The curse of tin whiskers rears its head again

Clive I did a thing! I got a soldering station, heat shrink, cable cutters, cable strippers and fixed a damaged 12v cable from an adapter. Not much, but for me I was very impressed with myself! (I'm only 42)

[@keithking1985]

I love the (I'm only 42).. Hey man feeling proud of yourself is a good thing. We as men can be made feel redundant in society today so do whatever keeps you feeling like you did that time. Never to old to learn new stuff.. I only recently learned basic electronics. Make cash on the side fixing electronics now, (and I'm only 45☺️🇮🇪)

[@BryanTorok]

Bravo for you! Never too late to flex the mind and the fingers and learn something new.

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

And welcome to the never-ending-money-sinkhole my friend. Enjoy the Ride!!!!!

[@CraftyZA]

Step one done. Well done. Next up. Keep watching repair vids. Tons on YT. Then scour local flee markets, thrift stores, charity shops etc for devices in need of restoration. Not only will you be getting that slight buzz of fixing something that was fubar, and making it look nice, you will make some bucks doing it when you sell the restored devices on marketplace. It's a fantastic way of keeping the brain engaged and healthy.

[@paradiselost9946]

@@keithking1985 yee gods. i can pull apart a tube amp and rebuild it no issues, but when i open up a board and see SMD... i scream. then you come up against the brick wall of components with erased details, lack of schematics, or hidden behind paywalls, and custom programmed, memory protected ICs... trying to backtrack a simple logic array... lol, i have a thing about relays... the number of times ive come across faulty relays... if i had my way they would all be "mercury wetted contact" types... they dont bounce, they dont stick, and they last almost forever... they dont appreciate being vibrated or turned upside down though :( lol, i bought a whole bunch of them, can get the light switches nice and cheap, so far the main use has been to make "pingers" for doing TDR analysis of coils... can get rise times down into picosecond ranges...

[@grahamcollins6810]

I remember the transition from Leaded to Lead-free solder well. One of my suppliers delivered a dozen units of hugely complex hardware, all tested by them, but only 1 of the 12 worked on delivery. After some considerable investigation by all concerned, we found many plated through holes in the PCB to be cracked. I recall the manufacturer explaining that because of the higher melting point of lead free solder, when the boards were put through a solder bath, the PCB was in a semi-liquid state. This in turn caused the problems we were experiencing. It took a full year to redesign the entire circuit board as well as the processes to deal with the higher temperatures. To this day, I have kept some leaded solder, 'just in case' (although the lead-free solders are a lot better these days). Great video, and thanks for the reminder of this interesting time in our industrial past!

[@RB-qq1ky]

We were unaware of it at the time it was happening , but we techs discovered much later that we’d had the same things happening in the automotive field as well. Random modules would start exhibiting random behaviours and in some cases corrupting the CAN networks to the extent of inducing driveability issues. A lot of our stuff is ‘black box’, heavily potted and essentially impossible to rework dodgy soldered joints, so replacement was the only solution. There also appeared to be a vibration/temperature component contributing as well, I assume that this was the result of micro cracks due the lack of ductility (I think that’s the attribute?) of the lead free solder.

[@HeIsTheHighlander]

Up to this day I use leaded solder only working with PC/laptop repair, include leaded BGA balls. Much easier, less stress and totally 0 issues on long distance if you have proper tools, expendables and understanding what and why you do.

[@RFC3514]

So, they were doing the electronics equivalent of putting unleaded petrol in a car designed for leaded, and then being surprised that it didn't work correctly. Leaded solder is definitely much easier to use (and perfectly legal) for repairs and personal projects. For large-scale industrial production, it's mainly a matter of using the appropriate formulation and temperature control (which needs to be a bit tighter than with leaded). But we're doing far more complex and dense circuit boards nowadays with lead-free solder than we ever did in the 1980s and 90s.

[@MirlitronOne]

Back in the day a popular supplier of electronic components in the UK became afraid that they would get lumbered with their vast stocks of leaded solder and so sold it off cheap. I kept adding some to every order. Suffice to say, I probably still have a lifetime's supply. [Incidentally, I'm a retired research chemist and so totally immune to the dangers of lead.]

[@RB-qq1ky]

@@RFC3514 Yes, I guess so. And us poor techs were left scratching our heads wondering why (in one example ) some models would fail to start from hot, for example after driving to work and then trying to leave for lunch, but were fine from cold, and yet other examples of the same model had the reverse concern of not starting from cold ( on frosty mornings-we don’t get snow here generally) , but once started (usually a little later in the day when the ambient temp had risen somewhat) would be fine for the rest of the day… Once word got around we got adept at using bags of ice or hot air guns to diagnose the issue (which was somewhere within the ECU/PCM)

[@PropGuru702]

Fun little tip for desoldering small components without an extremely fine tip iron. If you take a piece of solid core Bell wire and cut a 75mm length piece and strip it completely, you can then wrap it tightly around the tip of your iron (with it off and cool obviously) and leave approximately 5mm off the end of your iron, you've now effectively reduced the diameter of your soldering iron temporarily. It has saved my tail many times! Give it a go!

[@ClashStats]

You can't come to the old man with such modern and obvious stuff. "He's always done it that way!" Even if he's slowly losing his ability to do it...😆

[@KarldorisLambley]

@@ClashStats you seem somewhat supercilious. I am sure BC is aware of this beginner level trick. lol.

[@ClashStats]

@@KarldorisLambley : Man, this is the internet! You can't expect any seriousness or dignity there. The internet, and especially the so-called "social media", are just full of fakes, insults and fraud. Or have you ever seen a website that doesn't try to sell you something, doesn't try to steal your personal data, not cheat you or even provide you with objective information. Everything on the internet is nonsense, a joke and amusement to me, and that's how I deal with it!😂

[@keithking1985]

Turn up your iron and bingo .. you got a smaller tip.(😂 Guy looking for smaller tips 😅😅 Yeah I'm big kid😂)

[@allenlutins]

Has no one ever heard of desoldering wick?!?

[@paulturner5769]

Fifty-odd years ago I worked in Repeater Station Maintenance for British Telecom. We had a lot of failing equipment due to Tin Whiskers inside Germanium Transistors, mostly growing from the tin can. While the short fix was to cut the Shield Lead of the 4 wire transistors (AF117, I think) I did the calculations for new resistors and replaced them with Silicon Transistors. This got written up as an official solution in the TI's (Technical Instructions) and was some of the first Silicon Transistors used in BT. I use Lead-Free solder these days, but stuff with 3% Silver, no Leaching of SMD parts terminals etc, no Whiskers (so far).

