Froze a system's motherboard with canned air on a rooftop job

Was up on a roof in Dallas last July doing a commercial panel swap. Hit a solder joint with canned air to test it and condensation dripped right onto the board, killed it instantly. Anyone else ever wreck a controller with a dumb cooling trick?

3 comments

3 Comments

mileslane12d agoTop Commenter

Respectfully, canned air isn't really meant for testing live boards like that. The condensation is pretty much guaranteed if you spray it on a hot component. Sounds more like a lesson in not using a cooling trick when a multimeter would've worked fine.

lily_cooper12d ago

Wait, isn't canned air supposed to be for cleaning dust, not troubleshooting hot solder joints? The condensation's gonna form almost every time you hit a warm component with that cold spray. Next time just touch the joint with a thermal camera or use contact cleaner that won't leave moisture behind.

johnson.river12d ago

Tried that exact thing once and watched a tiny puff of moisture short out the joint I was testing. Multimeter sounds boring but way less embarrassing.