Board burns

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Field PM magnet broke on a plasma flood gun during operation causing the controller to ramp the heater filament current to max (100A@5vdc) to strike a Xenon arc. The highest resistance point was one screw to the diode stack inside the unit.




Bad board on the left, similar board on the right. Completely melted the copper trace top and bottom.


Replaced both sides of the board connection with heavy terminal lugs, kapton tape and solid wiring to the traces. Back in business.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Got lucky it was just a board burn. Its a obsolete PS that's hard to find in working condition on the surplus market.

download.png
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
Wow. nsaspook works with so complex, strange (and I believe somewhat dangerous) devices, the day he will be asked to design a flash light, he will need to stop and think for a while.:p
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Wow. nsaspook works with so complex, strange (and I believe somewhat dangerous) devices, the day he will be asked to design a flash light, he will need to stop and think for a while.:p
The generation of 'Magic Smoke' is a complex and dangerous process. If you burn a chip, please don't breathe too deeply.


The hermetically sealed smoke container is breached, resulting in a component that no longer works.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079

A few small trace burns on a large multi-layer board from a 24vdc I/O short.


Drill out the pad and wire a jumper.
 
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dendad

Joined Feb 20, 2016
4,451
I have a iMac video card that is burnt. But not the same way as above. It was intermittent so I put it in my reflow oven that has not been used for at least a year. Well, I guessed something was not right when I saw the smoke billowing out of it. The temp control has failed, and it reflowed it with vigor!
To make matters worse, my son wondered is it would still work, so like an idiot, I put it back into the iMac and promptly popped something else. The power supply or the motherboard (or both).
This was a real silly thing to do as I had just received the replacement new video card I'd purchased.
I was going to post a picture but sorry, the board is nowhere to be found. I must have tossed it.
 
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cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
The generation of 'Magic Smoke' is a complex and dangerous process. If you burn a chip, please don't breathe too deeply.


The hermetically sealed smoke container is breached, resulting in a component that no longer works.
I'm currently developing a quantum smoke collector (or QSC, for short), whose working principle is to individually trap each smoke particle and to track its history back in time and then build a virtual space-time path that will then allow the user to put the smoke back into the device in an orderly way. Resulting in the miraculous recovery of the malfunctioning chip. :D
 
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Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
I'm currently developing a quantum smoke collector (or QSC, for short), whose working principle is to individually trap each smoke particle and to track its history back in time and then build a virtual space-time path that will then allow the user to put the smoke back into the device in an orderly way. Resulting in the miraculous recovery of the malfunctioning chip. :D
We tried that. The results were unsatisfactory.
IMG_20171219_174432217.jpg IMG_20171217_084708661.jpg
The smoke only collected on the surface of the devices and everything else within the Schwarzschild radius causing the anti-matter engines to implode.
2017-12-18_08-52-07.jpg
 

dendad

Joined Feb 20, 2016
4,451
That board design would have been improved with slots cut under between the large traces under the green resistors.
And, doing that may resurrect the board still.
 
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