This short article in EDN by Jay Davis reminded me of this great little trick to make laser-marked part numbers on ICs and transistors easier to read:
So, I decided to make a video about it. All you need is a piece of tape…
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Pidgeon shit, been around for ages. (White silicone grease)
i like any word coming out of your mouth hhhh
One big problem I have with chip numbers is a lot of the chips I have, the printing rubs off so easily. They have this yellowish printing on them with no laser etching and it rubs off if my hands are sweaty or oily. Like if I scratch my face, get a bit of face oil on my fingers, then touch the chip by say, pushing it into a socket, the numbers rub off. And once those numbers are gone, they’re gone for good. Unless I put a tiny piece of masking tape on them and write the number with a fine tipped marker. I suspect such chips to be counterfeits, but they seem to work fine otherwise. Has anyone else had any experience with something like this happening? Any tips on how to avoid/remedy it? Besides wearing gloves or ordering from more reputable sources.
What gets me is I’ve even had this problem in with chips I got in a surplus radioshack kit I got that had a whole bunch of jellybean logic ICs in it. And I would have figured Radioshack would at least be reputable enough not to use counterfeit chips. But who knows these days. The rest of my chips came from AliExpress, which I know isn’t the most reputable place to get chips. But since most 74/4000 series chips are usually $1 or $2 for a pack of 10 on there, it was a very tantalizing prospect. But now I have several dozen 74HC595s where the TI logo is a picture of the United States instead of Texas, among other anomalies Again, they seem to work just fine and I wouldn’t suspect they were counterfeit, otherwise. But I’ve never actually tried to characterize them. So who knows how well they really work.
I find that a little smudge of silicone white thermal compound rubbed over the digits works well
I have applied a thinned out, Liquid Papaer or Wite Out typewriter correction fluid and then wiped the excess away with a tissue moistened with Isopropyl Alcohol.
It makes the laser etched portion white and the smooth portions black permanently and reduce Static Generated top of the chip package.