12 May
2014
12 May
'14
2:59 p.m.
I picked up a little old Tandy 1650 chess game this morning. Batteries are
still in it, of course, corroded to heck and back again - but thankfully
the PCB seems unharmed.
The lower half of the case shell is just the battery compartment and one of
those disc-type piezo buzzers, with lugs on the case melted to hold the
buzzer in place. After treating the battery terminals, can I dunk the case
half - buzzer and all - in water? I'm not sure if those buzzers are sealed
units or if water will end up where it shouldn't be and cause damage.
The actuall buzzer element (note, I've seen it called a 'bender' in at
least one manual...) is a metal disk with the piezo crytal (circular) on
one side wit h a metal film ptaed onto it. I don't think the crystals
used in modern piezo buzzers are damaged by water (the crystals used in
some older record player cartridges _were_ affected by high humidity).
In some cases this disk is fitted into a plstic hosuing, which has an
obvious hole to let the sound out. Those housigns ae clearly nt
waterprrof anf watre is likely to stay inside them. Not a good idea.
In the case of the bare disk, I would be worried about water getting
trapped between the disk and the unit's case and causing problems later.
-tony