[@spvillano]

One fun thing is, germanium even grew whiskers, lead grows whiskers, silver grows whiskers, pretty much ever metal does where there is compression. That's been the bane of electronics since, well, electronics was invented. Some alloys can lower the incidence, but the only thing that seems to control it is conformal coatings or just good luck. Here's a great shot of silver whiskers on SMD components. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisker_(metallurgy)#/media/File:SilverSulfideWhiskers1.jpg And just to be entertaining, the crap will even grow in a vacuum.

[@gazzorgary]

@@spvillano Fascinating, thanks for the link, saved me doing a Google👍

[@keithking1985]

That's so cool.. you fixed that problem and now that fix is part of the manual.. 👍🇮🇪

[@keithking1985]

​@@spvillanoWOW!! just checked out the link.. wasn't expecting what I saw. I was expecting a single hair like thread of metal... That's actually "SCARY LOOKING" 👍👍🇮🇪

[@paulturner5769]

@@keithking1985 Well, it was 50 years ago, I doubt there is any 62-type equipment left in the world, and it would have to be all silicon by now if there were.

[@WoodyWilliams]

I was squirming watching you remove the switch. Thanks for cutting my torment short.

[@georges7259]

Had a 10kohm short on the contrast button on my then 8 year old Viewsonic LCD monitor 11 years ago. A big blue contrast menu would frequently appear in the middle of my screen and then increase to full contrast and stay there for a few minutes. Eventually opened up the switch and under a microscope saw the short. Scraped it with an x acto and put it back in, still using it to watch this video today. Didn't have any idea what caused it until watching this video. Thanks Clive!

[@tin2001]

My boss's home computer monitor (similar age, but Philips) did a similar thing... It would randomly bring up the menu. I ended up just unplugging the entire button board and leaving it at that. It's plugged in with DVI so the buttons never really got used anyway.

[@jonalowe]

When i was still in an Army Project Office, we spent innumerable hours dealing with making sure we did NOT have lead free solder on components, leads, etc. We dealt with missiles that could spend years in storage, but work perfectly when needed. RoHS was a major problem, and meant that every part had to be certified as not using pure tin solder or coatings. Parts would sneak through, or manufacturers would change processes without proper notification. Between RoHS and moving to plastic encapsulated microcircuits from ceramic components as ceramics were mostly phased out, we had our hands full making sure we had systems that would work when required.

[@Z0DI4C]

Current Army programs have no problem with lead-free; nowadays you can have similar-looking issues come from Electrochemical Migration (ECM) from halogen contamination in flux. IPC class 3 etc mandates flux cleaning which is one reason it's less of an issue.

[@CptJistuce]

@@Z0DI4C But the army does not phase out old hardware every five years or so. They need their replacement parts to meet a consistent spec, and mixing things up causes problems.

[@Frankhe78]

Those whiskers could result in cat a strophic conditions.

[@tinkerbot4148]

WELL, SOMEONE was going to say it. Might as well be you ;)

[@marjon1703]

Ouch!

[@kevinhardisty6465]

Good one moan

[@llary]

I'm not really feline this joke

[@Pwills]

That joke was just peeerrrrrfect 😂🤣😂

[@muzikman2008]

I never realised what "tin whiskers" were, I thought it was solder bridges with stray strands shorting out. Everyday is a skool day 😎👍

[@scottthomas3792]

Same here... you're supposed to learn something new every day. I can check that off for today. I'll bet tin whiskers explain a lot of " cosmic bullet"( random and not obvious) failures and other problems.

[@britcom1]

And same here... I imagined it might be bits of stranded wire sticking out and touching other conductors.

[@RFC3514]

No actual evidence of tin whiskers here, though. The solder on the board was fine, the problem was inside the switch, and we didn't get to see that. More likely the plating just wore off, or some particles were shorting out the internal contacts.

[@dh2032]

some sort crystal, like new age, pyramid power, etc, what tin whiskers grow from? the rest tin, maybe, does eclectic part in forming whiskers? and if have really really old, tin why not just covered full outer coat of whiskers? like fare-coat?

[@goodun2974]

Google "tin pest" for some deep background into the instability of pure tin.

[@tlhIngan]

Tin whiskers is not a RoHS thing. It's been known about for over 70 years now. Computers in the 50s, using normal leaded solder were failing due to them, air filters were getting clogged with them, and other things. Lead-tin helps combat tin whiskers, but is not a complete solution - like I said, it's been known about for the better part of a century, when lead-tin solder was common. The problem is tin itself, and certain crystalline structures of such can lead to molecular stresses in the tin to cause it to whisker. This commonly happens in shiny tin things (bright tin), which occurs very often in things you want to make shiny - usually pieces of hardware like brackets and such. Solder is another location, but that's why we alloy it. Early RoHS did suffer from tin whiskers but we've eliminated it in normal soldering by careful temperature monitoring which relieves the stress in the solder so it doesn't whisker. Not that early RoHS electronics were suffering a lot from it as they suffered form other things common during the time (e.g., capacitor plague). Of course, cheap tactile switches would be tin plated rather than nickle plated which also results in this. As for lead, well, it's not good for the human body - even just 30 years of leaded gasoline had completely polluted the entire environment - every surface indoors and out was coated in lead. It's nasty stuff and we're probably seeing the results of it as those people are now leading the world.

[@jam99]

"as those people are now leading the world" 🤣

[@goodun2974]

The phenomena of pure tin degrading has actually been known about for *hundreds* of years and was sometimes referred to as tin pest (Google it). Tin may more rapidly become unstable and deteriorate from temperature extremes, and not just from heat: Organ pipes soldered with tin underwent failure in cold northern Germany; and there was an Antarctic expedition that failed in no small part due to a stash of fuel cans that all leaked from their soldered seams (I'd bet my bippy that the cans were soldered with tin and not with leaded solder). Tin being a critical military material, the US government keeps a stash of it at Fort Knox or some similar place and periodically melts down the ingots and recasts them. I was an audio-repair bench tech for 20 years and I have been soldering electronics for over 50 years. Lead-free solder is terrible stuff; solder connections in consumer goods made with lead-free often fail prematurely ---- I saw this every day for decades ---- and since repair often costs more than replacenent, millions of electronic items get thrown in the trash around the world daily, which represents a gigantic waste of the energy and natural resources used to make electronics. Most of this stuff is never properly recycled either, and at best it gets shipped to shanty towns in poor countries around the world where half starved people poison themselves and the environment by using mercury or cyanide to recover gold from circuit boards and burning off the PVC insulation from copper wire in order to recover the metal, generating highly toxic fumes. Most of the plastic is never recycled and reused. The idea that e-waste is "harmless", no longer toxic because there's no lead in the solder is completely ridiculous. Lead-free solder is a scam, and manufacturers agreed to it because the alternative was being forced to initiate a system for taking back everything they ever made and recycling it, which would of course be a drain on corporate profits. Lead-free solder also tends to shorten the usable lifespan of a device because the solder connections fail with regularity and therefore it works in conjunction with planned obsolescence, which is good for corporate profits. Manufacturing devices that have a long usable life span is much better for the environment than manufacturing devices that have a short life span. We should be using leaded solder and recycling the devices when they fail, not simply throwing them in the trash and allowing it to become somebody else's problem.

