, if you're using a RasPi with Octoprint.
I once took apart a Nokia C6 (the one with a sliding keyboard in the landscape orientation). It's camera flash module was separate from the motherboard and can be used with a 4V DC battery, It was pretty powerful for the size, and had very high (>95%) CRI.
i usually turn off my lg v10 for the night but when i don't my phone becomes slow the next day. a simple restart helps but if it doesn't i pull out the battery for a minute or so and all is good. Bought it used on ebay 3 years ago still love it!. (phone has a removable battery mind you, don't go tearing up your phone to remove the battery)
You can try to install Ubuntu Touch on an old phone (if you're in to the Linux thing). And btw OnePlus phones are very good phones, quick updates and they don't get slow quickly.
Interesting, thanks. I'm a bit surprised the cameras and microphone use such a strange interface since notebook/laptop ones usually are just USB so easily reusable.
I dont salvage from my old phone, but i use it as cctv surveilance, it is ip cctv.. and also keep it in good condition so it can be put in my museum collection🤣
Thanks for making me feel better. Recently I tried something quite similar with an old small tablet, and felt a little ashamed, as I still have these components laying around...
I'm sure someone else has already "said" it, but it bears repeating.... A working phone is in all likelihood worth considerably more than it's constituent parts!! And I would argue that is regardless of it's age, AND that is true even if You are a "maker", using the "complete phone as a component" is more "viable" than getting any use out of any of the "salvaged parts" is i.m.o. a much more viable use case.. (( That is unless You KNOW that it contains a particular component that You also KNOW that You can't get hold of any other way.)) Best regards.
Salvaging components from old flatscreen monitors way more exciting. Just the visual filters and sometimes gigantic polarized filters can be fun to play with. I.e. remove one polarizer filter, only people with polarization glasses can see the image.
Yeah. I'm pretty happy with my old LG v20 & don't feel like shelling out money for a new phone, so I just replace the parts that stop working as needed. So far I've replaced the speaker & vibrating motor. Only $10 total!
Same dilemma I faced. Can you try to make the back camera work mate, I know it's a lot of effort. But something like that if replaced in some cheap webcam, just an idea ... Keep up the awesome work mate 🍻
The "weird component that looks like a coin cell" is the vibration motor. When the phone is put on 'silent'. It's similar to the vibration motors in game controllers, but designed more like a speaker to be flatter to fit inside newer phones. ...For anyone curious.
That reference to the FPGA video application project bring back memories from my student years. Related to the project, unfortunately there isn't much to take from a smartphone.
Those saying to keep it intact, I have tons of old phones, 1 or 2 I use as a whole device. The rest are great for parts to a. Add functionality to another device and b. Minimize package size, power consumption or complexity (which usually makes the intended device more secure).
I kept my old S5 complete, cleared out all the clutter and loaded up a load of electronics/engineering apps, also i have (admittedly not the best quality) a camera, light source, speaker (AF sig gen), mic (data logger eally really low bandwidth 'scope :-) ), tilt/motion sensor, and timer. All wifi connected. All with a sophisticated OS and API tying it all together. ... Or I could have taken it apart for a few buttons, a semi-knackered battery and a coil :-)
I thought the same but then I saw he hooked it to 2v and apparently "it did not react" but when he hooked it up to a square wave it vibrated so it's probly a microphone
I think there's a usable thing from the phone, the eMMC.. you can make yourself a DIY SSD from it with help of "SD to SATA Adapter"... you can take a direct connection from the emmc to the sd sata module and read/write it as a SSD. also the sensors can be reused too with an Arduino. From my experience, i have used old android phones to make IoT projetcs (With custom ROM and custom hardware). or keep the camera module with the board, and install an app called "IP Webcam" and you have a DIY CCTV!
My mom had an extra old s6 at her house that she let me take. It is now permanently used as vr device. definitely not worthless junk. Years of life left for this almost forgotten gem
There is these community in reddit called r/foundthemobileuser and r/foundthelightmodeuser, made as a joke, you could end up on one of these, I don't mind but I'd recommend switching to dark mode. (Also it saves battery life on oled displays Great video, greatscott
I watched this on my Samsung S3. I only use this old phone to watch RUclips. I like where the volumn buttons and earphone plug is, better then my new Samsung. I use an S4 to play music via a Bluetooth speaker in my garage. I figure why not use old phones for dedicated tasks. Less wear on my primary phone. Someday I'm planning on using one as a trail camera to watch wildlife in my yard (I live in a forest...in a house of course). It's good to know that it isn't worth taking them apart, but kind of sad.
Oh come on that was a nice phone you could sell it and buy something useful for the money And yeah, people still buy used phones even in 2019 even in europe, i'm quite sure it's not hard to sell Galaxy S6 phone even in Germany for the reasonable price.
Yep, in most cases, the fingerprint scanner flex cable is just soldered on to the screen flex (e.g. On the Huawei P10 if I remember correctly). Such a fingerprint scanner flex has 4-7 contacts (4 when it uses I2C, 7 for SPI). Then you just need to find out the pinout (leave the flex on the display and attach that display to the mainboard, e.g. Probing for GND you take your multimeter in resistance mode, put one probe on one contact, and the other on a metal shield on the mainboard) Regarding software, you almost always see one bigger ic on the flex, which is most certainly the fingerprint sensor controller. From there a few google searches and you're good to go
old phones are much more useful together than apart. here are some common re-uses: -Webcam -Secondary camera for extra angles -Music player -Midi controller -Emergency Backup Phone -Small TV -Small extra monitor -Mobile SSH Terminal -Extra touchpad for a laptop -Network traffic analyzer -Emulation box
You can't use the Proximity sensor, present near the speaker. They have i2c interface and you can use them. Usually APDS9930 OR APDS9960 is used in Samsung galaxy s series.
@@kerigancreighton2351 what are you asking? Evidence of them being outed or procedures for custom ROM? Learn to google Article www.cnet.com/news/apple-and-samsung-fined-for-slowing-down-phones-with-updates/ ROMs? Google; xda custom ROM - model of phone - check your settings menu... you don't want to install a verison rom on a sprint or international version of S(number). xda is a big user driven site for such things.
You can desolder internal NAND eMMC and buy cheap usb controller on Aliexpress and use that as cheap usb drive with decent capacity. Or you can get programmer, clone old NAND to current one and upgrade your phone to bigger storage.
I've been using this phone since 2016... Galaxy S7 here with custom ROM. Doing good so far, only problem its the battery. After all these years it has lost 60% of the total capacity...
Definitely the screens are what strikes me the most that cannot be reused, they are so beautiful and so useful, that it is a pity that so many are wasted every day
Still using a cloudfone here. Cloudfone Thrill 530qx. Model since 2013. 6 years and still kicking. Lol I'll be glad to be the next owner of your phone. Haha
Imo, if the phone still works, it's not worth it taking it apart for parts
A slow phone can be made faster by doing a factory reset or even installing optimized custom ROMs and still has a lot of uses
Need a camera near a dangerous experiment? Want to monitor your home with an IP camera? Dictaphone? Alarm clock? Backup phone in case your main one breaks? Something to run some home-server experiments off of? DIY projects that need to display something on a screen?
You essentially have a powerful computer to do anything you want that you can use as a server with lots of cool IO
This one phone doesn't matter in the bigger picture. I'm just trying to give out ideas that will hopefully make people think twice before taking apart their phones for components they can get for a few cents online
Or just to watch porn when the other phone is charging.
Well said. Reuse and repurposing can be achieved at a macro level ... rendering everything down to dust isn’t always the best option.
Exactly. It seems incredibly wasteful to pull apart a working phone for parts. If the owner had no use for it then it could be sold on Ebay, given away to a friend or family member, etc.
@@lucianodebenedictis6014 when i was 7 years old, my computer broke, turns out it was the power supply.
I replaced the power supply (yes i replaced it by myself) and i opened the old PSU and i kinda remember many stuffed capacitors. I managed to salvage the cooler and my dad soldered it with USB.
