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From: csmith@plains.NoDak.edu (Carl Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: motherboards in the dishwasher?
Message-ID: <10242@plains.NoDak.edu>
Date: 7 May 91 19:32:17 GMT
References: <0094836B.DA657A80@Eagle.oscs.montana.edu> <1991May7.153627.4590@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
Lines: 31

In article <1991May7.153627.4590@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <0094836B.DA657A80@Eagle.oscs.montana.edu> ieeug330@Eagle.oscs.montana.edu (Mark Wistey) writes:

>>Someone claimed that the best way to clean a contaminated (e.g. soda pop)
>>computer keyboard was to disconnect it and run it under tap water.

>Clean, fresh water is not very corrosive.  It may be worth trying as a
>last resort.  I'd recommend taking the keyboard apart, though, so you can
>rinse the innards directly and so they will dry relatively quickly.  Water
>sitting on the board for a while is bad news.

If you try this, and least take the guts of the keyboard out of the case.
It would be difficult to get all the water out of the corners of the case
of a fully assembled keyboard.

Also, if something posseses you to dry it with a hair dryer, be careful not
to melt the key caps.  I once removed the circuit board and washed the 
mechanical parts of a keyboard (the key caps, shafts, springs, and contact 
pads were all mounted in a metal sheet that could be removed from the 
PCB in one piece) and used a hair dryer to dry it.   It was a little too
hot, and the space bar warped a little, making it stick occasionally.
I then cleaned the PCB with alcohol, put the two parts back together, 
and all has worked perfectly ever since.

>-- 
>And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
>"beans are more important".             |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry

Carl D. Smith Jr.
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND