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Soldering For Non-Solderers?
DanielMarkham asks: "A few months ago I bought a 4GB USB drive from jmtek Online. I really liked the drive -- heck, 4 GBs were awesome! But over time, using it in my tablet PC, the connectors started loosening up between the USB plug and the IC. Eventually, the part that plugs into the computer came loose from the rest of the drive. So, now I've got six-hundred bucks worth of useless plastic. I don't know anything about circuit board repair, so I'm in a bit of a fix. As I understand it, the 90-day return period has timed-out, and there's not much I can do in the way of a refund. But all of my data is still on there, I just need some way to re-connect the USB plug to the circuit board. I guess that would involve soldering? Do you guys have any idea how I could get the USB drive fixed without spending a lot of time or money?"
You should just have someone solder it for you. It would probably cost like $50 or so to take it to a shop and have them resolder the traces. Seriously. Don't even think about trying it as your first job because you will likely end up getting too much solder everywhere and the part will become useless, and a repair all the more costly (if possible). Find some geeky friends that mod X-Boxen and have them look at it. I bet you know someone that would do it for a bag of grass or a night of drinking or something along those lines. Just don't try to do it yourself, especially if you have never soldered before in your life. Its like asking "I've never tried it before, but how do I rebuild my tranny?" Not really recommended without proper tools, knowledge and experience.
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It would appear that both devices come with a 1-year warranty, so once you get your data off, I would contact them and tell them that it broke. (Assuming that it wasn't negligence that caused it anyway)
Get that thing replaced man, $600? Jeez. I'd want that thing fixed.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
If the wire just tacks onto the surface, expose about 1/8 inch of bare wire, tin it (that is, using the soldering iron, wet the wire thoroughly with solder) then press it onto the board with the soldering iron. Quickly press the wire in place with the end of a screwdriver and remove the iron. Hold the wire with the screwdriver tip for a few seconds until the solder hardens.
If the wire passes through a hole in the board, you need to clean the solder out of the hole. To do this, place the iron to the board and use a soldering wick (an absorbant copper mesh, probably available at Radio Shack) to soak up the excess solder. Then you can strip the insulation off the end of the wire (about 1/8 inch again), place the bare wire through the hole, apply solder and remove the iron. If the wire is stranded, you may want to twist the strands together a bit to keep them together. Trim off any excess wire sticking through the other side above the solder.
If you can't find soldering wick, you can heat the wire by placing the iron against it and gently poke the wire through the hole, melting the solder as you go. Finally, apply some solder to the board to secure the wire. This requires three hands and is recommended only as a last resort.
The thing you must be careful about is not overheating the board. If the iron is held in contact with it too long (more than a few seconds), other components may become unsoldered or the varnish may melt, producing nasty fumes, or the copper traces may separate from the board. If the last of these happens, you may be able to salvage it by replacing the failed traces with 30-gauge wire using techniques described in the first paragraph. This is unnecessary if you are careful though.
If you use rosin core or flux core solder, you should use a q-tip soaked in paint thinner to clean the newly soldered connection after it has cooled. This will prevent corrosion.
Finally, to keep this from happening again, it is best to secure the wire so that it does not flex near the solder joint, where it is brittle and prone to breaking. Nylon zip ties are good for this and should be placed around a structural component of your hardware and preferably not around the board itself.
If you don't want to risk ruining your good hardware right away, you may want to practice by soldering wires to an old token ring card or something.
As for the soldering iron, a small iron of less than 50 Watts is best for this kind of work. Do not use a soldering gun because they are bulkier and more difficult to control and certainly do not use the 300 watt model designed for copper roofing.
Good luck.
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A lot of manufacturers of expensive electronics will allow you to pay something like 50 bucks plus shipping to repair minor damage like that. If you're not feeling up to soldering, that's a good route to go. Plus they generally warranty their work. The one drawback I've found to this route is that manufacturers generally restore things to their original condition, which is the condition that wasn't strong enough to last anyway.
Personally, I'd say this is the perfect time to learn to solder. It's really not that difficult. The only real problem is that it can be scary. Disassemble the unit, and take a look at the size of the connection with the board. If the connections are similar in size on the inside as the USB plug is on the outside, by soldering standards that's pretty big and a pretty good thing to start with.
You can get someone who knows what they're doing to give you some tips, but all you really need is google, a 15 dollar soldering iron, 5 dollars worth of soft lead solder, and a little guts.
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you may want to consider the thumb drive as a transport not a backup from now on. I killed a few drives myself.
?
Maybe you are thinking of a hard drive?
USB drives are typically just a chip on a board.
Hard drives tend to have a circuit board seperate (but attached on the side) - but that can be removed. They usually have a connector of some kind between the board and the internals of the drive.
Or... am I just confused?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Yeah, this is one of the most common problems with devices that have plugs, and you can usually fix it with soldering. Generally, your solder joints won't last as long as the original bad joints did in the first place, so this "repair" won't be particularly permanent unless you do something like mount the connector to the chassis and connect it to the PCB with flexible wires instead. Soldering is not too hard, but for something that costs $600, you might not want this to be your first attempt.
I did a laughably sloppy job of this with my MP3 player a year or so ago and posted the steps and pictures . You probably don't want to be this sloppy.
Elecraft has the best tutorial I have ever used. I thought I knew how to solder until I read their guide. They will have you wanting to buy a fancy soldering station in no time :)
Try the tutorial on this page. (I'm not linking to the pdf directly as they are not a huge company so don't kill their bandwidth)
The ratio of people to cake is too big
You could probably use someone with good path (trace) repair /rework skills. Good ones are like surgeons, and are rarely paid much, so an offer of say $60-$100 would probably get the job done to perfection (better than new). You'll find these people wherever circuitry is being mfgr'd/tested -find the plant and meet them outside during a smoke brake/ popular lunch break spot or something. SMT path repair & rework equipment is really expensive but it gets the job done right without all the esd damage and radioshaftiness that others are suggesting you gamble with.
If your data wasn't important and $600 is nothing to you, then i'd say buy some used smt soldering equipment from ebay, use some extra cards with smt chips and connectors to practice soldering on, have your test work checked by someone who knows what good circuit soldering is, buy the 16mb version of your drive and practice on it, then cross your fingers and try it for real.
Firefox &
It's not like they teach soldering in EE programs. Granted, you might find someone experienced, but be careful. Many electrical engineering _students_ these days won't even know how to solder, much less do it well. Watch out.
You also might find some cocky little student who thinks he knows everything, will tell you so, and then when it comes time to make it happen, he solders his own thumb to your drive. Sorry, speaking from experience.
:-\ I would contact the manufacturer.
Sorry about your data loss.
Informatus Technologicus
Well, soldering itself isn't too difficult to comprehend:
- don't be hung over, or have drank too much coffee. Your hands need to be steady.
- when working on small circuits, a magnifying glass is helpful. There's things called 'helping hands' which will hold the components to be soldered in the right position, and also have a positionable magnifying glass with a light.
- clean all oxidation off of the metal surfaces to be soldered, using light duty sandpaper, steel wool, or a chemical compound called "rosin". Make sure you use rosin acceptable for electronics, plumbing rosin is often acidic and will damage electronic components.
- use solder of appropriate guage to what you're working on. Probably you want really tiny solder.
- physically attach the two metal surfaces, with a vise or what have you. Make you you leave enough room to get the iron in, and still be able to see what's going on.
- clean the tip of the iron, heat it up, then apply a small amount of solder to the iron itself. This is known as 'tinning' the iron.
- apply the solder on one side of the metal surfaces, and put the soldering iron on the other. The idea here is that the metal surfaces have to be hot enough to keep the solder from 'balling up' and running off the board, or otherwise creating a 'cold solder joint'. it shouldn't take more than ten seconds from the tip you place the soldering iron on the metal joint to when the solder on the other side starts to melt. If it takes longer, use a higher power soldering iron
- don't use too much solder or too little. It's hard to explain this in words, just look at other soldering joint done by professionals and you should see what it looks like
- apply heat just long enough to completely melt and spread the solder around the joint. Leaving the iron on too long can overheat components.
- if you don't apply heat long enough, or if you bump the joint while its cooling, you may create acold solder joint. This will have a pitted or scaley appearance, sometimes greyish. You want something smooth and shiney.
One of the things I've learned though experience, is the importance of the proper heating power. Some places will tell you 'use a low wattage iron' to avoid overheating. Well, this is bullshit. If you use an iron that is too wimpy, like those cheap $5 radio shack ones, the joint isn't heated up quickly enough, but the heat has time travel away to the components while you're sitting there with the iron on the joint for 30 seconds wondering when the solder is going to melt. The best irons are the ones with adjustable settings and a trigger, a 'soldering gun'.
- remember when soldering that while solder provides some physical strength, in electronics that is not its main purpose. Any wires that are under strain should not depend entirely on solder to keep them together. Use some sort of strain relief when called for.
I hope this has been helpful.
All second that - find a Ham. Most know how to solder, or have a fellow ham who does
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