Tin whisker problem

A fine example of the "Law of unintended coincidences."

Jack

If they switch the ECU manufacturing process to RoHS Compliant, they will. And those failures will most likely show up when the car is out of warranty, and generate some /really/ bad will toward the car maker. Getting a $3,000 repair bill out of the blue is the kind of thing that can generate permanent brand-switching "I'll never buy another one of those piles of junk again!" levels of anger.

If they go RoHS without curing this, no longer can we say "Oh forget about the problem being the computer, they're bulletproof. Over 99% of the 'failed' computers returned under warranty tested out just fine."

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Great. AlGore and his Environmental Wacko buddies have given me another IT headache. It's not bad enough I have to deal with Vista every damn day. It's bad enough I have to flush 3 times to get one of their 'low flow' toilets to clear everything.

Charles the Curmudgeon

Charles, you're not supposed to be so full of it that those low-flush toilets can't handle it, :)

Well after reading the Leftards, I have to do something with it. . . .

Charles the Curmudgeon

Mickeysoft is already saying they'll have their next generation OS out as early as they can - looks like I'm going to skip two 'failed' OS generations WinME (Mistake Edition) and Vista.

Is Win2000 still available?

As for the other problem, you need a pressure-flush toilet - they do actually work at the intended function.

Unfortunately you can't set one off at 3 AM without waking everyone thinking a 747 is about to crash into the house...

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We just got our computers up to XP SP2 at work, all 250 of them and now I have to deal with Vista. Right now I have about 5 Vista machines. Vista Sucks!

I usually have to flush once to get the paper down. And it's not that much paper.

Charles the Curmudgeon.

Charles, you should eat more fiber, :)

Dam peel cheekier! Jack

It's ok Jack, this is usenet, nothing's for sure here.

RoHS is officially a European initiative, but the Japanese have long been interested in eliminating lead from solder. In the U.S., I believe only California requires it.

Most of the problems with RoHS solder are not from dendrites but from the usual sources - contamination, poor temperature control, and learning curve. RoHS solder does require higher temperatures and components that can withstand them.

That's not the government's fault.

The plumbing industry wanted and received a strict performance test to be eliminated. Meanwhile, try a better diet, both for your plumbing and your general pessimism.

Think Solaris, now free.

The leadless solder does not flow very well when sweating copper pipe. I have several rolls of the good stuff left and I intend to use it. The crap they sell now is crap.

You need the more expensive no-lead plumbing solder with a higher silver percentage, it flows and fills gaps (no leaks) much better than the cheap stuff - you really do get what you pay for.

And as always get both halves shiny bright with crocus cloth and/or a stainless tube & fitting brush and slather on a good coating of flux, skimping hurts you.

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It's always a possibility But If you still worry of tin whiskers, your car stereo will fail first compared to the ECU. ECUs, I assume (ABS box are conformally coated), would have conformal coating, though they are not a 100% guarantee. it has been used to environmentally protect the circuit board, and documented to reduce the probability of tin whiskers. Conformal coating have been used even on ABS boxes before lead free or RoHS has been introduced.

And there is RoHS5 and RoHS6. RoHS5 is exempted and will use leaded solder but the component would be snip.. * Mercury (Hg) < 1000 ppm * Hexavalent Chromium (Cr+6) < 1000 ppm * Cadmium (Cd) < 100 ppm * PBB < 1000 ppm * PBDE < 1000 ppm RoHS6 will comply without exemtions.

Leadfree solder is known to be less shiny and have a higher wetting angle than leaded solder, but keep in mind that solder should not be a mechanical support, for electronics applications it is just to have an electrical connection. Do not rely on solder alone for mechanical support.

For over 20 years I've used only lead-free solder on my plumbing (tin- antimony) and have never had problems with it. Did you raise the heat of your torch to handle the 100=B0F higher melting point and use the proper flux (ordinary noncorrosive rosin has worked well for me)?

I use a mapgas torch. The solder I use beads up drips to the floor, but eventually flowing in the joint. The damn crap is worse than worse. I've used lead free solder before too, but this stuff is j-u-n-k. If I think of it I'll get the label and let you know what I got. It came in a kit, with some cleaning tools, flux and brushes. I clean the joint like a crazy man. I do only small jobs for my house, thankfully.

I wasn't aware of this. I bought the solder as part of a kit at HD. I doubt it has any silver in it, just tin. BTW, I watched Ed the Plumber soldering copper pipe, my solder don't flow like his.