Imo, if the phone still works, it's not worth it taking it apart for parts A slow phone can be made faster by doing a factory reset or even installing optimized custom ROMs and still has a lot of uses Need a camera near a dangerous experiment? Want to monitor your home with an IP camera? Dictaphone? Alarm clock? Backup phone in case your main one breaks? Something to run some home-server experiments off of? DIY projects that need to display something on a screen? You essentially have a powerful computer to do anything you want that you can use as a server with lots of cool IO

I would also take all those capacitors and instructors! FILTERS BABY!

Zack from JerryRigEverything: Be careful,don't go deep with the business card because you could damage important things inside. GreatScott!:So I removed the back of the phone with a flathead screwdriver

"overtime my smartphones always got slower" Me, watching this on a 5yo tablet: **laughs in lag**

You forgot about the high quality LED Flash on the Mainboard D: I always keep those.

When you try JerryRigEverything, but only one way.

the phone is far more useful as a whole device. It can be used as a bluetooth remote or touchscreen interface for example

The phone's speaker usually has 2 pads under the flat flex that make it useful. Most silicon on these boards require Kwisatz Haderach level skills to reuse. Some of the passives are still useful though. The capacitors onboard can be high capacity and low ESR. However, they are easy to damage and even ceramics are super dangerous to reuse if any force is applied to remove them. You need a GOOD hot air gun for this. A couple of other things,.. A lot of the components that kinda look like crystals are actually "Surface Acoustic Wave" aka "SAW" filters. These are used for filtering the desired radio frequencies. I am not into radio stuff yet but I save them for later if I can find a datasheet. While I haven't used them much I also have a bin with the tiny radio conncetors/wires, and I save the 2-part EMI shielding cans. At one point I removed most stuff and semi-sorted it. Now I just keep a storage tote with lots of boards that are partially stripped enough that they store flat. Occasionally I go through them looking for some special thing I need or an example of a circuit element I just learned about. It seems like the stuff I don't find useful right now is simply the current state of my understanding of electronics. As I learn more, I often find the things I thought were useless are much more useful than I first thought. I have one rule when it comes to salvaging parts, "never keep more than you can store, access, recall, and/or inventory." If you 'forgot you had (x/y/z) part,' you're due for reassessment of your storage and hording tendencies. Thanks for the upload. -Jake

I have 2 of these phones. After watching the video I am completely happy using them as cameras, browsers, and everything except being a phone. The s6 camera (main) is quite a decent camera! AND, someone on a limited budget could use this phone forever if the OS updates keep rolling in.

Replacing the battery and flashing LineageOS is the best way to go in my opinion. It keeps thr phone up to date and will fix the slow factory installed OS.

5:22 That was most likely the vibrating module used to vibrate your phone upon notifications etc..

I appreciate the link to the dsi to hdmi screen project. I think it can be very worthwhile to discover how to use flagship smartphone screens in arduino projects because we could honestly just start making our own custom smartphones. A battery, memory devices, basic cpu, antennas etc could all be easily fit into a decent form factor.

So, Basically smartphones are not worth salvaging

Selling the old phone is probably the better idea than gathering parts from it for projects. I usually never use such salvaged parts :-)

Great video. Loved that you did component by component with clear enough examples,that if someone took apart a different phone, they could reasonably understand what they are looking at. Also this is a great way to get the most out of broken phones.

1. People used the old phones as CCTV systems. 2. Give your old stuff to someone collecting them/repairing them. 3. Sell your old stuff to Recyclers.

I feel like a video on how to repurpose some of the items (camera and screen) would be an interesting and useful video or series. As you say it would be too difficult to figure out for a simple project, however if the project itself is to repurpose them then any knowledge you would gain on the topic would then be passed on to all your viewers who could then utilize the info themselves.

If the phone still (mostly) works, the easiest way to reuse it is to connect the USB to a USB host like a Raspberry Pi or even certain high end microcontrollers. Then 3D print a holder to mount it on the enclosure of your project.

i kept telling my self that the good part is coming but that never happened :D

i would actually like to see you utilize a salvaged smartphone screen with a custom hdmi to dsi converter this would be the one really useful part of most all smartphones available out there id think?

When I have a broken phone with a broken screen, I always strip out the backlight panel of the LCD Screen and use the led's as additional light for flashlights, bike light, etc. Anyways, great video GreatScott!

That coin-cell like component is a LRA (Linear Ressonant Actuator). They’re the kind of vibrators used for haptic control. Precision microdrive has great documentation and infographics on them

Your videos are excellent, I tip my hat to you not only doing videos in English but German too. I just wanted to say thank you for not only the effort but the level of detail in your videos!!!!!!

Thanks for making me feel better. Recently I tried something quite similar with an old small tablet, and felt a little ashamed, as I still have these components laying around...

