Washing A PCB

[ParkingLotLust]

I got a 60gb iPod off a friend, who accidentally washed it in his jeans. Ive opened it and cleaned off all the white residue I could find with isopropyl alcohol, but it still doesnt turn on. Is there any way I can clean the entire board, maybe by submerging it in distilled water or alcohol to clean anything I missed? Any other ideas?

 

[Sceadwian]

The battery is obviously going to be dead after submersion in dirty water for that length of time, replace it, and don't be surprised if the new one dies because the internal circuitry of the Ipod is likley fried as well. It's a waste of time to try to repair something that's actually gone through an entire washing cycle. Oh and don't wash stuff that costs that much =O

 

[dknguyen]

My friend just dropped his Ipod in a toilet and it stopped working (not sure how, but that's what he says). A wash cycle is way worse

 

[ParkingLotLust]

It wouldnt turn on when connected to the USB cable either. As long as a new battery isnt too expensive, its something to play around with. Worst case scenario, I drop $30 into a new battery, or $30 into fixing something else. A new iPod is $300+, so even if this doesnt work, I can still use the tiny 60gb drive in it for something else.

 

[kchriste]

Usually what happens is that anything directly attached to the positive side of the battery will be corroded away. So look for traces that appear thin and ghost like and ohm meter them to see if they are still actually there.
Take it appart as much as you can and then rinse it with alcohol. Let it dry out fully before powering it on again. Put it in a nice toast warm place, like hanging over the radiator in the house for a day or so, to fully dry it out.

 

[ParkingLotLust]

Rinse it? Like, pour alcohol into a dish, put the board in it, and swish it around? Thats not going to hurt it?

 

[Sceadwian]

Use denatured alcohol from a hardware store, NOT pharmacy stuff. The stuff you get at a drug store is 10-30% water and will just makes things worse if it gets trapped anywhere.

 

[ParkingLotLust]

So get as close to 100% denatured alcohol as I can? Ill do my best. Thanks for the help. Ill post an update in a day or two.

 

[justDIY]

pharmacy should have 92% isopropyl, which is as dehydrated as they can make synthetic alcohol without extremely expensive measures.

real strong alcohol will dissolve water and evaporate it away too, which is handy incase there is still water trapped in it somewhere.

if you have a toaster oven or something similar, you can bake the unit at 110-125C for 3-4 hours to drive away any remaining moisture. don't bake the battery though

 

[mvadu]

if you have a toaster oven or something similar, you can bake the unit at 110-125C for 3-4 hours to drive away any remaining moisture.

125C, are you sure... 125C will probably melt the plastic casing and housings used in iPod i feel.

 

[Sceadwian]

Try 80-90C. 110 is over the boiling point of water at sea level and completly pointless. Basically 150-200F Even then you're risking damaging the LCD or discoloring the plastic from hotspots.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

On a solid state (Flash) based ipod maybe drying it out would work, but on a HD based I doubt drying it out would make it work. I don't think drives are water tight.

 

[ParkingLotLust]

Ill check for a pinhole breather, but usually theyre air-tight to keep out dust, so i would assume theyre water-tight too? Besides, even if the hdd was dead, it would still turn on, it would just ***** about stuff, haha.

PS. To those who said about heating it up, I would take the motherboard off and just heat that, Im smart enough not to put the LCD and battery in a toaster. Would an oven work too, as long as its around that 150-200°F?

 

[dknguyen]

I still don't think you will be able to get all the soap residue out. You can only get at the stuff you can see. But still...nothing to lose. Won't heating it to 90C or so damage it? I'm not sure what type of components are used in there, but even if there are industrial-rated components, there are most likely still commercially-rated components present that can only handle 65 degrees.

 

[ParkingLotLust]

Hence the 'soaking-the-board-in-alcohol-and-heating-it. That should get rid of all the soap residue on the board, getting rid of any shorts and such.

 

[Sceadwian]

Or blow up your oven and set fire to your house...
Commerical or Industral parts don't matter those temperatures are only for operating conditions. The reflow soldering curve for most of the parts inside something like that has a pre-heat setting that's higher than this so it's not going to hurt any IC's as long as it's not for an excessive time.. More than 5-10 minutes would be diminishing returns. I'd be more worried about cosmetic damage.

 

[ParkingLotLust]

Insurance exists for a reason. Stupid defective oven So how long should I have it in the oven for to dry it then? 5-10 minutes if I read right? It would just be the board anyways, nothing else would go in, just in case.

 

[Sceadwian]

I'd just be careful. Try checking every 5 minutes for the first 15 to see what's happening to the board (use gloves of course =))
If it's just the board you can leave it in as long as you want. Just make sure it's not makeing direct physical contact with a metal grate, put it on a piece of cardboard.

 

[ParkingLotLust]

Whats the average time? Ive never done this before.

 

[Sceadwian]

Neither have I =) Don't over think it, it's already junk, kind of hard to make it do less than not work.