What's that smell?
ElectricAye
Posts: 4,561
Okay, I know this might seem like a dumb question but I'm curious because I'd like to know what sort of trace chemicals are wafting around in my lab during experiments: What exactly is the source of that smell you detect when electronic things are getting hot? Is it the fumes from a polymer inside the PCB board material itself? Is it some kind of chemical used in soldering? something inside capacitors that is starting to vaporize? random microscopic flakes of human skin turning slowly to smoke? It seems universal, ubiquitous, and (thanks to my special skills) occurs all too often. Anybody happen to know?
Comments
Resistors and ceramic capacitors use ceramic for a substrate with various conductors / carbon materials deposited on them all of which are pretty temperature resistant. Electrolytic capacitors do have an electrolyte that could be vaporized, but there aren't as many of those on any given PCB. Resistors and active components (transistors, diodes, ICs) are what would normally get hot first.
Any flux from soldering should have been washed off any commercial boards. Solder mask and other paint for markings would still be present, but wouldn't normally get too hot.
-Phil
And I wonder: once we all start donning wearable electronics, will the entire human race end up smelling like that?
-Phil
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Lardom, and I sit here wondering what your icon is a picture of. A porta-potty from outside the Pollux star system?
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Watching the world pass me by, one photon at a time.
Here I've been working under the assumption that the aroma/odor is either:
A) Gods way of telling us we have an "oops".
or
All this stuff about epoxy, phenol, formaldehyde, out-gassing, etc. just plain takes all the fun out of it.
Please, PLEASE, don't any ask about the Easter Bunny...
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John R.
Click here to see my Nomad Build Log
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Whit+
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
To attraction for "geek" chics. Could work like aftershave...
As for the smell.. Sorry, had mexican for lunch.. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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Are you Propeller Powered? PropellerPowered.com
Visit the: PROPELLERPOWERED SIG forum kindly hosted by Savage Circuits.
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Whit+
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
Whit,
you wouldn't happen to be related to this guy, would you?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXVGQnJm0w
Well, I've been heating him for hours over one of my power circuits and so far.... just smells like singeing fur.
Duffer
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Any technology, sufficiently developed, is indistinguishable from magic.· A.C. Clark(RIP)
As long as he's real, I'm OK with that... He'll be able to do his magic to get out in time to delivery my basket of goodies!
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John R.
Click here to see my Nomad Build Log
How 'bout the Ether Bunny?
-dan
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Arguing with myself--sometimes me, myself, and I don't always agree.
(Former) Caterpillar product support technician
That has been proved to be entirely fictitious.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson–Morley_experiment
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·"If you build it, they will come."