[NLC] Drip Dry Phone

Bill Ricker bill.n1vux at gmail.com
Sat Apr 29 16:28:00 EDT 2006


Likely she's buying a new one, but it doesn't hurt to try, I've saved
phones and pagers that went in various wet places. (Same applies to
gameboys, computers, anything built from printed circuit boards.)

Most important is to remove the battery immediately, even if "off".
   With the length of a wash cycle, you may be shafted already on
this, but it's more important during drying than during immersion.
  Reason -- residual solder-flux on the board is ionic and conductive
-- they don't wash them like the used to -- and will disolve and the
ions will field-align, and as it dries, will form crystals that, due
to field alignment, grow in exactly the wrong direction and short out
adjacent traces in potentially damaging ways.

This is why Steve O recommends rinsing in DISTILLED water, it will
draw out more of the flux ions than water that is already
mineral-bearing. If no transistors or fuses are toasted, rewetting
with distilled water and FLUSHING and slow drying -- with all
batteries removed -- may recover the device.

Do *not* attempt to accerate drying of any device including a liquid
crystal panel above a very low warmth.  A marble bun warmer might be
the right technology here.

--
Bill
n1vux at arrl.net bill.n1vux at gmail.com




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