cool paper on whiskers

Thanks, I've got a bag full of switches with tin whiskers, if someone wants to look at some.

George H.

I didn't know they had a fluted structure. Surprisingly no mention of the degree of sharpness of the points of tin whiskers. Is there companion files on Tin Pest and PbF solder issues?

Interesting, thanks.

Cheers

Phil "Kester 44 forever" Hobbs

I grabbed about ten old female d-sub connectors and over half had whiskers inside the shell.

They are hard to see or photograph; the lighting has to be just right.

I don't think that gold plated pins make whiskers. The D-sub whiskers aren't a big deal because the mate scrapes them away.

My brother-in-law buys chips and has them re-tinned or re-balled with tin-lead, to reduce whiskers. That's expensive.

My guess (on one data point) is that Rohs is somewhat to blame for the recent uptick in whiskers. They had to take the lead out of the tin alloy on shells and stuff and that allowed for more whiskers.

George H.

Absolutely!

cool reading material. Been in a lower level ICU for the last 4 days trying to find a way out. Been diagnosed with ITP, the casue is not well known.

Cheers

Sorry to hear that. I and mine will be praying for you.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I was going to get a miniscus tear fixed, I think its the Naproxen I was taking that casued this. Pre Surgury Blood test showed near zero platelets. Was advised to turn myself into an ER.

Cheers

excessive moonshine will do that!

Jamie

Thanks Phil. Its a mini Roller coaster as you can imagine.

Cheers

Mini? Sounds far scarier than a little roller coaster. ...or a big one.

Wish you well!

Ouch, I'm going in for my first MRI... NMR! on my knees, doc figures it's a torn meniscus, which I did years ago...Soccer and moguls.

I did something to rip it open more.

George H.

Dan

I've had a zillion head MRIs in the last year or so, and three CAT scans. Both are boring, and the MRI is noisy... gradient coils and helium liquifiers.

UC paid me $250 per session for the privilige of looking inside my head. Free parking, too.

The ITP thing has a good chance of getting better on its own; lots of things do. The prayers can't but help.

MRI is noisy, but otherwise non-worrying. Each CAT scan is supposed to deli ver 4% of the 50% lethal radiation dose - in other words if you get 25 of t hem in a short period, you're going to have enough radiation damage that it 's got a 50% chance of killing the average person.

Some of those neurological investiagtions ban left-handers - the distributu ion of function within the left-haded brain is less predictable than it is in most right-handers.

The cases that follow an infection do get better on their own, and that is the usual course. Unfortunately, you get to find out which group you belong to by waiting to see what happens.

We're rooting for you, Martin!

Is this the "immune ..." or the "idiopathic..." platelet disorder?

-F

Mmm, not that much from what I see (more like 0.1% for the average procedure?) -- but still, probably the strongest single dose anyone will ever likely absorb in their lifetime!

Tim

Wiki says that a head CT (1-2 mSv) amounts to somewhat less than a year of background radiation (maybe 3 mSv, much higher in some places). A CT is around the annual extra dose that a flight attendant gets. Something like 5 Sv is lethal.

I had three CTs in an hour or so; they weren't happy with the first couple. I wasn't paying much attention at the time.

There's all sorts of radioactive stuff around. Granite, bricks, bananas, radon, the universe.