And i used it as a soup cooler. lol
I would also take all those capacitors and instructors! FILTERS BABY!
Before or after applying mains voltage to the USB port?
BUT...BUTT😣😣😣 YOU FORGET ABOUT THE FULLL🚨🚨BRIDGE🚨🚨🚨🚨 RECTIFIER
Not that there is a full bridge rectifier, but you can make one from the diodes inside the phone
Instructors or inductors?
@@ishanfernando3064 That instruct magnetic fields, you know... permiteability to flow current. Like students who oppose for a period... instructors can to? :-|)
Zack from JerryRigEverything: Be careful,don't go deep with the business card because you could damage important things inside.
GreatScott!:So I removed the back of the phone with a flathead screwdriver
Lol
Best meme ever made be laugh 😂
Not important if its already broken
@@thekingofcats197 It was flawless he broke it white tearing it down
Hello I don't know if you'll see this sir.
But you just made the understanding of so many components and things easier for me.
And thank you for telling us about all the reasons.
Your efforts are much appreciated ❤.
I have 2 of these phones. After watching the video I am completely happy using them as cameras, browsers, and everything except being a phone. The s6 camera (main) is quite a decent camera! AND, someone on a limited budget could use this phone forever if the OS updates keep rolling in.
the phone is far more useful as a whole device. It can be used as a bluetooth remote or touchscreen interface for example
Precisely!
Far more useful as a whole device to a user who only knows how to use it a whole device.
@@leonfrancis3418 you don't know how to use a smartphone?
But... what if the screen is dead? Why not scavenge the remaining parts? I agree, if a phone still functions there are plenty of uses for it as a whole.
@@executive you missed the "only"
When you try JerryRigEverything, but only one way.
ScottRigEverything XD
@@prince_9599 😂😂
Tanmay Nemade Well, everything that idiot “stress tests” ends up permanently damaged, and sometimes completely inoperable.
@@ElZamo92 Thats what stress tests are for. But mostly the phone survive an entire teardown. Except for Phones with heat pipes and in display fingerprint sensor.
Tanmay Nemade what about the phones, game consoles and tablets he burns and/or snaps in half? IMO he’s the new generation of tech destruction channels. No one gives a rats ass about the testing, they just want to see some dude stab $1000 phones.
"overtime my smartphones always got slower"
Me, watching this on a 5yo tablet: **laughs in lag**
and then i looking at my 7yo laptop and it is running the matlab 2019a at pretty fast speed at today’s prospect
Don't update if u don't want to slow down . Simple trick or just port to older os firmwares
"[...] leaving my galaxy S6 behind."
Meanwhile I'm using an S4 to watch this very video just fine.
@@MMaheshThakur Damn planned obsolescence!
@@ankaz2019 meanwhile watching it on my Lenovo A6000 1GB variant
You forgot about the high quality LED Flash on the Mainboard D: I always keep those.
He is way to lazy to deal with that
True those led's are great but hard to desolder
So we ignoring the fact that his a furry?
@@ahmedmani1051 Why would that matter? Why SHOULD that matter?
@@ahmedmani1051 i think you took the wrong turn
Basment virgins are one cross section further and turn left
The phone's speaker usually has 2 pads under the flat flex that make it useful.
Most silicon on these boards require Kwisatz Haderach level skills to reuse.
Some of the passives are still useful though. The capacitors onboard can be high capacity and low ESR. However, they are easy to damage and even ceramics are super dangerous to reuse if any force is applied to remove them. You need a GOOD hot air gun for this.
A couple of other things,.. A lot of the components that kinda look like crystals are actually "Surface Acoustic Wave" aka "SAW" filters. These are used for filtering the desired radio frequencies. I am not into radio stuff yet but I save them for later if I can find a datasheet. While I haven't used them much I also have a bin with the tiny radio conncetors/wires, and I save the 2-part EMI shielding cans. At one point I removed most stuff and semi-sorted it. Now I just keep a storage tote with lots of boards that are partially stripped enough that they store flat. Occasionally I go through them looking for some special thing I need or an example of a circuit element I just learned about. It seems like the stuff I don't find useful right now is simply the current state of my understanding of electronics. As I learn more, I often find the things I thought were useless are much more useful than I first thought.
