IC pin corrosion

19 Jul 2006

...
    Incidnetally, I
have heard of a TV set that leaked water onto the floor,
and no the cause was not a vase of flowers on top of it. Any ideas?

-tony 
 Electrolytic capacitor. 
 No. It was (fairly pure) water. Not electrolyte, transformer oil [1],
 cat pee, or anything like that. And it kept on happening. A pool would
 form, it would be mopped up, then the pool would come back. And the set
 continued to work, although the picture was poor.  
 Rain coming down the antenna lead (assuming an outdoor antenna, of course)? 
Very close. 

UK TVs (even back in the 405 line era) tend to use a 75 ohm coaxial 
aerial cable (not a flat twin 300 ohm one that's popular in the States). 
This cable often had an air-spaced insulator between the centre core and 
the braind, and thus there were channels the full length of the cable.

The aerial terminal box had developed a water leak. Rain came in there, 
ran down the channels in the cable (not down the outside), then came out 
inside the coaxial plug at the back of the set and ended up on the floor. 

Of course this messed up the properties of the cable, hence a weak signal 
and a poor picture.

-tony

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IC pin corrosion