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Unrepairable?

Rod

Rod

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My very old HP Fax, Copier, Scanner died a while back but having read that Scanners contained "useful" Stepper Motors, I thought I'd have a go at extracting them before taking it to the HWRC.

There's absolutely no screws or bolts on it whatsoever to take it apart. Instead the outer case seems to be secured by plastic lugs clipping into slots in the metal base?
These broke when I tried to prise them free!
In fact the only way to get at the workings was to smash the case up.
This got me thinking as to how it would have been possible to repair it (if I'd gone down that path) as it was obviously designed not to be taken apart?
Built-in obsolescence?

For those interested I did manage to retrieve some bits but only 1 which actually says "Stepper Motor" on it:

b789ad6fc3698e4761a0364d5f08e1fb.jpg


Rod
 
I was listening yesterday to a program on the wireless about how modern digital photos wouldn't last as long as old style photos, mainly due to technology moving on (like video is getting now) & not having the equipment or software to view these photos.

So I guess things like Rod's scanner are not worth making to last a life time or be repairable as they will quickly become obsolete & we will have moved on to another way to scan.

Whilst I can see technological advancement as a good thing it does to me reinforce the importance of recycling & reclaiming the valuable resources that go into making this disposable technology.

Kind regards,

Frank.
 
Frank":w8s7war1 said:
I was listening yesterday to a program on the wireless about how modern digital photos wouldn't last as long as old style photos, mainly due to technology moving on (like video is getting now) & not having the equipment or software to view these photos.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, there's a lot of scaremongering in this whole discussion that's taking place right now. While it's true that technology is moving and changing all the time there are always ways and means.

The JPG and TIFF file formats aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and even if they are superseded then there will be software available to convert old file types to the replacements, so for them to say digital won't last as long as hardcopy printed photos is utter guff.

I have photos that are 30 years old that have been stored in boxes all their lives that are fading and losing clarity. In another 30 years they may well have faded to a blank page whereas so long as the integrity of my digital photos is retained (eg they are not deleted or corrupted, which can be mitigated by having multiple copies) then they will still look identical in 300 years.

Don't believe everything the 'experts' are saying, there are agenda's afoot. Now where's that tin foil hat I made...? ;)

Cheers
Mark

PS to answer the OP, there generally are proprietary tools available to take these things apart without destroying them Rod, but they're not worth us buying or even generally available outside the original designers of the tech in many cases.
 
I agree with you, Mark, up to a point but CD's will and do delaminate rendering them unreadable. It also assumes that a compatible CD or DVD reader is still working in, say, 30 years time. Remember floppy disks? How many of you still have a floppy disk reader?

The IT industry is littered with 'also-rans' when it comes to storage. Remember those removable hard drives? Where are they now? Laser-discs? Remember that BBC project all those years ago?
 
I never mentioned digital media Roger. I wouldn't trust that either. All my data is on multiples HD's (Mac/NAS) and in the cloud.

Multiple copies, diverse locations.

Cheers
Mark
 
Yes but I think the original report was to do with DM
 
You do raise an interesting point in that I struggle to visualise what the storage hardware must look like for somewhere like Flickr. A million hard drives in a football pitch? The mind boggles
 
I would add that the wireless conversation was also about salt prints, a process started in 1839 & continued till around 1860 so only 24 years off being 200 years old & I believe they still have some prints. Anyway I don't think I'll have to concern myself with how long digital photos will last or indeed if they will outlast those salt prints,I could always get my portrait painted for my future generations.


Kind regards,

Frank.
 
Which reminds me of the time when the company I worked for, Logica, sponsored an exhibition of very early egg albumen/silver whatsit photographs. Invite to clients past and potential. Often asked to 'look out for so-and-so' for another sales guy. Fair enough, everyone had name badges. Only.

Only because of the ancient photographs the light levels were one notch above 'deep gloom' and so more a question of looming up at someone, squinting at their name badge from about 6" and then muttering some lame excuse before wandering off to try and find 'so-and-so'!
 
RogerS":32eb3ils said:
You do raise an interesting point in that I struggle to visualise what the storage hardware must look like for somewhere like Flickr. A million hard drives in a football pitch? The mind boggles
Click to expand...
Look up server farm.........
 
Well my OP was about modern pieces of equipment which are designed to be unrepairable as you can not gain entry.

But I don't mind it straying onto long term media storage.
Like Mark I use a combination of methods so as not to put all my eggs in one basket.
I did get a bit of a worry looking at some old stuff stored on CD's - my PC wouldn't read them but my MacBook would!
I have the stuff stored on various hard drives so I wasn't too concerned but a bit of a puzzle?
I have a collection of old photos (over a hundred years old) regarding my Grandfather's time mining copper in Chile in the early 1900's
They were fairly badly faded when I saw them about 50yrs ago and as I didn't have a scanner (if they existed at that time?) I took photos, on 35mm film, of them lying on the floor.
I came across the negatives the other day and have now scanned them digitally using my Epson flat bed scanner.
I've still to muck about with them using Photoshop to enhance them if possible.
I've digitised my Cine Super 8 films I took dating back to 1976 and in 1993 switched to an analogue camcorder but have still to do the same with loads of slides and perhaps thousands of negatives.
From the late 90's I was using Digital cameras.
The question is - is it worth it - who is going to be interested in them in the future - perhaps only some nice/interesting family ones?

Rod
 
kostello":112l3mrv said:
RogerS":112l3mrv said:
You do raise an interesting point in that I struggle to visualise what the storage hardware must look like for somewhere like Flickr. A million hard drives in a football pitch? The mind boggles
Click to expand...
Look up server farm.........
Click to expand...

As I said '''the mind boggles" ! :)

Apple-WDC11-004.jpg
 
stephen.wood125":32112hhp said:
Guess my other post was deleted for being off topic, sorry about that.

Question; What would you use the stepper motors for?
Click to expand...

Just checked the logs Stephen and nobody has deleted any posts… Maybe you hit preview instead of submit?

Cheers
Mark
 
Thanks Mark- you really didn't have to do that!

I guess I must have.. was just a rambly post about data integrity/backup supporting your post up about digi pics etc.

Sent from a dark place anyhow as just had a nightmare with my windows PC in work! :lol:

Funnily enough (back on topic) I had a 'humax' scanner from Aldi/Lidl years ago. lovely PoZi screws really easy to take apart and fix 8-)

Cheers

EDIT: Pozi, not poxi :lol:
 
Stephen - used for CNC, Dividing Heads, Rotary Tables etc

The one I retrieved is on the small size - here's a Digital Controller I made together with a more powerful stepper motor.
I use it to rotate my metal working lathe chuck, specified angles or divisions and also to drive a rotary table for milling and drilling operations.

1ad86229b06093a7bd376677145c9089.jpg


85ea3ffb47403b91405119711161653b.jpg


Rod
 
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