Railfan Technology > Cleaning contacts on electronic stuff

Here's a good trick to remember if you suspect a malfunction of your electronic gear is due to dirty contacts. Get a new pencil with a clean eraser. Gently rub the eraser on the contacts in question, making sure not to rub so hard you make "crumbs" with the eraser. You don't have to rub that hard. In the case of a camera or lens hold the equipment so any dirt that might come loose falls out and not into the equipment. Also, I'm not much on "canned air". Use a soft camel's hair brush that you keep for just that purpose. You can use a small camel's hair artist's brush for really small places.

Have fun, be safe
Doc Jones

I work on a part-time basis for a builder of pipe organs. We sometimes respond to emergency calls and find that the problem is dirty contacts on a mother board or some other electronic component. Cleaning with a little denatured alcohol on a Q-tip takes care of the problem. I'm sure that the pencil eraser method will do the job, but great care must be taken not to scratch the component being cleaned. Scratching of a contact can sometimes lead to dirt and dust accumulation in the scratches and more problems down the road. In addition, too much pressure on the eraser can cause cracks in solder joints which can be very problematic and difficult to trouble-shoot. Camels hair brushes are very good for cleaning spider webs and strands from contacts. Interestingly, gold contacts which are expensive and touted as the best often give us the most problems. Nickel silver is the most reliable by far. Model railroaders might be interested to know that we sometimes solder pieces of code 83 or code 100 nickel silver rail to worn mechanical key contacts in certain types of old organ consoles to make for more reliable contact.

I started using that on my Commodore 64 in 1986. I still use that method today on cleaning any type of card edge connector, pci edge connector, or any other type of card edge. Gold is superior in a lot of ways but being one of the softest metals can and will scratch easily thus dirt accumulation.
jd

tomk Wrote:
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> Another concern is ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge),


Always wear a static discharge wrist band! ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antistatic_wrist_strap

jd

As always, thanks for the very wise advice. With all the 'tronics out there sometimes I wish I was still shooting with my good ol' Argus C3 or my Pentax H3V Spotmatic. I wore them both out and they now occupy a place of honor in my "museum".

Have fun, be safe,
Doc Jones

I strongly recommend against the pencil eraser method, except in a real pinch. I am an electronics engineer, and have spent 23 years in electronic repair and maintenance. Pencil erasers leave a corrosive residue that will cause the bad connection to come back with a vengeance later on. An eraser will gradually wear the plating off the contact if done more than a few times.

The best cleaner I know of for electrical contacts is Caig DeoxIT. It is available in a variety of forms, from aerosols, wipes and syringes. For something like camera lens contacts, I would spray it onto a Q-tip and use that to wipe the contacts. Then follow up with preservative DeoxIT Gold. Radio Shack stores have the two sprays in a package, catalog #64-4338 for $14.99.

I have resurrected a wide variety of electronic devices with this stuff. Everything from computers and satellite receivers to dishwasher timers. It works miracles and the cost is negligible compared to a trip back to the repair center.