Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Hardware Hacking

Soldering For Non-Solderers? 130

Posted by Cliff from the don't-touch-the-hot-metal-thingy dept.
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?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Soldering For Non-Solderers? More

Soldering For Non-Solderers?

Comments Filter:

  • Look for a local club... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OneDeeTenTee ( 780300 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:59PM (#12342721)
    Look for Ham clubs, Robot clubs, heck, even your local LUG could have somebody competant to help you out.

    Good Luck!

  • Good question (Score:2, Interesting)

    by solafide ( 845228 )
    But how are you going to crack that drive open to solder it? It looks to me, from my own drive, that if you pull the case apart, the drive comes out on one side and the circuitry on the other, causing even more damage. ???
  • 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.

    • Re:If you value your data (and your drive.....) (Score:5, Informative)

      by X0563511 ( 793323 ) * on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:39PM (#12343090) Homepage Journal
      Well, some people are just naturals. Try soldering something completely different (and useless) just to see. My first time soldering was Cat5 -> Parallel port connections, and my second time was straight into SMT. The SMT wasn't PERFECT, but I have seen worse come out of factories in shrinkwrap.

      Perhaps hobbying with acetylene welding has something to do with my "naturalness", because molten metal is molten metal for the most part.

      If you do try to do it yourself, make sure you practice on something else! Don't freak out about solder bridges. A pass through the bridge with the iron (sometimes after a solder-wicking) usually disconnects them.

      MAKE DEAD SURE to clean the area on the board and connector before you start. Then, remove as much solder as you can before you add your own. It will make your job much easier.
    • It's also entirely possible for a complete beginner to do silly things like hold the soldering iron too close to ICs for too long, which will cause heat damage. It's often unavoidable if the solder area is close to ICs, and beginners often have to constantly solder and resolder to try get it right.
    • psh. it's not that hard. get the right tools for the job, ESPECIALLY the right gauge solder. practice on some old hardware first until you have the technique down, and then take a crack at the drive. i soldered and unsoldered a bunch of capacitors to old ISA boards i had lying around to learn. you probably have some of those lying around i'd imagine.

      mind you, i'm only saying this because it sounds like easy soldering (i'm guessing the connector has big obvious pads). if it's a surface mount chip or somethi

    • 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 might want to make sure they do the soldering BEFORE you "pay".....

  • Not soldering-related but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by kcb93x ( 562075 ) <kcbnac&bnac,biz> on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:08PM (#12342802) Homepage
    I'm not a solderer, I'm just commenting in regards to this...it would appear that according to their site, and I'm assuming you bought one of the following:

    USBDrive 4GB Weatherproof [jmtekstore.com]

    Professional USBDrive 4GB Weatherproof [jmtekstore.com]

    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.

  • VCR repair shops (Score:4, Interesting)

    by notyou2 ( 202944 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:10PM (#12342829) Homepage
    Find a VCR/TV repair shop in your area (yes, they do exist). I bet they'd do it for you either cheap or free.

  • Sheesh ... go to an old school TV repair shop (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    or to the authorized service centre, or, gasp, try talking to the company. Perhaps they can help?

    Slashdot, why are you running away?

  • Soldering Sources (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ngkdc ( 810481 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:14PM (#12342862)
    I guess that if you lived just down the road you could come over and I'd teach you how to rework the solder joints ... you MIGHT want to clue the rest of us into what part of the planet you currently occupy! You can check the phone book for electronics repair, retail, or electronics repair, industrial. Another place that may well be prepared to do this sort of work is a local two-way radio repair shop . The industrial folks and the two-way radio shops might well be better prepared to repair your device, but you may have to pay quite a bit. Be sure you bring all the parts. What ever you do, don't try liquid metal. I HATE cleaning up after someone tries using that stuff. Ugh. Once repaired, you might also consider a careful application of epoxy to strengthen the bond between the connector and the board. That is, after all, why the connector came off ... solder is pretty much useless by itself when it comes to holding something in place. Soldering, by itself, isn't all that difficult. It only requires the proper tools and practice ... though I don't believe you really want to get that deep into things. You MIGHT find a ham radio operator that knows what to do, and has the tools to do so, but that's probably a stretch (in the past, ham radio operators were more technically oriented, today it's so much easier to buy the equipment rather than make it. Thus, fewer hams are equipped, much less experienced in micro miniature repair). And yes ... I'm a ham as well, I speak from my experiences.

  • well, it depends... (Score:5, Informative)

    by k4_pacific ( 736911 ) <`moc.oohay' `ta' `cificap_4k'> on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:16PM (#12342880) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • I dunno, but around here, I'd just get out the yellow pages and start phoning around. But hey, now we've got the net and /., why do any work ourselves, eh?

    So much for old-fashioned American ingenuity and initiative, but I digress.

  • cost to have it repaired (Score:3, Informative)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:17PM (#12342891) Homepage
    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.

  • Here's what you need to do: (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Get an arc welder, some gloves and a blast helmet. After that, it will practically repair itself. Trust me on this.

  • College (Score:3, Insightful)

    by delirium of disorder ( 701392 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:27PM (#12342967) Homepage Journal
    You could attempt it yourself, but it's a gamble if your inexperienced.

    Your local University or Community College has a Electrical/Electronics Engneering or Technician program with lots of students who will solder stuff for at low cost and might even help teach you how to do it. I've repaired quite a few devices that people brought into the school lab. Call up a professer (or department head if no individual instructor's numbers are public); they will probably be more then willing to give a student some work with real world troubleshooting and repair.

    • Re:College (Score:3, Informative)

      by alienw ( 585907 )
      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.

      • Re:College (Score:3, Informative)

        by HaloZero ( 610207 )
        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.

        Sorry about your data loss. :-\ I would contact the manufacturer.

      • Re:College (Score:2, Interesting)

        by 10Brett-T ( 11197 )
        At my alma mater [up.edu], a soldering workshop was required for all engineering majors, not just us EEs.

  • basic guide to soldering (Score:2, Informative)

    by lashi ( 822466 )
    http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm

    http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/solder.htm

    you may want to consider the thumb drive as a transport not a backup from now on. I killed a few drives myself.

  • pinout (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nerd65536 ( 692353 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:34PM (#12343040) Homepage
    Your best bet as far as wiring goes is to cut apart an extra USB cable. The wires are color coded to correspond to pin numbers.
    Referencing your orininal connector and getting pin numbers [pinouts.ru] simply connect the following pins to wire colors:
    1-red
    2-white
    3-green
    4-black
    (ignore the shielding on the USB cable or connect it to ground (pin 4))
    • Am off fixing my not-used-for-some-months USB stick that had broken the USB connector off. Note for the original poster, you can try it yourself if you like, just be careful with soldering. Don't overheat it too much and be careful with the tin. The things (at least my USB stick) can take just about anything.
    • And remember: whatever you do, do NOT cut the red wire!

  • Yes (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @09:09PM (#12343332) Homepage Journal
    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 [cmu.edu] . You probably don't want to be this sloppy.
    • Why didn't you just solder it back on and cover it with a blob of epoxy?
      • I was just about to point out that a blob of epoxy is the quick (and often right) fix for holding a solder joint together.

        Make sure the electronics work before you cover the joint with that blob of epoxy though.
  • Maybe they can fix it for you for a small fee, and keep your data.

  • ...but you didn't say that you tried to use it again. Did you try it? If not, do it.

    My 128MB OTi drive's USB plug is loose, and so is the plastic shell. But the darn thing still works, and it's sitting in my pocket right now.
  • well, I'll be civil, though I shouldn't. As a holiday gift from my father I was given a 128mb flash player made by Jmtek that according to the packaging worked with a mac. At the time I hadn't had a pc in a while, so it was the mac or nothing. Well, needless to say it didn't work, at all. After 6 months of waiting for Jmtek to respond to my emails and online support tickets, I sent an email threatening to post terrible reviews of their product on every review site I could find on the internet. I was emailed

  • Soldering toturial (Score:3, Informative)

    by Cthefuture ( 665326 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @10:19PM (#12343894)
    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 [elecraft.com] page. (I'm not linking to the pdf directly as they are not a huge company so don't kill their bandwidth)
  • All you need really is a heat gun. A heat gun should soften the SMD connections without meltimg th ABS plactic, allowing you to reseat the connections. Maby you'll need some extra solder paste.
    Here is a nice(expensive) SMD rework Kit here [engineeringlab.com]
    There are cheaper kits if you dig a little deeper.
  • Just wanted to add that some credit cards extend product warrantees. So if you used a credit card to buy this item you may want to investigate whether your credit offers any added coverage. Ironically, this is something I always forget about but for some reson thought of when reading this post.

  • learn to solder elswhere - find a path repair spcl (Score:3, Informative)

    by tweedlebait ( 560901 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @11:21PM (#12344407)
    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.

  • 1. I have a motherboard with a bad keyboard connector. I want to swap on off another bad board and figure I can use it to practice.
    2. I search for hardware and tutorials on the internet, finding similar links provided in these responses.
    3. You Ask Slashdot about soldering.
    4. I find where my company is gearing up to do chip level testing on failed ICB's.