[@darrenjefferies2598]

I remember back in 1985 when I was in high school, doing work experience at the local telephone exchange, the engineers told me about how tin whiskers would grow on the contact pads of relays sometimes.

[@goodun2974]

@@darrenjefferies2598 , tin whiskers also develop in the tonewheel assemblies of electric organs; there's video on KZbin showing how to zap them away with a 9 volt battery or charged capacitor.

[@Ghauster]

They didn't cure the problem but they did abate the symptoms. The amount of lead in solder wasn't that high and we always handled it well. Not like the guy I worked with years ago. He was telling us that as a kid. They had a small pool of mercury to shine their coins with. The store had it right inside the door.

[@zh84]

Tin whiskers are a fascinating phenomenon. Even today it still isn't really understood how they form. There's a good Wikipedia article on them. They even shut down a nuclear power plant once.

[@tech34756]

First time I heard of them, I think it was a satellite.

[@werner.x]

@@tech34756 they seemed a problem of the past, just concerning electronic archeologists, since we switched from metal housed germanium transistors to plastic housed silicium many decades ago, but now all the problems with tin are haunting us again.

[@laernulienlaernulienlaernu8953]

Ask a chemist, they'll probably have a good explanation

[@tsm688]

tin just reallllly easily makes pure monocrystals. Like you can do it by accident. Haul a thin wire of tin out of a molten puddle and hey, its a monocrysal. Other elements are babies demanding the right temperature gradient but tin, tin don't give a fuck, it'll grow crystals almost anywhere. even room temperature.

[@SpeccyMan]

Small tip. Since you used the plural - whiskers - it is phenomena!

[@jspencerg]

I've been impressed how much you do without something to secure items. I've got 3 different types of vices and I'm still wrestling with stuff, always needing a third hand.

[@Handlebar-MustDash]

Clive when naked can hold a fourth item too 😂.

[@goodun2974]

That's *vises*. Otherwise, as an old saying goes, "what were once vices are now habits" ---- such as using a soldering iron that is the wrong size for the job at hand, as Clive attempts to do here. (PS, The Doobie Brothers used that phrase as the title of an album).

[@jspencerg]

@@goodun2974 pedant

[@Brian-L]

I have a 25+ year old, large, rack mount HP/Sola industrial UPS that started behaving wonky. I opened it up to diagnose the charge circuit and, to my amazement, the entirety of the inside of the case was filled with a miniature forest of sparkly tin whiskers.

[@tsm688]

that sounds amazing, did you take pictures

[@uzlonewolf]

@@tsm688 NASA has a bunch of good pictures if you want to see what they look like.

[@patomahony9747]

Pictures would have been nice

[@Brian-L]

No pictures were taken as I went into full panic and cleanup mode upon discovering this. In my day I replaced and repaired many hundreds of racks of enterprise servers and storage that were victims of tin whiskers knocked loose from the bottoms of raised floor tiles, subsequently swept up into the air handlers, and then very conveniently dispersed throughout data centers. Power supplies were the usual victims, but a number of main boards were also sacrificed until the industry finally discovered the cause. The longest whiskers in my UPS were maybe a tenth or two of a mm, and without premium macro photography gear and strong light sources, they would have been very difficult to photograph otherwise.

[@patomahony9747]

Now it makes sense , thanks

[@GraemeMurphy]

Thanks Clive. I have bought one of these after hearing you say "it works really well". Time will tell if they are as good as they smell !

[@5Komma5]

I want to thank you for introducing me to those little ozone generators. Food lasts soooo much longer now. These things should be built into every good fridge from the manufacturer.

[@eternaloptimist2840]

Just use protection when the fridge is open, otherwise cancer ...

[@sihker]

@@eternaloptimist2840 Give ma a link to what are you referring at? Or do you use protection, when walking around after the thunder?

[@Zipppyart]

​@@eternaloptimist2840Im sure in smaller amounts its fine. Id imagine the concentration isnt that high in that use case.

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Many jurisdictions will prohibit this as to aid extra food waste. My state prohibits butane fridges but 99% are sold this way regardless.

[@sihker]

@@LawpickingLocksmith Let's start from the beginning. Last thing I remember from fridges is the freon, that started to kill penguins and polar bears. Then freon was banned. If my googling is correct, then currently, most used refrigerant is R123A and does not destruct ozone layer. Therefore ozone should be inert inside fridge. I doubt this little device can produce big amount of ozone to pose danger to humans.

[@EsotericArctos]

I use a very similar OZone unit in my fridge also. It's been great to keep the fridge fresh and make fresh produce last longer. This was an interesting video. If I have the same issues I will know what to look for.

[@iconoclad]

I don't understand. Don't you wrap everything in glad wrap to prevent cross tainting? I mean surely you don't just shove a cabbage or broccoli in there without wrapping it.

[@EsotericArctos]

@@iconoclad your fruit and vegetables should never be wrapped in glad wrap or anything else. Fruit and vegetables are living things, even after being harvested, wrapping them in plastic wrap is the best way to make them go bad very quickly. That's why refrigerators have the drawers with humidity controls . Some things are packaged but never fruit and vegetables. Go to your local grocery store and fruit and vegetables are not wrapped.

[@RFC3514]

@@EsotericArctos - _"Fruit and vegetables are living things, even after being harvested"_ - I have bad news for you, Mrs. Broccoli... And ten seconds on Google should allow you to find plenty of packaged fruit and vegetables.

[@beardedchimp]

@@EsotericArctos some fruits/vegetables release ethylene as part of the ripening process. If they are wrapped it'll create a concentrated atmosphere that'll rapidly make them go off. Eggs have a natural membrane wrapping that protects against infection while allowing gas exchange, the yanks pasteurise their eggs removing that protection. So they have to provide that protection by keeping them in the fridge. Meat is completely different as internal tissue isn't supposed to be exposed to the air.

