Is this useful for anything?

[NQ6U]

I was cleaning out a storage area at work and came across this thing:

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz79/gyrogeerloose/236C594A-81CE-4E8D-8713-3DC89B6D56EB-5556-0000127FB35C8F1B.jpg
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz79/gyrogeerloose/167C8D57-AC00-4FF5-A171-8B14CB1F26FB-5556-0000127F9C198676.jpg

I'm not terribly knowledgable about Cisco routers. Assuming it works, can anyone here tell me if it's good for anything other than a paperweight or a door stop? Or should I just send it off to the electronics recycler?

[kf0rt]

One recently sold on eBay for $7.99.

It was a lot cleaner than yours. :neener:

[NQ6U]

Okay, so it's not particularly valuable, that's not surprising. Can it be be used as a general purpose router on a LAN? Hacked or adopted for use in my fiendish plans for World Domination? Anything else?

[kf0rt]

Looks kinda boring to me:


The Cisco 1700 router is a small, modular desktop router that links small- to medium-size remote Ethernet and FastEthernet LANs over one to four WAN connections to regional and central offices.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/access/1700/1720/hardware/installation/guide/intro.html

Small business router?

[KG4CGC]

Can you make a radio out of it?

[n2ize]

Somewhere around here I have an old CODEX modem that looks like this...

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Motorola-Codex-CS-96FP-CS96FP-Data-Modem-for-Parts-Repair-/00/s/MTAyNFg3Njg=/$(KGrHqR,!pIE8VbQtv7QBPS9iopiv!~~60_35.JPG

It is very well made, inside are nice racks of plugin boards. A real classic although even in the 1980's we considered it as a doorstop. Very well constructed and build to last and be repaired, unlike today's throwaway devices. Not very practical for use nowadays.

[NQ6U]

Can you make a radio out of it?

Depends on what you mean by that. If you're asking if I can make a radio out of it, then the answer is most assuredly "no." If, on the other hand, you're asking if a radio can be made out of it by anyone, then the answer is more like "probably not."

[KG4CGC]

Depends on what you mean by that. If you're asking if I can make a radio out of it, then the answer is most assuredly "no." If, on the other hand, you're asking if a radio can be made out of it by anyone, then the answer is more like "probably not."

Can you make something to receive AMBCB with it? OK, and not you personally, anyone.
Better yet, do you think there are any parts in it that could be used as a detector in an AMBCB receiver. And do you care?

[NQ6U]

Good point. I'm sure it's got at least one diode in it so it would technically possible to make a primitive BCB receiver of some sort out of it, although you'd have to add a few things from your junk box like wire for a tuning coil and a set of headphones.

[NQ6U]

Okay, Rob, I just looked at the docs you linked to (I was on my phone earlier). It doesn't look like it's good for much but I might take the thing apart and see if I can rise to Charles's challenge to make a radio out of it.

[N2CHX]

+1000 if you can make a steam engine out of it.

[NQ6U]

+1000 if you can make a steam engine out of it.

Now that would be awesome! :lol:

[kf0rt]

Bet it has a cool little embedded Linux computer inside.

[kf0rt]

+1000 if you can make a steam engine out of it.

Well, hook it up just right and I bet it would smoke.

[NQ6U]

Nah, it runs Cisco's proprietary IOS.

[KG4CGC]

Okay, Rob, I just looked at the docs you linked to (I was on my phone earlier). It doesn't look like it's good for much but I might take the thing apart and see if I can rise to Charles's challenge to make a radio out of it.

It may even have a proper capacitor for the output but, I suspect that the only diodes you would find would be of the switching variety and my experience with them is that IF they work, they produce a "chattery" signal. You could possibly produce a detector with a combination of PCB trace, pencil graphite, solder and sandwich it between an aluminum washer and a piece of copper. Be sure to use lead bearing solder for this. I'd even heat some ground graphite in a crucible and mix that with solder while hot. Drop some flux on it while it's hot. If the PCB trace is gold looking material, solder that to the copper, then solder a wire to that. Solder a wire to the aluminum washer, then try to sandwich your solder/graphite/flux mix in between that and make sure it all adheres.

If you have some small metal plates, about 1 to 2 inches square, take 2 of them and coat wax paper on one side of each, after affixing a wire to each plate. Devise a way to vary the distance of the 2 plates from each other with the wax paper sides facing each other. You could even make them open and close like a book. This will be your variable capacitor.

[XE1/N5AL]

That router and $7.00 would buy you a cup of Starbuck's Costa Rica Finca Palmilera coffee.

[NA4BH]

It's camouflaged, I couldn't see it.

[n6hcm]

the last two digits in those series typically tell you which kind of WAN it will connect to. They run Cisco's own IOS (well-known, but as far as I remember, updates don't come free). you could almost certainly use it as an ethernet-based router for a few subnets (assuming the WAN connectivity is something you can't use). not exciting.

[K7SGJ]

There are probably enough components to build a miniature orgasmatron.

[kb2vxa]

But what would Woody think with that Argonne crystal mic element in his mouth?