Every digital speedometers may it be underbone, scooters, sports bike or even those adventure motorcycle is not waterproof and precautionary measures must be done to avoid getting damage by water especially during rainy season. Here in my country during this time. The weather is wet and digital speedometers is not invulnerable to water.
In this article. I will ahow you how water is damaging a unit. A client sends his unit for repair. As we talked, unit owner tells that it is a BLACKOUT unit and it was due to water getting inside. Well not surprised about the blackout or non functional no power unit. Water turned to acid after drying out creating oxidation on some parts.
Before I opened the unit. There was already some signs of water that dries out on the top cover lens. From there, it seems I am in for a terrible surprise when I see the mainboard.
And indeed some green powder stuff. Visual inspection shows damage even on some critical components of the mainboard. Not a good sign.
Moving on. Never powered the unit with this kind of oxidation present on the board. It must be clean first by iso alcohol. Not water, not rubbing alcohol and not contact cleaner and wd40. Cleaning agent should evaporate quickly. A must.
When water dries out. It turns to a light acid that continuosly eating pins of IC and smd components. Some board has an insulating varnish coating to protect them but this board doesn't have one. No protection at all.
Clean the board thorouhly using anti static brush to remove all oxidation. Then using magnifying glass, inspect the IC pins for broken pin, copper traces.
After cleaning and the board and is totally dry, it can be supplied with power. Do not expect it to power up initially. Chances are it is still in a blackout condition and troubleshooting for voltages commence.
This himalayan speedometer got too many smd parts with missing contacts with the board and needed replacement.
After replacing. Voila. It is alive.
By the way oscillator of the main microcontroller Ic was replaced too since the unit at first does not initializing.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
If you have any inquiry about the post, you can contact me directly at my email address. Click ABOUT above and drop to contact to reveal it.Thank you.