Tip for cleaning small parts in ultrasonic cleaner: Add cleaning solution and parts in a small glass jar and put that jar in the cleaner filled with water. Easier to clean and no need to use so much cleaning solution. Especially handy, when some small parts require different cleaning solution than what is normally used.
@@pianoguy5110 I meant how it may affect the frequency & hence the cleaning or the glass itself. Some cleaners have frequency sweeps so can a glass reach resonant frequency & crack? It's been a while since I've read these so pardon me if my questions are dumb lol..
I'm working in a company which uses ultrasonic baths a lot. Funny thing is, that the Aluminium Foil Tests are officially performed regularly to make sure every ultrasonic bath is working properly. It apparently is the best way to make sure everything is all right without the need of disassembling the machines all the time.
Are thin bits like foil the main concern? I see the cavitation damage in stuff like that and get spooked. But between this video, and @Applied Science ‘s frequent use of these i’m *i n t r i g u e d*
We use ultrasonic baths at work as well. We have a watt/frequency meter now, but used to use foil for testing. I have also used a mechanics stethoscope to see if the transducers were working
@@ericlotze7724 to clean products, we put them in the containers filled with isopropyl alcohol and then submerge these in the ultrasonic bath. The sound waves go through the container and get to the products anyway. There's no risk of contamination with aluminum flakes.
Great point, I watch many people clean and refurbish mechanical watches, while the gears are in the washer they often take that time to clean the watch lens and housing, it effectively cuts down the time the watch is being cleaned. I clean some things with an ultrasonic cleaner I bought for about $100 usd, can't say if it's a "great" cleaner, but it definitely is effective and I can do other things while it's cleaning and also the parts tend to come out much cleaner in the "nooks and crannies" than I could do with my own hands.
@@jetjazz05 those nooks and crannies can be such a pain! I need to bump up my ultrasonic game… I only have a tiny one that’s made for things like rings at the moment
Just to add something further to be cautious about: Do not clean MEMS-devices (accelerometers, gyrometers, microphones) in an ultrasonic cleaner, they will break. I think 'breaking taps' made a video explaining the matter further.
I wrecked a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium phone exactly like that. Both microphones busted. Accelerometer busted. Gyrometer busted. Everything else -> Very Clean. 🙂 Having previously watched over 1 million TH-cam videos where ultrasonic cleaners were used to clean smartphone PCBs, I somehow strangely enough still wasn't an expert on the topic, hehe.
It's also worth mentioning that if you DIY, the basket is an essential part of the machine - they only do their job right if things do not sit directly on the bottom.
Love this series, but what I really love is that you made an effort to reverse engineer the board to see if it's something we can make ourselves. Really appreciate that kinda effort.
The DIY solution will get interesting if you mount the transducers onto your steel kitchen sink. Big volume and you can clean your dishes by ultrasonic and release the waste water directly ;)
I dont think the resonant frequencies would bode well for the fittings of the plumbing or the silicone bead between the sink and countertop surface. On top of that there is far more mass for the transducers to need to vibrate if we are talking about a proper steel sink, plus the added mass of the countertops they are attached to providing resistance. Even if you could overcome the amount of mass that would need to vibrate with some beefy transducers/power output, the end result would likely be LOUD and over time cause considerable damage to the surrounding materials. All that aside, I would rather be wrong about this and also want to see somebody actually build it! 😂
Heated water and nearly any detergent works well. I use a product here in Australia called "simple green". But I think any basic dishwashing liquid works well. The main benefit with these is when you're cleaning "fiddly" things, with small internal ports or cavities, like a carburetor or brake parts.. The Ultrasonic/heat/cleaner will get into the smaller areas that are just too fiddly otherwise and importantly do no damage. Plus you can get on with other tasks as the cleaner works.
I've been cleaning batches of PCBs a lot and let me tell you, PCB cleaning solution works wonders (EMAG Platinenreiniger in my case). It is specifically made for getting rid of flux and solder balls and will clean an entire tank full of boards to almost perfection.👌 Heating it to something like 60 C will also make a huge difference.
You might want to take a closer look at your solder paste and soldering process, so many solder balls are definitely not normal, we have like at most 1-2 per board and those usually fall off easily. It might even be bad flux.
I think the SMD resistors being all wonky is also kinda telling that his reflow soldering process isn't quite there yet, because usually they would mostly align themself while baking if you applied the right amount of paste and placed them properly; at least from my experience.
Yes, I also had some concerns about the soldering. I'm guessing the paste he is using doesn't have enough flux or perhaps doesn't have the right flux. Proper flux should increase the surface tension of the solder and both help with self-alignment of the components and also prevent loose solder balls.
I one had some boards that were full of solder balls after reflow. It ended up just being a case of expired solder paste. We learned that T5 solder paste is much more prone to degradation than the regular T3/T4 stuff.
I couldn't live without my ultrasonic cleaner, whether it's cleaning electronics, water-damaged electronics, or even for cleaning fossils - it's simply brilliant. I only have an inexpensive one from Aldi, but it does the job perfectly in my opinion, although you might need to wait a bit longer.
@@Hyzerwyzer Yes, but it should only be done for private purposes, as it can also damage the fossils. Often, water can penetrate into small gaps between the fossil and the rock and "break it free."
@@cherylm2C6671 Normally not, but no guarantees. It's always better to clean delicate items by hand, especially when dealing with important circuit boards. It's best to try it out on boards where it wouldn't be a big issue if they got damaged. It also heavily depends on the strength of your cleaner. With the one I have from the discount store, nothing gets damaged, but industrial cleaners can be more risky.
@@MarcelSchr MarcelSchr, thank you. It seemed that ultrasonics would be better for mechanical components. 3M has a component bath that I think should work at KHz or lower frequencies since it won't cavitate ?
Generally, with appropriate cleaning agents in the ultrasonic, such as Branson or EMAG products, cleaning should be capped out at 1-3 minutes, to avoid unecessary damage to certain components on the PCB, of course heating should always be used, at around 60-70c
I own Two ultrasonics. One for cleaning Tarnished jewelery (I'm the maker) and one for cleaning 3d resin parts. I find them both invaluable for my proceesses. There are a great tool when you are doing low run production work because they reduce labor time.
I've always wanted an ultrasonic cleaner as I do LOTS of microscopic hand soldering on PCBs, and cleaning flux residue is an absolute nightmare that takes up at least half the time I spend diagnosing, fault-finding, and even repairing the damaged circuits. One of the most important things I've noticed in regards to ultrasonic cleaners (and whether or not they're recommended for use on electronics) is if they feature a sweeping frequency. My understanding of this feature is it prevents the creation of standing waves within the solution. In normal operation, you will have various regions of high turbulence and cavitation, and regions with absolutely none. This is due to interference patterns emerging in the solution. Sweeping is meant to solve this problem, by causing the transducers to operate at a variable frequency. This creates a far more uniform distribution of turbulence, and therefore, the cavitation which causes microscopic water bubbles to cling to debris and gunk and pull it away. I think the reason you were having so many issues, even prior to using a specialized cleaning solution, is because this particular ultrasonic cleaner doesn't feature sweeping. It kind of makes sense that sweeping would be desired for electronic circuits, because you often have MANY small parts (the SMD components), all with various quantities of goo and debris between them. A non-sweeping cleaner would likely have lots of problems with getting cavitation bubbles to occur in all of these nooks and crannies. I also expect the full-wave/semi-wave setting on that cleaner you got is meant to create a different interference pattern in the solution. Semi-wave probably results in smaller interference patterns, which interestingly could provide better cleaning results? Maybe? The only problem with the sweeping cleaners is they are ASTRONOMICALLY more expensive. Once you get into sweeping cleaners, you're easily looking at price tags upwards of $1,000 or more! I'd be really interested in seeing a DIY attempt at creating a sweeping cleaner. I have no idea why they're so expensive, as I can't imagine it takes much more to just alter the frequency the transducers are running at. But they must be so expensive for a reason, right?
I've found I get better results with heated water, which is why the modern cleaners have a temperature controlled heater built in Also if you have those special coatings on you're glasses (like auto darkening) it might not be a good idea to put them in there
@@greatscottlab One other important thing I've noticed. It will strip the zinc or black oxide coating from nuts and bolts. Plus can damage paint. Other thing to note is some cleaners are acidic, so may need to be neutralized.
@@arthurmoore9488 you can use kitchen cleaner and that is equally effective. Also you can put the detergent with a little water in a ziplock bag with the item and then put it in the cleaner.
Also, ultrasonic cleaners will wiggle all the micro-cracks along the edge of your lenses, and eventually bigger and bigger cracks will form. My glasses were clean all the time, but the lenses lasted only a year or two when I was cleaning them this way just occasionally.
One important thing to note: transducers should not be powered on unless mounted and the container filled to the proper volume. Testing them on the bench like that can actually damage them, with an end result that they run hotter, work less efficiently (or not at all), and also require more power from to driving circuit (which creates more heat). Even if they work perfectly fine though, i haven't seen any that didn't create enough heat to need active cooling for the circuitry. (Another note on safety: having touched an active transducer bare-handed before I can say it's definitely not recommended)
@@yugaindiranmarimuthu7310 well, I specifically touched the side of the center metal disk in the transducer. Instant 2nd degree burn in a short line on my finger plus numbness and muscle twitchiness in my forearm for half an hour or so. Not my proudest moment. I was trying to avoid touching anything "live" but mistakes happen. At the very least I was properly doing the one-hand method of having the other hand well away from the shocky bits or any grounding or it might have ended much worse. I was also mistaken that I thought transducers were much lower voltage.
Also from the safety point of view - Keep your fingers, or any other body parts, well away from the water/solution in the tank. At those frequencies, human tissue will emulsify quite readily, even though you may not feel it. It's not worth risking your fingers just save a few seconds while turning things over, or putting things into and out of the tank. My own ultrasonic cleaner recommends placing parts horizontally, and points out that the cleaning is more effective on the underside of the items being cleaned (i.e. facing the transducers).
Just consider what you saw the ultrasonic cleaner do to the aluminum foil in the video. It will do the same to your hard tissue (bone). Keep fingers out till it is turned off.
@@michaelfalter6200 I think not exactly the bone but the next soft thing in contact with the bone. Put otherwise, the cavitation bubbles could strip off the periosteum! That can hurt for months...
I'm very happy for your success over the last few years. I remember when you weren't sure if this channel was going anywhere, but I'm very happy to see that you didn't give up.
I was told by a lab technician friend that you should put the water/cleaning solution in slowly, with the cleaner turned on, and stop filling when you get the strong ripples on the surface of the water as at this point the system is at resonance and the cleaning is more effective.
I just ran into this problem this week with a project for the first time. I needed a heavy amount of flux and brushing with alcohol was taking forever to get a proper clean. Thank you algorithm.
I have to say that the soldering on the PCBs looks horrible, you should try some fresh / different paste, and a higher temperature as well. The one that you are using doesn't melt properly, so it forms balls and doesn't pull components into their spots. As a tip, try mixing the paste with a bit of wet flux before applying, I found that this often helps to get better soldering results
yeah I noticed that some solder paste works better than others. Sometimes, for small batch, I just do manual "wave soldering" with soldering iron, a good solder wire and some extra liquid flux, they're easier to clean up, and no solder balls. For large batch I just use the pcb assembly service.
You can also use dish soap / water in a 1:10 ratio with a dash of ammonia (yes). Way cheaper than ultrasonic cleaning solutions and does the job just fine!
I used to do pcb/microsoldering in a previous job. We cleaned finished PCBs in what was basically a high tech dishwasher. As long as none of the components on the board are moisture sensitive, you can just use warm soapy water. Dry the board in the oven at about 60 degrees c.
Just for Great Scott and other's edification: I use a fine paint brush to remove the solder and then microfiber cloth to soak up the used alcohol. I go through microfiber cloths but they are pretty inexpensive.
I have a tool for holding slotted screws, as you slide one part down the blade get fatter and grip the screw slot. Its so handy for getting difficult to reach screws started. But the ultrasonic cleaners have come a long way price and cleaning power Great video 2x👍
I normally skip past ads in videos, but I stayed to watch the Knipex ad. I love their tools, and I'm so glad they have started sponsoring youtubers. I'm not a content creator, but I too hope to one day be sponsored by Knipex.
I used to assemble these for a family owned company, the trick we found to producing a high efficiency product was to use an old fashioned VALVE AMPLIFIER TUBE, it produced a rougher frequency wave than transistors and ic's. Therefore a superior cleaning experience even on commercial cleaning units the size of a large sink (many, many, many, many, transducers). The rougher frequency curve also works better on ultrasonic therapy units, but not for Ultrasonic Imaging Units.
Alconox 8 detergent is what I use to clean my boards. Works great and boards come out absolutely spotless. Be careful with crystals and electrolytic capacitors.
I wish I could peek inside the ultrasonic watch cleaner my father had in the early 60's. It had a unique sound that modern ultrasonic cleaners lack and cleaned faster too. The bubbles were more abundant too. It had 4 round compartments with different solutions in each and round mesh baskets to fit each compartment. Considering how new transistors were in that era I'm curious if it maybe used some other type of electrical components to generate the pulses? That may partly explain it's strange sound. It would clean any dirt under your finger nails in a minute!
That's so cool! I'd always thought that ultrasonic cleaner started its developement in the 80s or so. High voltage, high power pulses were surely provided by vacuum tubes, probably some kind of power high frequency oscillator that coupled to a transducer via a transformer. At least that's what I think could be used. Of course different characterstics led themselves to different resonance frequencies and hence the different sound. Otherwise, maybe some kind of scaled down alexanderson alternator, to be run on mains voltage could theorically work?
@@willjackson1955 Looks like my comment was removed. Bulova made these devices and there's schematics on the net. Shows two tubes inside. I'd love to see this channel recreate it from the schematic or maybe a transistor version.
Save on the cleaning solution by placing the object inside a ziplock bag (with the cleaning solution like alcohol) and then place that into the water bath heated up to at least 40ºC
I've cleaned circuit boards with regular dishwashing soap, tap water and a tooth brush, a rinse with tap water, and a final rinse with distilled water and jet-dry. They very often finnish looking brand new.
@GreatScott! - When you were manually cleaning your boards, you were not using enough alcohol. The trick is to get an oversized tub filled with enough IPA to fully submerge your circuit card assembly (CCA) and then take your brush and scrub the board in the IPA. This way the residual flux dissolves into the alcohol and gets washed away rather than simply spreading around the rest of the board like the method you showed in your video does. When I used to work at a MIL/Aero engineering company, we would use a 3-tray IPA cleaning process on space flight boards if the customer was picky and wouldn't allow our batch cleaning process. The idea was you had three tubs with 99% IPA in them, the first was the "dirty" one and is where you started the board cleaning process. Once you scrubbed as much flux off in the "dirty" tray as you could, you would move your board to the second tray which was by nature cleaner IPA than the first and you'd scrub again. Once you were satisfied you got it all off in the second tray, you'd move to the third tray which should be nearly pristine IPA still. This will get any residual flux off the board. When done, we would blow dry the board using dry nitrogen. As the second and third trays would eventually get dirty they would be rotated into the first and second positions respectively and the first tray would be dumped and replaced with fresh IPA to become the new third tray. On a separate note, we would NOT use ultrasonic cleaners on flight hardware due to the very real chance that the process would cause damage to the CCAs. For home use it's probably not a big deal, but as an industrial process for high-rel hardware it's a 'no-no'.
I have to say this is the first time I've ever seen knipex sponsor a TH-cam video....as an American that does not have a huge budget for tools I've only owned one pair myself and used tools my employer provided...you have no idea how much you struggle with inferior hand tools until you use good quality tools....ive always just had channel locks and oh my goodness they are just not designed to be used on bolts and nuts...the jaws closing in a linear way was not something I knew existed...i wish i could afford a whole set of knipex hand tools i would use them every day and enjoy them for years lol.
Best solution for the UltraSonic for cleaning PCB's is Electrolube SafeWash Super. I have been using it for about 20 years and it is absolutely awesome.
Saw a guy make an extra large ultrasonic cleaner for antique computer motherboards. Because it was a rare enough size as to not be widely sold it was a great solution for him. So if you have something very large DIY makes sense.
The point in automation is to let the machine do the job. Being faster is not always the point: your dishwasher, your wash machine or your roomba is slower than you but they let you do other things while they work.
