Nero 3 Controller Fell in Water

[bale31]

I pulled a dumb stunt today. When I was disassembling my Nero 3 to do a deeper clean on it, I dropped the controller in the water. Now it won't power up at all and I can't do any kind of reset. Any ideas on what to do at this point?

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

You can try the classic bowl of rice, but if the controller isn’t waterproof and that doesn’t work, it’s simply fried

 

[TokenReefer]

You can try isopropyl alcohol to displace the water. Better for electronics...give it a Google

 

[bale31]

You can try the classic bowl of rice, but if the controller isn’t waterproof and that doesn’t work, it’s simply fried

I was afraid that was going to he the answer

 

[bale31]

You can try isopropyl alcohol to displace the water. Better for electronics...give it a Google

I will see if that may work. I was hoping it may be a bit more water resistant than this, but alas.....

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

In the Version store they have a a Air Dryers for electronics, seen on Shark Tank, they charge you to use it.
If you drop something expensive in water do not try to turn it back on take it to the store if it fits in the machine it might save it, you could also try dunking it in RO/DI water to try to get the salt out of it.

It would be interesting to see someone test it and see if it works, drop an expensive light that is going out and see what happens. Too bad my Kessil 360X has kicked the bucket.

 

[SGV - Bluestar]

Well, contact EM, and see if they can do a warranty fix or repair for the control unit?

 

[elBem80]

What happened in the end? I've just done the same to mine!

 

[Borat]

If you follow the rice suggestion - you might as well sacrifice a cow and hope that this would somehow cure the controller. Oh yes, rice recepie is not only dumb, but is also damaging - rice contains lots of dust, and these things getting into electronics is doing no good.

My suggestion wouold be : to rinse it in RO water - hoping that this would displace saltwater from electronics. The controller is already wet - you are not going to make any more damage by rinsing it in RO. Water itself would not damage the controller, what's damaging is rather:
- saltwater that erodes/rusts all electronics or
- powering up the controller while it is wet, it would likely short some PCB paths and damage it

So to keep it short - rinse in RO, dry completely (by opening up the enclosure) and hope that it would start again..

Ok your controller is long dead or alive.. but the above is hopefully helpful for some other US&A folkes that happen to wet their precious reef devices.

 

[TokenReefer]

I would try an isopropyl alcohol bath to displace water and salt.. Worth a shot anyway

 

[elBem80]

If you follow the rice suggestion - you might as well sacrifice a cow and hope that this would somehow cure the controller. Oh yes, rice recepie is not only dumb, but is also damaging - rice contains lots of dust, and these things getting into electronics is doing no good.

My suggestion wouold be : to rinse it in RO water - hoping that this would displace saltwater from electronics. The controller is already wet - you are not going to make any more damage by rinsing it in RO. Water itself would not damage the controller, what's damaging is rather:
- saltwater that erodes/rusts all electronics or
- powering up the controller while it is wet, it would likely short some PCB paths and damage it

So to keep it short - rinse in RO, dry completely (by opening up the enclosure) and hope that it would start again..

Ok your controller is long dead or alive.. but the above is hopefully helpful for some other US&A folkes that happen to wet their precious reef devices.

So I decided that the "dip in rice for 48 hours" wasn't the best option and unlikely to work. Turns out the controller unit is very easy to open with a sharp knife to get at the circuit board. I spent a lot of time drying the board with a cool hairdryer and then gently rubbing some (of the salty!?) of the internals with cotton buds dipped in iso alcohol. I followed this up with more cool setting hairdryer. It looked and should have been thoroughly dry.

I was quite confident this would work... it didn't. No response upon turning it back on. Its more than likely fried now.

If I was to go again I would go with your suggestion borat. Completely rinse in RO (once taken apart) and then completely dry the internals using a cold hairdryer and more time than you think. I'm guessing the salt did the damage as like I said, pretty sure it was completely dry.