Hi Pontus,
I reply to the original post, but I have read many funny comments. None
of them I considered harmful.
My PDP-8/A is up for restoration. More specifically and 8A100 according
to it's ID plate. It is in overall "ok" shape but oh so dusty.
I'd like to give it a good cleaning so I'm tearing it down. And I'm
looking for suggestion to cleaning the backplane and regulator board.
Most important: Get away any possible residues of foam (don't know if
there's foam in an 8/a, but 8/e has).
I'm considering putting the Omnibus part under warm water and perhaps a
bit of mild detergent.
Wash it, rub it, scrub it, dry it! I see no problem.
Should I get distilled water or will tap do? The
water here is not very "hard"
All those distilled water/alcohol/etc. tricks are not very relevant for
your backplane. Dry it well. Compressed air can help. Ignore the
compressor/oil discussion on that kind of application.
The complicated rinsing and drying gets more interesting with high
impedance electronics.
I have an ISDN phone that I used in the tub too much :-) It started to
think eventually that all buttons are pressed the same time. To get that
going again, I needed a sequence of vinegar -> hot water -> distilled
water -> alcohol.
The regulator backplane has a relay and a button which will never dry
out if I soak it...
I would pull the relay before washing. And never put relays into an
ultrasonic cleaner - even when they are sealed and approved to be washed!
One sad thing about washing minicomputer pieces is that you most
probably lose or at least damage any original paper labels.
Kind regards
Philipp
