Free sensitive thermal vision
Powered up board drying from acetone.

Powered up board drying from acetone.

My circuit board with MSP430FR normally took ~ 3 mA from 3.3 V line. But one evening, it started taking 200 mA. It seemed to function correctly but the power had to go to somewhere. 200 mA * 3.3 V = 660 mW. It is not enough power to burn the fingers so how can to track it down - use drying solvent. Normally I clean my boards with acetone (but isopropanol is better) so I just wiped that to random components until I noticed that the die part of the MCU was drying much faster than other bits of the board. After replacing the MCU the current consumption dropped back to 3 mA. The resistivity of acetone is in the order or megaohms so no problem with misoperation.

2 thoughts on “Free sensitive thermal vision

  1. I dunno. I measured my acetone before using. Probably there is a chance of dirty acetone being better conductor.

    If you blow something up, it is not my fault.

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