The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk


UPDATE: EMSL has four more boxes ready to go. If you are in the silicon valley area, pick one up.

The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronics Junk is essentially a virtual swap meet. A mysterious USPS flatrate box arrives on your door step filled to the brim with random electronics. You remove some pieces that you find interesting or useful. Write about them. Add some items from your own collection, and then ship it off to a recipient you deem worthy. [John Park] was kind enough to send us the box code named Rangoon and here’s what we found inside:


Suprise! A bunch of electronics junk! There were old circuit boards and new unpopulated boards, a pocket phone dialer, a giant multimedia remote, coincells, random LEDs, wirewrap boards, a touchscreen toy, and a mini FM microphone amongst many other things. Most important was a small log book for suggesting recipients.


We pulled out some pin sockets, a light up fader with detents, a pager motor, and a sealed Dialight bag, which ended up being a four digit hexadecimal display.


Our contributions to the box were: some sockets, a microswitch, weights from a gaming mouse, a ShiftBrite module, controller board from a TRS-80 Model III floppy drive, a USB WiFi adapter, and a Kopin HMD board with adapter. You can see the progress of this box and others on the official wiki.

16 thoughts on “The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk

  1. I have been meaning to set upa few new geocaches around where I live. I might designate one just for electrical junk. It’ll give m the oppertunity to have a bit of a clearout.

  2. I’m pretty sure that black lensed object on the right, slightly lower than center is one of those wildplanet video eyepieces featured a few months ago. The small board above it with a black wire and a narrow ribbon coming out of it is its controller board.

    Nifty things, those displays.

  3. I am starting a box or two tonight! This is a great idea and I am always amazed at how other people think of this before me. I have been trying to clean up my work bench for a year now. No one around me is interested in my old electronics junk. This is a good way to get rid of it and see to it that it does not end up in a land fill!

    PS… At first, when Hackaday said they would be changing the site. I was skeptical. But now I am very happy to see more posts on the site! Thanks Hackaday!

  4. I am so down for the box, My father and I bought at auction a whole wall of components from a flow control company that was bankrupt. Like 10000 Individual components…….

  5. I went and picked up “sydney” yesterday. I was really happy because i needed a pushbutton switch for a project and then *pow* there was one in the box! I just need to fill it up with some goodies and send it on it’s way.

  6. I applied for a box. I have a heck of a lot of stuff there and I’m willing to start my own box if I knew I could get one soon. I could probably start about 2-3 boxes once spring arrives and the snow melts here.

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