I noticed that mention of beryllium, too...but I'm not as familiar with its health consequences. I assume that its toxicity is closely related to the form of the beryllium (the specific compound), I looked up "beryllium thermal paste" to see if I could get a clue.
Wiki (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease) talks about the beryllium being in the form of a ceramic (beryllium oxide). Presumably as a powered ceramic used as a filler in the paste.
Looking up beryllium oxide (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease), they talk about it being used in thermal grease. Under the "safety" section they talk about the problems with inhaling the powder. It does sound bad.
I guess that the question is, how much exposure to powder is likely when handling thermal grease? I'm thinking that the exposure to ∗powder∗ will be low. Conversely, though, how much exposure/risk are you willing to tolerate given the that the downside is pretty bad?
Thanks for the heads-up regarding the beryllium thermal grease. Does anyone else have experience with these kinds of thermal pastes?
Chip
--- In PolySix@yahoogroups.com, "feline1973" <feline1@...> wrote:
>
> Bloody hell, though:
> just read this in Kiwisix's documentation for the PSU board upgrade:
>
> "Warning: the metal plate between the Power supply
> board and the rear of the Polysix has heat transfer paste
> on it. This paste is also on the rear of the top metal rail
> of the power supply board. Some early heat transfer
> pastes were fairly toxic and can contain Beryllium so
> either wash with IPA or wear gloves and clean up
> carefully after you are finished."
>
> ...beryllium is HELLISHLY toxic, not "fairly toxic" - I would not mess with this at home without some kind of fume extraction system in place: even microgram amounts of beryllium dust inhaled into the lungs can have dire health consequences.
>
> David
>
> --- In PolySix@yahoogroups.com, "peterm" <peterm@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have no idea about the temperature, but I recall reading about a PSU replacement for the Kiwisix kit.
> > http://kiwitechnics.com/kiwisix.htm
> >
> > "A number of Polysix's that arrive at our workshop have had extensive damage across multiple boards. It is our conclusion that this has been caused by overvoltage being applied to all the boards. This can only have come from the Power regulating board and because of this we no longer trust the original power regulating circuitry in the Polysix."
> >
> > It wouldn't surprise me if the original Polysix PSU has little or no margin for additional load.
> >
> > BR,
> > Peter
> >
> > ----------------------------------------
> > From: "chipaudette" <chipaudette@>
> > Sent: Monday, July 8, 2013 1:26 AM
> > To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [PolySix] Temperature of YOUR Polysix?
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > As you may remember, I've been doing a lot of mods to my Polysix. After focusing on having fun playing the thing for the last month or two, I'm noticing that the Polysix seems to get quite hot on the back panel. Because I've added two new microcontrollers (plus associated components) and powering them all off the Polysix's built-in power supply I'm worried that maybe the extra heat is my fault.
> >
> > I've done measurements of my modded Polysix. The thermal bus bar on the Polysix power supply is running about 140F (60C). You can see details here:
> >
> > http://synthhacker.blogspot.com/2013/07/polysix-temperature.html
> >
> > In searching the archives here, I found that others have mentioned that the Polysix gets hot (http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/PolySix/message/942) but nobody reported any measurements.
> >
> > Can anyone measure the temperature of their Polysix and tell me how hot she gets? If mine is hot, but normal, I may proceed with even more power-drawing modifications. If mine is hot and abnormal, I won't.
> >
> > Thanks for any help you can give...
> >
> > Chip
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>