P-Man wrote:Water/iso-p dumping methods will destroy any original paper labels, and any inked on factory marks, so in general this is not suitable for most older (pre 1985) pcbs unless you want to destroy all of that - which is a shame.
These sorts of bath methods are usually reserved for pcbs that are way beyond regular dry cleaning methods, but they seem popular with white-glove collectors who are more interested in visually clean pcbs than with the actual care of their vintage electronics. Granted, Naomis aren't old or rare yet, so go ahead and keep dumping them in vats of liquid, no real concern here
Get a decent 1" paint brush and brush the dust away, this will remove and clean 95% of dirt from your pcb if you don't want the dust. Use a toothbrush for hard to get or tricky areas. heck, if you want to move just the dust and not even brush a potentially static harbouring device over your cherished pcb then use an air line, it wont remove 'films' of dirt though, and can rip off any paper labels with old/poor adhesive. You can buy proper anti-static brushes for these jobs too, but i have found a kind of brush that is fine for doing all these things with no noticeable failure rate.
With all the thousands of printed circuit boards that have been created over the years, isn't it funny how people have to resort to plastic tubs with chemicals if they want to clean with liquids? Thats because you shouldn't really be doing it.
The only water/chemical bathing equipment you will find commercially is for the production of new pcbs, and to remove heavy oils, greases, waxes and flux. Your ostensible aim is to remove dirt (dust) which can be achieved with dry brushes. The OP's aim for cleaning dodgy contacts needs mild abbrasion to remove oxidisation or replacing of components in question to rectify the issue. No immersive liquid situation is going to clean your dodgy contacts without having numerous other negative side-effects.
For roms and sockets, namfreak, as previosuly stated, you shouldn't be spraying anything into them. You seem convinced that there does exist a magic spray that will clear up all those dodgy connections for you. Keep up with the search, or heed the advice, its up to you how you spend your time on this earth.
Any comments in a forum (that is supposedly about 'caring' for old electronics) that encourage any liquids getting anywhere near old pcbs without adequate warnings in place will only result in people trashing good old stuff that didn't need cleaning in the first place by them experimenting with new methods when they could just get a brush and remove the dust, or a suitable mild abbrasive method for cleaning contacts, and replacing any that are too far gone.
Remember, plastic IC packages have water ingress ratings, they are not waterproof, some are porus and die as a result of being bathed in water. Heck, keeping a pcb out in a cold garage may kill it, a damp garage has moisture in the air, all of which is drawn to an anhydrous plastic product and condenses upon naturally. Not to mention capacitors, coils, diodes, transistors, all of which tolerate moisture differently.
Its kind of like how the house of lords is suposed to work (although thats a whole other discussion nowadays)... If nobody steps in and says anything to counter it, these misguided discussions go on and new people read them as if its all ok to do these things... kinda like an anorexia/bolemia forum where a bunch of sufferers supports each others 'addiction' and actions. Just because a few people do it, post about it, and think everything is ok, it doesn't mean it is safe/sensible to do so in the grand scheme of things.
I think thats enough of my opinion on the subject.
