I thought I might be able to do the usb port replacement myself but after getting the part and desoldering the old one, I am pretty sure I am risking damaging the board if I try.
Seems like it needs a more skilled touch.
Anyone doing the repair cheaper than buying the daughterboard outright?
_ck_ said:
I thought I might be able to do the usb port replacement myself but after getting the part and desoldering the old one, I am pretty sure I am risking damaging the board if I try.
Seems like it needs a more skilled touch.
Anyone doing the repair cheaper than buying the daughterboard outright?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, meaning it can be done, though I'm not sure what your question is. The port has five pins, which is much less aggravating compared to Samsung's. But you need the right equipment, i.e, decent soldering stations with the right tips (0.5, 0.8, 1.0 mm maximum) and temperatures, the right magnifying glass, adequate lighting, dexterity, and above all, patience.
I've found out that if you initially set out your goal to have a working tab again, then you'd have had the wrong mentality, because it would make you impatient. But if you go about it as if you're studying something unknown, you'd forget about time and therefore become patient without attempting to be so. Have fun.
Yeah I have everything but a professional soldering iron that can handle extremely fine tips, and the tips themselves.
I mean, I can do soldering but the pins on that usb port are crazy thin, I can only make out the pins and pads on the board clearly with the board holder magnifying glass and even that still makes them seem very close together.
I probably need a real Hakko iron and tips to get this done, that's a bit of an investment.
I assume the steps would be tin the pins, tin the pads, then solder the bracket of the usb port to the board, then heat the pins until the solder on the pins and the pads fuse. Sound about right?
Much easier said that done.
How the heck do they put 10 watts through one of those tiny pins.
I sent mine to an eBay seller. $31 including all shipping. Worked put perfect .
_ck_ said:
Yeah I have everything but a professional soldering iron that can handle extremely fine tips, and the tips themselves.
I mean, I can do soldering but the pins on that usb port are crazy thin, I can only make out the pins and pads on the board clearly with the board holder magnifying glass and even that still makes them seem very close together.
I probably need a real Hakko iron and tips to get this done, that's a bit of an investment.
I assume the steps would be tin the pins, tin the pads, then solder the bracket of the usb port to the board, then heat the pins until the solder on the pins and the pads fuse. Sound about right?
Much easier said that done.
How the heck do they put 10 watts through one of those tiny pins.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hakko would be expensive. I bought an Aoyue station, which works fine. You want to smear that area of the board with rosin paste (just enough) to keep solder from bridging between pins. No need to spread solder onto the pins themselves. Some on the pads should do.
Yes, you solder the bracket first, but make sure the pins are aligned correctly with the pads (this must be done with a hi-power loupe or magnifyer (10x)). You set the temperature at around 375 (on mine anyway), then slide the tip from the end of the pad forward to melt the solder so it would envelop the pin. You don;t want to apply heat directly to the pins since if it's too much, it might melt the plastic housing of the port, or mollify and bend or break the pins themselves.
Then clean the rosin residue, and use a volt meter to check for continuity between one end of the USB cable and the end points of those pads on the board (not at the pins since you might have contact up to those points, but not further). Good luck.
graphdarnell said:
then slide the tip from the end of the pad forward to melt the solder so it would envelop the pin. You don;t want to apply heat directly to the pins
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you are describing, not heating the pins, is a cold solder joint and will eventually snap since there is no real bond between the pad and the pin.
I find it dumbfounding to believe Asus made this design where 10 watts of power is going through one of those tiny pins with barely any surface contact (assuming the heavy bracket is used for the ground).
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=321486121068&alt=web
Frack it, I destroyed a new $7 usb port trying to do this today with inadequate equipment.
This is getting too expensive. I'll debate sending it to someone else. Or getting a better tablet.
_ck_ said:
Frack it, I destroyed a new $7 usb port trying to do this today with inadequate equipment.
This is getting too expensive. I'll debate sending it to someone else. Or getting a better tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe, sorry to hear. You win some... Whatever process you called cold solder joint, I had enough heat to the tip to melt the solder on the pad that flowed and covered the pin (inspected via loupe). So I don't think it would snap anytime soon. Other than that, the last pin to the left (looking at it from the port jack) is GND. And tiny as they may be, they sufficiently carry the current to charge. You should've seen the Samsung pins, which are unbelievably horrendous.
Related
evenin all, ill keep it short,
the mini usb connector on the mainboard has broken off, some of the solder p=ads are damaged, i need a replacement mainboard, can anyone help??
thanks in advanced
sythen said:
evenin all, ill keep it short,
the mini usb connector on the mainboard has broken off, some of the solder p=ads are damaged, i need a replacement mainboard, can anyone help??
thanks in advanced
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest you try to post a Wanted ad in the Marketplace section. If anyone has one to offer, that's your best chance.
