Non-booting A2000...

[Darrin]

save2600 wrote:

Yes, because it is mildly conductive and metal filings/shavings are likely to cling to it, it worked well for distributor points, etc. in automotive use as a quick "fix". But now that you bring up its use in an auto, think about those components you just mentioned. There's not really a great chance of there being a true short as there would be on something so populated/mini/precise as a printed circuit board.

We're also talking about a rugged 12volt system. Not the more fragile 5v and less found on mobo's.  

I can't find anything from a reputable source that says that it is even mildly conductive at those levels.  In fact it is supposed to be non-conductive up to 5000v.  I've personally used it on my pool pump where it was sprayed onto the active motor and contacts while it was running with no shorts, sparks, bangs or flames.

Now, you're right that the liquid could dislodge some metal filings and cause a short, but you could do that with compressed air too.

I think the main reason people think it conducts is because several of its rival products do.

[save2600]

Okay - since we're obviously going to beat this thread to death and I've clearly got the time, I thought I'd set up a little experiment for you. I did not perform this experiment solely for myself as I've mentioned before, I know all too well the negative affects WD-40 has on electronics. If you're easily tricked by what you read, marketing, whatever, then no wonder this world is where it's at today!  lol

Alright... here's what I did:

1) brought out a variable DC power supply and set it to exactly 5.14 volts. That would be typical of the logic voltage present in an older computer system such as our beloved Miggy's.

2) alligator<>jumper clipped the positive lead to my DMM set on mV.

3) alligator<>jumper clipped the negative lead to a plastic sandwich bag.

4) liberally sprayed the baggy down with the "dielectric" in question, while making sure it spread from the alligator clipped -5v throughout the middle of the bag.

5) using the other lead from my DMM, I poked about the bag and measured as high as 44mv down to 1.2mv depending how for away I got from the power lead and how much was sprayed near the lead.

I returned to the baggy after a half hour to measure voltages again. Interestingly, I measured even slightly higher readings this time!! A chemical reaction with the plastic?? OR is it attracting microscopic conductive particles, further enhancing its conductivity? There *has* been a lot of talk lately about plastics relating to brain tumours, cancer, etc. Maybe the truth is finally starting to leak out on some of this stuff, or more than likely, another company and group of people have an agenda with a product that they'd like to replace plastic with  ;-)  

Back to the topic at hand...

To make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong (this test could not be any simpler), I snagged another new plastic baggy without WD-40 and proceeded to measure... hold on to your hat here... NOTHING! Nada. Zip. Zilch. τίποτα. Niets. Rien. Nichts. Niente. 何も. ничего.

The reason why you may have had good luck in the past douching your boards down with WD-40 is the simple fact that the traces etched into the PCB are covered by silkscreen. It's the chips and components that are more at risk of having something conductive stick to the excess of the WD-40 (which doesn't seem to be evaporating any time soon on my baggy I might add).

...hopefully this will be the end of the thread   :-)    

[Darrin]

save2600 wrote:
Okay - since we're obviously going to beat this thread to death and I've clearly got the time, I thought I'd set up a little experiment for you. I did not perform this experiment solely for myself as I've mentioned before, I know all too well the negative affects WD-40 has on electronics. If you're easily tricked by what you read, marketing, whatever, then no wonder this world is where it's at today!  lol

Alright... here's what I did:

1) brought out a variable DC power supply and set it to exactly 5.14 volts. That would be typical of the logic voltage present in an older computer system such as our beloved Miggy's.

2) alligator<>jumper clipped the positive lead to my DMM set on mV.

3) alligator<>jumper clipped the negative lead to a plastic sandwich bag.

4) liberally sprayed the baggy down with the "dielectric" in question, while making sure it spread from the alligator clipped -5v throughout the middle of the bag.

5) using the other lead from my DMM, I poked about the bag and measured as high as 44mv down to 1.2mv depending how for away I got from the power lead and how much was sprayed near the lead.

I returned to the baggy after a half hour to measure voltages again. Interestingly, I measured even slightly higher readings this time!! A chemical reaction with the plastic?? OR is it attracting microscopic conductive particles, further enhancing its conductivity? There *has* been a lot of talk lately about plastics relating to brain tumours, cancer, etc. Maybe the truth is finally starting to leak out on some of this stuff, or more than likely, another company and group of people have an agenda with a product that they'd like to replace plastic with  ;-)  

Back to the topic at hand...

To make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong (this test could not be any simpler), I snagged another new plastic baggy without WD-40 and proceeded to measure... hold on to your hat here... NOTHING! Nada. Zip. Zilch. τίποτα. Niets. Rien. Nichts. Niente. 何も. ничего.

The reason why you may have had good luck in the past douching your boards down with WD-40 is the simple fact that the traces etched into the PCB are covered by silkscreen. It's the chips and components that are more at risk of having something conductive stick to the excess of the WD-40 (which doesn't seem to be evaporating any time soon on my baggy I might add).

...hopefully this will be the end of the thread   :-)    

Are you sure?

 :-D

[orange]

@save2600
did you measure it without wd40? BTW, 44mV doesn't seem very high to me..
Why didn't you simply measure the resistivity, in MOhms or similar?

[save2600]

Yeah, we're good     :-)  

Just stop using WD-40 on your Amiga's already!   lol

Your auto, fine. Door hinges, fine.

BTW: if you want to try a good cheap alternative to cleaning contacts and PCB's... I've found Brake Parts cleaner to do the trick!  lol   Just hope you don't have weak nasal constitutions for a few days after spraying   ;-)

Course, I would never use brake parts cleaner on any of MY machines. lol  

I do know a very successful electronics repair guy that actually places his PCB's in the dishwasher, being sure to fully dry the things of course. Sometimes, he may even just throw the boards out on the lawn, hose 'em down and let 'em bake in the sun to dry out. He's never reported a single problem with that method and we're talking about arcade/pinball boards...  

[save2600]

@ orange:

Yes - I did measure it without WD-40. Please re-read the results.

And I didn't measure resistance because I wanted to prove that WD-40 conducts electricity - not just add resistance. Doesn't matter if a measurement in mV is low. Introducing foreign power to any circuit or IC is not usually good. Think static electricity.

[orange]

OK, just one small note IIRC, you cannot possibly 'add resistance' by adding new (passive) components.. you can only decrease it that way (like adding more paths for river).