whit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore) (01/20/90)
In article <74162@philabs.Philips.Com> agc@briar.philips.com.UUCP (Aldo G. Cugnini) writes: >In article <7720003@hplred.HP.COM> hintzman@hplred.HP.COM (Jeff Hintzman) writes: >>..... I'm curious to hear feedback >>from people who have used "Tweek", this little bottle of stuff that you're >>supposed to put on your connectors. > >Even though the sales hype says something about "lowers resistance", it >must do so by possibly cleaning the contact surface or preventing >(micro-?)corrosion. I measured the conductivity of the liquid itself >and it's nil. > As I recall from an early report on the stuff (in Stereo Review, of all places), the liquid is a semiconductor. Like a surge protector, it acts like an insulator UNTIL a surge hits it, then turns conductive until a while after the surge passes. In low-voltage connections, the first break in the connection causes a voltage difference between two hunks of metal with a thin layer of Tweek between them, which responds to the voltage difference by... becoming a conductor. Once it starts carrying current, conductivity will persist for a time (if the manufacturers could manage it, they'd probably have aimed for several seconds before the contact needed more electric current to get it conducting again). The result is to make contacts much more reliable; it does NOT abrade anything, nor even clean it, and can be wiped off if it ever causes problems. I've used some "contact enhancers" of similar sort on old oscilloscopes' switches, and it works like magic. It is conceivable that a very bad connection could have such a thick layer of the liquid between its parts that the "turn-on" effect varied with the amplitude of the music, i.e. caused distortion, but that's not been noted by anyone I know of who used Tweak. The fix for that, of course, is to tighten the connections with one of the standard techniques (Vise Grips!). Tweak is, by all accounts, an excellent accessory to have around. Blue Stuff is a slightly messier aerosol product with some similar capabilities. I am known for my brilliance, John Whitmore by those who do not know me well.
tell@oscar.cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell) (01/22/90)
What kind of temperature range is TWEEK good for? I recently moved my vintage 1958 H.H. Scott model 299 amplifier from New Jersey to North Carolina in my car, and wound up with a bad hum in one channel. It persisted until I thought to reseat some of the tubes. Would Tweek or a similar contact-enhancer work on the tube pins and sockets, or would the high temperature be a problem? Steve