The driver circuit looks like a self-excited half-bridge resonant circuit with transformer feedback, similar to the circuit in a fluorescent ballast. And it uses two transformers to transform the impedance of the transducer.
for removing flux residue temperature is very important! I use my ultrasonic for cleaning logic boards after microsoldering repairs, and flux residue is infinitely easier to remove at 70C that it is at 20C
Nice video. English is not my language, i am a producer of transducer and a little more complex generator, gonna try to give some advise: keep in mind that ultrasonic cleaner "add" meccanical force to a solution capable of clean the dirt that you wanna remove; ofc for some kind of dirt, plain water alone will work (like dirt based on emulsifiable oil, sugar) but dont take it as a rule, in many cases you will need specific product. In bigger tank when u first pour in the cleaning solution, make it run for a while to let solution free up entraped air boubles. Do not use distilled water for the cleaning solution instead use it for the final rinse: you will have better result and avoid limestone marks. many cleaning product will give best work between 45 and 60° Celsius; dont fill too much the basket or use the cleaner w/out basket, because you will limit the cleaning capacity. The alluminium test is a cheap but repetible and meaningfull test, one trained person can spot an "end of life" tank by cheking it. Generally the alluminium foil test take about 10 seconds, and good cleaner in that time will make several tiny holes. Avoid to run the transucer w/out liquid inside the tank, or in free air like in this video, you are going to make the transducer overheat.
i use ipa to clean my circuit boards.I pre heat the pcbs, do some scrubbing to losen up those solder balls, and then just clean them for like 2 minutes, I then store the used ipa in a different container to be reused, you can see the dirt/flux settling down after a while after stroring the ipa. ipa is somewhat flammable depending on the purity so do monitor the temperature and do it in a well ventilated area.
At work we put our parts in beakers with the solution we want to use and float them in the water of the machine. We have machine covers with holes the size of the beakers we use in them to keep them from tipping.
I have seen good results if you put a masked PCB with the etchant in a self-lock plastic bag and put in the ultrasonic bath. The etching will be done real fast.
I love my ultrasonic cleaner. I use it for glasses, jewellery, laser engraved items, some PCB parts and also rocks that have been placed in a rock tumbler. Only 3 liters, but big enough for what I need
You can put small parts in a glass jar that you fill with cleaning fluid. This way you can run different cleaning cycles at the same moment using different cleaning fluids.
I think I remember seeing someone else who did a DIY ultrasonic cleaner but had major issues with the transducers detaching over time if not using a specific glue. So it's something worth being aware of despite a DIY ultrasonic cleaner that seems to work initially.
Tip for using ultrasonic cleaners with heating elements: keep the lid closed. Even the quality brands (e.g. German brand Elma) appear to struggle without a lid - I assume it is just is too much surface area that dissipates the heat. E.g. a S 120 H has 800 W of heating power and still does not reach 60 or 70 °C without a lid. Furthermore, lids help reducing the ear-unfriendly noise a bit. By the way - cleaning detergents are usually reusable - you can e.g. judge their remaining cleaing performance by their pH-value (compared to their initial value). Or you just use them until you are not happy with the cleaning results anymore.
I bought a small size ultrasonic. It offered 30-60w power. My field is advanced computer motherboard repair. We tried BGA chip with MR Muscul for testing purposes. The crystal of the chip exploded) so I tried it with 30w. But it is the liquid that is important for cleaning flux. For example, you can try Mr Muscul with distilled water. or try isopropyl alcohol.
We used to clean jet engine electronics in an industrial ultrasonic with 3M Novec. Really got the boards clean and ready for installation into their respective components
I've been using ultrasonic cleaners to clean PCBs for years. I run distilled water and Branson EC (Electronics Cleaner) in a 5% solution. I run it at 60*C and only need to clean the boards for a couple of minutes. After removing from the cleaner, you will want to dip it in a bath of IPA in order to displace any water remaining in small voids, then I dry it in a 120*C oven for an hour to remove any traces of moisture. For PCBs like yours, you probably don't need to go to these lengths, but many of the PCBs that I use this method on have switches and pushbuttons. The IP and dry cycle ensure that there is no water or other moisture left behind anywhere.
Recipe for DIY cleaning solution, 1 squirt of liquid dish detergent + 1-2 bottle caps of Windex (with ammonia), it's amazing how nice it makes jewellery and glassware shine. RE: ISO, I made the mistake of buying one with a plastic body and lid, it took a while but severe melting ensued when using isopropyl alcohol, common sense came later lol, the DIY solution worked fine for years without any harm.
I got one but the liquid capacity is 2 US gallons of whatever. It can clean parts and is big enough to ultrasonic clean vinyl records, too. The issue is that you are not supposed to operate the cleaner with a partially full tank, you are supposed to fill to capacity. Thus alot of whatever you clean with gets used up. Maybe own a small one and a large one.
I respect the Knipex sponsorship. First one I've seen them do on TH-cam. Great tool brand. They do what they're meant too, they do it longer than youd normally expect from a tool and they'll take your abuse of being an absent minded tool owner and leaving them out in the rain. 😂 So my buddy tells me. Yea. My buddy And someone probably said it, but I clean my carbs in a ziplock full of diesel with no air in the bag. Gasoline works too. The vibrations go right thru the bag but then you get the petrol as a solvent at the same time
Ultrasonic cleaners are great and have their place, but if your PCBs look like that after reflow soldering, something is wrong with your process or your paste is bad. It should not form all these extra blobs and all the solder joints should be nice and concave with the right amount of paste. And the surface tension of the molten solder paste should also nicely center all the parts on its own, given the pads are designed right too of course, but they don't look bad. Depending on the paste there may be some flux residue to clean, but with most good pastes not even that. But if you have to clean up flux residue from reworking or hand soldering, acetone or one of the specific PCB cleaning sprays usually makes very quick work of it with an ESD free hard bristle brush. Just my 2 cents. Any excuse to get an ultrasonic cleaner is great of course, but you really shouldn't have to use it for that.
Try cleaning in pure ethanol, acetone, gasoline. But use a tightly closed jar for flamable liquid and part, then put the jar into supersonized water tank. I also very satisfied with cleaning bicycle chain in distilled water, then in kerosene. Also kerosene is easy to filter for another cleaning cycle. Great to clean out oxide layers from metals with light solution of acid. DIYed a 150w 2.3l cleaner and very satisfied with it.
alternative tip for cleaning a board: use hot water, dish liquid soap and a tooth brush. I *always* wash my boards that way, I'm doing that since the '90s. It takes 5 minutes, plus some hours under the sun (or some minutes under the hairdryer). It can also fix some issues like leaking caps (of course then you must to recap and of course it doesn't fix corroded traces). When I have more than one board, I throw them into the dishwasher with a fast washing program (in this case you need to remove the painted parts, like metal bezels etc. - I mean: like the Commodore 64 metal bezel for the joystick and switch -- trust me, I won't do the same mistake again...). In case of small boards, like RAM or ROM adaptor with sockets and smd components, etc. I put the board into boiling water for few minutes (no, it doesn't affect the electronic components). This method works fine and I've never lost a board until now.
2:05 omg! how the hell did you get knipex to sponsor you that's one of the most awesome things i've seen in YT sponsor history since not only is it a perfect fit for your channel but IMO is the creme of the creme of electrical work brands.
I cleaned an old PC with tap water and soap once. I left it drying and reassemble things though it turned off immediately after booting. Disassembled again and it had a mini pool of water inside the CPU socket. :) After drying properly everything worked greatly. That PC died of obsolescence.
I still use the Kester 2331 water soluble flux and 2331-cored solder for soldering PCB's. Residues easily wash off with warm water under the tap and a soft toothbrush.
What kind of glue did you use to stick the transducers to the tank? I have an old ultrasonic cleaner that was given to me because it was broken; the transducer had fallen off of the tank. I tried different types of glue, but after a few hours of operations, they all came loose again. thank you for this great channel, /chriV
for PC boards I use a 20 dollar consumer grade ultrasonic device from Amazon , I run it with 99% alcohol instead water (reusable after sediments settle) It cleans flux, solder paste and old heatsink compounds from recycled RF transistors. Alcohol is usable for components like relays were any water that might enter the so called sealed case will corrode the contacts. Alcohol dries quickly. I used to have several gallons of industrial great freon cleaner specifically made for ultra sound cleaning devices but in the years I have run out of it. 99% alcohol works just as well and is readily available.
Can you read minds? I'm in the market for an ultrasonic cleaner but had no idea what makes one better than another. Thank you so much for filling that knowledge gap.
My mother worked at place that designed precision electronics and they used a dishwasher followed with an alcohol bath to remove the water and dry quickly. I don't remember the setting they used on the dishwasher. The whole process was surprising to me as I was new to it back then.
I can't recall how many times I've run things through the dishwasher that "shouldn't" have gone in there. Even large commercial dishwashers with the conveyor belts. Mostly electric motors that I've dismantled to repair or overhaul. But numerous other things too. It's so convenient. And if you use the hot water settings it dries relatively quick. The great thing is they are good at removing grease and oil since that is a major part of cleaning dishes and cookware. Occasionally I'd have to run them through more then once but it beats cleaning them by hand. And frees you up to do other things
I used to repair Tvs and other audio visual equipment in the days of CRTs i used to clean the chassis of Tv sets and pcbs from the other equipment in a dishwasher they used to come out like new after the dishwasher process i also used to rinse them with IPA and leave them in a warm cupboard to dry before powering them up. this clean up used to make it more pleasant to carry out the repair of the equipment as alot of the Tvs we repaired were from the homes of smokers and the pcbs were covered in nicotine.
@@jasonharrison25 A typical dishwasher tablet these days contains salt (most tablets have this as part of tv formula, instead of relying on the salt reservoir being full) which I would have thought would be terrible for electronics... It's certainly isn't good for unprotected aluminium!
Some ICs are sensitive to certain ultrasonic frequencies. Specifically, some MEMS sensors. Check the ICs datasheets first to make sure you don't need to use an alternate frequency setting on your cleaner.
Its usually good to fill whole cleaner with water and put a plastic bag with concentrated cleaning solution and yout components inside. It will cost you less and the results will be pretty much same.
When working with ultrasonic transducer for fluid level sensing, TI recommended a 2 part super glue which worked really well against other glues including epoxys.
the ultrasonic cleaning capability also varies by the frequency used. Most of the cleaners use about 40kHz transducers, which you can consider "all purpose". For some applications higher frequencies, up to 170kHz, for more delicate stuff or lower frequencies about 25kHz for heavy duty stuff.
Interesting! Does the transducers work like speaker or does they need to be driven at a specific frequency, like a resonant device? I can think that 170 kHz needs another transducer compared to 40 - but for example 40 and 25 isn't that far off from each other. It could be some interesting DIY project to try in the future. That drive circuit looked overcomplicated with it's self exiting inductors though. It's probably a design made to save on components and once all properties at tuned in, it can be mass produced - but will probably be a nightmare to tune in during a DIY project (at least if you don't want to recreate that exact circuit, but improve it to for example get rid of the heat issues - and/or don't have exactly those same model of transducers, with the right impedance) and will result in a shit load of blown up transistors. Working at these power levels isn't as forgiving as low power stuff, if the circuit for example fail to oscillate properly. All the transducers "care about" is probably to get an AC voltage with the right frequency and enough voltage. So it seems easier to just build a half or full bridge with control circuit and oscillator, then wind a transformer to crank up the voltage to the desired level and (if needed) put a current limiting inductor. If the transducers in them self is significantly capacitive (as it seems like they can be, if they are like a piezo speaker), a normal inductor can be added to form a resonant circuit that can then be driven by the secondary of the transformer. Maybe use PLL tracking, if the capacitance (and thus resonance frequency) change slightly with for example temperature. He gave up in that part way too easy, because he taught it was too dangerous.
An ultrasonic cleaner is such a handy tool to have. I've unfortunately moved and no longer have access to the one I used to use, which is a shame. Going back to manual cleaning is tedious and boards dont come out as clean.
What I can say for sure is that you can make cognac with it in just few minutes. Simply add tree bark (there's a lot of different types witch will affect taste) to vodka
I heard of some people using a metal bucket with a palm sander taped to the side and a hotplate to heat the solutio. Cheap and VERY STRONG! I'd love to hear/see your opinion
The biggest problem is getting the "correct" adhesive for the DIY solution. There is another video here on TH-cam discussing that as well. I agree that BUY is the way to go.
I use an large 6L ultrasonic cleaner to clean bolts and nuts etc in a degreaser before electroplating. I put the degreaser in a jar and submerse the jar in the ultrasonic tub full of tap water. For circuit boards, I'd probably use 99% IPA.
If you use shifting frequencies, the interference patten in the cleaning solution will be more random that using the exact same frequency to drive both ultrasonic power heads. It should move the vacuum implosion bubbles very quickly around the volume of the tank. Your Aluminum foil test showed only limited "hot" spots. I take it the big hole is above one of the ultrasonic power heads.
We have to keep in mind not every electrical component ist build for cleaning like that (some component manufacturer have it declared in their datasheet).
Please use hearing protection rated for ultrasound. For even though we cannot hear the loudest part of the noise the cleaners emit, it is still energy that can damage our hearing.
A friend made a DIY using 4 horns, a 4 output controller/power board, a heating element out of an old bread machine and he set it up under a kitchen metal tray which was about 4 inches deep but very wide and long and enough to put in a E-ATX motherboard and its never let him down either.
Great video as usual! Thought I should add a list of some electronic components that should first be de-soldered from the PCB before cleaning in this Ultra-sonic cleaner: - Speakers - Microphones - Piezo-electric transducers - Batteries of any type - Non-hermetically sealed ICs? ...Am I forgetting anything?
Tip for cleaning small parts in ultrasonic cleaner: Add cleaning solution and parts in a small glass jar and put that jar in the cleaner filled with water. Easier to clean and no need to use so much cleaning solution. Especially handy, when some small parts require different cleaning solution than what is normally used.
Sounds like a good life hack ;-)
That's brilliant!.
Are there any drawbacks though?
@@therealb888no drawbacks unless the circuit is off before immersing in the solution or if you completely dry before turning it on for use
@@pianoguy5110 Could you please elaborate?
@@pianoguy5110 I meant how it may affect the frequency & hence the cleaning or the glass itself. Some cleaners have frequency sweeps so can a glass reach resonant frequency & crack?
It's been a while since I've read these so pardon me if my questions are dumb lol..
I'm working in a company which uses ultrasonic baths a lot.
Funny thing is, that the Aluminium Foil Tests are officially performed regularly to make sure every ultrasonic bath is working properly. It apparently is the best way to make sure everything is all right without the need of disassembling the machines all the time.
Fun fact ;-)
Are thin bits like foil the main concern? I see the cavitation damage in stuff like that and get spooked. But between this video, and @Applied Science ‘s frequent use of these i’m *i n t r i g u e d*
We use ultrasonic baths at work as well. We have a watt/frequency meter now, but used to use foil for testing. I have also used a mechanics stethoscope to see if the transducers were working
@@ericlotze7724 to clean products, we put them in the containers filled with isopropyl alcohol and then submerge these in the ultrasonic bath. The sound waves go through the container and get to the products anyway. There's no risk of contamination with aluminum flakes.
there's also the pencil on frosted glass slide test
One of the big things to consider is that while it may be a bit faster to do it by hand, you can also do something else while it does the cleaning
True
Yeah machine time!=human time
Great point, I watch many people clean and refurbish mechanical watches, while the gears are in the washer they often take that time to clean the watch lens and housing, it effectively cuts down the time the watch is being cleaned. I clean some things with an ultrasonic cleaner I bought for about $100 usd, can't say if it's a "great" cleaner, but it definitely is effective and I can do other things while it's cleaning and also the parts tend to come out much cleaner in the "nooks and crannies" than I could do with my own hands.
@@jetjazz05 those nooks and crannies can be such a pain! I need to bump up my ultrasonic game… I only have a tiny one that’s made for things like rings at the moment
You’ll probably end up spending that time watching the ultrasonic cleaner going “wow, that’s cool”. Like when you get your car cleaned.
Just to add something further to be cautious about: Do not clean MEMS-devices (accelerometers, gyrometers, microphones) in an ultrasonic cleaner, they will break.
I think 'breaking taps' made a video explaining the matter further.
Thanks for the feedback
Also some quartz crystals/resonators can break.
I wrecked a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium phone exactly like that. Both microphones busted. Accelerometer busted. Gyrometer busted. Everything else -> Very Clean. 🙂 Having previously watched over 1 million TH-cam videos where ultrasonic cleaners were used to clean smartphone PCBs, I somehow strangely enough still wasn't an expert on the topic, hehe.
That's a very good tip, thanks!
It's also worth mentioning that if you DIY, the basket is an essential part of the machine - they only do their job right if things do not sit directly on the bottom.
Before PCB washing always READ DATASHEET. Some parts like crystal oscillators can be damaged with ultrasonic cleaning.
Love this series, but what I really love is that you made an effort to reverse engineer the board to see if it's something we can make ourselves. Really appreciate that kinda effort.
The DIY solution will get interesting if you mount the transducers onto your steel kitchen sink. Big volume and you can clean your dishes by ultrasonic and release the waste water directly ;)
Oh boy
new generation of dish washer ftw
I dont think the resonant frequencies would bode well for the fittings of the plumbing or the silicone bead between the sink and countertop surface. On top of that there is far more mass for the transducers to need to vibrate if we are talking about a proper steel sink, plus the added mass of the countertops they are attached to providing resistance. Even if you could overcome the amount of mass that would need to vibrate with some beefy transducers/power output, the end result would likely be LOUD and over time cause considerable damage to the surrounding materials. All that aside, I would rather be wrong about this and also want to see somebody actually build it! 😂
www.youtube.com/@BranchusCreations has some videos on DIY ultrasonic cleaners, and one project actually utilizes a stainless steel laundry sink.
@@anthonypatino7143 Don't forget the SWR of the entire system!
Heated water and nearly any detergent works well. I use a product here in Australia called "simple green". But I think any basic dishwashing liquid works well.
The main benefit with these is when you're cleaning "fiddly" things, with small internal ports or cavities, like a carburetor or brake parts.. The Ultrasonic/heat/cleaner will get into the smaller areas that are just too fiddly otherwise and importantly do no damage. Plus you can get on with other tasks as the cleaner works.
Thanks for the tip :-)
Will second this (heat, Simple Green). I also put a small amount of isopropanol in the mix. Helps with non-polar gunk and speeds up the drying time...
I just use vinegar, mainly on metals
I've been cleaning batches of PCBs a lot and let me tell you, PCB cleaning solution works wonders (EMAG Platinenreiniger in my case). It is specifically made for getting rid of flux and solder balls and will clean an entire tank full of boards to almost perfection.👌 Heating it to something like 60 C will also make a huge difference.
You might want to take a closer look at your solder paste and soldering process, so many solder balls are definitely not normal, we have like at most 1-2 per board and those usually fall off easily. It might even be bad flux.
I think the SMD resistors being all wonky is also kinda telling that his reflow soldering process isn't quite there yet, because usually they would mostly align themself while baking if you applied the right amount of paste and placed them properly; at least from my experience.
Yes, I also had some concerns about the soldering. I'm guessing the paste he is using doesn't have enough flux or perhaps doesn't have the right flux. Proper flux should increase the surface tension of the solder and both help with self-alignment of the components and also prevent loose solder balls.
I have seen his hand-soldered work and this seems way better already 😂😂
I one had some boards that were full of solder balls after reflow. It ended up just being a case of expired solder paste. We learned that T5 solder paste is much more prone to degradation than the regular T3/T4 stuff.
He could also use a smaller stencil cutout to minimize the chance. Or buy a DEK lmfao
I couldn't live without my ultrasonic cleaner, whether it's cleaning electronics, water-damaged electronics, or even for cleaning fossils - it's simply brilliant. I only have an inexpensive one from Aldi, but it does the job perfectly in my opinion, although you might need to wait a bit longer.
Thanks for the feedback :-) Yep, if you got the time, I think it can do its job very well.
Thank you for your comment! Do I understand correctly that the ultrasonics do not compromise SMD connections? What about foil?
@@Hyzerwyzer Yes, but it should only be done for private purposes, as it can also damage the fossils. Often, water can penetrate into small gaps between the fossil and the rock and "break it free."
@@cherylm2C6671 Normally not, but no guarantees. It's always better to clean delicate items by hand, especially when dealing with important circuit boards. It's best to try it out on boards where it wouldn't be a big issue if they got damaged. It also heavily depends on the strength of your cleaner. With the one I have from the discount store, nothing gets damaged, but industrial cleaners can be more risky.
@@MarcelSchr MarcelSchr, thank you. It seemed that ultrasonics would be better for mechanical components. 3M has a component bath that I think should work at KHz or lower frequencies since it won't cavitate ?
Generally, with appropriate cleaning agents in the ultrasonic, such as Branson or EMAG products, cleaning should be capped out at 1-3 minutes, to avoid unecessary damage to certain components on the PCB, of course heating should always be used, at around 60-70c
Yup. We refuse to use it on any product that we make that has any piezo or crystal element. Just not worth the risk to part damage.
Except the heating elements in most small ultrasonic cleaners are so slow it takes 30min to an hour to warm up that high.
@@kwinzman Can you use preheated water then, like in a kettle?
@@GeorgeFoot That's exactly what I do.
@@GeorgeFoot yes
I own Two ultrasonics. One for cleaning Tarnished jewelery (I'm the maker) and one for cleaning 3d resin parts. I find them both invaluable for my proceesses. There are a great tool when you are doing low run production work because they reduce labor time.
Thanks for sharing!
I've always wanted an ultrasonic cleaner as I do LOTS of microscopic hand soldering on PCBs, and cleaning flux residue is an absolute nightmare that takes up at least half the time I spend diagnosing, fault-finding, and even repairing the damaged circuits.
One of the most important things I've noticed in regards to ultrasonic cleaners (and whether or not they're recommended for use on electronics) is if they feature a sweeping frequency. My understanding of this feature is it prevents the creation of standing waves within the solution. In normal operation, you will have various regions of high turbulence and cavitation, and regions with absolutely none. This is due to interference patterns emerging in the solution.
Sweeping is meant to solve this problem, by causing the transducers to operate at a variable frequency. This creates a far more uniform distribution of turbulence, and therefore, the cavitation which causes microscopic water bubbles to cling to debris and gunk and pull it away.
I think the reason you were having so many issues, even prior to using a specialized cleaning solution, is because this particular ultrasonic cleaner doesn't feature sweeping. It kind of makes sense that sweeping would be desired for electronic circuits, because you often have MANY small parts (the SMD components), all with various quantities of goo and debris between them. A non-sweeping cleaner would likely have lots of problems with getting cavitation bubbles to occur in all of these nooks and crannies.
I also expect the full-wave/semi-wave setting on that cleaner you got is meant to create a different interference pattern in the solution. Semi-wave probably results in smaller interference patterns, which interestingly could provide better cleaning results? Maybe?
The only problem with the sweeping cleaners is they are ASTRONOMICALLY more expensive. Once you get into sweeping cleaners, you're easily looking at price tags upwards of $1,000 or more! I'd be really interested in seeing a DIY attempt at creating a sweeping cleaner. I have no idea why they're so expensive, as I can't imagine it takes much more to just alter the frequency the transducers are running at. But they must be so expensive for a reason, right?
I've found I get better results with heated water, which is why the modern cleaners have a temperature controlled heater built in
Also if you have those special coatings on you're glasses (like auto darkening) it might not be a good idea to put them in there
Thanks for the tip :-)
@@greatscottlab One other important thing I've noticed. It will strip the zinc or black oxide coating from nuts and bolts. Plus can damage paint. Other thing to note is some cleaners are acidic, so may need to be neutralized.
@@arthurmoore9488 you can use kitchen cleaner and that is equally effective. Also you can put the detergent with a little water in a ziplock bag with the item and then put it in the cleaner.
Also, ultrasonic cleaners will wiggle all the micro-cracks along the edge of your lenses, and eventually bigger and bigger cracks will form. My glasses were clean all the time, but the lenses lasted only a year or two when I was cleaning them this way just occasionally.
@@arthurmoore9488that brings to mind that many higher quality carburetors are/were plated.
One important thing to note: transducers should not be powered on unless mounted and the container filled to the proper volume. Testing them on the bench like that can actually damage them, with an end result that they run hotter, work less efficiently (or not at all), and also require more power from to driving circuit (which creates more heat).
Even if they work perfectly fine though, i haven't seen any that didn't create enough heat to need active cooling for the circuitry.
(Another note on safety: having touched an active transducer bare-handed before I can say it's definitely not recommended)
Thanks for the feedback :-)
what happens if you touch the transducer bare-handed?
@@yugaindiranmarimuthu7310 your whole body will be filled with holes like that aluminum foil if you touch it... just kidding
@@yugaindiranmarimuthu7310 afaik in worst case the flesh can separate from the bones in your fingers....if you ignore the pain
@@yugaindiranmarimuthu7310 well, I specifically touched the side of the center metal disk in the transducer. Instant 2nd degree burn in a short line on my finger plus numbness and muscle twitchiness in my forearm for half an hour or so. Not my proudest moment.
I was trying to avoid touching anything "live" but mistakes happen. At the very least I was properly doing the one-hand method of having the other hand well away from the shocky bits or any grounding or it might have ended much worse. I was also mistaken that I thought transducers were much lower voltage.
Be sure to read through the components' datasheet before doing so. Many components cannot withstand this. Relays, crystals, buttons, pots etc etc.
Also from the safety point of view - Keep your fingers, or any other body parts, well away from the water/solution in the tank. At those frequencies, human tissue will emulsify quite readily, even though you may not feel it. It's not worth risking your fingers just save a few seconds while turning things over, or putting things into and out of the tank.
My own ultrasonic cleaner recommends placing parts horizontally, and points out that the cleaning is more effective on the underside of the items being cleaned (i.e. facing the transducers).
Just consider what you saw the ultrasonic cleaner do to the aluminum foil in the video. It will do the same to your hard tissue (bone). Keep fingers out till it is turned off.
I would also guess gravity helps get the loose junk away from the item.
there goes my plans for an ultrasonic hot tub :(
@@dotanuki3371 Ooh, aahh! I should think it would have them off in a jiffy!
@@michaelfalter6200 I think not exactly the bone but the next soft thing in contact with the bone.
Put otherwise, the cavitation bubbles could strip off the periosteum! That can hurt for months...
I'm very happy for your success over the last few years. I remember when you weren't sure if this channel was going anywhere, but I'm very happy to see that you didn't give up.
I was told by a lab technician friend that you should put the water/cleaning solution in slowly, with the cleaner turned on, and stop filling when you get the strong ripples on the surface of the water as at this point the system is at resonance and the cleaning is more effective.
I'm not saying he's wrong, but start out with the minimum amount of water already in there. Running these dry will destroy them VERY quickly.
@@qwertybogussAgreed, if you're particularly unlucky you can kill it in seconds.
I just ran into this problem this week with a project for the first time. I needed a heavy amount of flux and brushing with alcohol was taking forever to get a proper clean.
Thank you algorithm.
I have to say that the soldering on the PCBs looks horrible, you should try some fresh / different paste, and a higher temperature as well. The one that you are using doesn't melt properly, so it forms balls and doesn't pull components into their spots. As a tip, try mixing the paste with a bit of wet flux before applying, I found that this often helps to get better soldering results
Thanks for the tip :-) Yep, I realized too late that my solder paste is no longer useable.
yeah I noticed that some solder paste works better than others. Sometimes, for small batch, I just do manual "wave soldering" with soldering iron, a good solder wire and some extra liquid flux, they're easier to clean up, and no solder balls. For large batch I just use the pcb assembly service.
I@@yugaindiranmarimuthu7310
You can also use dish soap / water in a 1:10 ratio with a dash of ammonia (yes). Way cheaper than ultrasonic cleaning solutions and does the job just fine!
I used to do pcb/microsoldering in a previous job. We cleaned finished PCBs in what was basically a high tech dishwasher. As long as none of the components on the board are moisture sensitive, you can just use warm soapy water. Dry the board in the oven at about 60 degrees c.
Just for Great Scott and other's edification: I use a fine paint brush to remove the solder and then microfiber cloth to soak up the used alcohol. I go through microfiber cloths but they are pretty inexpensive.
Thanks for the tip
I have a tool for holding slotted screws, as you slide one part down the blade get fatter and grip the screw slot. Its so handy for getting difficult to reach screws started. But the ultrasonic cleaners have come a long way price and cleaning power Great video 2x👍
Thanks :-)
I normally skip past ads in videos, but I stayed to watch the Knipex ad. I love their tools, and I'm so glad they have started sponsoring youtubers. I'm not a content creator, but I too hope to one day be sponsored by Knipex.
I used to assemble these for a family owned company, the trick we found to producing a high efficiency product was to use an old fashioned VALVE AMPLIFIER TUBE, it produced a rougher frequency wave than transistors and ic's. Therefore a superior cleaning experience even on commercial cleaning units the size of a large sink (many, many, many, many, transducers). The rougher frequency curve also works better on ultrasonic therapy units, but not for Ultrasonic Imaging Units.
Alconox 8 detergent is what I use to clean my boards. Works great and boards come out absolutely spotless. Be careful with crystals and electrolytic capacitors.
I wanted to do this for so many days and seeing u do it makes me satisfied and feel good that atleast you did it!
Thanks :-) Give it a shot ;-)
@@greatscottlab I still haven't because of the HV risks and it's hard to get a good transducer
I wish I could peek inside the ultrasonic watch cleaner my father had in the early 60's.
It had a unique sound that modern ultrasonic cleaners lack and cleaned faster too. The bubbles were more abundant too.
It had 4 round compartments with different solutions in each and round mesh baskets to fit each compartment.
Considering how new transistors were in that era I'm curious if it maybe used some other type of electrical components to generate the pulses? That may partly explain it's strange sound.
It would clean any dirt under your finger nails in a minute!
That's so cool! I'd always thought that ultrasonic cleaner started its developement in the 80s or so. High voltage, high power pulses were surely provided by vacuum tubes, probably some kind of power high frequency oscillator that coupled to a transducer via a transformer. At least that's what I think could be used. Of course different characterstics led themselves to different resonance frequencies and hence the different sound.
Otherwise, maybe some kind of scaled down alexanderson alternator, to be run on mains voltage could theorically work?
I see you have replied to my comment, but I can't see your reply! Sorry...
@@willjackson1955 Looks like my comment was removed. Bulova made these devices and there's schematics on the net. Shows two tubes inside.
I'd love to see this channel recreate it from the schematic or maybe a transistor version.
Save on the cleaning solution by placing the object inside a ziplock bag (with the cleaning solution like alcohol) and then place that into the water bath heated up to at least 40ºC
I've cleaned circuit boards with regular dishwashing soap, tap water and a tooth brush, a rinse with tap water, and a final rinse with distilled water and jet-dry. They very often finnish looking brand new.
@GreatScott! - When you were manually cleaning your boards, you were not using enough alcohol. The trick is to get an oversized tub filled with enough IPA to fully submerge your circuit card assembly (CCA) and then take your brush and scrub the board in the IPA. This way the residual flux dissolves into the alcohol and gets washed away rather than simply spreading around the rest of the board like the method you showed in your video does. When I used to work at a MIL/Aero engineering company, we would use a 3-tray IPA cleaning process on space flight boards if the customer was picky and wouldn't allow our batch cleaning process. The idea was you had three tubs with 99% IPA in them, the first was the "dirty" one and is where you started the board cleaning process. Once you scrubbed as much flux off in the "dirty" tray as you could, you would move your board to the second tray which was by nature cleaner IPA than the first and you'd scrub again. Once you were satisfied you got it all off in the second tray, you'd move to the third tray which should be nearly pristine IPA still. This will get any residual flux off the board. When done, we would blow dry the board using dry nitrogen. As the second and third trays would eventually get dirty they would be rotated into the first and second positions respectively and the first tray would be dumped and replaced with fresh IPA to become the new third tray.
On a separate note, we would NOT use ultrasonic cleaners on flight hardware due to the very real chance that the process would cause damage to the CCAs. For home use it's probably not a big deal, but as an industrial process for high-rel hardware it's a 'no-no'.
I have to say this is the first time I've ever seen knipex sponsor a TH-cam video....as an American that does not have a huge budget for tools I've only owned one pair myself and used tools my employer provided...you have no idea how much you struggle with inferior hand tools until you use good quality tools....ive always just had channel locks and oh my goodness they are just not designed to be used on bolts and nuts...the jaws closing in a linear way was not something I knew existed...i wish i could afford a whole set of knipex hand tools i would use them every day and enjoy them for years lol.
Best solution for the UltraSonic for cleaning PCB's is Electrolube SafeWash Super. I have been using it for about 20 years and it is absolutely awesome.
Saw a guy make an extra large ultrasonic cleaner for antique computer motherboards. Because it was a rare enough size as to not be widely sold it was a great solution for him. So if you have something very large DIY makes sense.
The point in automation is to let the machine do the job.
Being faster is not always the point: your dishwasher, your wash machine or your roomba is slower than you but they let you do other things while they work.
The driver circuit looks like a self-excited half-bridge resonant circuit with transformer feedback, similar to the circuit in a fluorescent ballast. And it uses two transformers to transform the impedance of the transducer.
for removing flux residue temperature is very important! I use my ultrasonic for cleaning logic boards after microsoldering repairs, and flux residue is infinitely easier to remove at 70C that it is at 20C
Great tip!
Nice video. English is not my language, i am a producer of transducer and a little more complex generator, gonna try to give some advise: keep in mind that ultrasonic cleaner "add" meccanical force to a solution capable of clean the dirt that you wanna remove; ofc for some kind of dirt, plain water alone will work (like dirt based on emulsifiable oil, sugar) but dont take it as a rule, in many cases you will need specific product. In bigger tank when u first pour in the cleaning solution, make it run for a while to let solution free up entraped air boubles. Do not use distilled water for the cleaning solution instead use it for the final rinse: you will have better result and avoid limestone marks. many cleaning product will give best work between 45 and 60° Celsius; dont fill too much the basket or use the cleaner w/out basket, because you will limit the cleaning capacity. The alluminium test is a cheap but repetible and meaningfull test, one trained person can spot an "end of life" tank by cheking it. Generally the alluminium foil test take about 10 seconds, and good cleaner in that time will make several tiny holes. Avoid to run the transucer w/out liquid inside the tank, or in free air like in this video, you are going to make the transducer overheat.
Ultrasonic cleaning is an invaluable asset at my job, we even put an "Employee of the month" sticker on one of them haha
I bought a Vevor a couple years ago and it's fantastic.
i use ipa to clean my circuit boards.I pre heat the pcbs, do some scrubbing to losen up those solder balls, and then just clean them for like 2 minutes, I then store the used ipa in a different container to be reused, you can see the dirt/flux settling down after a while after stroring the ipa. ipa is somewhat flammable depending on the purity so do monitor the temperature and do it in a well ventilated area.
11:36 diy: - gets hot; buy: - does not get hot
So whats bad hot or cold 😂
Both are marked as "bad" or "minus"
It is worth checking that there is thermal paste between the power transistors and the heat sinks. Adding a cooling fan is recommended.
At work we put our parts in beakers with the solution we want to use and float them in the water of the machine. We have machine covers with holes the size of the beakers we use in them to keep them from tipping.
I used one for a few reactions in the lab and general glassware cleaning. Sonication and the right solvent takes care of most problems
Everything you offer in the field of electronics makes me impressed. Greetings to you ✅✅✅
I have seen good results if you put a masked PCB with the etchant in a self-lock plastic bag and put in the ultrasonic bath. The etching will be done real fast.
This probably also etches more consistently.
Tried different cleaning solutions. The best one by far has been regular grease removing dishwasher soap. Does wonders.
I love my ultrasonic cleaner. I use it for glasses, jewellery, laser engraved items, some PCB parts and also rocks that have been placed in a rock tumbler. Only 3 liters, but big enough for what I need
Make sure to degas the water or run the cleaner an extra 20 mins. Dissolved gasses in the water take away power from the cavitation and implosions.
You can put small parts in a glass jar that you fill with cleaning fluid. This way you can run different cleaning cycles at the same moment using different cleaning fluids.
I think I remember seeing someone else who did a DIY ultrasonic cleaner but had major issues with the transducers detaching over time if not using a specific glue. So it's something worth being aware of despite a DIY ultrasonic cleaner that seems to work initially.
Tip for using ultrasonic cleaners with heating elements: keep the lid closed. Even the quality brands (e.g. German brand Elma) appear to struggle without a lid - I assume it is just is too much surface area that dissipates the heat. E.g. a S 120 H has 800 W of heating power and still does not reach 60 or 70 °C without a lid. Furthermore, lids help reducing the ear-unfriendly noise a bit.
By the way - cleaning detergents are usually reusable - you can e.g. judge their remaining cleaing performance by their pH-value (compared to their initial value). Or you just use them until you are not happy with the cleaning results anymore.
I bought a small size ultrasonic. It offered 30-60w power. My field is advanced computer motherboard repair. We tried BGA chip with MR Muscul for testing purposes. The crystal of the chip exploded) so I tried it with 30w. But it is the liquid that is important for cleaning flux. For example, you can try Mr Muscul with distilled water. or try isopropyl alcohol.
We used to clean jet engine electronics in an industrial ultrasonic with 3M Novec. Really got the boards clean and ready for installation into their respective components
I've been using ultrasonic cleaners to clean PCBs for years. I run distilled water and Branson EC (Electronics Cleaner) in a 5% solution. I run it at 60*C and only need to clean the boards for a couple of minutes. After removing from the cleaner, you will want to dip it in a bath of IPA in order to displace any water remaining in small voids, then I dry it in a 120*C oven for an hour to remove any traces of moisture. For PCBs like yours, you probably don't need to go to these lengths, but many of the PCBs that I use this method on have switches and pushbuttons. The IP and dry cycle ensure that there is no water or other moisture left behind anywhere.
These are great. I’ve used industrial ones to clean both small and large metal parts and the results are flawless
My wife's a jeweler, ultrasonic cleaner is a must. They work great for cleaning on LP albums too. Thanks from Colorado.
Doesn't it remove the labels?
Recipe for DIY cleaning solution, 1 squirt of liquid dish detergent + 1-2 bottle caps of Windex (with ammonia), it's amazing how nice it makes jewellery and glassware shine. RE: ISO, I made the mistake of buying one with a plastic body and lid, it took a while but severe melting ensued when using isopropyl alcohol, common sense came later lol, the DIY solution worked fine for years without any harm.
I got one but the liquid capacity is 2 US gallons of whatever. It can clean parts and is big enough to ultrasonic clean vinyl records, too. The issue is that you are not supposed to operate the cleaner with a partially full tank, you are supposed to fill to capacity. Thus alot of whatever you clean with gets used up. Maybe own a small one and a large one.
it may take a bit longer to clean, but it also frees up your time to do other things in the meantime
True true
You stay creative, I just want to sit back and enjoy watching you ❤
I respect the Knipex sponsorship. First one I've seen them do on TH-cam.
Great tool brand. They do what they're meant too, they do it longer than youd normally expect from a tool and they'll take your abuse of being an absent minded tool owner and leaving them out in the rain. 😂 So my buddy tells me. Yea. My buddy
And someone probably said it, but I clean my carbs in a ziplock full of diesel with no air in the bag. Gasoline works too. The vibrations go right thru the bag but then you get the petrol as a solvent at the same time
Ultrasonic cleaners are great and have their place, but if your PCBs look like that after reflow soldering, something is wrong with your process or your paste is bad. It should not form all these extra blobs and all the solder joints should be nice and concave with the right amount of paste. And the surface tension of the molten solder paste should also nicely center all the parts on its own, given the pads are designed right too of course, but they don't look bad.
Depending on the paste there may be some flux residue to clean, but with most good pastes not even that. But if you have to clean up flux residue from reworking or hand soldering, acetone or one of the specific PCB cleaning sprays usually makes very quick work of it with an ESD free hard bristle brush.
Just my 2 cents. Any excuse to get an ultrasonic cleaner is great of course, but you really shouldn't have to use it for that.
Try cleaning in pure ethanol, acetone, gasoline. But use a tightly closed jar for flamable liquid and part, then put the jar into supersonized water tank.
I also very satisfied with cleaning bicycle chain in distilled water, then in kerosene.
Also kerosene is easy to filter for another cleaning cycle.
Great to clean out oxide layers from metals with light solution of acid.
DIYed a 150w 2.3l cleaner and very satisfied with it.
alternative tip for cleaning a board: use hot water, dish liquid soap and a tooth brush. I *always* wash my boards that way, I'm doing that since the '90s. It takes 5 minutes, plus some hours under the sun (or some minutes under the hairdryer). It can also fix some issues like leaking caps (of course then you must to recap and of course it doesn't fix corroded traces). When I have more than one board, I throw them into the dishwasher with a fast washing program (in this case you need to remove the painted parts, like metal bezels etc. - I mean: like the Commodore 64 metal bezel for the joystick and switch -- trust me, I won't do the same mistake again...).
