Has anyone ever used an Ultrasonic cleaner for a classic Bally/Stern mpu, or any boards for that matter? They use them a lot on microsoldering circuit board repair for newer laptops, phones, video game systems, etc. However I wasn't sure if those old classic mpus are too delicate.
-Pat
I have washed Bally boards with Simple Green and hot water. Then let them dry out in the sun or near a heat source. I do carefully blow the chip sockets with low pressure air as they dry.
Certain components are not washable.
DIP switches on these CPU boards are not washable. When new - CTS switches have seals on them to keep the water out. After boards are washed and dried - the seals are pulled off. When washed with seals removed, they will frequently get water inside and no amount of heat or compressed air will get all the water out. It takes a long time but they eventually build up a nice blue-green corrosion on the internal contacts. After that, they will usually no longer function properly when changing settings.
Other problem items include enclosed relays and other switch types.
Thanks guys. I guess the answer is no you don't need to do this. And it's dangerous.
The reason people in the microsoldering community do it is to wash underneath the ICs. On these boards, what I've found over the last week of me repairing these, is you're removing most of the sockets anyways, so just use alcohol and a toothbrush.
I'm pretty sure most IC manufacturers do not "validate" their product is ultrasonic compatible.
I wouldn't risk aging components against the vibration of a ultrasonic transducer unless it provides real value.
As others have stated; some soap, water followed by a toothbrush does wonders. Use IPA to displace the water if you want to speed it up.
I did this to a cruddy Original Bally Sound board and it came out looking great.
Left it in my garage for a week in the "texas heat" while I was visiting family at the middle of Dec. looks great.
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Albuquerque, NM