Drowned sorrows

Aristotle on 2006-05-30T20:43:18

Shark Tank:

User spills a drink on his keyboard, and pilot fish swaps in a replacement, then calls support. Put it in water to keep it from drying out, and I’ll fix it when I come in, support guy says. “The keyboard was duly placed in a sink in the break room,” says fish. “And to encourage people to leave it there, a sign was stuck over the sink saying, ‘Some people fix their computer bugs – we drown ours.’ And, yes, the keyboard survived.”

---

Actually good advice for wet electronics too

n1vux on 2006-05-31T20:18:54

The story sounds funny, especially with Shark Tank's framing, but system guy was right. Much as you usually are advised in first aid to leave an impaling implement in the wound until a competent surgeon/trauma doc can take it out, keep the electronics wet -- and unpowered -- until you can properly repair is good general advice.

1. remove all electricity from wet circuitry. [Memory backup battery *might* be safe, your gamble.]
2. let all the disolved stuff float away (flush with running water for a long time)
3. wash out any remaining residue (distilled water or isopropyl)
4. slow dry, mild heat only (LCDs and some other components rather heat sensitive!)

Why? Electrical fields between adjacent circuit traces can attract ionic chemicals in solution and induce slow drying to be slow crystalization between traces exactly where strongest potential for arc-shorting is, as well as corrosion later. Many cheap boards are not properly de-fluxed (cleaned) after manufacturering, so even without Cola/Coffee/Tea have plenty of ionic nastyness.

I've resucitated dunked pagers and cellphones as well as splashed keyboards this way.

Re:Actually good advice for wet electronics too

Aristotle on 2006-05-31T22:02:48

Thanks for the explanation. The story made sense without knowing details, but they are interesting too.