I have one rule when it comes to salvaging parts, "never keep more than you can store, access, recall, and/or inventory."
If you 'forgot you had (x/y/z) part,' you're due for reassessment of your storage and hording tendencies.
Thanks for the upload.
-Jake
excellent advice. I have a box filled with old phone parts, that my brain knows should be saved, but does not yet have the knowledge to use, lol.
Replacing the battery and flashing LineageOS is the best way to go in my opinion.
It keeps thr phone up to date and will fix the slow factory installed OS.
@@grunewurst7400 That´s why I bought an OnePlus and will buy it in future since it has excellent support and lifespan but most flagship phones are supported aswell so in case for an old galaxy s6 or s7 it is a good option
@@grunewurst7400 It´s a shame Huawei dropped their ability to unlock the bootloader of Huawei and Honor devices... Just go for OnePlus, run fastboot oem unlock and you don´t even need internet access.
@@MultiWirth I have a verizon samsung galaxy s4 and s7. Neither of them can have custom ROMs unfortunately. Keep an eye out for not just which model, but also which carrier can be flashed with custom firmware.
This
@@DaffyDaffyDaffy33322 You're right i've forgot that point.
I'm glad we don't have this issue in germany, probably the whole EU since in worst case you'll find a software branding or simlock but will still have the standard hardware which is compatible with the standard custom builds.
5:22
That was most likely the vibrating module used to vibrate your phone upon notifications etc..
I thought that too.
@@lucianodebenedictis6014 do you mean like of some electric toothbrushes?
But older phones had these too.Galaxy S6 is just a little too new for this.
Totaly agrer
Coin type vibrators are now more common, because regular tiny motors with a weight are too thick. The vibrating module you mention was used long time ago, when Nokia was the king of the mobile market.
@@lucianodebenedictis6014 True, probably a more efficient kind since it just needs little to power while taking up hardly any room
I appreciate the link to the dsi to hdmi screen project. I think it can be very worthwhile to discover how to use flagship smartphone screens in arduino projects because we could honestly just start making our own custom smartphones. A battery, memory devices, basic cpu, antennas etc could all be easily fit into a decent form factor.
definitely, not getting why this isn't more popular as there exist control boards which can be used to repurpose old laptop screens into portable monitor
@@Etienne85I would be happy to reuse any of the screens lying around, but it takes too much effort to reverse engineer the proprietary protocols used with them, there are no datasheets available, which is a crime in itself.
I feel like a video on how to repurpose some of the items (camera and screen) would be an interesting and useful video or series. As you say it would be too difficult to figure out for a simple project, however if the project itself is to repurpose them then any knowledge you would gain on the topic would then be passed on to all your viewers who could then utilize the info themselves.
@me if you find such a video
Me too please, I would love to see how to do this process
The problem Is that not all phones used the same pinout
When I have a broken phone with a broken screen, I always strip out the backlight panel of the LCD Screen and use the led's as additional light for flashlights, bike light, etc.
Anyways, great video GreatScott!
@@Gerbi92 mid/high end Samsung smartphones have OLED screens, there are cheap models that comes with LCD screen
1. People used the old phones as CCTV systems.
2. Give your old stuff to someone collecting them/repairing them.
3. Sell your old stuff to Recyclers.
Selling the old phone is probably the better idea than gathering parts from it for projects. I usually never use such salvaged parts :-)
Or using it for other purposes, such as app development, hacking, or as a screen or camera for a project.
In Eco machine my phone costed 0$, so it isn't worth to sell your phone when its old.
But if phone is broken then it cant be sold at a good price....
@@100ksubscriberwithnovideos8 Scrap parts are also worth something
@@maciejk48 Yeah maybe, but a Galaxy S6 is still $70 here in Germany. Just saying...
i kept telling my self that the good part is coming but that never happened :D
My Nexus 6P went in the bootloop of Death. Since this phone has a very nice camera I hoped Scott would explain me in this video how I could use it. Which would be awsome! :)
If the phone still (mostly) works, the easiest way to reuse it is to connect the USB to a USB host like a Raspberry Pi or even certain high end microcontrollers. Then 3D print a holder to mount it on the enclosure of your project.
