Circuit board label - MLCCs marked with "PC" instead of "C"?

[ezydu]

Hey all,

I'm working on depopulating a laptop motherboard and I want to make sure that something on here is actually an MLCC before I add it to the bin.

Some of the capacitors that look like MLCCs are labeled "PC" instead of just "C" -- often very close to ones labeled "C." I also see the same labeling on some inductors (PL), resistors (PR), and even ICs (PU). Take a look!


https://cubeupload.com/im/8q1dmR.jpg




I don't plan to do the palladium recovery on these myself so I want to make sure I get a good yield for whoever I sell to. Is there any chance these are *not* MLCCs but something else?

[hills]

It's not really an answer to your question but ......

Is it wise to depopulate the boards ?

Two things to consider:

1: The health risk. You rile up a lot of toxic nasties that go airborn when you're digging around on a board. It's a micro fine dust that you breathe in while you're working. If you come down sick your healthcare costs could easily run in the tens of thousands of dollars. Is the possible gain worth the risk ?

2: It's pretty hard to beat the economy of scale. The PM's are there but in very small quantities. The boards have to be processed in lots of over a thousand pounds in order to get enough recoverable material to make it worthwhile doing. It's been compared to gold mining operations where they have to screen truckloads of material in order to extract a single ounce of gold.

Maybe do a trial run to see for yourself before you get too deep into it ? Keep track of your time. Weigh up the material you recovered from ten laptop boards. Run the numbers and see if it's working out for you ?

[miked]

It's not really an answer to your question but ......

Is it wise to depopulate the boards ?

Two things to consider:

1: The health risk. You rile up a lot of toxic nasties that go airborn when you're digging around on a board. It's a micro fine dust that you breathe in while you're working. If you come down sick your healthcare costs could easily run in the tens of thousands of dollars. Is the possible gain worth the risk ?

2: It's pretty hard to beat the economy of scale. The PM's are there but in very small quantities. The boards have to be processed in lots of over a thousand pounds in order to get enough recoverable material to make it worthwhile doing. It's been compared to gold mining operations where they have to screen truckloads of material in order to extract a single ounce of gold.

Maybe do a trial run to see for yourself before you get too deep into it ? Keep track of your time. Weigh up the material you recovered from ten laptop boards. Run the numbers and see if it's working out for you ?

Well stated and you should seriously consider this advise. 73, Mike

[ezydu]

Well, my main motivator is the recycling instead of just the money -- I'm not really trying to be profitable but trying to save some palladium from landfills -- and most scrap yards won't take low-grade boards, so I can spare the time to process them. And then for the big ones, I wasn't going to let boards stack up around my house until it was worth it to take them to a yard, so I may as well depopulate them -- mostly for MLCCs, gold fingers, aluminum capacitors (yes, I'm *THAT* small time), and whatever little bits of copper I find.

Would a regular dust mask filter out most of the particles I'm releasing when I work on these?

[JJinLV]

Well, my main motivator is the recycling instead of just the money -- I'm not really trying to be profitable but trying to save some palladium from landfills -- and most scrap yards won't take low-grade boards, so I can spare the time to process them. And then for the big ones, I wasn't going to let boards stack up around my house until it was worth it to take them to a yard, so I may as well depopulate them -- mostly for MLCCs, gold fingers, aluminum capacitors (yes, I'm *THAT* small time), and whatever little bits of copper I find.

Would a regular dust mask filter out most of the particles I'm releasing when I work on these?

The buyers section of this forum will help you find yards in relatively close proximity that shipping would be an efficient option even for low grade if you have room to fill some boxes to eventually stack on a pallet. Sending it to specialists not only pays better, but helps insure more thorough recycling too for keeping those REMs out of landfills. And as other said it's also safer. But yes a normal particulate filter should do the trick so long as you clean the surface and floor each time when you're done. Otherwise you're just delaying the inhaling, not preventing it.