What are your favourite electronics smells?

[eti]

What are your favourite electronics smells?

Mine are:

~ Rosin flux evaporating
~ A hot iron heating a cheap phenolic PCB
~ Overheating of a fibreglass PCB (it says "Warning: remove iron!")
~ The smell of overheated transformer varnish
~ Burning diode/IC smoke
~ The scent of a venting electrolytic cap
~ PVC insulation melting (a little bit, not too much)
~ The unusual smell when an LED explodes 😁
~ "Old electronics" smells

I've never understood why anyone would want to be in software Vs hardware - there's no emotional,. sentimental connection in this way, except for maybe brewing coffee.

[deadlylover]

I used to buy boxes and boxes of CR123A lithium batteries for feeding torches/flashlights. They would off-gas this strange sweet alcoholic smell...we used to call it flashahol. (this was like 13 years ago before li-ions were common and supported in lights)

The worst smell is a crappy Schaffner IEC inlet exploding in old HP gear. That's like a rite of passage in one's test equipment addiction journey ahahah.

[pqass]

Code does have a smell.
At times, I've become very emotional about fixing other peoples messes.
Thankfully, I'm not nostalgic for those days.

[james_s]

I don't know if it quite counts as electronics but I like the musty smell inside vintage arcade cabinets, a combination of electronics, particle board and who knows what. CRT TV sets with wooden cabinets have a similar smell.

[eti]

I don't know if it quite counts as electronics but I like the musty smell inside vintage arcade cabinets, a combination of electronics, particle board and who knows what. CRT TV sets with wooden cabinets have a similar smell.

Of course it counts. Fab. 👍🏻🙂

[Miyuki]

That weird smell of new motherboard, when you open the plastic bag
Do you know what it is? Some kind of cleaning agent? I need to get it 

And old nicotine impregnated half-burnt dust in like the 70s, 80s equipment. Everything was soaked with nicotine back then   

[eti]

That weird smell of new motherboard, when you open the plastic bag
Do you know what it is? Some kind of cleaning agent? I need to get it 

And old nicotine impregnated half-burnt dust in like the 70s, 80s equipment. Everything was soaked with nicotine back then 

A good dose of Ambersil foaming cleanser puts paid to that filth.

[sleemanj]

For some peculiar reason, I don't at all mind the faint lingering whiff of HCl/CuCl2 after doing an etching job.

It's a sort of a salty sweet tangy sort of a smell.  I think it sort of permeates your clothes, or my beard or something.

Obviously I'm probably smelling it dissolving my respiratory system, but there you go, it's always the stuff that's bad for you which is most enjoyable.

[jfiresto]

I like the smell of benzyl alcohol, but then I had a chemistry teacher who turned us into a bunch of ester sniffing addicts. 

[nctnico]

What are your favourite electronics smells?

When an assembler puts a bar of good chocalate together with the delivery of boards. 

Other than that electronics shouldn't smell at all.

[bdunham7]

I've mostly lost my sense of smell, but from memory I would vote for the smell of a warm tube-powered console radio.

[m98]

The distinct smell of nothing after powering up a new design for the first time.

[eti]

The distinct smell of nothing after powering up a new design for the first time.

👆🤨

[helius]

Least favorite smells:
Smoke from failed RIFA metallized-paper capacitors.
Smoke from burning solid tantalum capacitors.
Smoke from burning selenium rectifiers.
Fetid smell from leaked alkaline cells.

[Halcyon]

I've always found smells to be quite overpowering, particularly anything to do with chemicals or smoke. Although I remember when I was a kid, I blew up my dads old analog multimeter which smelled like roasted peanuts from that point onwards.

[johnboxall]

An electronics store. I worked at various DSE stores in the 90s, and the older ones had a certain smell. Metallic, damp cardboard, dusty TV antenna boxes, sweat and a little despair at stocktake time.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Quicklag circuit breakers.

Those that know, know.

[mc172]

~ Rosin flux evaporating
~ A hot iron heating a cheap phenolic PCB
~ Overheating of a fibreglass PCB (it says "Warning: remove iron!")
~ The smell of overheated transformer varnish
~ Burning diode/IC smoke
~ The scent of a venting electrolytic cap
~ PVC insulation melting (a little bit, not too much)
~ The unusual smell when an LED explodes 😁
~ "Old electronics" smells

Most of these are horrible, rancid smells. I can't say that I've ever exploded an LED but the rest from memory smell absolutely disgusting. I didn't even think they could be an acquired taste but then again some people enjoy the taste and smell of burning tobacco so there you go.

