DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Express => Topic started by: trekster on December 04, 2011,
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It is the one on the roof. It is mounted on the back of the Holdman star. We had pouring rain and high winds the night before. I started the show the next night and found a ground fault outlet had tripped. I reset it and the show was still running. I noticed everything on that express was on 100%. All 16 channels on and no blinky. Had my son go up on the roof and ha said it had a bunch of water in it and get some paper towels. Then a hair dryer for about 10 minutes. about 3 channels had blinky but the others stayed on full. I told him we will swap it out tomorrow. The next day (today) I thought I would try it one more time. It is working PERFECT! All 16 channels blink just like they should.
Don't you love stories with a happy ending ;D
The Lynx Express takes a lick and keeps on BLINKING!
Ron
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Shoot CorrosionX on both sides of the pcb and it will run while wet, I have seen it. Glad you came out good. But do spray it with something to prevent corrosion runing it before next year.
RJ
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Yea i was afraid that myself on ours. Might wanna put a trash bag over it lose like we did ours Ron. Just do not tie the bottom, just tie a little of it to something so it doesn't fly away.
Ill look into some of that corrosionx stuff also.
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Shoot CorrosionX on both sides of the pcb and it will run while wet, I have seen it. Glad you came out good. But do spray it with something to prevent corrosion runing it before next year.
RJ
<res.
CorrosionX is AMAZING! Water won't be any problem at all once those boards get protected. Just AMAZING! Spay it and forget it!
<pop..
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Where is the best place to find it without going online?
Dean
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Where is the best place to find it without going online?
Dean
Do you have a boat store near you?
Rick R.
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store near you? list!
http://www.corrosionx.com/corrosionx-distributors.html
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Glad to here everything is up and working.
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The express is one tough board. I had a spider try and go between two traics and got zapped. I noticed the box was acting up and when I went to look I could see the spider BOILING, yes boiling, between the traics. <md.. First thought was the chip went into meltdown but I found spider legs as I cleaned it up and the box has run great for the last 2 years. So they will take a licking and keep on ticking.
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Where is the best place to find it without going online?
Dean
Do you have a boat store near you?
Rick R.
Not close by no. I'd have to travel 45 mins. or so to get near one probably. The closest I have to boat supplies right now is Wal-Mart and that is limited. I'll have to keep my eye out for it though.
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On their website it eays you can get it shipped to your local True Value free.
http://www.truevalue.com/
Search True Value # 619835
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I asked my local electronics store for something like CorrosionX and he showed me a product from MG Chemicals called Silicone Conformal Coating. Supposed to provide a flexible protective coating for printed circuit boards against moisture and corrosion. Has anyone used this product or familiar with it? It was about $25.00 for a can the size of a can of spray paint.
Website www.mgchemicals.com
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I asked my local electronics store for something like CorrosionX and he showed me a product from MG Chemicals called Silicone Conformal Coating. Supposed to provide a flexible protective coating for printed circuit boards against moisture and corrosion. Has anyone used this product or familiar with it? It was about $25.00 for a can the size of a can of spray paint.
Website www.mgchemicals.com
Have not heard of that stuff myself. I'll have to check it out.... I was looking at what our local Radio Shack had yesterday too. Not sure what they have is gonna cut it. I have to research it more.
Dean
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Shoot CorrosionX on both sides of the pcb and it will run while wet, I have seen it. Glad you came out good. But do spray it with something to prevent corrosion runing it before next year.
RJ
Do you just spray this all over the boards like spray paint (including the 7-segment displays)? How long should it take to dry, or does it dry? Are you able to replace parts once it's been sprayed?
There seems to be a ton of different CorrosionX products, all starting with the name of CorrosionX. Which version of the product are you all referring to?
steve
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I'm also wondering, what type of residue does it leave? If you have to remove/replace a component, does it make make the job a messy one?
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It is a little slimey but you do not want much on it. It can get on everything it does not hurt anything I have put it on.
The stuff I use says Aviation on it.
RJ
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I asked my local electronics store for something like CorrosionX and he showed me a product from MG Chemicals called Silicone Conformal Coating. Supposed to provide a flexible protective coating for printed circuit boards against moisture and corrosion. Has anyone used this product or familiar with it? It was about $25.00 for a can the size of a can of spray paint.
Website www.mgchemicals.com
The conformal coat spray is a silicone in spray form. It is like covering everything in RTV. Its used for all circuit cards that go into space, in planes, jets and the navy. totally seals out moisture though the spray is usually for touch ups. Back in the 80's when I was going to college worked at TI and we dipped all the PCBs after assembly and test in a hot vat of silicone and then hung them to dry.
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The nice thing about CorrosionX is you can clean the board with Contact Cleaner and easily do repairs. If you coat with a more permanent coating such as the silicon stuff, you may run into some complications for any repairs you may need to do in the future.
