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LXR vs. water-soluble flux

chidorichidori
edited February 2016 in General
I'm nearing the end of my LXR build and everything is progressing smoothly. I'm using a water-soluble flux solder that leaves lots of icky residue on the PCB.

Is it okay to lightly wash the PCB and scrub it with an anti-static brush while it's fully populated?
I'm worried about ruining mechanical parts like switches and encoders.
How long should I wait for it to dry before powering it up? (Starting to become eager)

Comments

  • bassFantbassFant
    Especially the display and the pots should not have any contact with water or other liquids! Not sure if this is possible with a fully populated board. In my experiences the switches are not that critical (but they are not sealed so the will be filled with water).

    Use a hair dryer (not to hot!) or compressed air and some paper so remove as much water as you can and let it dry over night.

    The best advice for the next build is to clean boards multiple times during the build. Cleaning is pretty safe when you do it after soldering diodes, resistors, caps, IC sockets...
  • chidorichidori
    edited February 2016





    p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }

    Thanks, I followed
    the guide through the LED step, washed everything and blew it dry.
    Then I soldered the pots/encoders. Now I'm just waiting for
    everything to dry fully and I'll finish it up.



    In the
    future, I'll order some no-clean flux solder for displays and
    encoders and such.







    p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }


    I'm a bit concerned
    though, because I read on muffs that the water-soluble flux can carry
    an electric signal.



  • chidorichidori
    My build was successful :)

    This is amazing. Easily my favorite piece of kit atm. Reminds me of Monomachine a bit. I really love all of the performance mode stuff and the interface/menu system is very intuitive. Cheers! <333333333
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