Lol, the S6 is perfectly capable. You should have just tried to put LineageOS on it. The S7 is not that much faster. You could have used the S6 as a small Server, just a network connected display, of maybe a simple media center/streamer permanently connected to the TV(Via the MHL connector).

If it works, probably worth it to keep just for apps and stuff. Now that 'old' phones include quite a number of phones which can snap pics in RAW image format, it's great to keep a couple around for quick project documentation pics. (Especially with Adobe Lightroom installed, the images go to the cloud, and are available on your PC near-instantly!) Or you could just keep it around as a music player without running down your current phone... Or, with the right app, use it as a dedicated screen for a USB oscope/LA. Or a dedicated screen for a cheap USB microscope, so you don't need to get one with a screen... Heck, you could even use it to add a touch interface to a 3D printer, if you're using a RasPi with Octoprint.

I once took apart a Nokia C6 (the one with a sliding keyboard in the landscape orientation). It's camera flash module was separate from the motherboard and can be used with a 4V DC battery, It was pretty powerful for the size, and had very high (>95%) CRI.

thanks for doing this! i always wondered which parts were more user-friendly to be repurposed

I was looking for this kinda video from a long time. Thanks a lot sir..

Interesting, thanks. I'm a bit surprised the cameras and microphone use such a strange interface since notebook/laptop ones usually are just USB so easily reusable.

I cant tell you how much happy i am that at least you made video on such rare topic

Wonderful! The info, voice and concise instructions!

I'd love to hear more about interfacing unknown pieces of hardware, something on a level of old nokia screen.

You can reuse old phone as linux server - remove the battery and make it work directly with 4.0 v . Linux server or IOT /Mqtt server, also IP camera (tested by me)

3:51 and a few seconds after are the best thing I saw In quite a while. I have or more exactly had this problem where I couldn't find a new battery for my grandma's phone, so after seeing that it's just that simple I soldered in my headphone's battery since they don't work as of rn. And so far it works perfectly. Wish I watched this sooner but oh well.

I'm watching this with my Galaxy S7, which is still darrrn remarkable; especially the camera and display!

Give it to a person who don't have a phone. It is better than having nothing.

That PMIC and Audio amp was worth to salvage, sorry but today miniaturization equals to BGA

Thanks for an informative and well done video. A pity so little is actually worth salvaging.

Salvaging components from old flatscreen monitors way more exciting. Just the visual filters and sometimes gigantic polarized filters can be fun to play with. I.e. remove one polarizer filter, only people with polarization glasses can see the image.

You can try to install Ubuntu Touch on an old phone (if you're in to the Linux thing). And btw OnePlus phones are very good phones, quick updates and they don't get slow quickly.

4:34 That "weird piece" is actually the motor that vibrates from notifications

i usually turn off my lg v10 for the night but when i don't my phone becomes slow the next day. a simple restart helps but if it doesn't i pull out the battery for a minute or so and all is good. Bought it used on ebay 3 years ago still love it!. (phone has a removable battery mind you, don't go tearing up your phone to remove the battery)

Good video, this answered some questions I had. Regarding the battery, if you haven't already done one I would be very interested in seeing how to repurpose mobile batteries for projects.

I do mobile repairing so these types of teardowns are a pretty usual thing for me

Battery, Flash, Buttons, IR module maybe, 2 Speakers, Ports (headphone and charger), notification led, and maybe heart rate sensor?

Hurray! Thank you soon much Mr. Scott.

Thank you good sir. You saved me countless hours trying to salvage the 7 old cell phones I have. You are a great teacher though! I am proud of you for learning english so well. I know it isn't an easy language my friend! May Christ's peace be with you GS!

7:00 the HDMI cable has the depression 😂😂

The "weird component that looks like a coin cell" is the vibration motor. When the phone is put on 'silent'. It's similar to the vibration motors in game controllers, but designed more like a speaker to be flatter to fit inside newer phones. ...For anyone curious.

Whilst you were upgrading from 6 to 7.... I was upgrading from 3 to 5. Still watching this on my "new" S5 right now.

Great video. Thanks for posting.

Well the phone (whole) can be useful as a security camera very easily.

Sell the phone, buy loads of new parts from amazon ;-) Also, be careful with the battery, they are dangerous.

Hello Sir! There are lots of youtubers out there but this is my favourite channel because the effort you put in each video to make people understand each detail is just speechless. Love and best wishes from India, continue spreading your talents and knowledge to everyone Sir. One request: Would you please put your kind efforts to make a DIY BLDC motor driver that is a Sinosodial-PWM circuit(for 36v 250w motor) , please!

Huh… Neat! This is the first time I've seen a video about salvaging components from a smart phone.

The best way to recycle a phone is keep it in running condition as long as possible.

I dont salvage from my old phone, but i use it as cctv surveilance, it is ip cctv.. and also keep it in good condition so it can be put in my museum collection🤣

I was exactly looking for this kind of channel on youtube, where they taking parts of electronics and make new creations of that.