[@iconoclad]

@@EsotericArctos My local supermarket sells cabbages, watermelon, pawpaw and other fruit and vegetables which have been halved or quartered for those not requiring an entire item. These are of course wrapped in glad wrap. In my original post I was referring to items such as cheescake, prepared meals, and cut vegetables that of course should be wrapped to prevent cross tainting. In my experience the "crisper drawer" is about as useful as a hip pocket in a singlet.

[@francistheodorecatte]

I think I've mentioned this in your comments before, but I was once witness to the aftermath of a many thousands of KVA APC Symmetra UPS exploding and taking out the fuses on the local substation in the process from tin whiskers growing, a byproduct of them cost cutting by tin plating the high voltage bus bars, bus bars which had been plated with nickel in prior units.

[@ziginox]

Geez, I knew the consumer range had gone to shit, but the big iron stuff, too?

[@paulburroughs1313]

I really like videos like this. I learn handy tidbits of electronics knowledge useful for those of us who repair things at home that weren't completely broken--until we 'fix' them! 😄

[@lucidlx]

I've had tin whiskers cause issues with the rotary encoders in an expensive sound mixer in the past.

[@olsmokey]

I've found over years of replacing these things, that they have a limit to the number of pushes they can tolerate. After so many pushes, the thin (and it is very thin) plating of silver on the contacts wear through and exposes the brass base metal. After a while, corrosion builds up on the brass contact point and makes the contact erratic. If they are working OK, the contact resistance is virtually zero, but after the contact wears through, the resistance varied from 10Ω or so, up to thousands, and this changed depending on pressure (and wiggling). The only cure is replacement. Over time it got to the point where I just replaced all of the switches if one was faulty. In some cases I'd replace dozens of them. It saved complaints from the customer, AND my reputation.

[@gazzorgary]

Cheers Clive, a mountain of info as usual, never even heard of 'tin whiskers' before and now I know. Learning something new everyday has got to be a good thing. 👍

[@RFC3514]

Nothing in this video confirmed that was the problem, though. Far more likely it was just a contaminated switch (with some metallic particles stuck in flux residue).

[@Senior_Mustard]

Tin whiskers have been an issue in electronics for many years, remember the Mullard AF117 transistors, metal-cased germanium devices where the tinned can grew whiskers internally that shorted out the device completely.

[@ronmcc100]

Greetings from across the pond Big Clive. Enjoy your videos, but this video makes me cringe! As an electronics engineer, dealing with the problem of tin whiskers has given me nightmares in the past, but that soldering iron tip! Please replace the tip with a nice pointy one, and stop burning your fingers! LOL! Keep up the great work!

[@andrewscott2974]

Your comment, "It works really well" convinced me to buy one. The unit I bought has a nice digital display screen with a resettable timer and 8 modes; H1, H2, H3, L1, L2, L3, F1 and F2. The quality appears quite good but unfortunately no instructions were provided. The reseller was contacted who in turn contacted their supplier but to no avail, the only info was "How to Use: Press and hold the switch for 2 seconds to power on, short press the switch to switch between modes H1, H2, H3, L1, L2, L3, F1, F2". Because of this I was given a full refund. Other than assuming the obvious that each mode varies the output, it would be nice to know what each means and what the timer does. The timer looks to resettable up to 24 hours, which most likely is the run time but it would be nice to know for sure. I've only tried H1 in my fridge and it seems to work well but it was off before the time I had set. If anybody has any ideas or info it would be appreciated.

[@DavidVR2]

Very interesting video👍 Thank you Clive for keeping these videos coming while you are working away. Very much appreciated.

[@Plons0Nard]

Recently I had a failing nixie tube pcb. After removing most of the components the problem remained. Fed up with this, I blew the whiskers with 50V PSU. They had grown under the nixie driver. Invisible to the eye but a neat flash when it blew.

[@phonotical]

Crystalisation in the presence of atmospheric moisture, maybe try coating the board or around the switch construction ? Definitely being leeched out

[@Z0DI4C]

There's a very similar failure that's often confused with Tin Whiskers, and that's Electrochemical Migration (ECM). Any amount of halogen/halide (most often bromide) contamination along with high humidity and an electric potential -- such as across an on/off switch -- will lead to the growth of dendrites. (Tin Whiskers occur from different causes, like stress in the solder.) None of the big channels on KZbin ever made videos about it, so I had no idea it was a thing until I had some very expensive persistent failures. Any time I reflowed the shorted pins the shorts would go away and come back the next day. The shorts were on the order of 2-80 ohms in this case. Changing to aerospace-grade zero-halogen solder (or applying a heavy amount of flux cleaning) solved it.

[@BRUXXUS]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that accidentally melts tiny plastic PCB components on accident. haha. This tin whisker problem is so fascinating.

[@6581punk]

It's an old problem that resurfaced due to the reformulation of solder to remove the lead.

[@randomsteve4288]

The question is where the whiskers were... Between the solder pads due to the formulation of the lead free solder, or inside the switch... But IIRC the contact surfaces in these tactile switches should be Nickel plated not tin plated... And if it is indeed a problem of the internals on the switch, a new one of identical make would probably suffer the same long term fate. So I wonder if the approach of reflowing the solder joints with lead based solder and hoping for the heat to wick into the switch long enough to melt any whiskers within isnt an option...

[@simontay4851]

BY accident, not on.

[@stevebot]

Wow, thanks, I’m used to switches failing hard or soft failures due to outside contamination, but I only considered tin whiskers on board mounted things. I’ll keep this in mind next time I see a failure I can’t attribute to something else. Another curse of low current switch signaling. Food for thought: the ozone is not only sterilizing agents that cause spoilage, but also beneficial live cultures in your cheese and yogurt and elsewhere in foods.

[@tsm688]

it is not sterilizing anything inside the surface. it is just preventing microorganisms from floating around willy nilly.

[@RFC3514]

Nothing in the video confirms the presence of "tin whiskers". It's more likely it was just some contamination inside the switch, possibly even left there during manufacture (ex., metal particles suck in flux residue).

[@TheTruth.K.J.V.]

