OK.. the serious answer--
Tektronx regularly *washed* their lab-grade scopes / test equipment, using a mild detergent called 'Kelite'--always followed by hours in a ~150° F oven (IIRC.)
(with fan--but a regular home oven is also fine, with or without a fan blowing across the guts.)
A Scary idea to unimaginative EEs then too!
Others have used wood or even cardboard boxes cum fans and maybe heat lamps; a thermometer stuck in where appropriate. Guess a hand IR thingie is as good or better? ie Improvise.
http://classictek.or...cope_Cleaning.pdf
This is from 1976, but the points apply not only to their vac-tube units but later ss units, with caveats about covering the holes in power transformers where leads enter/exit.
Some later scopes used delicate relay-fingers for attenuator switching and these are cleaned with bond-papaer and rilly-pure ("CP" = chemically pure) Ethanol. No computer relevance, that.
Ditto for washing surface mount digital stuff of recent decades.
(Yeah, good idea to remove HD, cd drives and such and hand clean those--HDs have breathers to equalize air px, not intended to be immersed!)
If you digest this .pdf and allow for peculiarities of computer accessories, you should do no harm and should remove all scents
(cigarette smoke was a frequent complaint after years of service, etc. back when Real He-Men drank Marlboros)
You can bet that all mobos have been washed, following wave soldering--to remove flux(es) and make it all shiny. Nothing revolutionary here.
Bon
Ami appetit!--chefs know how to wash stuff, right? :-0
Should be a fun game; outsmarting a feline==
Winning!
Ed:PS--of course you Don't leave the power on, though unlike scopes it's mostly lo-DC all over, beyond power xfmr--now replaced with switching supplies, etc.
But you knew that. (I just can't commute to any wakes..)
.hr [still no horiz. rule in this chicken outfit]
Law above fear, justice above law, mercy above justice, love above all.
Edited by
Ashton
April 24, 2012, 04:44:35 AM EDT
OK.. the serious answer--
Tektronx regularly *washed* their lab-grade scopes / test equipment, using a mild detergent called 'Kelite'--always followed by hours in a ~150° F oven (IIRC.)
(with fan--but a regular home oven is also fine, with or without a fan blowing across the guts.)
A Scary idea to unimaginative EEs then too!
Others have used wood or even cardboard boxes cum fans and maybe heat lamps; a thermometer stuck in where appropriate. Guess a hand IR thingie is as good or better? ie Improvise.
http://classictek.or...cope_Cleaning.pdf
This is from 1976, but the points apply not only to their vac-tube units but later ss units, with caveats about covering the holes in power transformers where leads enter/exit.
Some later scopes used delicate relay-fingers for attenuator switching and these are cleaned with bond-papaer and rilly-pure ("CP" = chemically pure) Ethanol. No computer relevance, that.
Ditto for washing surface mount digital stuff of recent decades.
(Yeah, good idea to remove HD, cd drives and such and hand clean those--HDs have breathers to equalize air px, not intended to be immersed!)
If you digest this .pdf and allow for peculiarities of computer accessories, you should do no harm and should remove all scents
(cigarette smoke was a frequent complaint after years of service, etc. back when Real He-Men drank Marlboros)
You can bet that all mobos have been washed, following wave soldering--to remove flux(es) and make it all shiny. Nothing revolutionary here.
Bon
Ami appetit!--chefs know how to wash stuff, right? :-0
Should be a fun game; outsmarting a feline==
Winning!
.hr [still no horiz. rule in this chicken outfit]
Law above fear, justice above law, mercy above justice, love above all.