TGIMBOEJ: The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk

I was quite excited when i was contacted to be the first recipent of the Gray-F TGIMBOEJ box. Ronald Moore of Gray, TN has sent out 6 TGIMBOEJ boxes so far, what a great guy! Since my box was young, i didn't expect too much randomness, and was excited at the prospect of adding some of my own! I will continually update this page with what i got, what i took (and why) and what i added!

Here is what i got

Complete image gallery here
The box as shiped As you can see I immediately took a picture of the box. Errr...Well, i sorta opened it first, I just could not resist a peek inside!!
I DID go and update the tracking page at the TGIMBOEJ wiki first.
I used my high-tech image editing hardware (yes, hardware) to digitally scramble the addresses on the box.
The first opening of the box Look at all that anti-static goodness!! I bet i could stuff a cat in there and ship it to the next recipent without zapping any chips!
Pictured at the top left is the nag note, and the top right the handmade logbook.
1980's communications gear A Panasonic KX-T3720H 10 channel EASA-PHONE cordless phone system with battery. It includes an intercom from basestation to phone.
Maybe this could be a slick way to enable wireless audio communications between two points. An really low bandwidth modem perhaps?
To the right of the phone is the orginal 12v panasonic wallwart and an analog phone line.
On the far right side we have 2 pagers both made by Motorola (who else?). They are the later model pagers that have an LCD display.
A nice big heatsink A nice big heatsink. My guess is this came out of a PC power supply. Which made me bonk myself on the head, i throw these things out all the time! DOH!
Of course the amount of effort to extract the heatsink from some of the powersupplies may not be worth it, but many a time i've been desperate for a heatsink.
Uh, yeah Well, i said i wanted random, here ya go! Maybe someone could build a project into this, the clear plastic might look neat with leds inside.
As long as your careful and don't get tasered by some ex-highschool football player security guard.
DirectTV smartcard programmer? This looks to be some sort of DirectTV smartcard programmer. Or perhaps it was a hack that sat between a directtv reciver and the smart card.
It has a ATMEL AT90S2313-10PC chip, i don't have a programmer for this chip, and i bet the chip has copy protect enabled, but someone should check it out.
It also has a DM7417N high voltage hex invertor chip, most likely to program the card.
There is also a disc capicator and 2 highish watt 15ohm 5% resistors.
Button on a stick SMD Button on a Stick. YUM! just like you used to be able to get at the fair. This is a surface mount button very professioanlly soldered to some wire.
There is some nice heatshrink on the wires and some sort of edge connector at the other end. I wonder what this was used for?
My god, its full of stars samples! WOW! I mean, just wow! There is a boat load of never opened samples here. Stuff from MAX, ST, Fairchild and more.
There is SO much good stuff here that i wrote a seperate page for them, click here.
Connectors Again we have so many good connectors here i wrote a seperate page for them, click here to see it.
A busted laptop This is a "Multimedia Notebook Computer" Model: 862, FCC ID:FMA862. It includes a 12V battery that seems to actually hold a charge!
There is an lcd status display that shows that it is booting, but i have no video via the lcd or the external VGA port (fn-f9 did not work)
The hdd is missing (with a cute note) and it has 2 memory expansion modules installed. There is also a floppy and cdrom port.
There is a piece of paper inside with a weird url, you can hitup the picture if your curious.
There was also a 64bit copy of ubunutu, although i doubt this laptop has a 64bit processor.





What i took, and why

DIP relay socket I took all 3 of the 110-93-314-10-002000 - Mill-Max DIP relay socket (only 8 conductors) Manufacturs page
It is pictured at the bottom left. you can also see it at the bottom center on the next 2 pictures
I have a few projects where i have used DIP relays and this would be handy, and something i would never buy for myself, lol
Acceleration sensor I took one of the two MMA1260EGR2 - Freescale Acceleration sensor (COLOSUS 1.5) PDF datasheet chips.
It is picture at the top left. It is still in its orginal package.
I'd like to play around with a balancing bot at some point, maybe a line follower with remote override, fun fun!
Infrared emittor/sensor I took all three QSB34CGR - FAIRCHILD Infrared Emitter/Sensor Assemblies PHOTOSENSOR.PIN PDF datasheet
Since i pigged them all i didn't open the factory sealed anti-static bag, so no pretty picture of the part itself, sorry!
These will hopefully be for the line follower robot above
I hope i wasn't too greedy in taking all 3. Leaving 1 seemed kind of pointless :D
Presure sensor I took one of the two MPXHZ6115A6T1 - Freescale Pressure sensor absolute(element only, no hose connector) SSOP INTGR W/SIFEL PDF datasheet
it is pictured at the top right, see the little hole in the middle, thats where the pressure is read :D
My wife's car is SO well sealed that when you roll 1 window down the pressure inside the car seems to go positive then negative.
I'm going to try and record this and maybe hookup a device to auto-crack another window when it is detected!




What i removed

A busted laptop I just couldn't think of a use for a laptop this busted, and it took up SO much room in the box.
I also removed the powersupply, which while potentially usefull, was huge also
Not electronic, just junk This just isn't electronics. And this box is suspect enough when being mailed around not to have a gun (albeit it plastic) in it.
I realize it wouldn't show up on a xray, but, i needed the room anyways.




What i added

Chassis and LCDs and Modems oh my! 4 Brand new metal project boxes with hardware.
2 80MM fan protectors
2 audio pots on a circuit board
1 2.5mm power connector and cord
2x20 backlight LCD with 6 way button keypad
Various size Lego wheels and axles
Multitech 56k Socket Modem
'PC' Style chrome thumb screws
Various ribbon and socketed jumper wires

Update Jan 4th 2016
David Cook got the box and passed it on, see his article here




image image image image image image image
Pic Album V-Car My Bookshelf Mame Project Board Games Linux Workbench Solar