The art of PCB Cleaning: Which method is the safest and effective?

norton9478

norton9478

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DaemoN said:
Is this some kind of joke? Are you just trolling to create some sort of flame war?

For the last time:
* it's flammable (and it doesnt evaporate in a few secs)
* it's an oil (and while it repels water, it attracts dust and becomes a sticky gunk)
* it's conductive (you could short your boards)
* it's hydrocarbon based and thus it can melt and deteriorate some components with phenol substrates like potentiometers or certain kinds of plastics
* etc etc etc
Click to expand...

I dunno...

IT becomes unflammable quicker than alcholhol.
It doesn't attract Dust after it disapates.
It isn't conductive after just a few minutes
It's supposedly safe on plastics acording to the WD-40 Website
 
DaemoN

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norton9478 said:
I dunno...

IT becomes unflammable quicker than alcholhol.
It doesn't attract Dust after it disapates.
It isn't conductive after just a few minutes
It's supposedly safe on plastics acording to the WD-40 Website
Click to expand...

It doesnt completely dissipate. Since it's oil-based, it needs another chemical to make it thinner. The raw material is thick and hard.

IF it DID dissipate completely, it would be pointless and useless as it'd beat it's "protective" purpose completely.

If you want to spray something on your boards, there's a special product that clearcoats them. All you have to do is mask your contacts. This is specially formulated to repel dust, humidity and it even allows spot soldering through the clearcoat. Also, it doesnt overheat your boards.

I can try to dig up the name later in case anyone's interested.
 
lowlight

lowlight

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I'd be interested...

...and thanks for the link to that other site too, Daemon. I'll check it out as soon as I can :)!
 
channelmaniac

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You can get a spray "conformal coating" that will do the same thing. Just be careful around your sockets & card edge connectors - you don't want to coat them. We used to use a very light coating on PC boards when we couldn't fix them and sent them off to be fixed. That way we could use a UV light and see what they did to fix it. ;) It's cheating, but a way to learn.

And WD-40 is a penetrating type oil. Why else would they say it helps loosen stuck nuts? You don't want it penetrating between the layers of your PC board. It also does attract dust. That's why manufacturers suggest you NOT use it on potentiometers and old-time TV tuners...

RJ
 
lowlight

lowlight

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Very good!

Thanks again for the advice and insight, fellas. :D
 
RAZO

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I know I'm a little late , but how about Rubbing alcohol and a cloth, would that be a good method of cleaning pcb's. To me a dishwasher sounds a little scary, but I guess its effective since alot of people use that method. I always clean my electronics with rubbing alcohol. It seems like these pcb's take beatings.
 
channelmaniac

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Most rubbing alcohol is about half water or more these days. Read the label. ;)

You'll have to shop around to find some that has less water if you are worried about it.

RJ
 
N

Nightmare Tony

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Back at SNK, we used a kitchen sink,, hot washer, dishwashing liquid and a scrub brush then a hot air dryer. Worked like a champ.

Some of the arcade boards that came in were grungy beyond belief....
 
BIG BEAR

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HEY! Good to see you back around these parts NMT.
I just can't bring myself to doing the dishwasher method. What I do is remove off as much dust as I can using one of those soft bristle whisks from a Barbers kit,It's very affective. Then I'll use Q-tips and alcohol to go around various areas.
BB
 
N

Nightmare Tony

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Hey again, just been so insanely busy, was laid off for 4 months, got a new job and much happier, and busy with all kind of projects to survive...
 
BIG BEAR

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That's great.
I am happy for you.
BB
Nightmare Tony said:
Hey again, just been so insanely busy, was laid off for 4 months, got a new job and much happier, and busy with all kind of projects to survive...
Click to expand...
 
J

JoshuaMiller

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So are there any risks with the alcahol / q-tip method?

Do you have to dilute the alcahol? Does it melt the board? It seems as though it would evaporate almost immediately. .
 
V

vincewy

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channelmaniac said:
You can get a spray "conformal coating" that will do the same thing. Just be careful around your sockets & card edge connectors - you don't want to coat them. We used to use a very light coating on PC boards when we couldn't fix them and sent them off to be fixed. That way we could use a UV light and see what they did to fix it. ;) It's cheating, but a way to learn.
Click to expand...

I feel like an ass bumping a 10+ year old thread but with MVS carts rising in values I am starting to look after with the best method of protection.

Besides cleaning the cart shells with soap water, rinse, and airing for at least 24 hours, I am also using conformal coating to protect the boards. It works like a champ, I have only applied this thing on the back sides of the boards, good god where did the arcade operators put some of those carts? I had to clean off NITD MVS completely by soaking the cart shell, wiping the boards.

I know most precautions with conformal coating, you need to mask the pins when you spray so it doesn't get to the connecting pins

Now, here's the minor issue, the smell, my questions...

1. Does it go away at least most of it months after?
2. Is applying too much coating detrimental to the carts? I am only applying toward the back sides of the boards.
 
HeavyMachineGoob

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I think you're being extremely paranoid. MVS cartridge boards already have anti-corrosion goop spread over their solder sides. The component side has some too if the board is double sided. Applying another anti-corrosion coating is only useful if for some reason the old coating has been cleaned off.
 
N

noir

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HeavyMachineGun said:
I think you're being extremely paranoid. MVS cartridge boards already have anti-corrosion goop spread over their solder sides. The component side has some too if the board is double sided. Applying another anti-corrosion coating is only useful if for some reason the old coating has been cleaned off.
Click to expand...

Is that what that tacky clear stuff is on the boards? Was never sure if I should be trying to clean that off or not. I guess the answer is I shouldn't be :)
 
GutsDozer

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Blows my mind that anyone would put their boards in a fucking dishwasher.
 
S

sunder

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I scored an ultrasonic cleaner through my wife's contact who runs a jewelry store. She basically uses it to clean jewelry her glasses and sometimes make some weird new age potion thing with it.

I've been using that and I have to say that's the best result I've had so far.

So distilled water and ultrasonic cleaner. Also an isopropyl bath and finally drying through some fans for a day. I hear using a convection oven would be better but I dont want to put some damn toxic stuff in my convection oven.

Bonus: Used Curaprox toothbrush does a helluva lot of wonders.
 
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V

vincewy

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HeavyMachineGun said:
Applying another anti-corrosion coating is only useful if for some reason the old coating has been cleaned off.
Click to expand...

... which is exactly why I am using conformal (anti-corrosion) coating, because it's either gone after someone cleaning the cart, not realizing they are wiping off the protective layer, or, there's so much dust buildup that it's covering the coating.

I do have 1 mishap today when overhauling an MVS cart, too much coating. I've managed to spray the imperfection off (dust inside, bubbles, etc) but you do have to be careful with this. It also smells foul, I am testing by leaving the boards outside for at least 1 day and check if the smell improves.
 
HeavyMachineGoob

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GutsDozer said:
Blows my mind that anyone would put their boards in a fucking dishwasher.
Click to expand...

Water only damages metal if it has time to oxidize it and water only damages electronics if the board is powered on with water still on it.

It blows my mind that anyone would spray WD-40 on their boards. I swear, some people treat electronics like it's witchcraft.

vincewy said:
... which is exactly why I am using conformal (anti-corrosion) coating, because it's either gone after someone cleaning the cart, not realizing they are wiping off the protective layer, or, there's so much dust buildup that it's covering the coating.

I do have 1 mishap today when overhauling an MVS cart, too much coating. I've managed to spray the imperfection off (dust inside, bubbles, etc) but you do have to be careful with this. It also smells foul, I am testing by leaving the boards outside for at least 1 day and check if the smell improves.
Click to expand...

It really isn't necessary though. Dust stuck on the coating doesn't matter. It's when you have dust directly on exposed metal that you need to be concerned. Depending on the dust, it could be alkaline and therefore corrosive. Dust from a wood burning furnace is a good example.

Considering how sticky and adhered SNK's anti-corrosion coating is, I'd be surprised if someone could clean it all off a board. The chip pins usually tear anything you use to wipe the board.
 
konrad

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Gently with a toothbrush you can remove the dust, there are people who clean it with water which I do not recommend.
 
Larrs888

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I have properly cleaned 11 MVS quite recently. I'm fairly new to MVS gaming and started picking up carts in 2014 so still very much a noob. I always clean retro video games as best as I can, I would carefully remove the PCBs only opening the shell a small amount and used to use IPA/rubbing alcohol on the contacts and then would clean the shell. However as I have come to realise IPA might be ok for home console carts that are stored in cases (mega drive etc) but not for the more exposed MVS arcade carts. I was getting lots of random resets a couple of months ago on my Omega CMVS and was wondering if it was dirty contacts, basically I opened all my games again and did the following:

Removed all PCBs, washed them with soapy water and used a toothbrush in the sink, rinsed with distilled water and all the dust and grime is now off with very clean boards. For the contacts I used a red eraser, IPA and finally DeOxit D5. I can't stress how important a good electrical contract cleaner is, I was sceptical at first but many rave about it on here for good reason. My q-tips came up black when using it on what I previously thought were "clean" games. - Buy this stuff and clean your carts and slots properly, I have since had no issues with games resetting with many hours of testing. It might be expensive but you will be surprised just how dirty your games are, I now use it on everything I pickup SNES, MD, MVS its doesn't matter.
 
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