    I think I may pursue this further.
  • I'm not kidding. This is a perfect opportunity to learn a useful skill. Take the $50 you'd spend to get your unit repaired and spend the money on a used soldering iron and a shiny new tip instead.

    Then (here's the important part) practice on stuff that you won't miss before you try repairing the drive. Raid your neighbor's garbage for old electronics and spend a few hours removing components, replacing them, tinning wires, etc.

    Two nice online introductions to soldering (both originally produced by Nasa)
  • you should have a manufacturers warranty that extends beyond the 90 day return policy of the outlet. I have a USB drive that fried 8 or 10 months after I bought it and the manufacturer replaced it no problem - even got my data off the old one and sent it to me on a CD.
  • I'm great at soldering...even surface mount!

    Send it to me, I'll fix it and keep it!^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsend it right back to you!
  • In my lab, we use some 5-metre USB extension leads, which have an active repeater at the far end. One of these stopped working, and I took it apart, and checked the cable for continuity. All the wires in the cable were good, so the problem must have been something to do with the repeater circuitry.

    A colleage decided to salvage the cable by rewiring it as a passive extension cable, and hoping that the signal degradation wouldn't be a problem. He tested it on his USB flash drive, and somehow managed to fr
  • I managed to scrape the insulation off the back of the circuit board and stick a bit of paper-clip on using blue-tac. I was astounded when I managed to boot off it and it ran long enough for me to get my data off it.

    Next time I fit a new drive, I'll do it sober!

  • I miss Heathkit (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ONOIML8 ( 23262 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @09:37AM (#12347359) Homepage
    Subjects like this make me really miss Heathkit.

    Most of you kids are too young to remember them as they were in their prime. They used to sell kits that allowed you to build almost anything electronic and you learned as you built. They had the very best documentation available anywhere for anything. Every manual started with a brief course in soldering. They also had some excellent training courses including.....soldering.

    If this were the 1980's I would recommend that you purchase a kit from them. You would then learn to solder and be able to go on to fix your drive, and maybe go on to build one of their excellent amateur radio sets or TV's or robots.

    Sigh

    • <nostalgia>sigh</nostalgia>
    • Man, so do I. I almost built an entire R/C aircraft. If it hadn't taken six years to get the darned thing together I might have been able to test and fly it before I left highschool. Still, it did teach me how to solder, though not very well. Getting good required peeking over the shoulders of the techs at NASA to see how "experts" got the pretty silver to dance. I'm still not great, but I can fix just about anything in a jam, at least temporarily.
      • Beautiful illustration. You learned enough to get the job done as well as learning enough to appreciate someone who does it right. That's just what this guy needs.

        You're right that Heathkit by itself didn't teach anyone to be a pro. But it got me the basics, enough to really get a grip on things when the USAF taught me to be a pro. And yeah, getting qualified to solder on spacecraft parts was a totally different world...but it all started with that first kit.

  • I'll leave it to others to advise you on whether to do it yourself, or how to learn, or how hard or easy it is. I'll just add one thing:

    If you _do_ decide to learn to solder, use some form of eye protection, every time. I never took eye protection while soldering seriously, until the day I met a one-eyed technician who would have been a two-eyed technician had he worn safety glasses.

    Seriously. Safety glasses are cheap. Wearing them is no hassle. Just do it.
    • I know what you mean. I was working on this RGB light system for my car. My original had the resistors wired right to the leads and then to the wires. It was a huge pain in the ass.

      Anyway, I couldn't find my safety glasses, so I used goggles instead. They kept fogging up, so I said "Screw it".

      A few minutes later, the joint I was working on looked a little iffy, so I go to rework it.

      Well there was some tension stored there. As soon as the solder melted, the lead flicked a tiny blob of solder right onto th
  • You might want to check out the manufacturer Vs shipper warranty. I'm not sure if 90 days is standard, but I know a lot of stuff I buy tends to have a 1yr+ manufacturer warranty, while the company you buy it from might only accept RMA returns for the first 90 days...

  • Soldering (Score:5, Informative)

    by drwho ( 4190 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @12:16PM (#12348938) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • I had a drive do the exact same thing, and it was fixable. Just find someone that knows how to solder (see all the other posts here).

    BUT, once you've had it fixed, spend $5 on a USB extension cable (male on one end, female on the other) and plug your drive in through that instead of directly into the computer. This saves the drive from getting bumped around while it's plugged in, and weakening the solder again. The drive moves, but the connector doesn't, and the solder gets all of that force. The connect

Slashdot Top Deals

HELP!!!! I'm being held prisoner in /usr/games/lib!

Close