I'm almost done with my HDD/NIC activity flasher....was wondering though since I've made a few booboo's and some of the solders are rather close, I was wondering what I could use to seal it...I know that a lot of cards have that clear/greenish seal paintlike stuff over it covering all the metal...I want to do something liek that...whats a good cheap way to do it? can I just use any non-conductive clear-coat?
Maplin and Rapid sell it in the PCB sections. It comes in a spray bottle shake up the can and apply an even coat and you have a really pro looking circuit board.
I have used hot glue many times. It has even been able to water-proof a couple circuits You can coat it over the whole circuit, then use a heatgun to even the melt out. Also works great for holding parts in their place.
thanx acrimonious...I'll order some for future products...but for the current one, I'm just interested in a cheap DIY solution...at least now I know the stuff is available. which leads to zap's quick fix...thank you very much...I wish I woudl have thought about the hot glue days ago for holding stuff in place...so I can use the hot glue on either side of the board right? even on the components themselves? I love this place, ya'll are so damned helpful.
Ya you can use it on either side. Note if the componets need heatsinks, or get hot the Glue will melt! I used hotglue to water seal a pinhole camera, but the camera got hot enought to melt the glue. So I added a heatsink to the camera, and then hot glued all around it. Then wrapped all the glue in electrical tape, and aluminum tape. In the end, the heatsink is exposed, and does it's job. The glue can still melt, but the tape holds it in, and keeps it water tight.
cool deal. I doubt the HDD flasher will get hot...darlington transistors and opto-isolators...10k, 470 resistors...schottkey diode...12V....don't think it'll be too bad eh?
ive used dbl sided sellotape b4 on a circuit cos this kept it in place as well as insulating it (lots of strips used) but if theres a sharp pin it could puncture it and make things go fzzzzt but insulation tape is thicker and may be more reliable (ive run out of low heat glue gun sticks otherwise i would use them )
I dropped some hot glue on both sides of my board last night and it actually worked quite well...holds all the metal bits in place making up for my shoddy soldering Best thing is that since I have some wires coming directly off the board...the glue kinda gave them some space before the bending happens...thats a good thing...though once I get the board in one of those little plastic boxes, it won't matter too much... Thanx for the idea Zap
I personaly use epoxy or model glue, it works quite well. I would have never thought about hot glue, nice one Zap!
the one thing i really like about using hot glue is that it CAN be reheated and molded... this gives a individual sculpting edge to things... great idean zap
Thanks for all the praise guys. Hot glue is the best, it doesn't go rock hard, so you can remove/modify it later. It leaves nothing behind when you remove it, and it is not hot enough to damage components. I am actualy using hot glue as a light guide/defuser on the buttons of my Media PC. I did something similar at this link, but I will write a better guide once I actualy build it. (Yes I know this mod looks like crap) http://www.zapwizard.com/Lighted_Router
i tried that a while ago by just scooping out holes in the glue stick itself and embeding 3 mm leds in it at intervals it worked quite well really but it seems to look better after its been heated and set again hmmmm wonder why