I´m sure I saw today someone selling Universal parts, not sure if motherboard...
sythen said:
evenin all, ill keep it short,
the mini usb connector on the mainboard has broken off, some of the solder p=ads are damaged, i need a replacement mainboard, can anyone help??
thanks in advanced
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may use some thin cable (to use as jumper) in case the pads are broken and connect to nearest point.
Also you can buy a cheap card reader which has the same mini-usb connector. Desolder it and connect to the uni if your usb connector itself is broken.
the USB connector itself is sold on eBay for around $5, works very well on Uni or any device with the same connector. However, if the pads are damaged, it might be impossible to have one reattached.
I can offer Mda Pro's motherboard. Working good. Once fell down and display was damaged..
Message me if good for you.
yeah, some of the pads a fubar, thanks for the help people
Broken USB repair
I notice you live in the UK, I can fix the USB connector for you. Even if the pads are missing there are some test points on the board that you can solder fine wires to. I have done half a dozen of these repairs so far, this seems to be the most common problem with the Uni, even more so than borken screens. One of these days I'll have to do a 'how to' guide for it.
that would be nice, my soldering skills are up to the job, i just dont know how too, if you drop me a pm or something we can discuss it further
thanks
Guys, if you could jot down what you do and perhaps a piccy of the solder points, this would be great to put in the Wiki.
Hello people,
If its any help, my usb connection came off twice. both times it was resoldered back on with a standard soldering iron with the tip made to a point, and it still works OK. I found it easy to do, just needs a steady hand.
Regads
Jay
thats all well and good. but the copper pads that are used to solder the connector to the mainboard are fubar, so no amount of soldering will help
The micro-USB connector on my HTC Desire is damaged. Charging is not a problem. However, trying to connect it to a computer causes shows flaky behavior. I took it into the vendor who are estimating a charge of $140 to fix it.
I can solder/desolder the connector quite easily as I have SMT facilities at work.
I would like to source the connector first however.
Anyone know the part number or where I can source one from?
Hi
try to sample one from eg Molex.com
I think you have to pay for the shipping oid
http://www.molex.com/molex/products...pageTitle=Introduction&parentKey=usb_products
Good luck
Thanks.
Would be good to get a more definitive part. Dont want to desolder and realize I have the wrong part.
Has anyone seen the unsoldered PCB footprint for the device?
Is the connector a bottom or midmount?
Images taken from the HTC disassembly video (is on youtube)
But maybe there's just a cold solder joint and you don't have to replace the whole connector.
Thanks. Those pictures are neat. I took some of my own after opening up the back casing.
The damage is inside the connector (the cable wont stay connected). So not a dry solder joint problem.
I guess I could try and buy a few different connectors and try to see which fits.
Ok, so my micro usb port broken. Even though that was the case, I could still bend it to make it charg.(Note I got this phone at the I/O conference last year, it broke almost immedietly, I didn't attend this years)
So then I got a replacement for 15$ (<< A LOT OF MONEY)
Resoldered it, but I was unsure of how stable it was, since there are only about 2 places it is soldered to.
I put cable in, and then I touch it quite a bit, and bam, whole connector falls of. Tried to repair, but then a bit of solder falls into the micro usb port, and it's like impossibe to get it out of, and I can't put the connector in...
Moar 15$
This time, I put a bit of solder, and then hotglue over the joints.
I though victory, until I realize I can't plug the connector in anymore, don't know why it wouldn't. Just won't fit(Maybe recieved bad, never checked)...
15$ more dollars now...
Anyone else successfully repair the micro usb port on these? I am going to just try a hot glue approach, with no soldering next try.
I don't have any warranty on this, as it was a gift after all.
When my port went out, the techs at Sprint told me that it was impossible to fix. I don't know if that's true, or if it was just cheaper to give me a new one.
Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk
I tried to repair my wife's with no luck. I eventually took the phone back to Sprint repair store and they replaced it no questions asked, although we had the warranty service. I did find a few articles online if you search google they should come up. I tried their methods but the problem I always had was I could not get the solder to flow well enough to bond to the connector. From the looks of the connector it is a flush mount which really makes soldering impossible unless you have one of the factory wave type solder machines.
Well, the connector I bought kind of goes thru the holes on the EVO. I will just simply hotglue it, no solder... should stay stuck hopefully.
I just hope the metal makes decent contact without more solder. Will report back when I fail/win. It would be awesome if I could just whine to Sprint for a replacement, but uh, no warranty + a gift phone =low chance
I bought this for others, http://cgi.ebay.com/MICRO-USB-CHARG...ps=63&clkid=9172696127650377355#ht_997wt_1139
Note the two feet sticking out, the generic ones don't have these, that would be hell to solder. I just hate the fact that these things are so fragile and expensive.
Got it soldered.
I had to have steady aim pro(perk for Cod4 )
With a very little bit of solder I got it sticking.
Then hot glued all over, like your average male's jizz amount of hot glue I used.(That's actually a good camparison before you get grossed out)
It works great.
I decided to post a new thread as most of them out there are for Galaxy Note II or Galaxy i9305
Before you start doing anything I'd suggest reading all these threads so you decide what's best for you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2096585
This one,although for Galaxy Note, IS REALLY GOOD. THANKS to "Ryan_G" for making such detailed explanation and pics, it helped me a lot!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1951493
Thanks to android94301 for this one:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1877191
thanks to Richard Searley who explains which pin is positive and negative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAqP3T_Mbzg
thanks to "qianqinde" for showing how to remove the parts from the Palm cover.
http://youtu.be/0ga4N_Ih9GE?t=4m21s
The Parts I used:
1.Palm Touchstone Charging Dock-£4.99Amazon UK
2.Original Palm Touchstone Back Cover-£3.49Ebay UK
3.Soldering Iron + solder
4.Clear tape,because it's very thin. black electrical tape is thicker and want to make the slight bulge as smaller as possible. you will see on one of the pics i used electrical tape, but I removed it and used clear tape
5.Wires from old not Genuine iPad cable; because the wires are very thin.
Palm Pixi Cover-£3.99Ebay UK If you buy one of those,as far as I know positive and negative are not reversed (CHECK for yourselves before doing anything) as on Palm Pre cover!
Genuine Palm charger-£3.99Ebay UKI got this charger, because I needed a one anyway
Chargers I can confirm they work with the Palm charging dock: Galaxy S3(5v-1A)##Nexus 7 (2A)## old HTC Desire Charger (5v,1A)## If your phone keeps vibrating and the window that says charging keeps popping up over and over again, your charger is not supplying sufficient power. My Motorola charger(800mA) did that.
Good soldering skills are needed to perform the mod. I guess you wouldn't wanna melt the plastic on the phone so practice before you attempt this. Twist the wires to the desired shape first and then solder. This way you will prevent breaking off the pins from the motherboard
When you see the pics, you will notice I barery used any solder, this is, because you really don't need much as it catches really easy. It should't be a problem since there are no moving parts there to force the wires to fell off.
Decided to stick everything to the battery,because I rarely remove it.
You will notice on the pics I've put the wires along the of the battery as there is enough space for them to go in nicely
When you solder avoid pulling the wires too much so you dont damage the pins on the Phone's motherboard.
Put a piece of card board on the battery when you solder so you don't damage it.
If you have very thin wires don't hold the soldering iron for too long because you will melt the insulation around the wire. you could blow a few time so it cools down faster.
So I'm looking into the possibility of making a wireless charging solution on my own. I have lots of wireless chargers at home, work, in the car, and I would really benefit from getting wireless charging working.
I took a USB Qi charging coil and soldered wires, which I then attached (well, just touched ) to either end of the magnetic connector, and it worked.
The difficulty I'm facing is, how can I keep these wires touching the magnetic charging port semi-permanently without doing anything dangerous like attempting to solder it directly.
So I'm wondering if anyone has any neat ideas of how I might rig this up. Any ideas would help a lot! If I come up with something good, I'll make a guide so others can do it.
You could try to get someone to 3D print a side piece similar to the one on the Z3 wireless charging case from sony: http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/accessories/wireless-charging-cover-wcr14/
Have them leave chambers to run the wire through.
JCBomb said:
You could try to get someone to 3D print a side piece similar to the one on the Z3 wireless charging case from sony: http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/accessories/wireless-charging-cover-wcr14/
Have them leave chambers to run the wire through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been thinking about making my own wireless charging case similar to the sony branded case but using high quality leather, and an oem qi charging circuit with a 3d printed base clip with the circuit connectors integrated into the clip, just to ensure constant connectivity.
just looking into prices for scrap leather now.
duraaraa said:
So I'm looking into the possibility of making a wireless charging solution on my own. I have lots of wireless chargers at home, work, in the car, and I would really benefit from getting wireless charging working.
I took a USB Qi charging coil and soldered wires, which I then attached (well, just touched ) to either end of the magnetic connector, and it worked.
The difficulty I'm facing is, how can I keep these wires touching the magnetic charging port semi-permanently without doing anything dangerous like attempting to solder it directly.
So I'm wondering if anyone has any neat ideas of how I might rig this up. Any ideas would help a lot! If I come up with something good, I'll make a guide so others can do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried tape? It would be covered up by your case anyway, right?
PuffDaddy_d said:
Have you tried tape? It would be covered up by your case anyway, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought of tape but I've yet to figure out a way to tape it where it will definitely stay in place.
I might be able to get a case that would cover it, but my current cases have holes so that magnetic chargers could be plugged in.