I'm watching this video on my S6 in 2021 and this one is still really fast and nice to use, battery isn't great but I may replace the battery soon

I think there's a usable thing from the phone, the eMMC.. you can make yourself a DIY SSD from it with help of "SD to SATA Adapter"... you can take a direct connection from the emmc to the sd sata module and read/write it as a SSD. also the sensors can be reused too with an Arduino. From my experience, i have used old android phones to make IoT projetcs (With custom ROM and custom hardware). or keep the camera module with the board, and install an app called "IP Webcam" and you have a DIY CCTV!

I think the best idea is either selling it for 200$ or just download a custom rom on it and wait 4 more years

I literally just done the same thing yesterday. Same conclusion, except I also extract the lenses from the camera module.

That reference to the FPGA video application project bring back memories from my student years. Related to the project, unfortunately there isn't much to take from a smartphone.

If the phone is working (at least the USB connector, CPU and WiFi) that why not use it intact as a wireless controller?

Before I watch this, I'll say I tried phone salvaging and besides pretty good batteries, it's a pain to get those tiny stuff out

Same dilemma I faced. Can you try to make the back camera work mate, I know it's a lot of effort. But something like that if replaced in some cheap webcam, just an idea ... Keep up the awesome work mate 🍻

Very Interesting things! Thanks for the video!

there is one more important thing that worth salvaging a phone: the VIBRATOR MOTOR..

Thats sad, imagine the project possibilities if you could save the screen and the cameras, or even better a Snapdragon or Kirin processor...

Thank you for your work. Saved me a bunch of effort looking into a similar project.

Thanks to make this videos. I just for this type video which we seen inside the smartphone. Love from India sir.

Pretty much what i expected. Take the battery out and throw everything else as far as you can :_D

GreatScott: “the purpose of a smartphone is to watch memes”

I kept my old S5 complete, cleared out all the clutter and loaded up a load of electronics/engineering apps, also i have (admittedly not the best quality) a camera, light source, speaker (AF sig gen), mic (data logger eally really low bandwidth 'scope :-) ), tilt/motion sensor, and timer. All wifi connected. All with a sophisticated OS and API tying it all together. ... Or I could have taken it apart for a few buttons, a semi-knackered battery and a coil :-)

I learned so much more than I expected

That screen you broke was worth like $100, even with broken glass

"Old phone" Me with an S4: *Cries*

Well you forget about the little motors for vibration.... Those are the most interesting and useful parts I salvaged from my phones....

So long after years.... Finally an interesting video.

Try making a smartphone pcb motherboard !

Is it possible to use the fingerprint scanner with arduino?

Those saying to keep it intact, I have tons of old phones, 1 or 2 I use as a whole device. The rest are great for parts to a. Add functionality to another device and b. Minimize package size, power consumption or complexity (which usually makes the intended device more secure).

*You are really great Scott* 😊👍😊

4:32 that’s an coin style circular vibrator 😂

Oh come on that was a nice phone you could sell it and buy something useful for the money And yeah, people still buy used phones even in 2019 even in europe, i'm quite sure it's not hard to sell Galaxy S6 phone even in Germany for the reasonable price.

Camera and screen worth almost the half of the phone and definitely worth salvaging. You just need to find out the pin out with an osci

Scott you are an inspiration!

As a cellphone technician, my teeth grinds when you remove the lcd :( Your doing it wrong. And your bending the board while removing the metal cover :(

There is these community in reddit called r/foundthemobileuser and r/foundthelightmodeuser, made as a joke, you could end up on one of these, I don't mind but I'd recommend switching to dark mode. (Also it saves battery life on oled displays Great video, greatscott

You can desolder internal NAND eMMC and buy cheap usb controller on Aliexpress and use that as cheap usb drive with decent capacity. Or you can get programmer, clone old NAND to current one and upgrade your phone to bigger storage.

Nice explanation once again Mr Scott. At about 4:05 you talked about the thing that looked like a corn cell (S35) but turned out that it vibrated, what was it and what are they for?

Ayy, somebody shouted out my memes😏

sell it an buy other types of parts is better than salvage 5 really cheap parts from a device that costs 150~€

The flash led and distance sensor might be worth it kinda. and the storage flash can sometimes be interfaced with using a SD or NANDflash interface. if the data isnt important, just read and write bytes and ignore crc :D

You can't use the Proximity sensor, present near the speaker. They have i2c interface and you can use them. Usually APDS9930 OR APDS9960 is used in Samsung galaxy s series.

Yeah Samsung got outed for doing the same Slowing-down thing as phones age Apple was. Another reason to Root and install a custom-ROM!

how frickin long did it take to him to understand it was a vibration motor?

You need a smartphone to watch this amazing channel too.👌🏻❤

Very helpful thank you much! I have an old tablet I tore apart and found pretty much the same thing. I am however saving the battery and screen just in case I find a use. Do you know if the screen from a tablet will be useful in a project like a smart mirror?