Battery Damage: Can They Be Saved?

[pearce_jj]

I've recently re-acquired a fruit-machine which is based on JPM's Impact technology (basically a motherboard with the lighting output stages, and several plug-in cards for game ROM, sound, and the CPU/RAM cards).

It has a bunch of spare boards with it, but the 3 spare CPU boards have self-destruct batteries on them: can these be saved? (photos are after I've wiped over them with cleaning wipes and cotton-buds in isopropynol)



Any advice greatly appreciated. There are various other spare boards that were in the same cardboard box as these (unwrapped) with no visible damage (so far) so any advice on those would be greatful received too.

Many thanks!

 

[Chuck(G)]

These don't look too bad--clip the batteries out, get a toothbrush and some clean water and scrub anything you can see. If the electrolyte has gotten under an IC, do your best to clean that up, even if it means unsoldering the IC. Test any traces that might look affected with a continuity tester and jumper any breaks with 30 AWG wire-wrap wire.

Compared to some damage I've seen, this is nothing. At least you're dealing with alkaline electrolyte (unlike that from carbon-zinc cells or lead-acid gel cells, which can be a real mess).

 

[pearce_jj]

Many thanks Chuck. Can boards such as these be fully submersed?