Another Deoxit thread

[jinxmitchell]

I've been using 600 grit sandpaper to clean pins and it works wonderfully, but I don't like the idea of removing a layer (no matter how small) of the metal, so I'd like to switch over to Deoxit, but there are a few different types sold on Amazon, so I'm wondering which type is best for cleaning carts.

Thanks for any help!

I assume it's one of these two:

[Hobie-wan]

Neither of them. They both mention 'lubricating'. You don't want anything left behind at all as a console application will collect dust and you're probably not going to be using it on a ton of toggle switches or rotary dials. If you can find another that doesn't mention lubricating, then that should be ok. FWIW I use Puretronics Contact Cleaner with the yellow stripe as I can get it at Fry's locally. Notice it specifically mentions that it "Evaporates quickly, leaving zero residue".

Don't use sandpaper unless something really had a ton of corrosion on it. Most of the time a vinyl eraser with or without contact cleaner will be all you need. If that doesn't get it, I move up to the green side of a scrubby sponge. If that still doesn't do it, then carefully scrape at any dark spots with a blade held perpendicular to the surface. If is still isn't working, only then do I break out the sandpaper.

[darkcat]

in 100% of cases I've has success with vinyl erasers like hobie mentioned. With carts its a good idea to do this if you`re very invested in preserving and don`t like the idea of cleaning the carts again gold place the contacts or lightly tin them. Though in my case that would be over kill. lemon juice or any other mild acid will work well too vinegar, or another solvent, rubbing alcohol etc. If you have a large collection of games these are king

solvents I've had success with are
rubbing alcohol,Acetone, HCL(need to be very careful and remove the pcb from the casing).

Test some stuff out, old pennies are made from copper see what will clean them and if it cleans them it will clean the connectors since there just copper connections.

[Hobie-wan]

Well, aside from some cheap unlicensed carts, the pins are gold plated. Gold doesn't tarnish easily, which is why it is used and also why you don't want to be using something abrasive on the carts unless they've been poorly treated and have corroded. Copper will more easily tarnish just from moisture in the air. That isn't so much of a problem in wires as it only affects the outside so the center conducts just fine. You don't often see copper contacts unless you're looking at large connectors.

[Teh Lurv]

I've used DeOxit D100 quite a bit on my carts and have had good results with it. I usually scrub off the residual DeOxit and broken up grime with q-tips after letting it sit 5-10 minutes, but even with just letting the DeOxit air dry I haven't encountered any connection issues between cart and console due to the DeOxit.