My beloved Minimig was a victim of the flood

My Minimig, less than a year old, was underwater for three days when my apartment got filled with water from the Hudson River in the recent hurricane Sandy, which hit the northeast US last week. I have not tried it out yet, preferring to give it a chance to fully dry out. It was not plugged in at the time. I wonder if it will work. I need a new power supply, because it accidentally got thrown out during the cleanup.

Any thoughts on the chances that it will be okay once it fully dries out? I believe the water at that point of the Hudson is either salt or brackish. Either way, there is salt on some level. Hoping it's not done for. I really loved it while it lasted.

Poor miggy

I would not try to make it run on your own.
Take it to a professional and let them test it throughout.

You may have luck and it runs, but you can also blow it.

I think it's worth to let it be done by someone you knows for what to look

Wish you all the best

The problem is drying it out completely, there are several options...

Free options...
wrap it in a towel and put it in an airing cupboard for a week or turn your fridge to coldest - 2 setting and put it in there for a few days

Costly options...
Get a phone saver bag and put it in that.
Get it looked at professionally.
Bung it in a cupboard and get a new one.
File an insurance claim, but that will take ages as insurance companies may be a little bust at the moment

I'd bung it in the fridge for a few days then try it.

If it's been in salt water then you need to wash the salt off with distilled water at the very least.

i hope you get it working again.

Maybe some silica gel could absorb some water..

My sons HTC Wildfire smartphone, got in with the laundry and was washed for a few hours in the washing machine.

Took it apart - dried and started it up. Phone worked, but not the display - got a replacement LCD from china ($12) put in in, and the phone works again.

So it seems that electronis have a good chance of surviving water - I have even seen people washing motherboards.

@Bitman

Quote:

Did you mean like Crisot at min 1.53 ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dNA7Hz-w2g

Quote:

The impurities in the water are the problem and they will leave behind a residue which may promote corrosion or cause short circuits.

Potentially saline river water that flowed through the streets into basements is likely to be particularly bad for PCB's.

Washing it with purified water before drying will be a good idea and then once dry give it a thorough clean with isopropanol and some lint free buds.

Particular attention will have to be given to the SD slot, PIC socket and the various ports since they are where moisture will most likely become trapped.
If you wanted to go to the extreme you could use a compressed air line (can be found at most local garages) to blast the moisture out like an engine builder would.

Sorry to hear about all the damage the flood caused. Crazy last few years temperature and storm wise!

As for you A1-micro I would just let it thoroughly dry out for a few weeks, blow off any dust/lint and power her up. Let us know if she made it alive....fingers crossed

as other has stated before me: Clean the board, and THEN you can put it in a bag with rice for a few days. The rice will help you suck out the water.

I would suggest rinse it first if there was any chance of salt or mud, then put it on a heat radiator for a week. Can't see how freezing it would help as someone suggest..? If there is a water droplet under a chip I would imagine it could put the chip of the bord when freezing.

Does it have a battery on board? If so there could already have been some damage due to the current it provides.

Anyway, remove the flash memory first so that you can save that even if the Minimig decides to malfunction in some way.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8271679_kind-do-use-clean-pcbs.html

Clean it in alcohol, use toothbrush to get in between the ic’s legs, should be good separation between the pins, if there is short circlet who knows what will happen.

Afterword you should look over it and see that every soldering point is not damaged a microscope might be useful, and if any circlet wires has been cut due to verdigris, you may need to strap the circuit board if its damaged, and you might need to reflow some soldering points, individual components might have fallen off, check that none are missing.

And remember to take your time, and be careful.

My panic action would be to dry all loose water with towel.
Then cover it fully with CRC 5-56.
Then see if further cleaning is needed.
try to power it up (days later) after I see no visible drops or dirt.

http://www.crcind.com/wwwcrc/tds/TCA3%205-56.PDF

But be aware, I'm 100% unsure if it would help.

@LiveForIt

Alcohol doesn't dissolve salt and other water carried minerals.

@KimmoK

I wouldn't use a towel. To big risk of damaging components unless you're really careful. If it's still wet I'd just shake off excess water and blow (if you posess the skill to blow a narrow dry high-pressure beam of air without spitting, not all people do).

CRC 5-56 is my favourite too though and it drives water out and is non-conductive and anti-corrosive.

@Deniil

I'm no expert in cemetery but I shore it does some thing to the binding between salt and copper called verdigris so its easy to clean it of the circuit bored. Salt react whit most metals. When salt is dry you can just brush it off, alcohol is also useful because it whisperers quickly.

CRC 5-56 might be useful but does it leave a clean surface afterwords?

@Liveforit

CRC would leave thin oily cover on the board and components.

(btw... I should try with some dumbster PWB to see how usable CRC is in the practice, in case I have some real water spill situation happening one day.)

Rinse it in demineralised water and dry it with a blowdryer set to minimum heat.
Ive done that several times with electronic devices, and it has worked well for me before.

When I was in TV many years ago we often had to clean keyboards that had had coffee spilt over them. Dried sugar on a PCB is just as bad as dried salt.

I would suggest that you remove the battery immediately to stop corrosion. Then, at your leisure, dunk the board in a bath of alcohol (we call it methylated spirit, I think it's called something else in the US). Give it a good wash - the clean water + alcohol won't hurt it. Once it's clean, hang it up vertically so the alcohol can run off it and allow it to dry in a warm place if you can. Leave it for a day or two for all the water + alcohol to dry out from under the chips, then reassemble.

If it hasn't been damaged by corrosion around the battery, it should work just fine.

Okay--Update:

My power supply arrived from Amigakit. I cleaned the board with a vinegar/water solution using Q-Tips. Booted up next day, and it worked great--played a few games and powered down.

My celebration was short-lived. This evening, I booted up and hit F12 to bring up menu, and it was working okay at first, but then some wierd things started happening. F12 no longer brought up menu. Joystick 2 (I think) brings up menu by pushing up or I can press white menu button on the board itself, but it just freaks out, always scrolls down, like there is a stuck down key. So if I bring up menu, selector goes quickly highlighting D0 down through D1, Settings, Reset and Exit, finally sitting on exit. This happens even without the keyboard plugged in. I also tried with nothing else plugged in (no mouse, no keyboard, no joystick etc.). Does the same thing.

Any ideas what happened? Easily fixable? Maybe something simple I'm overlooking?

So actually, it appears to have been caused by a faulty Joystick. Somehow, when a particular Joystick is plugged in port 2, this issue starts and remains for some time after, even when unplugged. Wierd. But I don't use that stick anymore, and it's been fine since.