Replacing a USB Connector

[vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com]

My 2011 Kindle's USB connector (B or C?) is broken. I tried bending it a bit,
but it seems it got worse. It seems really small, which frightens me. How
roomy are the sodler contacts? I'm hoping I won't need to really replace it
because sourcing everything is difficult in the pandemic. (Unless you tell me
Target or PC Richard have them, which they almost certainly don't. I haven't
seen a Radio Shack in several years.)


--
Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus
blog: panix.com/~vjp2/ruminatn.htm - = - web: panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
facebook.com/vasjpan2 - linkedin.com/in/vasjpan02 - biostrategist.com
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

[peterw...@gmail.com]

Buy a new cable with two new ends.

Amazon has it in stock. As does Staples.

Price from US$8 to US$15 depending on which bells combined with what whistles you need.

Oh, and Target also.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[abrsvc]

If the connector on the kindle itself is damaged, a replacement cable won't help. I stock a number of different style connectors all of which are surface mounted. A hot air station is best for replacement.

[Mike Coon]

In article <3fb1a2a0-5f56-496c...@googlegroups.com>,
dansabr...@yahoo.com says...

>
> On Friday, 14 August 2020 08:16:21 UTC-4, pf...@aol.com wrote:
> > Buy a new cable with two new ends.
> >
> > Amazon has it in stock. As does Staples.
> >
> > Price from US$8 to US$15 depending on which bells combined with what whistles you need.
> >
>

> If the connector on the kindle itself is damaged, a replacement cable
> won't help. I stock a number of different style connectors all of
> which are surface mounted. A hot air station is best for replacement.

Yes, I quickly gave up on trying to replace a USB-B connector, not
having surface-mount expertise. Unless the connector itself is on a
small daughter board (which I have seen on some variety of tablet
recently) which can be purchased cheaply and easily replaced.

Mike.

[ohg...@gmail.com]

If you don't have SMD experience, then changing that connector will be problematic. Most people can learn this with time, patience, and donor equipment to experiment on. I used to do these with a fine tip solder iron but now do them with hot air. You need a lot of heat so it can be done as quickly as possible. Also, bright light, magnification, and flux will improve the process.

[Mike Coon]

In article <378cdc0a-08e3-417a...@googlegroups.com>,
ohg...@gmail.com says...

Part of the problem that I foresaw is that the connector has to be
firmly fixed mechanically to withstand the forces of insertion and
withdrawal, possibly clumsily. Merely soldering may not be adequate!

Mike.

[Bennett]

On 8/14/2020 5:09 AM, vjp...@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com wrote:
> My 2011 Kindle's USB connector (B or C?) is broken. I tried bending it a bit,
> but it seems it got worse. It seems really small, which frightens me. How
> roomy are the sodler contacts? I'm hoping I won't need to really replace it
> because sourcing everything is difficult in the pandemic. (Unless you tell me
> Target or PC Richard have them, which they almost certainly don't. I haven't
> seen a Radio Shack in several years.)
>
>

The surface mount connectors are available on Amazon. Those I've seen
have solderable mounting taps to provide mechanical support.

But as others have noted, replacing this part is quite difficult unless
you have the appropriate equipment - a soldering iron is not enough.

[jf...@my-deja.com]

On Friday, August 14, 2020 at 1:52:08 PM UTC-7, Mike Coon wrote:
> Part of the problem that I foresaw is that the connector has to be
> firmly fixed mechanically to withstand the forces of insertion and
> withdrawal, possibly clumsily. Merely soldering may not be adequate!
>
> Mike.

I decided that the micro USB connector looked too fragile to tolerate more than a few hundred insertions. My solution was to get a magnetic USB charging cable which almost completely eliminates the strain on the connector. The one disadvantage is that these do not provide any of the data connections, only ground and power.

[et...@whidbey.com]

I got a couple of those and really like them. Not only do they remove
much of the strain they also just snap on and rotate to boot. So no
twisted cables. Though the ones I use do prevent data transfer I
rarely transfer data from my tablets through USB. I mostly use
wireless or a micro SD card.
Eric

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <VO6dneQjNtlXZ6vC...@giganews.com>,
bjp...@cal.berkeley.edu says...

> >
> The surface mount connectors are available on Amazon. Those I've seen
> have solderable mounting taps to provide mechanical support.
>
> But as others have noted, replacing this part is quite difficult unless
> you have the appropriate equipment - a soldering iron is not enough.
>
>

Much of the time the hot air is the way to go. For the hobbiest you can
get a hot air and soldering iron station for about $ 75 or less.

Go to you tube and look at how to do it. Not too bad after getting some
old circuit boards and practicing. Sometimes the Kapton tape use as a
heat resistance and shield will be a big help to keep the hot air from
melting out too much stuff.

[vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com]

Thanks. Yes, I haven't done much soldering in a few decades. It is on the
board and seems rather tiny and fragile. I tried to straighten it out with
tweezers and it seems to have broken or at least gotten pushed in. Certainly
the 2011 device is fully depreciated and its economic life has expired, but
I'm comfy with it. I guess opening it and trying once can't hurt if it's
already gone. Although my repairs usually require opening it, giving up then
a while later getting some inspiration to try again.