What could this be used for?
@@PMSTTR Any project that can use a touchscreen and compute power.
That coin-cell like component is a LRA (Linear Ressonant Actuator). They’re the kind of vibrators used for haptic control.
Precision microdrive has great documentation and infographics on them
So, Basically smartphones are not worth salvaging
I think they are better put to use in their second life as part of a security system. Maybe play games on them or for media consumption, like RUclips.
ironically cheap chinese phones (notice there's no smart there) can worth more as the LCD are more common and hobbyist friendly
@@AnthonyGoodley how did you get verified????
Not really, depend on project you want go for... Eg audio or charging ic can be used in adaptors (pcb that convert them to normal solder pinouts) or as tiny parts for projects that need to be compact, as well the buttons, with neat look of them, many phones use backing plate on back of the buttons so you can easily reuse those as well to securely mount them to the housing of your project. Cameras and lcds are worth it if you know pinouts (easily to find for majority of brands and models, especially iphones and samsungs). Still reccomend pcb adaptor for it.
Not at all , just sell it to a person who might need it or even dead phones can sell for parts . The money you will get back would be equal to many more parts and surveillance Systems are the most common uses for there and that's a good option how ever not the most reliable CCTV in my opinion but gets the job done
Your videos are excellent, I tip my hat to you not only doing videos in English but German too. I just wanted to say thank you for not only the effort but the level of detail in your videos!!!!!!
Great video. Loved that you did component by component with clear enough examples,that if someone took apart a different phone, they could reasonably understand what they are looking at.
Also this is a great way to get the most out of broken phones.
i would actually like to see you utilize a salvaged smartphone screen with a custom hdmi to dsi converter
this would be the one really useful part of most all smartphones available out there id think?
I was looking for this kinda video from a long time. Thanks a lot sir..
No problem :-)
Sir, I'm having 2 old phones. From last 2 years I'm trying to find out what I can do with the camera, TFT LCD and fingerprint module. But didn't got any help from internet (got only: reusing the display backlight). But I don't want to throw those nice camera modules. I did lot of research to use camera module with Arduino & raspberry pi. But didn't got any help at all.
@@TechnologyWithSaikat dude watch the video
@@TechnologyWithSaikat If you don't get the pinout or a converter board, which is unlikely, the screen will not be usable, same with the camera
Technology With- Saikat dude
If you have a working phone just download some camera IP software to use with your project or something.
You are the greatest diy arduino youtuber
You deserve a prize
😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄
Lol, the S6 is perfectly capable. You should have just tried to put LineageOS on it. The S7 is not that much faster.
You could have used the S6 as a small Server, just a network connected display, of maybe a simple media center/streamer permanently connected to the TV(Via the MHL connector).
S7 is better (Typing it on a S7)
I'm watching this with my Galaxy S7, which is still darrrn remarkable; especially the camera and display!
You can reuse old phone as linux server - remove the battery and make it work directly with 4.0 v . Linux server or IOT /Mqtt server, also IP camera (tested by me)
Exactly what I'm thinking
Whilst you were upgrading from 6 to 7.... I was upgrading from 3 to 5. Still watching this on my "new" S5 right now.
7:00 the HDMI cable has the depression 😂😂
3:51 and a few seconds after are the best thing I saw In quite a while. I have or more exactly had this problem where I couldn't find a new battery for my grandma's phone, so after seeing that it's just that simple I soldered in my headphone's battery since they don't work as of rn. And so far it works perfectly. Wish I watched this sooner but oh well.
Battery, Flash, Buttons, IR module maybe, 2 Speakers, Ports (headphone and charger), notification led, and maybe heart rate sensor?
I'm with you mate ... 👍
Thank you good sir. You saved me countless hours trying to salvage the 7 old cell phones I have. You are a great teacher though! I am proud of you for learning english so well. I know it isn't an easy language my friend! May Christ's peace be with you GS!