The exception would be that "old electronics" smell, especially where there's also something mechanical going on like a cassette deck or VHS/VCR or even an old video camera. I think the grease adds nicely to the smell for a well-seasoned old-timey flavour.

One of my favourite electronics smells is/was soldering with Alpha brand solder with about 3% silver content, with lead of course. It used to come on a blue spool, not sure if they make it any more. It's probably really bad for you but I used to enjoy soldering with that stuff until I ran out.
RS sell an anti-corona lacquer (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-varnishes/0569313) that smells nice, kind of like marzipan. It looks like they've stopped doing it, probably because as usual with things that smell nice, it's really bad for you.

Another not quite so electronics-related favourite is machining stainless steel from virgin bar stock, also TIG welding stainless steel. Machining any kind of stainless smells nice, but machining 316L for example right from the mill-finished outer faces has this particularly nice smell to it.

[Ice-Tea]

The smell of a RIFA that has puked out its guts. Because chances are the previous owner saw the cloud of smoke, decided it was beyond economic repair while all it will probably take is replace a few caps from my RRS (RIFA Replacement Stock) and it's good to go.

[Neper]

Smoke from burning selenium rectifiers.

In German, a rectifier is - quite literally - a Gleichrichter.  Pronounce it a little differently and you get a "gleich riecht er" -> it'll smell soon. 

My favourite smell is and remains that of a freshly unpacked new piece of equipment. Can't get enough of it. 

[eti]

~ Rosin flux evaporating
~ A hot iron heating a cheap phenolic PCB
~ Overheating of a fibreglass PCB (it says "Warning: remove iron!")
~ The smell of overheated transformer varnish
~ Burning diode/IC smoke
~ The scent of a venting electrolytic cap
~ PVC insulation melting (a little bit, not too much)
~ The unusual smell when an LED explodes 😁
~ "Old electronics" smells

Most of these are horrible, rancid smells. I can't say that I've ever exploded an LED but the rest from memory smell absolutely disgusting. I didn't even think they could be an acquired taste but then again some people enjoy the taste and smell of burning tobacco so there you go.

The exception would be that "old electronics" smell, especially where there's also something mechanical going on like a cassette deck or VHS/VCR or even an old video camera. I think the grease adds nicely to the smell for a well-seasoned old-timey flavour.

One of my favourite electronics smells is/was soldering with Alpha brand solder with about 3% silver content, with lead of course. It used to come on a blue spool, not sure if they make it any more. It's probably really bad for you but I used to enjoy soldering with that stuff until I ran out.
RS sell an anti-corona lacquer (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-varnishes/0569313) that smells nice, kind of like marzipan. It looks like they've stopped doing it, probably because as usual with things that smell nice, it's really bad for you.

Another not quite so electronics-related favourite is machining stainless steel from virgin bar stock, also TIG welding stainless steel. Machining any kind of stainless smells nice, but machining 316L for example right from the mill-finished outer faces has this particularly nice smell to it.

Sounds like you’re in the wrong business to me. Those smells are part and parcel of electronics, and part of the experience. Heheh.

To each their own.

[Halcyon]

An electronics store. I worked at various DSE stores in the 90s, and the older ones had a certain smell. Metallic, damp cardboard, dusty TV antenna boxes, sweat and a little despair at stocktake time.

Reminds me of Tandy Electronics.

[coppercone2]

I can tell you my least favorite smells
1) 70's old rotten capacitor fish smell (JFC! its like you throw a rotten fish on a frying pan)
2) old tektronix plastic boxes. I actually sold a probe because it smelled so bad and bought a phillips active probe instead. I could not get the smell to get out of the plastic with all sorts of dips, treatments, washing machine cycles, etc.


And a nice 'electronics' smell is ozone in small amounts from arcs. Usually it means you got a high voltage arc circuit energized. High voltage spark speaker first start is like the first thanksgiving dinner you liked.

How about burnt teflon wiring? 

[Psi]

I do love the chemtronics solder braid flux smell

[HighVoltage]

The ozone of high voltage discharges

[steve30]

My Amiga 500+'s switch mode PSU smells nice once its warmed up. Not quite sure what the actual smell is or which component it comes from, but it is pleasant.

I also like the smell of Rosin.

[james_s]

I've mostly lost my sense of smell, but from memory I would vote for the smell of a warm tube-powered console radio.

