Hi anyone reading this,

I am looking for many relays to turn my simulated relay computer into reality, but relays are very expensive ( dont have much money )
Im someone who salvages parts from old electronics, or broken ones, but only found 3 relays, so where do if find lots of them?

Im prefering ( near ) worthless devices ( in money ofcourse )

 

You don't state any parameters??
Coil voltage? Contact current? AC/DC? SPST? 4PDT?
Max.

 

20 for £5-15?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-10pcs...hash=item2cb6f45c87:m:muWiCrML8QLvnb0H06RtoWg

 

You have to go back a long way to find a system with lots of relays, so I'm not optimistic about finding something like that.
Buying them cheap from Ebay, as Albert noted is probably your best bet.

 

Hi anyone reading this,

I am looking for many relays to turn my simulated relay computer into reality, but relays are very expensive ( dont have much money )
Im someone who salvages parts from old electronics, or broken ones, but only found 3 relays, so where do if find lots of them?

Im prefering ( near ) worthless devices ( in money ofcourse )

There are reasons why relay-based computers were never called "personal computers" -- they were expensive, unwieldy, power hungry, and maintenance intensive. So don't hold your breath hoping to run across a few thousand suitable relays for pennies.

 

Well.. that one on ebay sure looks like a good deal, but i ll stick with salvaging, so what devices have a lot of them

 

so what devices have a lot of them

You are not listening.
There are none that we now of.

 

I think im just going to use transistors, way more common, and maybe use those 3 relays somewhere

 

I think im just going to use transistors, way more common, and maybe use those 3 relays somewhere

good call.

 

They used to use them all the time. Relay logic. The relays were powered with conditional rungs.......wired like a ladder.

 

There were switching units used in test equipment which used loads of relays but there won't be many of them around but I suppose it might be worth looking for them very second-hand.

 

There were switching units used in test equipment which used loads of relays but there won't be many of them around but I suppose it might be worth looking for them very second-hand.

Yeah. I was thinking of maybe a car graveyard, but have no experience with them or the prices to take parts, becouse volvo relays cost $ 14 on google shopping

 

Most auto wreckers here that are strip your self, a handful is a couple of $$'s.
Max.

 

The only source I can think of is old telephone switching banks. The industrial stuff is long gone.

 

The only source I can think of is old telephone switching banks. The industrial stuff is long gone.

They all got ripped out for the silver contacts.

 

Hm.. going to give that a try, im probably going to try a car graveyard as well, becouse cars have em too, i dont know how many, but i think it could be 4 a car.

 

Well... thanks, never thought i'd get replies that fast here, and good ones too , so thanks for the help.

 

Better forget relays. Be realistic. The simplest one and I mean SIMPLE, could take some tens of relays. Space, time, cost and power required could become discouraging too late when you already spent way too much. Even with single transistors you could face the same kind of predicament.

 

I scavenged an old (cassette tape based) answering machine not long ago and it had a handful of relays in it. But the junkyard is where I’d look.

 

Try an elevator company that replaces the old fashioned relay controllers.

There are still a lot of relay based elevator controls that are still running and some of them have 100s or even 1000s of relays. However, a lot of them are being upgraded to microprocessor with solid state motor drives and they might be willing to sell you the old controllers for scrap value.

If you're looking for telephone style relays, Westinghouse and Express Lift (in the U.K.) used a lot of them for logic level switching: