a quick one, components on planes

[joaquins]

where should I carry my components on international flights, handbag or luggage? does it matter?

I'm not the one travelling with them, as I could explain what they are, my mom won't. I dont know how the antistatic bags apears on rays, etc.

Thanks!

JS

PS: sorry my lack of posts lately, busy personal times... finishig EE and just finding a +1

 

[metalb00b00]

where should I carry my components on international flights, handbag or luggage? does it matter?

I have done this before. I carried them in my backpack. The components were stored in anti-static zip lock bags and these were inside a carton box courtesy of Mouser Electronics.

I'm not the one travelling with them, as I could explain what they are, my mom won't. I dont know how the antistatic bags apears on rays, etc.

Didn't bother to check. I passed through just fine tho.

 

[iampoor1]

I carried a few thousand resistors on cut tape packaging in my carry on in the US.

Minus getting my entire family frisked down, Explosive residue tests on our bags and bodies, and answering questions for an incident report, it was a fairly painless process.

 

[Andy Peters]

where should I carry my components on international flights, handbag or luggage? does it matter?

Dunno about international flights, but I've done a lot of flying with both uninstalled parts as well as populated boards not in enclosures.

Rule #0 of flying is always: if you want to ensure that your stuff gets to your destination, you must carry it on. Do not put it into checked luggage. Anything in checked luggage is subject to being stolen or lost or broken. This past weekend, I flew to and from the east coast, and checked a Pelican case with some stuff (an Effectron, some cables), and when I picked the case up at both ends, it had been opened by security and not completely closed. I'm amazed that my stuff didn't spill out into the belly of the plane.

As for components: x-rays don't affect them, so don't worry about that, even at the elevated levels used for checked luggage. The TSA morons may or may not demand that antistatic bags been opened, even though they won't know what's in the bags. Be prepared for everything carried through a checkpoint to be opened and swabbed and mishandled and abused.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Dunno about international flights, but I've done a lot of flying with both uninstalled parts as well as populated boards not in enclosures.

Rule #0 of flying is always: if you want to ensure that your stuff gets to your destination, you must carry it on. Do not put it into checked luggage. Anything in checked luggage is subject to being stolen or lost or broken. This past weekend, I flew to and from the east coast, and checked a Pelican case with some stuff (an Effectron, some cables), and when I picked the case up at both ends, it had been opened by security and not completely closed. I'm amazed that my stuff didn't spill out into the belly of the plane.

As for components: x-rays don't affect them, so don't worry about that, even at the elevated levels used for checked luggage. The TSA morons may or may not demand that antistatic bags been opened, even though they won't know what's in the bags. Be prepared for everything carried through a checkpoint to be opened and swabbed and mishandled and abused.

+1 xrays don't hurt typical components. We had an xray machine on our factory floor so we could look inside stuff without having to disassemble it. I didn't use it a lot, but enough to know it worked.

JR

 

[pucho812]

I would be more worried about flying with other things. I once was asked to fly a passport to someone( A producer) because they were in the northern part of the state leaving that day to go across the pond. A drive would have been 7 hours and not made it in time.  Rescheduling the flight was not an option.

Imagine flying on a plane with no luggage, a cell phone, identification, and a passport  that belongs to someone else.  Had I been stopped for any reason would not have looked good and would have totally defeated the purpose. Lucky I was not checked thoroughly. 

 

[sodderboy]

HMMM. . .  Dost thou directest upon thyself that which thou regreteth ;-?

The good old days before 9/11.  I sent my missus back to the old country, Russia, in 1994 or so.  Her flight was delayed due to mechanicals (Pan Am, siiiiiigh, the good old-old-old days) and it was a big laugh when a guy in summertime shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops, two SUSHI rolls, and two russian passports for people who forgot them on a previous flight. . .
walked into the Pan Am terminal, had the sushi x-rayed, and brought the stash to my beloved at the gate where everyone had been let out of the plane.

Even better, our niece in the former CCCR got ostioiylmtis bad in her thigh, and could not get acidophilus in Mother Russia, circa 1998 maybe?  We bought a 16 oz can of the stuff and my wife had a cousin in Aeroflot SVO who vouched for the creds and we delivered the can to Flot at JFK, just a hand-sized can of powder, and the Aeroflot organization passed it through

 

[Andy Peters]

Even better, our niece in the former CCCR got ostioiylmtis bad in her thigh, and could not get acidophilus in Mother Russia, circa 1998 maybe?  We bought a 16 oz can of the stuff and my wife had a cousin in Aeroflot SVO who vouched for the creds and we delivered the can to Flot at JFK, just a hand-sized can of powder, and the Aeroflot organization passed it through

The best was when I worked for the local bomb factory circa 1995 and I had to fly somewhere with a crypto-load device called a KYK-13 (I think that's the designation). The thing looks like a hand grenade. But the company security people typed up a nice letter which said to the airport security people, "these aren't the droids you're looking for" and the box with the grenade was never opened nor x-rayed.

 

[joaquins]

Components arrived nicely in the luggage, nobody even asked about them, maybe geting late to the airport helped as the train to there had 3h delay.

They ended in the luggage as I lost comunication for a few daya to recomend the handbag.

Thanks!

 

[madswitcher]

+1 xrays don't hurt typical components. We had an xray machine on our factory floor so we could look inside stuff without having to disassemble it. I didn't use it a lot, but enough to know it worked.

JR

A friend of mine works at a place that make sophisticated X-ray machines for airports: he is one of their soldering specialists as he is the only one who can make almost perfect hemispherical solder joints.  They have to be that way to prevent spark over because of the extremely high voltages used in the equipment. 

He was telling me how he does it, which involves soldering the boards component side down, turning them over and resoldering them from underneath so that the joints then becomes hemisphercial.

They also have a waiver to use leaded solder at the lead-free stuff grows tin whiskers over time.

Cheers

Mike