How do you save a CF that flew into your coffee?

Moogle Pepper

The darndest thing just happened. I picked up my camera to eject my new compact flash card, luckily only had a few test photos on it, and the card literally flew into my coffee mug with coffee in it. My first instinct was to yell out "OH EFF!" and then rinsed it with fresh water as coffee tends to stick.

Any luck of it surviving?

Wil Davis

The holes in a CF card are pretty small, so surface-tension might help prevent the liquid getting in.

Depending on how long it was immersed:

1. wipe off with water soaked sponge/towel
2. warm gently using hair-dryer

Another reason to take coffee Black with no sugar (that way no stickiness or smelly curdling milk), and not too hot…

- Wil

Moogle Pepper

Oh it flew inside the coffee. So it drank some coffee.

Richard

Moogle Pepper wrote:

The darndest thing just happened. I picked up my camera to eject my new compact flash card, luckily only had a few test photos on it, and the card literally flew into my coffee mug with coffee in it. My first instinct was to yell out "OH EFF!" and then rinsed it with fresh water as coffee tends to stick.

Any luck of it surviving?

Maybe. I have read of cases of CF cards going through washers and driers and still working. Give it a good long time to dry out and keep your fingers crossed.

Moogle Pepper

I am never going to eject my CF cards from my camera near anything that has liquid in it. I was like 6 inches away from my coffee cup. I honestly did not think that it would fly like that!

run_kmc

Well, there's only one way to find out.

I would suggest not trying it in the camera right away. I'm not saying it will damage something else, but if it did, better a card reader than a camera.

Who knows? I've put xD cards through the washing machine, and they were just fine.

colourbox

Given how often you hear about these things going through the washing machine and still working, it's tempting to say just put it in your next load of laundry to wash off the coffee. The important rules about water and solid state electronics are, you can get them wet, but only if there is absolutely zero current running through them, no foreign residue remains after washing, and if they are dried thoroughly before applying any current to them. As long as those rules are followed, they can get wet. I doubt cards would have survived the wash if they were plugged in without also going through the dryer too. In your case, you gotta get rid of the coffee/milk/sugar, which involves flushing it out, which will then require drying it completely.

It's kind of fun to see how far the SD card flies out of the spring-loaded bay in my LX3. But now I'm going to make sure I don't do that in a coffee shop...

jbakerphoto

You might want to put the cf and some rice in a ziploc and let them sit for a little bit. The rice will draw any liquid out. Not sure it will matter. It will probably still work anyway.....

cmason

unclejon wrote:

You might want to put the cf and some rice in a ziploc and let them sit for a little bit. The rice will draw any liquid out. Not sure it will matter. It will probably still work anyway.....

Even better than rice, is something called Fresh Step Crystals. Yes it is cat litter, but it isn't 'regular' cat litter. Basically, this is a bag of the stuff that they put in those tiny packets they include in electronic gear that is shipped. This stuff is a water magnet.

Don't get regular cat litter (which is usually just clay). This stuff is in a smallish bag, and I can't recall how much is was, but around $12-$15

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10313505

(btw, I washed and dried an SD card, and it worked fine after. I don't think I recommend putting your CF card thru a dryer cycle, but it should be ok once its dry)

20DNoob

Toss it in with your next load of laundry(the wash), it'll be fine. At least that way you'll know the sugar is taken care of and not gunk up the pins in the body.

BradfordBenn

The key is to make sure that it is very dry before use. Most electronic manufacturing processes do an aqueous wash after running the printed circuit boards through the soldering process. The steps here are pretty well done. The challenge is that one the washer dryer approach, you need to make sure that the soap doesn't leave a residue. So you might want to put it in a glass of water before putting it into the dryer.

Moogle Pepper

So it's been a week since the .. incident. Should I try it out on a card reader? I don't want to explode something.

Manfr3d

Hmm, next time immediatly put it into salt as it will suck out any moisture pretty quickly. After 1 week there is either no more moisture in it or the moisture destroied the electronics ...

ziggy53

Manfr3d wrote:

Hmm, next time immediatly put it into salt as it will suck out any moisture pretty quickly. After 1 week there is either no more moisture in it or the moisture destroied the electronics ...

If you wrapped the card in a couple layers of plain white facial tissue first, I suppose salt would not be so bad. I would never insert a damp card directly into salt for fear of electrolytic effects and corrosion.

My preference is to use instant rice or silica gel, again wrapping the card first in tissue.

Moogle Pepper

SUCCESS! I was able to retrieve the photos taken! So I guess I can try it out in my camera next. hmm....

kdog

Glad to hear it worked out ok. I've got to tell you though, I was sitting here drinking coffee when I read your post and practically snorted it out my hose. :giggle

divamum

kdog wrote:

Glad to hear it worked out ok. I've got to tell you though, I was sitting here drinking coffee when I read your post and practically snorted it out my hose. :giggle

I think it may qualify for "best ever header to a dgrin post". Every time I see the subject line I laugh out loud (literally) again

kdog

Reminds me of this true story that actually happened to me. First day on the new job, and the boss walks into my office to see how things are going. He's holding a cup of coffee, leans against my CRT monitor, and a slurp of coffee splashes out of his cup and directly into the vent slots on the top of my monitor. A big puff a smoke, and the monitor goes dark. "Well, it was going ok".