If it works, probably worth it to keep just for apps and stuff. Now that 'old' phones include quite a number of phones which can snap pics in RAW image format, it's great to keep a couple around for quick project documentation pics. (Especially with Adobe Lightroom installed, the images go to the cloud, and are available on your PC near-instantly!)
Or you could just keep it around as a music player without running down your current phone... Or, with the right app, use it as a dedicated screen for a USB oscope/LA. Or a dedicated screen for a cheap USB microscope, so you don't need to get one with a screen... Heck, you could even use it to add a touch interface to a 3D printer, if you're using a RasPi with Octoprint.
I cant tell you how much happy i am that at least you made video on such rare topic
I'd love to hear more about interfacing unknown pieces of hardware, something on a level of old nokia screen.
Wonderful! The info, voice and concise instructions!
Sell the phone, buy loads of new parts from amazon ;-) Also, be careful with the battery, they are dangerous.
I once took apart a Nokia C6 (the one with a sliding keyboard in the landscape orientation). It's camera flash module was separate from the motherboard and can be used with a 4V DC battery, It was pretty powerful for the size, and had very high (>95%) CRI.
4:34 That "weird piece" is actually the motor that vibrates from notifications
i was gonna comment that
i usually turn off my lg v10 for the night but when i don't my phone becomes slow the next day. a simple restart helps but if it doesn't i pull out the battery for a minute or so and all is good. Bought it used on ebay 3 years ago still love it!. (phone has a removable battery mind you, don't go tearing up your phone to remove the battery)
You can try to install Ubuntu Touch on an old phone (if you're in to the Linux thing). And btw OnePlus phones are very good phones, quick updates and they don't get slow quickly.
So long after years.... Finally an interesting video.
Interesting, thanks. I'm a bit surprised the cameras and microphone use such a strange interface since notebook/laptop ones usually are just USB so easily reusable.
Same conclusion here. If you are not doing cell phone repairs, nothing in a broken phone is worth salvaging. For me, I would only take the battery.
I do mobile repairing so these types of teardowns are a pretty usual thing for me
I was exactly looking for this kind of channel on youtube, where they taking parts of electronics and make new creations of that.
I dont salvage from my old phone, but i use it as cctv surveilance, it is ip cctv.. and also keep it in good condition so it can be put in my museum collection🤣
FIND the NAND and use it for a usb sticker. You have revived my interest in electronics, thanks.
That PMIC and Audio amp was worth to salvage, sorry but today miniaturization equals to BGA
Thanks for making me feel better. Recently I tried something quite similar with an old small tablet, and felt a little ashamed, as I still have these components laying around...
"Old phone"
Me with an S4: *Cries*
LG K4
@@ShadowFandub That phone is legit terrible, I'm sorry for you.
The bootloader can't even be unlocked.
@@Flopster101 i know :'c
I'm sure someone else has already "said" it, but it bears repeating....
A working phone is in all likelihood worth considerably more than it's constituent parts!!
And I would argue that is regardless of it's age, AND that is true even if You are a "maker", using the "complete phone as a component" is more "viable" than getting any use out of any of the "salvaged parts" is i.m.o. a much more viable use case.. (( That is unless You KNOW that it contains a particular component that You also KNOW that You can't get hold of any other way.))
Best regards.
If the phone is working (at least the USB connector, CPU and WiFi) that why not use it intact as a wireless controller?
because its a sansumg
@@monad_tcp Samsung blues everybody knows one ...by Neil Diamond.
@@monad_tcp And?
Salvaging components from old flatscreen monitors way more exciting. Just the visual filters and sometimes gigantic polarized filters can be fun to play with. I.e. remove one polarizer filter, only people with polarization glasses can see the image.
Give it to a person who don't have a phone. It is better than having nothing.
Yes i can gree with it.Needs wifi tho
@@euvo_sound he said person that dosent have a phone. he didn't say a homeless person
Mine is broken
If someone can’t afford a phone, I don’t think they can afford wireless service.
@@justinaspetkauskas3794 Wi-Fi is not expensive but phones are, reminder that the same doesn't apply to every country.
