Recycling of Components at end of Life

Since at the micro mouses core, it is all built from components, most of it can be recycled fairly easily. The motors and wheels are both connected through mechanical means, and as such, can easily be taken apart and used again in the future on other projects. Since the screen has only been connected through jumper cables instead of soldering, it can also just be popped off for immediate reuse as well. The touch bars have had a couple wires soldered onto them, and so are slightly more complicated, as ideally these wires would need to be unsoldered to return them back to a fresh useable state. However, these wires are connected through mechanical connection to the Pi Pico and so could potentially be left connect to the touch bars. The same situation can be applied to the ultra-sonic sensors, as they are connecting the exact same way, and can also be reused for other projects. The final electrical component that can easily be recycled through a little unsoldering is the potentiometer used as the mode selection. This has some light soldering done and can be easily removed for further use. For the rest of the electrical components, those connect to the PCB and a couple resistors connect to the ultra-sonics, these will be a little harder to reuse as they have each been trimmed to fit. Due to this, it would be difficult to use these other components in projects that are not almost the same. The chassis and Pi Pico board assembly can both be reused with ease once all other components have been removed. While the wires can be reused, they already have set lengths and would also need the soldering removed. The jumper cables used will all be able to be reused once they have been unplugged as well.

By James Ellis