Is your iron grounded? Is it possible that they contain high enough voltage that the iron may bring two conductors close enough to arc? I'm noticing a lot of static electricity in southeast michigan due to the cold weather - perhaps you are starting a spark which provides a path for a capacitor to discharge. I like the chemical reaction thought - lithium is a very reactive metal. Test a few caps with a multimeter. Very interesting - let us know what you find if you discover the cause. -Adam On 1/19/07, Micro Brix wrote: > I just worked on a circuit board (the one I need the SRAM for) and had a > very unusual thing happen. > > While soldering on the vias, and on a couple of the SRAM chips, with the > board entirely removed from the system, I had several instances of what > appeared to be explosions as I heated the joints. These were NOT any kind > of bubbling, these were bright noisy POPs, which threw red and yellow > sparks. The board has a couple of 100uF caps, and a bunch of 0.1uF, but had > not been powered in months, and in any case, I was only touching the one > point, no possibility of a short. > > The lithium coin cell had leaked over this area, which had a number of lead > solder joints, and copper traces of course. > I am wondering if there's a possible chemical reaction there that leads to > an explosive? > > Never saw anything like it before. > > -- > Feel the power of the dark side! Atmel AVR > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Moving in southeast Michigan? Buy my house: http://ubasics.com/house/ Interested in electronics? Check out the projects at http://ubasics.com Building your own house? Check out http://ubasics.com/home/ -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist