Strange dried ooze...

Surgeon · Joined: Apr 07, 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Ismuth

Well, I'm new to circuit bending. I've only been fooling around with it for a few days. But today, when i looked at the circuitry in this Yamaha SHS-10 that I've been fooling with, I noticed some strange dried up yellow-brown goo around some of the metal pieces. What is this stuff? Is it battery acid or something? Is this normal? Am I harming the circuitry? How could I properly clean this off?

blue hell · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:40 am Post subject:

Welcome,

do you have a picture?

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:43 am Post subject:

Well, you might have harmed the parts and in that case you can compare this to the goo that results from dropping a 13-ton weight on top of someones grandmother. Shocked

Anyways,

to electro-music.com

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:45 am Post subject:

However, it could be old resin residue or something from the soldering...

Does it smell?

Surgeon · Joined: Apr 07, 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Ismuth

Unfortunatley, I don't have a camera so I can't take a picture, and infact I never actually soldered anything yet. The only thing I've done up to this point is take off the casing and explore the circuitry with my test leads.

The odd part is that the goo, which kinda looks like dried honey/wood glue, isn't anywhere near the batteries.

blue hell · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:05 pm Post subject:

In that case I'd go with elektro, old resin Cool

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:23 pm Post subject:

Surgeon · Joined: Apr 07, 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Ismuth

well in that case, i guess i have no choice!

I guess I'll clean the stuff off and then take note if it ever comes back.

Thanks for the help!

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:39 pm Post subject:

What you really should be looking out for are those moments when the magic smoke is trying to escape from the components.

RF · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:16 am Post subject:

This brown goo just sounds like glue around the base of electrolytics...
If it ain't broke, why mess with it?
bruce

Inventor · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:58 pm Post subject:

Could be electrolytic juice leaking out of an old capacitor. Or it could be dried up electron sweat. Those little e's move at half the speed of light, so they sweat a lot. Apply some strong deodorant and don't turn the knobs so fast anymore. Then again, it could be flux from a flux capacitor, in which case you can use it to build a very small time machine.

otherunicorn · Joined: May 11, 2008 Posts: 136 Location: Australia

A rusty yelow color in amounts substantial enough to stick electros to the circuit board is in all likely glue. They use it to stop heavier components wobbling, thus breacking their connections to the PCB.
Two things should be noted about it though.
1) it is corrosive, and sometimes will cause circuit failure (yes, even when dry)
2) it is known by the rather amusing name "gorilla snot".

badstatic · Joined: Sep 03, 2008 Posts: 21 Location: uk

It's called 'Ectoplasm' and it occurs in the presence of ghosts/ghools/spirits.

The best thing you can do is to get a white haired catholic priest to perform an exorcism on the machine. Just be sure to disconnect the power supply before he drenches the machine in holy water.

blue hell · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject:

imaguitargod · Joined: Jun 14, 2008 Posts: 56 Location: Cleveland

badstatic · Joined: Sep 03, 2008 Posts: 21 Location: uk

Have you seen a rather amazing film called PI ?

The main character has a custom computer system, which briefly becomes alive and self aware (skynet style) ..... It dies shortly after, but not before producing some strange sticky gunk, and a 216 digit number.

You may have just stumbled upon on the 'true name of god'.