Spilled soda on keylab 88!

[Khin]

Sugarfree, for what it's worth. Happened yesterday. I dried it up, and didn't think it'd go through the cover. I didn't notice any problem when playing this morning until I suddenly heard this “hissing”-ish noise, and it disconnected. I immediately unplugged it, and opened it up. The soda had indeed gone through. Not that much really, but enough for it to take damage. It also smelled a little burnt at first. I unscrewed and dried off the mainboard with some paper, and it's currently air-drying.

Where do I go from here? Is there any way to save it? I'll provide some pics of the mainboard.

[MajorFubar]

If you'd disconnected it and dried it immediately you may have been fine, sorry to say but smell of burning = short somewhere which has fried some part(s) of the circuitry,

Might be salvageable if you can find an electronics technician locally. But really, modern electronics are not designed to be repaired, they're designed to have the burnt-out boards removed, recycled, and new boards installed. Repairing electronics mainly became a thing of the past when surface-mount components became a thing with everything assembled by robots not humans.

If you can't find a local electronics engineer who will look at it for you, I think your only other option is to reach out to Arturia to see if there is somewhere you could send it for repair.

Alternatively if you have house-contents insurance in your territory you could see if you can claim through that, it usually covers accidental damage, though you will doubtless have an excess to pay, just like car insurance.

[Khin]

If you'd disconnected it and dried it immediately you may have been fine, sorry to say but smell of burning = short somewhere which has fried some part(s) of the circuitry,

Might be salvageable if you can find an electronics technician locally. But really, modern electronics are not designed to be repaired, they're designed to have the burnt-out boards removed, recycled, and new boards installed. Repairing electronics mainly became a thing of the past when surface-mount components became a thing with everything assembled by robots not humans.

If you can't find a local electronics engineer who will look at it for you, I think your only other option is to reach out to Arturia to see if there is somewhere you could send it for repair.

Alternatively if you have house-contents insurance in your territory you could see if you can claim through that, it usually covers accidental damage, though you will doubtless have an excess to pay, just like car insurance.

Thanks for your reply! I tried turning it back on again, but all that happens is the burnt smell reappearing. Nothing's working. Changing the main board or whatever part is damaged, is that usually too expensive to be worth it? Probably just a single part that needs to be replaced. Also, hadn't thought about checking the house insurance, but that sounds like a good idea.

[MajorFubar]

Changing the main board or whatever part is damaged, is that usually too expensive to be worth it?

Yes usually. Even if only one or two components are fried, no one except a willing independent electronics engineer will contemplate repairing modern circuitboards at the component level because the tiny surface-mount components, often no bigger than the dot from a felt-tip highlighter pen, are not designed to be replaced by humans. The whole thing is designed just to be recycled when it fails, not repaired.

Same thing with modern cars. Thirty years ago the scrapyards were filled with tired rotted-out cars which had reached the natural end of their lives. These days, 'car dismantlers' are filled with 10-20 year old mint looking cars needing $5 of parts to fix some critical circuitboard in the car's electronics that is either unavailable or costs more to buy than the car is worth.

[Khin]

I see, thought as much. Would think a damaged part could just be replaced without much hassle, but I guess it might be hard to come by etc.

[MajorFubar]

No all the electronics are easy to come by, but modern circuitry is built by robots and isn't designed to be repaired when it goes faulty, it's just designed to be replaced and recycled.