Removing debris from PCB












2












$begingroup$


I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging







share|improve this question











$endgroup$








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago
















2












$begingroup$


I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging







share|improve this question











$endgroup$








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago














2












2








2





$begingroup$


I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging







share|improve this question











$endgroup$




I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging




pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 7 hours ago









Michael Karas

44.4k348103




44.4k348103










asked 7 hours ago









TonyTony

31019




31019








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago














  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    7 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    6 hours ago








1




1




$begingroup$
Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
$endgroup$
– K H
7 hours ago




$begingroup$
Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
$endgroup$
– K H
7 hours ago












$begingroup$
compressed air?
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
7 hours ago




$begingroup$
compressed air?
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
7 hours ago












$begingroup$
Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
$endgroup$
– Tony
6 hours ago






$begingroup$
Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
$endgroup$
– Tony
6 hours ago














$begingroup$
Who did the soldering?
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
6 hours ago




$begingroup$
Who did the soldering?
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
6 hours ago












$begingroup$
Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
6 hours ago




$begingroup$
Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
6 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















6












$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago











Your Answer





StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");

StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("schematics", function () {
StackExchange.schematics.init();
});
}, "cicuitlab");

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "135"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2felectronics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f425459%2fremoving-debris-from-pcb%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









6












$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago
















6












$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago














6












6








6





$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$



The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 7 hours ago









Michael KarasMichael Karas

44.4k348103




44.4k348103












  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago


















  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    6 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    6 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago
















$begingroup$
I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
$endgroup$
– Tony
6 hours ago




$begingroup$
I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
$endgroup$
– Tony
6 hours ago












$begingroup$
You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
$endgroup$
– Hearth
6 hours ago




$begingroup$
You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
$endgroup$
– Hearth
6 hours ago












$begingroup$
Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
$endgroup$
– Tony
6 hours ago






$begingroup$
Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
$endgroup$
– Tony
6 hours ago














$begingroup$
Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
$endgroup$
– The Photon
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
$endgroup$
– The Photon
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
4 hours ago


















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2felectronics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f425459%2fremoving-debris-from-pcb%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







-

Popular posts from this blog

How to label and detect the document text images

Image
1 $begingroup$ This is what I mean as document text image: I want to label the texts in image as separate blocks and my model should detect these labels as classes. NOTE: This is how the end result should be like: The labels like Block 1, Block 2, Block 3,.. should be Logo, Title, Date,.. Others, etc. Work done: First approach : I tried to implement this method via Object Detection, it didn't work. It didn't even detect any text. Second approach : Then I tried it using PixelLink. As this model is build for scene text detection, it detected each and every text in the image. But this method can detect multiple lines of text if the threshold values are increased. But I have no idea how do I add labels to the text blocks. PIXEL_CLS_WEIGHT_all_ones = 'PIXEL_CLS_WEIGHT_all_ones' PIXEL_C...
Read more

Vallis Paradisi

Image
Coordinata: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap} 33°03′S 71°37′W  /  33.05°S 71.617°W  / -33.05; -71.617 Vallis Paradisi Res apud Vicidata repertae: Civitas : Chilia Numerus incolarum : 296 655 Zona horaria : UTC-4 Situs interretialis Nomen officiale : Valparaíso Gubernium Consilium : municipal council of Valparaíso Geographia Superficies : 401 600 000 Metrum quadratum Coniunctiones urbium Urbes gemellae : Ovetum , Badalona , Santa Fe , Ora longa , Sciamhaevum , Quantunia , Callao , Bat Yam , Melaka , Novorossiysk , Busan , Corduba , Odessa , Rosario , Malacca , Barcino , Soteropolis , Franciscopolis (California) , Guanajuato, Silao Tabula aut despectus Despectus in portum sinumque et urbem Vallis Paradisi Vallis Para...
Read more

Tabula Rosettana

Image
Tabula multilinguis Rosettana in Museo Britannico ostenditur. Tabula Rosettana, [1] etiam titulo OGIS 90 agnita, est stela decreto de rebus sacris in Aegypto anno 196 a.C.n. lato inscripta. Tabula iuxta Rosettam Aegypti, urbem in delta Nili et ad oram maris Mediterranei iacentem, anno 1799 a milite Francico reperta est. Inventio stelae, linguis duabus scripturisque tribus inscriptae, eruditis Instituti Aegypti statim nuntiata est; ibi enim iussu imperatoris Napoleonis eruditi omnium scientiarum (sub aegide Commissionis Scientiarum et Artium) properaverant cum expeditione Francica. Qua a Britannis mox debellata, tabula Rosettana Londinium missa hodie apud Museum Britannicum iacet. Textus Graecus cito lectus interpretationi textuum Aegyptiorum (in formis hieroglyphica et demotica expressorum) gradatim adiuvit. Denique textum plene interpretatus est Ioannes Franciscus Champollion. Ab opere eruditorum cumulativo coepit hodiernus scripturae hieroglyphicae linguaeque Aegyptiae a...
Read more