In case of small boards, like RAM or ROM adaptor with sockets and smd components, etc. I put the board into boiling water for few minutes (no, it doesn't affect the electronic components).
This method works fine and I've never lost a board until now.
2:05 omg! how the hell did you get knipex to sponsor you that's one of the most awesome things i've seen in YT sponsor history since not only is it a perfect fit for your channel but IMO is the creme of the creme of electrical work brands.
Right?! Very happy that they reached out😁
Great one!
Who all needs a Great Scott-Electroboom Collab? 😁❤️
I cleaned an old PC with tap water and soap once. I left it drying and reassemble things though it turned off immediately after booting. Disassembled again and it had a mini pool of water inside the CPU socket. :) After drying properly everything worked greatly. That PC died of obsolescence.
I'm using one for my MTB parts, very nice for chain cleaning.
Very nice!
Was about to say the same 🙂. But I use degreaser in hot water.
I still use the Kester 2331 water soluble flux and 2331-cored solder for soldering PCB's. Residues easily wash off with warm water under the tap and a soft toothbrush.
What kind of glue did you use to stick the transducers to the tank?
I have an old ultrasonic cleaner that was given to me because it was broken; the transducer had fallen off of the tank.
I tried different types of glue, but after a few hours of operations, they all came loose again.
thank you for this great channel,
/chriV
for PC boards I use a 20 dollar consumer grade ultrasonic device from Amazon , I run it with 99% alcohol instead water (reusable after sediments settle) It cleans flux, solder paste and old heatsink compounds from recycled RF transistors. Alcohol is usable for components like relays were any water that might enter the so called sealed case will corrode the contacts. Alcohol dries quickly. I used to have several gallons of industrial great freon cleaner specifically made for ultra sound cleaning devices but in the years I have run out of it. 99% alcohol works just as well and is readily available.
but no heating possible then and it’s not really recommended due to possibly fire hazard
Can you read minds? I'm in the market for an ultrasonic cleaner but had no idea what makes one better than another. Thank you so much for filling that knowledge gap.
I've had great fun with my ultra sonic cleaner. I mostly use it for rebuilding carbs.
My mother worked at place that designed precision electronics and they used a dishwasher followed with an alcohol bath to remove the water and dry quickly. I don't remember the setting they used on the dishwasher. The whole process was surprising to me as I was new to it back then.
My dishwasher doesn't have a PCB setting 🙁
I can't recall how many times I've run things through the dishwasher that "shouldn't" have gone in there. Even large commercial dishwashers with the conveyor belts. Mostly electric motors that I've dismantled to repair or overhaul. But numerous other things too. It's so convenient. And if you use the hot water settings it dries relatively quick. The great thing is they are good at removing grease and oil since that is a major part of cleaning dishes and cookware. Occasionally I'd have to run them through more then once but it beats cleaning them by hand. And frees you up to do other things
I used to repair Tvs and other audio visual equipment in the days of CRTs i used to clean the chassis of Tv sets and pcbs from the other equipment in a dishwasher they used to come out like new after the dishwasher process i also used to rinse them with IPA and leave them in a warm cupboard to dry before powering them up. this clean up used to make it more pleasant to carry out the repair of the equipment as alot of the Tvs we repaired were from the homes of smokers and the pcbs were covered in nicotine.
@@jasonharrison25
A typical dishwasher tablet these days contains salt (most tablets have this as part of tv formula, instead of relying on the salt reservoir being full) which I would have thought would be terrible for electronics... It's certainly isn't good for unprotected aluminium!
@@jasonharrison25 Thank you for your comment!
Some ICs are sensitive to certain ultrasonic frequencies. Specifically, some MEMS sensors. Check the ICs datasheets first to make sure you don't need to use an alternate frequency setting on your cleaner.
Its usually good to fill whole cleaner with water and put a plastic bag with concentrated cleaning solution and yout components inside.
It will cost you less and the results will be pretty much same.
Great tip!
When working with ultrasonic transducer for fluid level sensing, TI recommended a 2 part super glue which worked really well against other glues including epoxys.
Everyone who knows which vehicle the carburetor belongs to is an absolute legend.
the ultrasonic cleaning capability also varies by the frequency used. Most of the cleaners use about 40kHz transducers, which you can consider "all purpose". For some applications higher frequencies, up to 170kHz, for more delicate stuff or lower frequencies about 25kHz for heavy duty stuff.
Interesting!
Does the transducers work like speaker or does they need to be driven at a specific frequency, like a resonant device?
I can think that 170 kHz needs another transducer compared to 40 - but for example 40 and 25 isn't that far off from each other. It could be some interesting DIY project to try in the future.
That drive circuit looked overcomplicated with it's self exiting inductors though. It's probably a design made to save on components and once all properties at tuned in, it can be mass produced - but will probably be a nightmare to tune in during a DIY project (at least if you don't want to recreate that exact circuit, but improve it to for example get rid of the heat issues - and/or don't have exactly those same model of transducers, with the right impedance) and will result in a shit load of blown up transistors. Working at these power levels isn't as forgiving as low power stuff, if the circuit for example fail to oscillate properly.
All the transducers "care about" is probably to get an AC voltage with the right frequency and enough voltage. So it seems easier to just build a half or full bridge with control circuit and oscillator, then wind a transformer to crank up the voltage to the desired level and (if needed) put a current limiting inductor. If the transducers in them self is significantly capacitive (as it seems like they can be, if they are like a piezo speaker), a normal inductor can be added to form a resonant circuit that can then be driven by the secondary of the transformer. Maybe use PLL tracking, if the capacitance (and thus resonance frequency) change slightly with for example temperature.
He gave up in that part way too easy, because he taught it was too dangerous.
An ultrasonic cleaner is such a handy tool to have. I've unfortunately moved and no longer have access to the one I used to use, which is a shame. Going back to manual cleaning is tedious and boards dont come out as clean.
A useful feature to look for with an ultrasonic tank is a drain tap . This allows you to drain the tank easily.
What I can say for sure is that you can make cognac with it in just few minutes. Simply add tree bark (there's a lot of different types witch will affect taste) to vodka
I heard of some people using a metal bucket with a palm sander taped to the side and a hotplate to heat the solutio. Cheap and VERY STRONG! I'd love to hear/see your opinion
The biggest problem is getting the "correct" adhesive for the DIY solution. There is another video here on TH-cam discussing that as well. I agree that BUY is the way to go.
hot glue ftw
@@urnoob5528 Hotglue doesn't cut it.
I use an large 6L ultrasonic cleaner to clean bolts and nuts etc in a degreaser before electroplating. I put the degreaser in a jar and submerse the jar in the ultrasonic tub full of tap water.
For circuit boards, I'd probably use 99% IPA.
7:42 is a bldc controller
If you use shifting frequencies, the interference patten in the cleaning solution will be more random that using the exact same frequency to drive both ultrasonic power heads. It should move the vacuum implosion bubbles very quickly around the volume of the tank. Your Aluminum foil test showed only limited "hot" spots. I take it the big hole is above one of the ultrasonic power heads.
We have an ultrasonic bath in the workshop and I also place items in a zip lock bag with alcohol or some cleaning agents.
We have to keep in mind not every electrical component ist build for cleaning like that (some component manufacturer have it declared in their datasheet).
Great point!
Please use hearing protection rated for ultrasound. For even though we cannot hear the loudest part of the noise the cleaners emit, it is still energy that can damage our hearing.
Awesome was using this in Panasonic Avionics Dubai for cleaning pcbs in 2009...
A friend made a DIY using 4 horns, a 4 output controller/power board, a heating element out of an old bread machine and he set it up under a kitchen metal tray which was about 4 inches deep but very wide and long and enough to put in a E-ATX motherboard and its never let him down either.
Great video as usual!
Thought I should add a list of some electronic components that should first be de-soldered from the PCB before cleaning in this Ultra-sonic cleaner:
- Speakers
- Microphones
- Piezo-electric transducers
- Batteries of any type
- Non-hermetically sealed ICs?
...Am I forgetting anything?
Nice Video information 👍