As a failure analyst working for a MAJOR IC producer now retired. The cause of tin whiskers is the size of the tin crystal. Remember that the IC, plastic, ceramic or switch starts off with a steel or alloy frame. The tin is then electroplated onto the spring steel to create a surface that will receive solder. The problem occurs when the electroplating process is rushed to speed up production. The tin with fast electroplating grows larger ROUGH structures. THESE create points subjected to micro charge points at the atomic level. The tin then reorients to this charge creating whiskers. Our staff would often find shorts between returned product IC leads. Especially on older product showing large grain structure under scanning electron microscopes. Which when brushed the connections between leads would disappear and the product performed as intended. Quality slowing plating made smaller smoother surface crystals and problems stopped. But it was 5 years to get rid of old rushed plating inventories.

[@beardedchimp]

Absolutely fascinating, do you happen to have a paper on it you would recommend? Preferably one with scanning electron microscope images. I love that stuff, found a paper a few years ago showing the actual molecular dendrite formation in lithium ion cells, incredible reading!

[@TheTruth.K.J.V.]

@@beardedchimp Sadly no. It's been a long time and even then it would be proprietary information. I would say that it seems logical because if you leave tin/lead solder out in the weather. The tin lead tends to oxidize and grow a surface that extends roughly off the surface. I had some rosin core in my garage that basically was ruined after years of just sitting in air/humidity.

[@beardedchimp]

@@TheTruth.K.J.V. with that lithium cell dendrite paper, we knew they formed but understanding the conditions under which they visibly form and then grow was unknown. They subjected samples to a large range of temperature fluctuations, high discharge, high currently charging etc. If I remember correctly one of the interesting observations was that while we already knew deeply over discharging lithium ion cells leads to dendrites, we didn't realise that they didn't properly grow until it was recharged. So you'd have these small precursors after reaching this pitiful voltage. When measuring resistance you wouldn't see this low ohm warning of a future short. Yet after charging from that overly discharged state, the dendrites grew rapidly. It's what make battery fires so dangerous, you've abused the cells but it seems ok because they are taking charge. Leave it for a few hours while you go to bed only for the now highly charged battery to internally short. Seeing these dendrites actually form is beyond cool. They'd used effectively a thin slice of various lithium ion anode/cathode/electrolyte chemistry so that it was observable through electron microscopes in real time. As you said it is very sad that some of this valuable research is hidden behind a veil of proprietary information. The entire semiconductor industry is built off the back of globally funded public research. Those companies use that freely given knowledge to create valuable products but are hesitant to give anything back. So much needless electronic waste and fire hazards due to perceived future competitive advantage.

[@JustFuNeverminD]

I thought this video was about a cat named tin whose whiskers had somehow broken the electronic. I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not yet.

[@BRUXXUS]

That would be a fun cartoon!

[@SpikesSoRandom]

I thought it was about the canned cat food manufactured by Mars called Whiskers 😂

[@kernelsmith]

If not a cartoon or comic, then definitely a new nickname for Clive

[@piconano]

I got one of these fridge ozone generators a few years ago after one of your videos. They worked so good, I bought another for my room.

[@lohikarhu734]

I worked in R&D at Nokia, designing LED lighting, and we made a change to so-called "high side" LED drivers, that connect the led cathode directly to the "ground", and control the voltage/current on the positive side, so the there is no higher voltage applied when the LED is off, and the conductors and connectors to the LEDs have voltage applied only when the LEDs are on... There might be nanoamps of leakage, but the voltage will never be higher than the LED Vf with a few nA... anyway, this reduces metal migration possibilities, and corrosion, as well as guaranteeing that a shorted LED will never draw more than the programmed drive current.

[@longrunner258]

Some ICs avoid whiskering by using three-layer nickel/palladium/gold plating (I use them in my own projects when available at a reasonable price), but consumer product makers are unlikely to pony up for that. I don't think anybody would have really minded if lead‑free solder was only mandated in incandescent bulbs (apart from oven and heat lamps, where high‑lead solder is necessary to get a suitably high melting temperature; anyhow heat lamps usually have longer lifespans), the internal connections of primary batteries, or similarly disposable items. Power switches normally use silver alloy contacts, while quality signal/logic switches may use gold contacts; but in these cheap buttons, who knows? There *were* actually some campaigns to move away from lead-acid car batteries at around the same time RoHS came in, but nothing seemed to come of them… (The EU bureaucrats presumably knew full well that they couldn't stand up to the battery industry, so ended up issuing RoHS as just another token “feel-good” gesture. Obviously lithium-ion and NiMH are more expensive and weren't so mature in the early 2000s, but the new sodium-ion batteries should help in the cost regard… CRTs were also exempt, so the last few years of CRT production used lead‑free solder despite containing far more lead in the glass anyway.)

[@tsm688]

the problem with lead isn't the circuit boards -- we're not eating them -- but the mining and manufacturing of them. Same with mercury. We're fine, the people we're forcing to mine, refine, and sculpt them into intricate shapes are not. Car batteries at least are the most recycled product on the planet. We don't have to do a lot of mining for those.

[@lloydevans2900]

I thought the lead-free solder (which is typically 99% tin with 1% copper, though some types can also contain silver) had the higher melting point than the old 40% lead, 60% tin solder used for electronics? In fact I just checked by looking up the melting points, and all the varieties of lead-free solder I found had significantly higher melting points or melting ranges than the leaded types. Unless you mean using pure lead - because that does have a higher melting point (at 327 degrees C), but the term "solder" is usually used to describe metal alloys rather than pure metals. Having said that, it would be possible to do soldering with pure lead if you have a soldering iron capable of the higher temperatures required, so maybe it can be described as solder - I just have never seen it described that way is all.

[@tsm688]

@@lloydevans2900 There are dozens of formulations. A lot of these were hastily invented when no-lead was decreed and their long-term manufacturing defects not discovered until later, with problems we'd consigned to the 19th century like tin whiskers and tin pests suddenly rearing their ugly heads.

[@waylandsmith]

This doesn't account for the benefits to the people making products, who take the brunt of the major harm caused by using lead in electronics. I actually consider myself relatively lucky that I only started electronics as a hobby after the transition from leaded to lead-free products became mature. I have no real experience with the leaded products and I find the lead-free ones to work just fine, but everything I'm using is designed for the higher temperatures required. I suppose I also just don't know what I'm missing? But I love the peace-of-mind knowing that I have a lot less risk soldering without a full ventilation setup. While I doubt that the harm that lead in electronics has caused can be quantified the same way that it is for leaded fuel, seeing the direct and severe mental degradation leaded fuel caused around the world for generations without us taking the threat seriously is terrifying. Lead is an extraordinarily useful material: cheap, plentiful, easy to process, easy to work with and granting amazing qualities when added to other materials, so it's a difficult and expensive process to wean industry off of it by finding alternative materials and processes.