That's pretty much the same as the arcade game smell. Makes sense I guess, warm dusty vacuum tube(s) inside an old wooden cabinet. I have a 1941 Philco console radio that I restored about 10 years ago that I use on a regular basis. There's one good retro radio station in the region that often plays period correct music. Unfortunately they drop their power level in the evening and there is a powerful station in the next state down that plays mostly mariachi music on the same frequency so both sometimes come in at once at night.

[mag_therm]

One time I spent 2 weeks on a nasty problem on an inverter in a far away land.
The thing was big enough to get into ( provided locked off!) and was located on a mezzanine above the worker's communal bathroom.
So at the shift changes the perfume from all the soap and shampoo would waft up into the cabinet.

Another one was a VFD with problems located near the ovens of a famous dessert pie company.
For years after, every time I ate or even smelled the hot pies I remembered the horrors of that early AC drive.

[Neper]

From a discussion in a German hifi forum:

In my experience, a burnt voice coil smells different.

[25 CPS]

I gave it some thought and there are several that come to mind.

First would be that warm dust smell that running vacuum tube equipment has once it's gotten up to temperature which has been mentioned by a bunch of people.  I bought a Hewlett-Packard 205AG and it had been on at the seller's place so I could test it and I loaded it into the back seat of the car so it couldn't shift around and get damaged on the way home.  I didn't notice the smell while it was running on the seller's dining room table but about 20 minutes into the drive, the lingering smell reached me in the driver's seat and it brought back memories right away.

Freshly unsealed magnetic tape would be another.  Along the same lines, freshly unsealed photographic film packages but I don't really associate that with electronics the way I do tape.

Warm model train transformers.  That'd be the top three for me.

[coppercone2]

how about PCB etchants, film, and so forth?

They were weird alien uncomfortable smells at first but when you realize what they do, you don't mind so much.

[jmelson]

Texas A&M University has a copy of the smaller superconducting cyclotron from Michigan State U's National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab.
It uses 3 20+ KW transmitting tubes running off about 18 KV DC.  They had a fire in one of the RF amps, that stunk up the whole building for at least a day.  I was on some zoom calls with their people and they were still complaining about the smell in the evening.  I'm guessing some plastic insulating material got arced over and started to burn.  Hope it wasn't Teflon!
  I don't know the actual power input to the TAMU cyclotron, but I know when MSU was running both of theirs at the same time, the DC supply was delivering 42 A at 18 KV DC!  YIKES!!!  That's 3/4 megawatt!

Jon

[Bud]

The smell of burned flash when i touched the anode of a keyed-in RF amplifier output tube... Cant say if was my favorite one but 40 years later i still remember it 

[AlbertL]

I'll go with the classics: rosin flux smoke, and the general under-the-chassis scent of warm vintage electronics (probably a mix of wax, varnish and phenolics).

Worst smell: the vomit-like odor of whatever plastic is used in cheap imported consumer electronics; think Radio Shack before they became cell-phones-only.

[strawberry]

gasoline

[Ed.Kloonk]

gasoline

Not smelling it too much, I hope.

[Neper]

Freshly unsealed magnetic tape would be another.

There was a time, when I could have told the various brands apart just by their smell. Scotch was probably the easiest because very distinct. Next came Ampex Grand Master.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Freshly unsealed magnetic tape would be another.

There was a time, when I could have told the various brands apart just by their smell. Scotch was probably the easiest because very distinct. Next came Ampex Grand Master.

I think it was Scotch tape that was musician Frank Zappa's engineer discovered after years of archival that the brand was the best in terms of preservation of the recorded material.

I wonder what substances made that brand so special. Nobody knew at the time. It was pot luck what you bought.

[james_s]

I wonder what substances made that brand so special. Nobody knew at the time. It was pot luck what you bought.

I'd guess it comes mostly down to the adhesive, and also the grain and consistency of the coating. The smell is almost certainly mostly the adhesive/binders.

[eti]

Well I've found out one of my LEAST favourite electronics smells - the smell of MG Chemicals 835 RA type flux! Yuck!

[helius]

The smoke or the liquid itself? I would say the liquid has a fairly mild smell similar to cough syrup.

[radar_macgyver]

gasoline

Yuck, no. I'm with Dave on this one - after getting used to an EV, going to a gas station is pretty awful.

I like the adhesive used on 3M VHB tape. Since they use it to hold together cellphones and the like, that's imo the "smell of new electronics".

[SL4P]

Coffee & doughnuts