I've decided to try using copper tape to connect a Qi coil to the magnetic dock port. I'll see how it goes. Hopefully it will be as easy as I'm hoping it will be.
So I finally managed to make it work. Unfortunately, I had to solder.
I gave up with trying to line things up just right and keep it in place, so I just soldered a Qi receiver to the magnetic charging port, wrapped it around to the back of the phone, and fit in a case. It charges wirelessly now, so I'm happy. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll ever be able to clean it up in the future if I want to sell the phone. But to me, wireless charging was super important. I was also able to continue using my Z1C battery case which uses the magnetic port, so I'm pretty happy with the end result.
Pics?
it's ugly, but I'll put up pics when I get a chance.
Pictures as promised. I had been concerned adding this might block NFC, but NFC works just fine. Obviously, magnetic charging cables don't work (but a Z1C charging case I have does.)
It adds some thickness behind it so the case doesn't fit quite perfectly, but well enough to stay on. I didn't have thinner cables, but having some might have been able to decrease the thickness. Also, I'm not necessarily good at soldering, so I just did what I could.
But I can charge it on my bedside table and in my iOttie Qi dock in my car, so I'm cool with it.
hmm not pretty, but i guess it works. how is the charging speed?
you should be able to clean it up fine if you use some solder wick.
Awesome job!
Can you please give us a link for the receiver?
All I can find are with usb
ugly doesn't even start describing it... seriously, you ruined that phone. You could've cannibalized a 3rd party docking station instead
duraaraa,
Thanks for blazing this trail for us, mighty brave to solder to your phone like that! Now that you've had this set up for a few weeks, is it holding up ok? I'd just about give my left nut for an actual phone case that simply has a wireless receiver built in and taps into the magnetic charger pins, but I doubt anyone will ever make one since (I believe) the Z3C is discontinued. I mean, they make those giant external battery packs for the Z3C that use the pins, so why not a qi-compatible one??? Anyway, no way I'm soldering to my pins so I'm basically trying to mold a connector out of epoxy that I can squeeze between the side of the case and the pins. (Basically I pushed one of my magnetic cable connectors into a clay bar and filled w/epoxy.) It's still drying so I have no idea if it's feasible at all, but wanted to pop in and say thanks for the inspiration.
mralexsays said:
duraaraa,
Thanks for blazing this trail for us, mighty brave to solder to your phone like that! Now that you've had this set up for a few weeks, is it holding up ok? I'd just about give my left nut for an actual phone case that simply has a wireless receiver built in and taps into the magnetic charger pins, but I doubt anyone will ever make one since (I believe) the Z3C is discontinued. I mean, they make those giant external battery packs for the Z3C that use the pins, so why not a qi-compatible one??? Anyway, no way I'm soldering to my pins so I'm basically trying to mold a connector out of epoxy that I can squeeze between the side of the case and the pins. (Basically I pushed one of my magnetic cable connectors into a clay bar and filled w/epoxy.) It's still drying so I have no idea if it's feasible at all, but wanted to pop in and say thanks for the inspiration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hows your build coming along mate I'd love to see how it looks.
kstanley7 said:
hows your build coming along mate I'd love to see how it looks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not good I'm afraid my friend... My first attempt (trying to mold a connector out of epoxy using a clay mold) failed, the thing came out looking like a chewed up piece of gum and just wouldn't work. My next attempt involved slicing up a couple of cheap magnetic adapters and cables to try to trim down the connectors to something reasonably sized, but they become really brittle when you cut them that thin... Unfortunately, I think it'd take someone with some type of plastic molding equipment or maybe a 3d printer (that is capable of making really small, fine-detail parts) to make this thing. I'm still disappointed that Sony makes a wireless case for the Z3, but not the Z3C, but I've also come to realize that the Z3C has such good battery life that maybe I don't really need such a case. (I come from a long line of Nexus, HTC, and Samsung devices so I've become somewhat of a charging addict!)
tl;dr: Just enjoy the Z3C and use the handy magnetic dock for overnight charging.
just looking at the magnetic connectors on the z3c I think there might be a way but it'll add a couple more mm to the height, would need to get someone with a 3d printer, but if the wallet is made of leather and is inserted underneath, with the qi wireless pad, and two wires made into connection terminals which would then clip onto the phone so a solid connection is made between those terminals.
Just to answer some questions, it's held up. I think it's fine -- anyone desperate for Qi should just bite the bullet and solder. Charging speed is similar to really any other Qi-charged device.
apis10 said:
Awesome job!
Can you please give us a link for the receiver?
All I can find are with usb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry my response is so late!
It's the USB type. I un-soldered the USB ribbon and soldered a wire for the two connections.
So you would want to buy the USB version, I think.
Look into copper tape. I attempted this a little while back but I think my charging pad wasn't powerful enough. What charging pad are you using?