Need advice: 48SX battery leak repair

[Scott Newell]

I caught it early (only the lower negative contact was affected), and cleaned the contact with Q-tips and vinegar, water, and alcohol. Looks pretty good, from what I can see. (Maybe a dot or two of green stuff on the backside of the contact--hard to say.)

However, the bottom row of keys are making a sorta wet squishy sound, so I'm concerned that I may have wicked the vinegar into the keypad. What's my best option for cleanup at this point? I'd really rather not open the case.

Dip the bottom inch of so in distilled water, then let it dry out for a week or so?

I wonder if Duracell will send me a coupon to make up for it.

[Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)]

H, Scott;

Quote:

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Dip the bottom inch of so in distilled water, then let it dry out for a week or so?

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I am not quite sure about this, but I'd try it myself if the calculator is mine.

If you do that, please, let us know.

Success!

Luiz (Brazil)

[Iqbal]

Luiz, congrats on your country Brazil hosting the 2014 world cup. I sent a few calculators that had battery problems (exploding, leaking, corroded contacts etc) and Randy from fixthatcalc.com fixed them up as good as new. I know he is stacked up with work, but if you treasure your HP like myself, the wait shouldn't be a problem. Luiz, I know the distill water works for dirt and stuff, but I am not sure if it'll work for battery leaks.

[Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)]

Hello, Iqbal; long time no talk...

Are you using SUBDIV yet? I was 'organizing and cleaning my attic' (my house has no attic, just a figure of speech...) and found many program listings, amongst them what seems to be SUBDIV´s last version. Good days, though...

Thanks for your mentioning the soccer (football?) world-series cup. I just hope our country, meaning people and government, makes to deserve it... There are many major problems to be fixed in Brazil prior to welcome tourists all over the world the way it must be done. Well, time will tell. I´m an optimist, just do not believe in miracles, I believe in people´s will and hard work. Miracles work well in the big screen, not that much in real life.

About the HP48 and the leakage: I considered that, at least, we'll have the alkaline leakage being diluted in distilled water, reducing its action for the moment. My advise (and this is something I'd do, actually) would be to remove the batteries and dip the bottom part of the calculator in distilled water till the water covers the battery compartment. Gently shake it and allow the water to pass through it, dissolving the alkaline solution. I'd repeat the process at least three times, with new amount of distilled water. THEN... I'd allow it to dry a little bit while setting the arrangements with Randy to send it to fixthatcalc d8^)

Once, I was given an HP48G that stopped working for good. I opened it and part of the internal metal frame was corroded by leakage (the owner had told me about that). The problem is that the leakage also corroded the carbon-based tracks of the flex keyboard circuit, hence the nonworking condition. I did not have conductive tape, but I decided to try to rebuild it with conductive ink, only to see what happened. I did not succeed putting it to work, though...

Not much of a help, but at least I cleared some points out. Thnaks, Iqbal; good reading from you.

Success!

Luiz (Brazil)

Edited: 12 Oct 2009, 11:36 p.m.