I'm watching this video on my S6 in 2021 and this one is still really fast and nice to use, battery isn't great but I may replace the battery soon
The best way to recycle a phone is keep it in running condition as long as possible.
@Homebrew Engineering That's a great option.
Great idea!
Yeah. I'm pretty happy with my old LG v20 & don't feel like shelling out money for a new phone, so I just replace the parts that stop working as needed. So far I've replaced the speaker & vibrating motor. Only $10 total!
@@trashmammal3635 my s4 is still firing. ..
@@ericscaillet2232 The S4 is a great phone, damn I wish I had one of the old S-series phones to install ROMs into it.
Hurray!
Thank you soon much Mr. Scott.
Well the phone (whole) can be useful as a security camera very easily.
Same dilemma I faced. Can you try to make the back camera work mate, I know it's a lot of effort. But something like that if replaced in some cheap webcam, just an idea ... Keep up the awesome work mate 🍻
The "weird component that looks like a coin cell" is the vibration motor. When the phone is put on 'silent'. It's similar to the vibration motors in game controllers, but designed more like a speaker to be flatter to fit inside newer phones.
...For anyone curious.
That reference to the FPGA video application project bring back memories from my student years. Related to the project, unfortunately there isn't much to take from a smartphone.
I think the best idea is either selling it for 200$ or just download a custom rom on it and wait 4 more years
it would not sell for 200 maybe 100 though
@@kaeden7570 depends on where u live ... here in kuwait ez 200$ used which is around 60kwd
Those saying to keep it intact, I have tons of old phones, 1 or 2 I use as a whole device. The rest are great for parts to a. Add functionality to another device and b. Minimize package size, power consumption or complexity (which usually makes the intended device more secure).
Pretty much what i expected. Take the battery out and throw everything else as far as you can :_D
I have a good collection of batteries.
I kept my old S5 complete, cleared out all the clutter and loaded up a load of electronics/engineering apps, also i have (admittedly not the best quality) a camera, light source, speaker (AF sig gen), mic (data logger
eally really low bandwidth 'scope :-) ), tilt/motion sensor, and timer. All wifi connected. All with a sophisticated OS and API tying it all together.
...
Or I could have taken it apart for a few buttons, a semi-knackered battery and a coil :-)
GreatScott: “the purpose of a smartphone is to watch memes”
His right
Great video. Thanks for posting.
4:32 that’s an coin style circular vibrator 😂
I thought the same but then I saw he hooked it to 2v and apparently "it did not react" but when he hooked it up to a square wave it vibrated so it's probly a microphone
I learned so much more than I expected
I think there's a usable thing from the phone, the eMMC.. you can make yourself a DIY SSD from it with help of "SD to SATA Adapter"... you can take a direct connection from the emmc to the sd sata module and read/write it as a SSD. also the sensors can be reused too with an Arduino.
From my experience, i have used old android phones to make IoT projetcs (With custom ROM and custom hardware). or keep the camera module with the board, and install an app called "IP Webcam" and you have a DIY CCTV!
Its an S6. It doesn't have eMMC, ia has UFS
My mom had an extra old s6 at her house that she let me take. It is now permanently used as vr device. definitely not worthless junk. Years of life left for this almost forgotten gem
there is one more important thing that worth salvaging a phone: the VIBRATOR MOTOR..
the coin cell thing IS the vibrator motor...
Huh… Neat! This is the first time I've seen a video about salvaging components from a smart phone.
There is these community in reddit called r/foundthemobileuser and r/foundthelightmodeuser, made as a joke, you could end up on one of these,
I don't mind but I'd recommend switching to dark mode. (Also it saves battery life on oled displays
Great video, greatscott
Scott you are an inspiration!
sell it an buy other types of parts is better than salvage 5 really cheap parts from a device that costs 150~€
I watched this on my Samsung S3. I only use this old phone to watch RUclips. I like where the volumn buttons and earphone plug is, better then my new Samsung. I use an S4 to play music via a Bluetooth speaker in my garage. I figure why not use old phones for dedicated tasks. Less wear on my primary phone. Someday I'm planning on using one as a trail camera to watch wildlife in my yard (I live in a forest...in a house of course). It's good to know that it isn't worth taking them apart, but kind of sad.