[@longrunner258]

​@@lloydevans2900 Lead-free solders indeed have higher melting temperatures than eutectic (Sn63Pb37) or near‑eutectic (Sn60Pb40) tin‑lead, but only up to 227°C for Sn99.3Cu0.7 (or 232°C for pure Sn, which is rarely used as solder). Oven lamps have to survive up to 300°C, requiring a high‑lead solder (Pb95Sn5 or similar); all the oven lamps I own (including new Philips ones) have the dull, dark grey joints expected of high‑lead solder. There's also zinc-based solder, but that has a much higher liquidus temperature and is mainly meant for soldering aluminium or galvanized steel.

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Please, can you point to the good device you use in the fridge, I want one.

[@lmamakos]

OMG - Clive, you need a StickVise! Save your fingers!

[@markboldyrev8321]

While not denying the tin whisker issue, the switch contacts aren't usually tin-plated AFAIK. I think it's just from the moisture condensing from the cold air in the fridge in this particular case.

[@TheXGamer969]

Pretty sure it wasn’t the fridge one that was faulty, it was one that “was just sitting on a shelf”. At 0:30

[@microwar]

Have one like that with the same problem. Thanx for finding out what it was. Got many of these for my family after seeing one of you're old videos.

[@JoseSilveira-newhandleforYT]

You are very right Clive! There's a reason why the ROHS mandate does not apply to critical equipment (military, medical, etc.) - its unreliability is just too dangerous!

[@simontay4851]

It should not apply to more things. Data centre and telecom/network equipment for example. They are critical equipment.

[@AfterDark33]

As much as lead is good in solder, it’s ultimate for the best that it’s gone considering how much electronic waste gets dumped in landfills, as well as the people working with it on a daily basis in factories.

[@iconoclad]

Never heard of tin whiskers till now. In telecom switching equipment it was standard to place a C/R unit across certain relay contacts to "wet" them. This caused a tiny spark as they opened or closed and this would burn away contamination which otherwise caused high resistance in the contacts.

[@jeffdayman8183]

Tin whiskers are real hard on razors too. (I'm told) 8^) I have had a few small devices exhibit the same symptoms of turning themselves on, and found self-shorted tac switches in them. Cheers!

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Maybe Motorola should rename their phones?

[@lurkersmith810]

When I was in IT, we learned about tin whiskers growing from the galvanized steel supports holding up computer floors. They would break loose and get in the air being blown into mainframe and racked computer systems and cause all kinds of random crashes. Then, later I got into fixing old tube radios and learned about Silver Mica Disease (look it up) where silver in certain capacitors migrates and grows "tentacles" that eventually short out and cause crashing noises in radios.

[@britcom1]

I had no idea that the problem tin whiskers existed. Also I also have a washer with a Start/Pause button so I will take note that it could develop a tin whiskers problem. Thanks Clive.

[@BobMuir100]

Brilliant as always!! Saw little bits of the ‘old’ B I G Clive in this piece, you are terrific mate! Bob England

[@jimmyers8795]

I started Soldering when I was 9, I'm 74 now and I still solder regularily, I've always used Tin Lead solder and for most of my life extraction didn't exist. I've been soldering for 65 years. Will they just shut up and leave us alone, we're fine, we know what we're doing, go away.

[@peteb3365]

i was disappointed when you opened up a circuit board, thought it was a horry movie featuring big clive 🤣🤣😜

[@ksbs2036]

IIRC the Toyota acceleration problems were partially connected to tin whiskers in the throttle pedal unit. Nasty (also horrendous engine software)

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

This puts substance to the expression: Petal to the metal!

[@napalmholocaust9093]

Yesterday was terrible. I spent too much time (15m) around a uv light I put in a damp basement corner. Just want to reiterate the warnings, they are reasonable and then some. It took 5 paracetamol and hours to even keep them open a few seconds, slept it off mostly (kinda have to, not much of a choice). Still hurts but tolerable. Learn from others if you can. I was in the "aww, can't be that bad" camp previously. That was a mistake.

[@ПавелСтадницкий]

*_Lead-based solder is still actively used in the production of military and medical equipment. Under conditions of high vibrations and mechanical loads, lead-free solder joints often crack.._*

[@RFC3514]

Yes, in any situation where it offers a real advantage (not just cheaper production) and the manufacturer takes responsibility for collecting and recycling the products, it can be used. RoHS is mainly to deal with cheap disposable items that end up in the trash and contaminate the soil and water supply (or the atmosphere, if they're incinerated) with heavy metals.

[@CptJistuce]

@@RFC3514 It offers a real advantage in most scenarios. That advantage being increased reliability. The law just only considers reliability important to military and medical equipment, because solder-related failures in those two fields will cause immediate severe negative publicity.

[@jasnic2131]

Hi clive, I had some philips FM 900 two-way radios circa say 1980's that where chock-full of tin whiskers in their ceramic hybrid circuit boards blocks, apparently they used silver solder to solder the components which rendered the whole module useless till they where stripped out and thoroughly cleaned.

[@xeroinfinity]

well, this answered a lot of issues Ive had with these switches. usually replacing them fixed the problem though sometimes tedious. Thanks Clive!

[@kiplinght]

Careless tin whiskers

[@zygmuntthecacaokakistocrat6589]

. . . from a good friend?

[@braddofner]

There's no comfort in the truth, unless it comes from Big Clive!

[@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy]

Should have known better

[@stephenchecksfield632]

Lol 😂 ironically I thought tin whiskers was a brand of cat food 😂

[@SpikesSoRandom]

​@@stephenchecksfield632It is 😂

[@williamsquires3070]

I thought Clive was going to solder his finger to the circuit board there for a second. 😮

[@CometAura]

Wouldn't need a button if he did!

[@andrew051968]

About 15 years ago we had a very expensive DSP card fail in a professional (radio station) audio router. I noticed discoloration around the FPGA & when I examined it under a 10x monocle I could see hairs all over it. I sent photos to the manufacturer who told me about "tin whiskers" and that they were common where a repair was made using lead solder on an unleaded board. They still made us pay several thousand $ Australian to replace it though!

[@eddiekilby]

Thank you for helping me fix crazy acting my big screen tv one of the tactile switches were bad.