To answer the question about how to use the CorrosionX, as RJ also stated; just lightly spray both sides of the completed board. Nothing needs to be protected from the spray, just do it. It does not dry hard and can easily be cleaned off with contact cleaner if you need to.
Spray it and forget it! It has the characteristics of penetrating oil and will seep into the tiniest places to displace water and prevent moister and water intrusion. Also, it does not last forever and may require annual refreshing.
<pop..
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How often is annual, every year bases? Or are you talking years down the road?
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How often is annual, every year bases? Or are you talking years down the road?
Once every year you launch the show if needed. You may not have to, but a light refresh yearly (annually) won't hurt as long as you don't have a massive build up on the board. It all depends on where you store your boxes. If you're like me, I plan on putting them in the attic during the summer months where there is very little moister. Its nice and hot and dry up there. If you store them in your shed, then you may want to freshen them up with a light spray. This is my first year so I'm only making an educated guess.
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I have never need to recoat mine.
RJ
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I got my can at a local fishing store. Gun stores are another potential source. I neither fish nor shoot, so I didn't know this ahead of time. I contacted the manufacturer, Corrosion Technologies (Google "Corrosion X") and asked them for the local distributor. He was able to tell me what stores in my area carried it. I use the standard one in the red can. I sprayed the board and all the plugs. I didn't have a problem all season last year. I didn't recoat this year and my GFCI keeps tripping when it rains. I don't see any evidence of water in the case and it could be the plugs are too close to the ground (grass is touching them). Since I had to pull the box in for repairs (bad triac) I took the opportunity to respray everything and reinstall the box a little higher. We'll see how it goes tonight.
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what if you get the stuff into the RJ45 jack? wouldn't that cause a problem with contact?
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what if you get the stuff into the RJ45 jack? wouldn't that cause a problem with contact?
I asked that same question some time back. I had no problems at all and I sprayed the RJ45 jacks. I had my trusty contact cleaner ready just in case. This stuff is really amazing.
<pop..
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Well i may of just had the same problem tonight. The express didnt get full of water luckily, but i think the other night when it rained hard some water and/or mist got in and caused 2 channels to stay on at 60 volts ac when the channel was suppost to be off.
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I know what you mean Holland. 2 GFI's kept tripping last night. I reset them and a few seconds later POP!. Then the dmx stream would stop and the other displays would freeze. I have people lining up in the street. I had to tell them no show tonight. I know some people run in the rain but my show does not like the rain.
Ron
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Yea the gfci was tripped yesterday from the rain before, so i reset it and it kept tripping. my problem is one of the mini trees on the ground. But when i pluged it in and the controller stayed on there was 2 other channels (not the channel the minis are on) was half on, but as the show went on the channels started working fine again. My show ran fine once i unhooked the mini trees.
And you can just call me Derek if you want lol.
I know what you mean Holland. 2 GFI's kept tripping last night. I reset them and a few seconds later POP!. Then the dmx stream would stop and the other displays would freeze. I have people lining up in the street. I had to tell them no show tonight. I know some people run in the rain but my show does not like the rain.
Ron
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We had a lot of rain today in the Chicago area. After reading all these posts, I am leaving it off for a day just to be safe.
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The Le's hanging with a trash bag hanging loose over them (not tied at the bottom) never had a issue with moisture. Just the Le that was uncovered.
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Last year around Halloween I purchased a large Rubbermaid Roughneck bin that I flipped over and used to cover the LE. At the end of the season, I used it to store the lights. Because it was Halloween, the ones that Walmart had were black so it doesn't stand out at night. Normally they are lighter colors. This year I tried to go without it, and the GFCI kept popping when it rained. I elevated the box and resprayed everything with Corrosion X and haven't had the problem since. But I think I will go back to covering the LE with the bin. It also keeps the plugs dry.
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With all the CorrosionX magic that it does, I want to spray all my boards (V2, V3, V4 and V5).
Before I spray the board should I remove ALL the removable parts from the board before spraying? i.e.: do I remove each and every ICs, power leads from the board before spraying?
When you mention "completed board" can I assume that everything is actually plugged in including the power leads, ICs etc
The nice thing about CorrosionX is you can clean the board with Contact Cleaner and easily do repairs. If you coat with a more permanent coating such as the silicon stuff, you may run into some complications for any repairs you may need to do in the future.
To answer the question about how to use the CorrosionX, as RJ also stated; just lightly spray both sides of the completed board. Nothing needs to be protected from the spray, just do it. It does not dry hard and can easily be cleaned off with contact cleaner if you need to.
Spray it and forget it! It has the characteristics of penetrating oil and will seep into the tiniest places to displace water and prevent moister and water intrusion. Also, it does not last forever and may require annual refreshing.
<pop..
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No do not remove anything. Just spray it on.
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Thank you very much