Under what circumstances are you bringing it to room temp?
Do you leave it in the freezer until it gets nice and cold, then
take it out of its enclosure and let it warm up on the test bench?

I've always practiced the theory that things should be allowed to
warm up in the same manner as they cool; i.e., a laptop in a
briefcase in the trunk of your car should be left in its case while
it warms up.  This is especially important WRT musical instruments.

Of course, that all comes from experiences in the vast frozen tundra
of Fargo, North Dakota, where winter temperatures routinely drop
into the -20 deg F (-30 deg C) range.

Mike H.

>I am working on a PIC datalogger project that will be outdoors most of the
>time but brought inside once in awhile to dump data to a PC.  I have the
>device working fine sitting on my desk but when testing various conditions
>I
>have problems.  If I place the unit outside (about 40F today) or in my
>freezer, it continues working until I bring it back to room temperature and
>a layer of condensation forms.  I got a little jar of GC electronics
>conformal coating and applied it the best I could with a brush, at the
>performance does seem improved but it definitely is not good enough (even
>after a few rounds of stripping and re applying).  I feel like my
>application is not consistent enough perhaps, so I would like to dip the
>board, but I don't have enough coating nor a known local supplier (I would
>like to move forward on this today if at all possible).  I have heard that
>regular polyurethane varnish works well, so I'm thinking about getting a
>quart and dipping my board.  But before I trash my (mostly) working
>prototype I thought I'd ask for some quick opinions.  Is regular
>polyurethane varnish a good idea?  I'm planning to strip the old coating
>before applying the new.  Any suggestions on a good solvent available in
>home improvement type quantities that is safe for components and will cut
>dried silicone conformal coating?  Again I have a little jar of toluene I
>bought with the coating but would like a little more quantity to more
>effectively make sure that I get rid of all of the old coating.  Will
>soaking a board (electrolytic caps, ICs, switches and all) in this solvent
>cause any problems?  What about the same (minus switches) in the varnish?
>I'm getting antsy to head to the store and try this so any quick response
>would be much appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Nick
>
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