Replacement USB port for Plutos
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:15 am
Just to say I left the ale alone on Wednesday night and on Thursday had a do or die moment when I decided to replace the worn out USB port on my Rev B Pluto. I managed to find the correct ports with the help of a friend at a big parts seller, as there are literally hundreds of different fitment types.
I got the old one off by flooding it with leaded solder, and using both thermal tweezers on my RF powered soldering unit, and a tiny tip on a small conventional Weller iron. The tweezers put heat into the main "prongs" of the port, the Weller freed the tiny connection fingers. You need to be patient and make SURE all the unleaded solder has melted or it will be VERY easy to lift the connector finger pads off the Pluto PCB.
The closeness of D1 and D2 to the port make it tricky for someone like me, without a microscope (and of advancing years). I tried low melt solder, but it looked likely to contaminate other components that I did not want contaminating, like D1 and D2, so abandoned that idea.
But I prevailed and a new port is now in place. I took the oppurtunity to remove my Heath Robinson JTAG connector, the JTAG stuff should have come with a proper terminal connector, but didn't. I made do with 10 cut off leads from 1/8W resistors. Now having bought the proper connector I removed the wires and fitted the correct thing. All seems to work and I had it on air yesterday to test it.
So if you find the USB port is getting intermittent it can be a D-I-Y prospect to repair it.
I got the old one off by flooding it with leaded solder, and using both thermal tweezers on my RF powered soldering unit, and a tiny tip on a small conventional Weller iron. The tweezers put heat into the main "prongs" of the port, the Weller freed the tiny connection fingers. You need to be patient and make SURE all the unleaded solder has melted or it will be VERY easy to lift the connector finger pads off the Pluto PCB.
The closeness of D1 and D2 to the port make it tricky for someone like me, without a microscope (and of advancing years). I tried low melt solder, but it looked likely to contaminate other components that I did not want contaminating, like D1 and D2, so abandoned that idea.
But I prevailed and a new port is now in place. I took the oppurtunity to remove my Heath Robinson JTAG connector, the JTAG stuff should have come with a proper terminal connector, but didn't. I made do with 10 cut off leads from 1/8W resistors. Now having bought the proper connector I removed the wires and fitted the correct thing. All seems to work and I had it on air yesterday to test it.
So if you find the USB port is getting intermittent it can be a D-I-Y prospect to repair it.
Hopefully some other vendor may have stock but if anyone is genuinely desperate i bought three....I know, big spender 