What about those ultrasonic cleaning contraptions ? It always seemed the perfect way to clean boards with this to me, but I've never tried it. Does anybody have experience with ultrasonic cleaners and old electronic boards?
Good tips! I always shake them out and then put them next to a big fan to try and dry them.
Anyone ever tried drying some computer hardware in a microwave?
😜 😜 😜
I cooked a sound card for 15 minutes once. I was actually trying to kill the microwave, which was 20 years old at the time and not very powerful anymore, but the thing didn't die. The sound card got welded to the back of the microwave tho and various components blew up and desoldered. 😁
wrote:I cooked a sound card for 15 minutes once. I was actually trying to kill the microwave, which was 20 years old at the time and not very powerful anymore, but the thing didn't die. The sound card got welded to the back of the microwave tho and various components blew up and desoldered. 😁
Yeah, but was it dry? 😁
Does anybody have experience with ultrasonic cleaners and old electronic boards?
I have experience with ultrasonic cleaners, but for cleaning ammo brass rather than electronics...
Based on that, I think it should do quite well for removing gunk from a circuit board, and is a probably a bit safer for small SMT parts than scrubbing at 'em with a toothbrush. OTOH, it's not going to brighten up tarnished/corroded contacts, and it's not a quick process either. (Plus the machines are annoyingly noisy... not something you want to run in your kitchen.)
All in all, for just cleaning up a few old commodity computer parts, I'd say it's not really worth the investment when tap water and dish soap are so effective and cheap. Ultrasonic would be better suited for especially delicate parts, or things with lots of little crevices that are difficult to clean in a normal fashion.
Ah, thanks for the info. I was considering buying an ultrasonic cleaner big enough for PC cards, but it turned out that those things are made for industrial purposes and come rather expensive.
I'm going back to the kitchen sink... 😉
wrote:I cooked a sound card for 15 minutes once. I was actually trying to kill the microwave, which was 20 years old at the time and not very powerful anymore, but the thing didn't die. The sound card got welded to the back of the microwave tho and various components blew up and desoldered. 😁
Did you know when microwaves die very often it's just a fuse that needs to be replaced? I extended the life of a dead microwave by 5 years by replacing a fuse until someone gave me another one as a gift. You have to be careful because there's some really high voltage parts inside a microwave that retain a charge can knock you on your ass and maybe kill you even when it's unplugged. The fuse looks like the old fashioned automobile type (the long cylindrical glass ones) but instead of glass, the center is made of ceramic. The correct amps and volts should be noted on the fuse or somewhere near the fuse holder inside the microwave.
I suppose they are fused so that they don't burst into a fireball in case of some sort of other failure. 😁 I haven't had any microwaves die on me yet though. They seem to run forever. I couldn't believe that old iron kept on running after the light show it provided with that sound card!
You can kill a microwave by switching it on with nothing inside. The antenna will burn off.
1+1=10
wrote:You can kill a microwave by switching it on with nothing inside. The antenna will burn off.
Omg that is so simple!
Anyway, I'm not gonna try that with my microwave...it was inhereted to me by my grandmother 😁
So since this thread exists I might as well use it even if it seems to be a microwave destruction thread.
So I have a 386 board I have obtained however it smells strongly of cigarette smoke so obviously I have to clean it for me to even be willing to test it.
The question is presumably I have to unsolder the battery before doing anything?
Then do I need to extract all the various socketed stuff on the mobo?
I was thinking of putting the board and the isa disk controller it came with in/submerging in warm water with soap or detergent not sure which.
Or is there some other magical stuff I'm supposed to use and somehow find knowing that I'm in Australia and what you suggest may not be available.
Is this the right thing to do?
I almost always clean with distilled water since it's so darned cheap anyways. The older boards like p3 and lower i probably mind so much cleaned with normal water but, like i said distilled is so cheap plus at home i have well water which has even more minerals in it.
I think the water here is soft but I have no idea because I haven't really compared water from elsewhere.
I've never actually looked for distilled water so I have no idea about how expensive it is.
This thread seems to detail a cleaning method http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1463 and apparently simply green is available here if I'm willing to go out and get it.
