leos61•28d ago

Spilled coffee all over my hand-wired build and nearly lost it

I was at my desk in my apartment in Austin last night, just putting the finishing touches on this ortho board I've been tweaking for two months. Had it open on the table, all the diode legs trimmed neat, controller soldered in perfect, and then boom - my elbow caught my mug and sent maybe 60 bucks worth of cold brew straight into the matrix. Coffee just soaked right into the hand-wired rows and columns before I could even react. I yanked the USB cable out so fast I nearly tore the connector off the Pro Micro. Ended up spending the next three hours with a hairdryer on low heat, Q-tips dipped in 91% isopropyl, and a ton of careful dabbing around every single joint. Some of the flux residue turned into this nasty brown goo from the coffee. I got it mostly booted back up but the 'L' key keeps double-registering intermittently now and I'm wondering if I should just rebuild the whole wiring from scratch. Has anyone else salvaged a board after a liquid disaster like this or am I looking at a full teardown?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_adams28d ago

Holy hell, 60 bucks worth of cold brew? That's a tragedy before you even get to the board. I'd be crying over the spilled coffee and the keyboard at the same time.

leelewis28d ago

Wait, does that mean the coffee costs more than your keyboard?