[@wisher21uk]

Had that issue on a tv once thanks Clive for explaining the problem 😊

[@matts2700]

Love the electronic component analysis. First time I’ve heard of one of these ozone generators. After reading documentation and research I’m a bit skeptical on the benefit outweighing the cost. It looks like they can become pretty dangerous pretty quickly

[@edattfield5146]

I have a cheap 3xAAA LED lamp meant to stick inside a closet. Push to turn on, push again to turn off. A few months ago the on/off operation changed into on and very dim. Tin whiskers seems like a good explanation of what's happening; I haven't figured out how to get at the switch without destroying it. The amazing part for me is that the batteries have yet to run down.

[@billbucktube]

In a musical manner, “Tin whisker, tin whisker, bridge me a gap” It could be a tune!

[@Boodlums]

I was singing "One tin whisker rides away..."

[@SouravTechLabs]

Tactile switches are highly unreliable. Circuits using such switches should assume that it might short out, and design/program accordingly for max safety! Great video as always, never heard of "tin whiskers" before. Maybe it's due to the tetragonal crystal structure of tin that helps it to protrude from the surface? Strange stuff...

[@hughbrackett343]

I have two sets of cheap wireless ear buds. Both have had the power switch fail stuck in. They still charge and work, but there's no way to turn the charging case off, so by the time I put the buds back in, the case has run down. I can't complain though. They were free.

[@jamesplotkin4674]

Tin whiskers can cause IF coils in vintage radios to fail, but I would assume in those days, they used lead in the solder, too? BTW, Clive, dearest, crocodile leads can be useful and can avoid fumbling about with wires ;-)

[@meltysquirrel2919]

A few years ago one of the major US manufacturers of traffic signal safety equipment had a tin whisker issue related to the relays in their product. Mind you this is a safety device where this is of major concern. The part that gets me is how significant a problem tin whiskers can be but that it is a long-solved one that other considerations have resulted in resurrecting (i.e. I have long been on board with what you said - and it can be $olved). 🙃 And don't get me started on present day engineers grappling with how DC power behaves over distance - yet another example of a long-solved problem that insights are available in hundred plus year old texts. 😕

[@iandeare1]

I've had one of those in my fridge for about three years - it's brilliant, food definitely keeps better. Curiously, not so long ago I read somewhere that lead solder is only banned in industry - not for private use!

[@CotyRiddle]

That is true you can still purchase leaded solder but it is pretty expensive now.

[@slapnut892]

Came for the one minute please, stayed for the ozone.

[@antiheldd.3081]

Big Clive, gentleman and ozone dealer.

[@Roethorn_pb]

I had to comment for the 1:24, yes I would say they are doing "weird shi- *drops t* :)". The camera-video doesn't seem to be able to show it well, could you describe the pattern as flickering intermittently?

[@gfilion]

A bit disappointed he didn’t say anything about “careless whiskers” though…

[@olsmokey]

I don't know if you recall those Phillips 'E-cells' they used as countdown timers in the old days. It was a small glass tube with an electrode at each end and filled with (I think) a silver solution. They were used by passing a small current through the cell and after a while a metallic whisker would grow from one end to another. After a time determined by the current, the two electrodes would short out and that cell had done it's job. The time delay could be in the months or years and was used to measure operation time as an equipment 'overhaul' alarm.

[@aaronag7876]

Great video, as usually. Not sure if you have covered it before, but could you do a look at the cheap DVR cctv systems like Zosi and their 240v plug split to 4 12v connectors. Ive gone through 2 of these in a year, either smell of burning or just didnt work.

[@MirlitronOne]

Tin whiskers - ah yes, a problem we solved decades ago, along with leaking batteries. Now back in the shops!

[@robinbrowne5419]

Never having heard of tin whiskers before, the image that jumped into my mind upon reading the title was Clive who had somehow turned his whiskers to tin. Well.. if anyone could do it, it would be Clive and he has the perfect whiskers for it.

[@d.t.4523]

I think my girlfriend has tin whiskers syndrome. Thank you, keep working.

[@derek8564]

Hard on razors is she 😁

[@karachaffee3343]

I built audio equipment professionally for 25 years and when lead free solder became the rage , I tried it. It was like soldering with curdled goat cheese and the joints looked like crap. I went back to good old leaded. The military won't use lead free. Neither will I.

[@miamimercenary]

You are the king of ozone gadgets.

[@gertbenade3082]

I had a similar but WAAAAY smaller switch on a wifi router a while ago. After destroying the switch I realised that my heat gun would have probably worked better. The router now has to be reset with a pair of tweezers shorted accross the pads... But seeing Clive struggle too has made me feel better about my reluctance (read: laziness) to use the heat gun!

[@markkrusemer526]

Hi Clive, another good video tip. Can you please let us know which O3 unit you purchased or which fridge deodorizer is recommended. The "Ioncare fridge deodorizer" was very popular a few yrs ago, however it appears to be very scarce these days.

[@Christophers-Assorted-Stuff]

Whiskers grow in some of the old Germanium AF116/7 transistors as used in 60's radios. Sometimes tapping the transistor breaks the whisker and they can continue to work for a while. I found that a vibrating instrument of some kind does a longer lasting cure if you let it rattle against the case. Woud that work on a switch I wonder?

[@merlynsfire1275]

Fantastic information, I've had those symptoms before but not known about tin whiskers and them in switches. AWSOME more learning from ya Sir, fanks squire

[@RFC3514]

Nothing in the video confirms the presence of tin whiskers. It's more likely the switch was simply defective or contaminated (ex., metallic particles stuck in flux residue during manufacture).

[@OmegaGamingNetwork]

Makes me glad I live in a country where I can still buy leaded solder.

[@ryanrising2237]

I didn’t know tin whiskers happened outside of satellites, thanks!

[@mrnmrn1]

I guess this should only be an issue with low quality tactile switches, since the contacts are supposed to be either silver or nickel plated. The cheap ones might use tin plating. This leaky tactile switch issue was a common problem with some models of CRT TVs. Those were good quality switches with silver plating, the issue was the black soot-like dust that the high voltage attracted all around the CRT and covered the switches. Better designs that used key matrix were less affected, but some TVs that used rather high impedance resistor chains with the switches shorting out individual resistors in the chain, those were going crazy when leakage across the switches occured. It was't uncommon for these TVs to do random stuff, like randomly changing channels, ramping up the volume to maximum, switching off and on on their own. The best combination was when it switched on at 3AM with full volume, usually not responding to the remote control until it sensed 'key presses' on the front panel.

