Infrared sensors

Hello everyone,

I've been collecting ewaste for almost 10 years, but I've never done anything with it. Always thinking I'll get around to experimenting with Aqua Regina to maximize my profits. Never getting the nerve to actually do it. Now I've found some gold sensors that I believe are infrared sensors and solid gold. They are possibly too good to sit on. I'm including a link to pictures of them https://sensors.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5

After cutting one open, it really looks to be gold all of the way through.

I'm curious about your opinions and suggestions so that I don't get taken for a ride by the wrong reclamation place or make a mistake by not doing it myself.

Thanks in advance for anything you can add.

Scott

https://sensors.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5

where the pictures are. they seem to not have posted well here. https://sensors.shutterfly.com/pictures/11https://sensors.shutterfly.com/pictures/11#12https://sensors.shutterfly.com/pictures/11#13https://sensors.shutterfly.com/pictures/11#14

2 lbs 11.1 ounces

Sell them as is. Trying to refine them yourself - chemical costs and the danger I FEEL BETTER TO SELL AS IS.

#1 if you do not know how to spell the process to refine I recommend you do not try it.
#2 we do not discuss refining processes here, you can go to the Gold Refining Forum and ask about it there. But be forewarned they do not entertain questions by newbs who refuse to study and learn about refining.
#3 your material is not solid gold. I can see the copper base metal that the gold is plated on, sorry to burst your bubble.
#4 I directed you to the area you should study about electronics, I see that you may think you know eberything about the topic already. If you did then you should know that there is no solid gold anything used in electronics. It is all plated in varying degrees of thickness, but then again you know that already correct?

Thank you Hobo, I think you may be right.

Brasscatcher

I apologize if I've offended ye upon thy throne o great one.

1. Aqua Regia, I always commit the typo due to knowing a Regina in life. I bow before your knowledge.

2. Been studying about Regia for a long time now (years). The danger, possible screwing up of materials, and the initial cost have kept me from refining my CPUs, fingers, pins, and memory. I am though, a newb, that is true as I have yet to have processed. That is why I am asking for advice.

3. You may be right, I see no copper though. I do know the difference as I've been recycling copper for years. I could take better pictures perhaps. If only you had asked, rather than throwing out insults.

4. I went to the forum you suggested. There are no mentions of infrared sensors other than this post. I was hoping that someone would have prior knowledge of infrared sensors and could give me insight. Apparently, you've never dealt with high end electronics. I've worked with Varian Ion Implant Systems in Mass. There are solid gold items used in specialized equipment. The equipment has less gold in it as they develop better manufacturing methods. Initially though, they over do it to make sure they get the results they want. then they fine tune it down. Sometime, solid gold is actually the sensing component within the sensor, so not to lesson the result, it's made of solid gold. I believe that may be the case here.

Again I apologize if I've offended you Brasscatcher. I did not intend to before.

You may kick me I'm sure, but you should work on your people skills brother.

I stand by my reputation on this forum my friend and my knowledge of high end electronics, scrapping and refining thank you. I shall say no more and I shall not respond to anymore of your questions. You have impressed upon me you are no better than anyone else who comes here to get an answer to a question, gets valuable direction, and then disappears. I have no expectations of seeing you contribute anything of value to this forum based on your thin skin and smartass attitude.

It's a shame that you've become so jaded by questions, more than likely, many of the same ones over and over again. I wasn't the one hurling insults and standing on a podium declaring myself. I don't have a thin skin, you're just not used to any newb standing up to your bullying style of intolerance for those lesser than you.

I wouldn't be here if I knew everything, that's why I have asked when I found no answer where you suggested to look. So yes, please don't answer any more of my questions, I prefer constructive answers over wasting my time with an elitist.

Sell on eBay easy money no mess no fuss.....or just lock it in a safe and forget about it till u decide u are ready to refine....good luck!!!!

Id say a good starting bid would be 3000?

Take it for what it's worth, not too many here refine their own but there is some very good ones that do.
The reason we don't do too much talking about it here is we don't want a new person coming on here, do a little reading about refining such and such and hurting themselves or family or possibly dying in the process. Not to mention the horrendous fines if a neighbor decided to turn you in. (not directed at you personally)

We have a few members here that also belong to The gold refining forum. There is a lot of rip-off's around buying escrap or gold items but they are not tolerated here. A lot of times you can Google the questionable company and find complaints about them. Our buyers have their atta-boy's listed down below their ad and any complaints or glitches also.

I personally do what they call "turn and burn". I get ewaste, break it down to all the valuable pieces and ship to my favorite buyers, take the money received and acquire more. That way the buyer takes most of the risk when or if the price would suddenly drop.

Good luck with whatever you decide, but welcome to our forum anyway. Here you will find a university full of info, tips, and everything connected to scrapping/recycling/reuse.

Thanks Mikeinreco and Mechanic688. It does sound like my best bet will be finding the right buyer for them.

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Originally Posted by tscotte

Thanks Mikeinreco and Mechanic688. It does sound like my best bet will be finding the right buyer for them.

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Here is our listing of the stars;
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap-buyers-sellers/

tscotte - first off welcome to the forum, with 10 years scrap experience I'm sure you will have plenty of knowledge to share with all here at SMF and I hope you do. Your question and/or statement about IR sensors may seem to be "No Big Deal" to you. Honestly it's something I have been wanting to research for a awhile now and I will all in good time. I also think you should remember you are new to this forum. With that please realize there are many here that have contributed to this forum for months and years before you joined. This forum needs both the experienced and contributing members, as well as the new members. With any task or experience, a person (IMO) should familiarize them selves with as much knowledge as possible. Personally I find, when this is done, I'm able to benefit much more myself and at the same time all around me have benefited. More importantly I have learned more about myself, my surroundings and all other persons I have interacted with. That positive interaction with other people is the most important part of any task. As a member of this forum we all want and need, that positive interaction with each other. My experience with this forum and it's members has always been positive and I have benefited tremendously. I have also took the time to learn about how this forum works, how different members interact with each other and me. This forum and it's members want to help each other, we don't always agree though, but respect is given and earned. That's what really allows us all to learn and at the same time contribute. I think if you take the opportunity to read the old post, spend sometime learning about the members who shared their hard "learned" knowledge with this forum previously. You might just find, you will benefit, just as we all have. You have a lot to gain by being a positive and contributing member here. We all can gain from your positive contributions and ten years of scrap wisdom, so again I welcome you.

I consider myself to be a expert swimmer, I have spent most of my life around water, been taught by the very best swimming instructors. What I always do before I "Jump into the Deep end of the Pool", I wade into the shallow end first. I learn about the calm water before I dive into the deep unknown!

Advice well given Bigburtchino. I admire the knowledge contained within this forum and it's members. The time everyone has spent growing this archive of expertise. I came here with no intention of bringing hurt feelings or stepping on someone's ego.

I am new to this forum, but I am not accustomed to being insulted and just taking it because I am new. I learned long ago that a man must stand up for himself because few others will stand for you or with you when you allow yourself to be mistreated. Though his knowledge, I'm sure, is very valuable to have had available to me. Our first impressions of each other are not exceptional. I intend, if allowed, to stay here and both learn and hopefully add to this forum whatever I might find isn't included already.

I've been recycling brass, copper, and cardboard for a number of years now. I've decided to stop doing those.
I currently sell odds and ends on eBay along with having my regular job.
I've been collecting ewaste on the side for (like you said) about ten years now. Never sending it to someone, thinking the return might be too low.
Never using Aqua Regia because I'm a long way away from my chemistry days, though I'm still interested in trying, but only with strict protocols.

I've admired this community for years. I am still very new to the processing side of ewaste. All of the videos and web pages on the internet are nothing compared to what is contained here.

Two things you and I have in common, scrapping metal and swimming. Swimming was my life until I went into the Navy.

tscotte - 100% agree, do what you came here for and we will all learn some more too!

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Originally Posted by tscotte

Advice well given Bigburtchino. I admire the knowledge contained within this forum and it's members. The time everyone has spent growing this archive of expertise. I came here with no intention of bringing hurt feelings or stepping on someone's ego.

I am new to this forum, but I am not accustomed to being insulted and just taking it because I am new. I learned long ago that a man must stand up for himself because few others will stand for you or with you when you allow yourself to be mistreated. Though his knowledge, I'm sure, is very valuable to have had available to me. Our first impressions of each other are not exceptional. I intend, if allowed, to stay here and both learn and hopefully add to this forum whatever I might find isn't included already.

I've been recycling brass, copper, and cardboard for a number of years now. I've decided to stop doing those.
I currently sell odds and ends on eBay along with having my regular job.
I've been collecting ewaste on the side for (like you said) about ten years now. Never sending it to someone, thinking the return might be too low.
Never using Aqua Regia because I'm a long way away from my chemistry days, though I'm still interested in trying, but only with strict protocols.

I've admired this community for years. I am still very new to the processing side of ewaste. All of the videos and web pages on the internet are nothing compared to what is contained here.

Two things you and I have in common, scrapping metal and swimming. Swimming was my life until I went into the Navy.

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I think you have plating like your skin its THIN. The only person that was rude insulting or miss treating anyone was you. Sorry your scrap is not what you think but it's not. It's a thinly gold plated a Cu alloy. The only "solid" Au part is the wire attached to the silicon wafer. IR detectors will be like any other light detecting chip.

The amount of solid gold components in high end electronics is next to none. Targets, some tubes.

There are some solid Pt parts and that is due to heat resistance and there are solid silver for it's conductivity.

If you want to know the gold value find the surface area in square inches and multiply it by $0.05. That should give you a good idea of what you have.

Eric

You werent insulted that I can see. You were pointed in the direction of the answer to your question. None of us agree on everything. Brasscatcher did you no wrong.

Insulted, I leave for a year and were all concerned about the size of our "junk" piles now lol lol

The older members and people who contribute have earned respect but like humans we all make mistakes and get tired of the same old thing. Research then share.

Im offended no one has talked about jesus yet in this post ! o:)

LEts really say why we dont talk about recovery, its insainity. and if your good at it you usually spent years and tons of money getting there and your not giving any secrets out for free or to anyone. By secrets I mean what works not what some website says.

But the goldfourm I think sets the standard for refining info and results on the internet. LIke scrapforums to scrap.

AaRON with Stillwater.

Dredging up more old threads.

I now have four, older hand-held infrared sensors. I had thought to start breaking them down, only to find that they are all held together by dozens of really, really small hex bolts, in my case quite rusted. Before I spend a lot of time with a precision bit and WD-40, is there really anything in them worth recovering? I was able to get the scanner/lens/shiny thing off the front of one and see what looked like loaded (but low-grade) board inside. I figure most of their weight is from the housing but are there valuable components, too? Can they be sold as replacement parts or has the technology changed too much?

Respecting this thread's history, I am not going to refine anything I find.