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Old 06-07-2016, 11:14 AM
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bojan
amateur

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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Mt Waverley, VIC
Posts: 6,943
Looong time ago we (at company I worked for) used a lacquer (AL36 (??) I think it was called.. it was allowed by MIL standard) to protect military style radio equipment printed circuit boards.
Good thing about that lacquer was that it was solderable (actually it worked as solder flux), and was luminiscent when illuminated with UV light.
It had a very characteristic acid smell when not cured.

Electrolube protecive coating spray is very similar to this stuff (in terms of protection, smell and as solder flux).
Of course, it has to be apllied immediatelly after PCB assembly and washing, before final assembly into product.

I didn't know that such a reputable product (like SBIG camera) is not placed in properly sealed enclosure - I would expect better for the price.

On the other hand, Canon is not much better either.
I am repairing one 450D now, with corosion-eaten connectors and flex cables, the whole tracks are missing from the board, converted into green, non-coductive stuff.
We are not talking about $10k here, but still - just a better quality solder stop coating over the vis does not cost that much more to be prohibitive for a manufacturer who wants to be seen as selling a reliable product.

Last edited by bojan; 06-07-2016 at 11:27 AM.
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