[@gamingballsgaming]

This is incredibly fascinating. I just first discovered this phenomenon when I watched this video.. didn't know it was a thing before

[@MegaWayneD]

I often watch American KZbinr Shango066 and a vintage GE Portacolor television he was working on had tin whiskers. He ended up painting the inside of the shielding to fully cure the problem.

[@amorphuc]

Thanks Big Clive! I had never heard of this, very interesting. I've noticed some weirdness in my 2000 Audi with the switch that initiates the driving lights. You have to wiggle it and push it quite a few times to engage it or disengage it. I wonder if that might be the problem - or of course the thing has just worn out. Not sure if they were using tin solder in Germany in 2000. Very cool and yet another useful bit of knowledge gleaned from your channel. Amazing stuff.

[@MrPlytiger]

I had that same issue with a aftermarket ryobi battery, it had the gauge switched on all the time and that caused the battery to drain over time. Replacing the switch fixed the issue.

[@jlucasound]

Wow! Been a long time. I almost forgot about TW's. What a PITA!

[@chuckp3986]

Last year researching AC failures in high sulfur environments, I came across the whiskering phenomenon and the "Tin Commandments"

[@SadieBoxollie]

I spent several years working as an electrical engineer for a company that manufactured inkjet printers. We had to scrap a new printhead design due the microscopic effects of tin whiskers.

[@mycosys]

I dont see why you feel its tin whiskers rather than the disc collapsing, or some other contaminant? I thought i was gonna see dendrites

[@EsotericArctos]

Tin whiskers can be ultra fine sometimes, and I have seen tin whiskers in these switches causing the same issue with leakage, where a "collapsing disc" or other contact issue tends to be more dramatic, like a full short, or a switch failing to operate at all.

[@albert_vds]

@@EsotericArctos If it was plated with tin, then that has nothing to do with lead free solder, though.

[@EsotericArctos]

@@albert_vds True, but I didn't mention the lead free solder in my comment, nor did the one I replied to. I have had tin whiskers in these type os switches before. I believe it is the plating on the switches, not the lead free solder, but my experiene has not been collapsing discs or similar type direct contact failure.

[@albert_vds]

@@EsotericArctos Sorry, it wasn't meant as a negative reaction to what you said. More like a general addition to your comment that it has nothing to do with solder, like Clive points at in the video.

[@EsotericArctos]

@@albert_vds No offense taken

[@tommihommi1]

it makes sense that in the race to make as crappy electronics as possible, corners get cut in the plating process that lead to this happening again.

[@Playingwith3D]

Tin Whiskers. With that title I was thinking you were going to explain why my electric shaver is always dull.😂

[@superdau]

I've opened/repaired/built tons of electronic devices and have never seen tin whiskers let alone had a problem that could trace back to them. I think it's a problem that's blown way out of proportion nowadays (it may have been a problem at the time of switching from leaded to leadfree solder decades ago). I have seen tons of failures caused by shoddy soldering though (manual or by machine). If we talk about push buttons for example, being slightly melted, because they were heated too much. Thea heat also often damages the contacts (makes them oxidize) so their lifespan is greatly reduced. But depending on the environment buttons just die on their own, because the manufacturer skimped on the contact material so the button just develops higher and higher resistance in the pushed state. On those buttons that "push" by themselves, it's, again, manufacturers skimping on materials and using metals that aren't springy enough. Those metal domes you push get flatter and flatter and at some point the button doesn't stay "open" properly.

[@continental_drift]

I discovered from another KZbin channel. To solve the problem of small circuit board roaming around the desk, use a small piece of Blu Tack.

[@aware2action]

The whiskers are more common inside Li-Ion batteries too😮. Especially, if they are allowed to discharge beyond the min voltage, the -whiskers- dendrites grow to short out the anode and cathode. The primary reason, why you don't want to rundown your BEV battery pack(which most likely has a hidden capacity to handle this situation), and the reason, it takes a while to charge from a low state of charge(pumping high current could potentially cause thermal runaway, if whiskers have already shorted to begin with🤔). Now back to the typical Li-Ion cells in consumer devices: Most chargers will not prefer charging them. I have tried a few tricks to get these batteries functional with good success though.

[@AySz88]

To be precise for anyone looking it up, I think these are usually termed dendrites, not whiskers.

[@bhartley1024]

If the fault is in the switch I think it is more likely to be the electroplating on the tactile dome flaking off. I've had a switch fail in this way and when I examined the tactile dome, if had sheets of plating flaking off, shorting it out.

[@MartinE63]

And yet you get so called experts, one I recall being a designer saying lead free solder is ‘better’ and it has no effect on product reliability and longevity. That you can’t realistically distinguish a good solder joint in unleaded from a bad one was glossed over. I gave up trying to discuss this with them a long time ago. A decade or two down the line, and the failures in the field I know I was right. Meanwhile kit from decades earlier still just works. When some distributors were rumoured to be banning sales of leaded solder for ‘non professionals’ (I can’t recall if it was Farnell or RS) I bought a lifetimes supply of leaded, some with silver, and now I know I’ve got more than I will ever use especially when hampered by two cataract lenses corrected for distance, so poor close up vision, and above all the hell of SMD.

[@scoobtoober2975]

At an aerospace company there were tin whiskers that had to be inspected for and corrected. Board suppliers had to be re-found and qc was on top of it. A constant hunt and fix

[@technishn]

Remember seeing cadmium plating whiskers about 30 years ago. Long enough to short out tracks on a circuit board mounted about 10mm above..

[@ferrousallotrope]

Great videos Clive. Can you show the reverse engineering that you do off camera ? That’s the part I’m most interested in, even if the video is 10 hours, I’d watch it

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

Tin whiskers and electrolytic caps drying out are the two biggest problems with most electronics today. When I repair anything, I still use 60/40 rosin solder, as it has the least tin whisker problems, and anything plated with tin gets a solder plating bath if possible to keep the tin whiskers at bay. My equipment also gets recapped if it has any caps that show signs of leaking, as it won't be long till they all start, ad the copper tracks get corroded, and need repairs as well.

[@MikeBucceroni]

I wonder if keeping it in the fridge made it worse. I vaguely remember hearing that tin whiskers grow more in the cold than in warm conditions.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It was on a shelf in the house. Not in use.

[@Eremon1]

I've heard the term "tin whiskers" but didn't understand what they meant fully. I sort of imagined it was some manufacturing issue where little bits of tin contaminated the circuitry. I hadn't thought of lead free soldier growing crystal tendrils. Sorta reminds me of a similar effect in lithium batteries and the growth of lithium crystal structures that grow each charge cycle until they short out the battery internally.