Umax Astra 1200S scanner

This is only the second scanner I've ever scrapped. I got both of them at the same time, but I took the other one apart a few months ago. I saved this one because I was hoping it might still work, and that it was only being trashed because it was obsolete. I don't have any pressing need for a scanner, but it's one of those 'rather have it and not need it' kind of peripherals. And even if it was a few years old, it was free.

Turns out it didn't work, so I released it back into the waste stream. But not before I derived a little entertainment from it.

It's essentially a hollow box with a few other pieces inside. The thing about scanners is that there's not much to them mechanically; all the impressive stuff is electronic, and I don't know enough to know which of those components are still good, nor what I would do with them if I kept them. Steel and plastic, wheels and springs, I understand that stuff, more or less. Electronics are still basically voodoo to me.

Sometimes, even knowing basically what's inside something, there's still an element of surprise. Interestingly shaped pieces or unusual configurations, things like that. That's why I still bother with dead computer keyboards, despite the fact that they all work the same way. Unfortunately, this scanner didn't really have anything like that. The last scanner I scrapped had a cool pulley system to move the optical parts, complete with a length of very thin braided steel cable. This scanner had a much simpler system.

What this one did have that the other one lacked was what is essentially a very long spring that protected the wiring.

The spring is the thing bent at a right angle in the above picture. I have no idea what I can use it for on a practical level, but it's fun to play with.

Oh, and I pulled some other crap too, but the spring is definitely the star of this show.