[mythtv-users] Minimum hardware recomendation

[Marc Randolph]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 12:47 PM, Allen
Edwards<allen.p.edwards at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Jim Stichnoth <stichnot at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Funny story.  This morning I was trying to drill some holes in the
>> lid.  The drill bit caught the lid, spun it around, knocked it against
>> my full coffee mug, and sloshed coffee all over the ION board.  In a
>> panic, I removed the memory and the heatsink, rinsed the board with
>> water, and then dried it thoroughly with a hair dryer.  Fortunately,
>> it booted up and seems to be just fine.
>>
>> Jim
>
> I used to design electronic instruments.  Vent holes are very important
> otherwise you are creating a theormous bottle.  I once put vent holes on the
> top for air to get out and on the sides for the air to get in.  The bottom
> doesn't help as it is covered by the PCB.  I avoided using a fan with using
> just these vent holes and I am sure I was burning more power in this box
> than you are.  We tried to keep the ambient rise in the box under 15 degrees
> C.
> Funny story. My wife watered the plant on top of her TV and it spilled water
> into the TV.  She quickly turned it on to make sure it was OK.  You did the
> right thing.  Afterall, PC Boards are washed in water as part of the
> soldering process.  I finally got the TV fixed but it blew parts up 5 times
> before I washed the critical area.  It would blow them in sequence and I got
> so that I could jump up and turn it off after only the first part blew.  The
> second one was fairly expensive as I remember.  The last one to go was the
> fuse.

Fuses always seem to be the last to go!

I would personally try to do something more than just running water
from a facet over the PCB if I really cared about it - although
thinking more about it now, if it was rinsed before the coffee dried,
there is probably less to worry about (thinking corrosion in vias
under parts - especially BGAs).    I'd prefer to use something like
flux remover in a spray can that comes out with some velocity to drive
it into all the corners and such - but of course, I have that handy in
our lab.

This article has some interesting comments on the topic:
http://www.grynx.com/projects/salvage-your-device-after-liquid-spill/2/

As they say, just watch out for connectors and buttons that don't
handle water well.

   Marc