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original post: https://mk.moth.zone/notes/a8zer7ypj6uv02ka
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this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Where are these cheap e waste laptops with gpio and actually low power?
The market is about to be flooded with them with Windows 10 going EoL in October.
No gpio but old centrino laptops make excellent low power servers. My primary server was a first gen centrino from 2011 up until recently and I think it only used 12w idle after putting a SSD in there. Had it's own UPS built in.
There are usb gpio devices which can fulfill the connectivity bit. Pretty sure you are sol with the 5w though 😊
The Raspberry Pi Zero in USB gadget mode can be used for GPIO. If you don't want to setup gadget mode, get Pi Zero W.
Digging through e-waste bins is one of my hobbies.
What kind of place do you go to to find these things? Sometimes I get really lucky (see my post history about my wonderful new printer), but if I could increase my odds that would be cool.
I'm just lucky enough to have one at my apartment building, and very wasteful neighbors.
Back when I lived in a (quite nice) apartment building I was constantly surprised at the things people threw out. Perfectly good furniture but also stuff like perfectly functional printers, artwork, computer cases...
Somebody already asked, but what are good locations to do this? Do you ever get harassed by property owners or law enforcement?
I'm in an apartment building, so I just browse the one here whenever I take the trash out. I don't think anyone has noticed, or they've elected to mind their own business if they have.
There's so much stuff that could still be used that it honestly isn't funny, and that's just in my own bin. How much more is being wasted across the country? But at least it's in the recycling and not the trash, so that's something, I guess.
any luck with gpio and 5W power usage so far?
Worth noting pie 4 and 5 no longer recommend 5w PSU. And tend to fail if anything is drawing on the USB.
I think 5W probably can't be achieved, maybe with chromebook-like hardware, but I guess GPIO could be solved with a USB accessory
in my opinion the bigger problem is the fire hazard of an unsupervised charger. I have seen enough that runs super hot, and even if it doesn't, I just can't trust them.