Oh come on that was a nice phone you could sell it and buy something useful for the money
And yeah, people still buy used phones even in 2019 even in europe, i'm quite sure it's not hard to sell Galaxy S6 phone even in Germany for the reasonable price.
Nokia 1616 TFT displays can be driven by an Arduino. There is a library available that supports that screen.
Is it possible to use the fingerprint scanner with arduino?
Yep, in most cases, the fingerprint scanner flex cable is just soldered on to the screen flex (e.g. On the Huawei P10 if I remember correctly).
Such a fingerprint scanner flex has 4-7 contacts (4 when it uses I2C, 7 for SPI).
Then you just need to find out the pinout (leave the flex on the display and attach that display to the mainboard, e.g. Probing for GND you take your multimeter in resistance mode, put one probe on one contact, and the other on a metal shield on the mainboard)
Regarding software, you almost always see one bigger ic on the flex, which is most certainly the fingerprint sensor controller. From there a few google searches and you're good to go
old phones are much more useful together than apart. here are some common re-uses:
-Webcam
-Secondary camera for extra angles
-Music player
-Midi controller
-Emergency Backup Phone
-Small TV
-Small extra monitor
-Mobile SSH Terminal
-Extra touchpad for a laptop
-Network traffic analyzer
-Emulation box
i would love to see you making that screen to work with hdmi, dont you? give a like if you want
Really not that hard. You just need to figure out the pinouts. A quick google search will find that in most cases.
Exited box i agree but also if you dont want to do that just buy a usbc to hdmi adapter
Try making a smartphone pcb motherboard !
That will never, ever work. Can't even begin to explain the reasons why
That would need years of hard work
@@josefaschwanden1502 or silicon valley as a sponsor.
You can't use the Proximity sensor, present near the speaker. They have i2c interface and you can use them. Usually APDS9930 OR APDS9960 is used in Samsung galaxy s series.
That screen you broke was worth like $100, even with broken glass
Thet are like 15 but ok
@@joonaslaakkonen8096 its an amoled
Thanks for an informative and well done video. A pity so little is actually worth salvaging.
how frickin long did it take to him to understand it was a vibration motor?
so many components not worth it.... but video worth it!!
Yeah Samsung got outed for doing the same Slowing-down thing as phones age Apple was.
Another reason to Root and install a custom-ROM!
Link?
@@kerigancreighton2351 what are you asking? Evidence of them being outed or procedures for custom ROM?
Learn to google
Article www.cnet.com/news/apple-and-samsung-fined-for-slowing-down-phones-with-updates/
ROMs? Google; xda custom ROM - model of phone - check your settings menu... you don't want to install a verison rom on a sprint or international version of S(number).
xda is a big user driven site for such things.
A relative of mine has a Samsung galaxy core prime. The 2000mAh battery is swollen, and cannot power the phone for 20'.
You can desolder internal NAND eMMC and buy cheap usb controller on Aliexpress and use that as cheap usb drive with decent capacity. Or you can get programmer, clone old NAND to current one and upgrade your phone to bigger storage.
You can find filters in the screen, they can be useful in projects using LED or other light sources
I've been using this phone since 2016...
Galaxy S7 here with custom ROM.
Doing good so far, only problem its the battery. After all these years it has lost 60% of the total capacity...
Well you forget about the little motors for vibration....
Those are the most interesting and useful parts I salvaged from my phones....
Definitely the screens are what strikes me the most that cannot be reused, they are so beautiful and so useful, that it is a pity that so many are wasted every day
LCD screens can be reused, but AMOLED cannot, because they are propietary and you can very easily break them while disassembling.
*You are really great Scott* 😊👍😊
Still using a cloudfone here. Cloudfone Thrill 530qx. Model since 2013. 6 years and still kicking. Lol I'll be glad to be the next owner of your phone. Haha
Great Scott! Gordon Freeman! It really is you!