Crispy Critters

[Gary]

I was taking my stuff down for the season, opened up one of my Express cases, and was surprised with what I found inside. It looked like 2 dried slugs (one of them moldy), and a spider that looked like it tried to bite off more than it can chew. It looks like one of the slugs started to crawl underneath the board, whereas the other one made a trip around of the heatsinks, a few of the capacitors, and the chips for channels 1-5. Don't know how they all died... electrocution I guess? I saw that the partially torn foam gasket material where my DMX cables some in was pushed up and out of the way, so it allowed these guys to crawl on in, so I'll be keeping an eye on this in the future.

Funny thing is, the controller worked fine all season, and I figure it would take at least a week or so for a slimy slug to dry out. Do we really need Corrosion X if the controllers seem to generate enough heat to act as a dehydrator? I don't live in a particularly warm or dry part of the world... although there was less rain than usual this year.


Let's see if this can turn into one of those "That's nothing!" braggin threads.    What's the most unusual thing that you've ever found in your equipment?

[chrisatpsu]

I once opend a cg-1500 and found an express     

[trekster]

Taste like chicken

[sirloinofbeef001]

A pinch between your cheek and gum.

[Dennis Cherry]

Gummy Bear.

[tbone321]

You people have WAY to much free timeon your hands.

[trekster]

Slug Fritters Critters?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Yum Yum! 

Ron

[Gary]

Hmmm... now that I removed the board from the case to clean up whatever was behind it with rubbing alcohol, what I found doesn't seem to be as funny now. If you look at the attached photo (which seems to make the problem more vivid and easy to see than in real life), I guess the slug caused a chemical reaction and dissolved some of the green coating on the board, exposing the copper. The solder joints are black.

But, the channel works fine. For now at least. I'm concerned that the copper will continue to corrode, leading to a reduced electron path, overheating, fire, etc. I use all LEDs in my display, so the current draw wouldn't be that big, but it would nice to fix.

Any suggestions from any biology chemical reaction experts on what I should do here? I was thinking of attaching a jumper wire in to connect all three solder joints. Would flux in the solder burn off any of the black crap on the joints, or I guess it would be better to remove the solder and put in fresh stuff?

[tbone321]

As they say, paranoia will destroy ya.  If you are worried about the board being exposed then just put some touch-up paint on it.  As for the solder connections, it would take many years for the minor corrosion you see to make that joint fail, if ever. 

[angus40]

2 part epoxy to fix board , viniger - baking soda to clean contacts  .

[n1ist]

As they said, I wouldn't worry about the loss of the solder mask.  If you want, a little nail polish will fix it.  It looks like there's still some critter schmutz left there, so maybe a bit more cleaning is needed; a stiff toothbrush may help here.
/mike