Damaged micro USB port  

RE: Damaged micro USB port

First thing I would do is to contact support via the chat window to see if the USB issue can be resolved or if the board is damaged beyond a chance to repair it.

Worst case is having to buy a new Buddy board.  A little spendy but not the end of world either.  (Stuff happens).

How confident are you with a soldering iron?  Do you know how to desolder?

The USB socket is a standard part available at many component outlets and it has larger (easier to solder) connections than most of the SM components...

Cheerio,

RE: Damaged micro USB port

Not confident at all unfortunately. I would hate to ruin a $100 board just for micro-usb functionality to perform PID tuning. I guess I will just live with the tuning I have. I reached out to Prusa Support and confirmed there is currently no other way to receive PID info.

Thanks for your time!

RE:

Have a close look with a magnifier to the contacts looking for dirt and bent pins..

Assuming the damage is actually the Micro USB port it is hard to do if you do not have the proper rework tools.

I would suggest getting in touch with a local outfit that actually repairs cell phones at the board level to get a better picture and quote.

They do this all the time, unless they are trying to sell you a new phone... but that is not the case here.

Not confident at all unfortunately.

If this is the micro USB port under the power switch there is a slightly ugly way for the less confident to try.

Buy a female micro-usb socket breakout board and a few centimetres of 5 core data wire.  Buy a small tube of solder-paste.  The total will be about the cost of a cup of airport coffee.

You will need a soldering iron with a bit that comes to a fine point. You will need a multimeter.

Solder paste is easier to use than regular solder.

I strongly advise you to practice the technique on some scrap electronics first but this is what you do:

Look at the damaged socket on the board, there are 5 connecting pads immediately behind it.  You will squeeze a tiny dot of solder paste onto each of the 5 pads, this is the trickiest bit.  If you overdo it wipe the paste off with a cotton bud dipped in alcohol and try again.

Strip about 2 millimeters from the end of each data wire, hold them to the solder dots in turn and just touch with the hot iron for about two seconds.  You should have connections to each of the pads without short circuits between the tracks, OK?  Breathe easy now, that was the hard bit.

Now use the multimeter to check which wire goes to which pin of the usb-port and which connection on the breakout board goes to the equivalent pin - there is a high chance they are all in the same order.

Use a bigger squidge of solder paste to attach each wire to the equivalent, much bigger, pad on the breakout board.

You now have a micro-usb socket on a short lead that bypasses the broken one.  Insulate it with tape and strap it somewhere accessible.

It won't look so good but you should recover the function.

Cheerio,

RE: Damaged micro USB port

Same exact thing happened to me, contacted support and was told, not our fault, buy another board.  So I did.  

Posted by: @outlawecho

So I managed to damage the micro USB port on my Prusa Mini and now it won't connect. What options do I have to connect to octoprint it pronterface now? I have the wifi module installed on the mini, but at this point Prusa Connect seems pretty useless. My main issue is that at the moment I'm unable to perform PID tuning.

I appreciate any help.

RE: Damaged micro USB port

I've now had two Buddy boards end up with broken micro USB ports.  Repeatedly replacing Buddy boards ends up being an expensive solution if it keeps happening again.  After the first one broke, I got a micro-USB extension and left it permanently installed on the second board... and it ended up breaking anyway.

I now think the solder joints for the micro-USB connector may be weak and very sensitive to temperature and it's just a matter of time before it ends up breaking, even if one doesn't physically manipulate the connector.  (I do move the printer from one location to another from time to time.)

I really wish Prusa had provided a better connector, or some other way to direct-connect a serial device to the Buddy board.

Pm

RE: Damaged micro USB port

Posted by: @pmichaud

I've now had two Buddy boards end up with broken micro USB ports.  Repeatedly replacing Buddy boards ends up being an expensive solution if it keeps happening again.  After the first one broke, I got a micro-USB extension and left it permanently installed on the second board... and it ended up breaking anyway.

I now think the solder joints for the micro-USB connector may be weak and very sensitive to temperature and it's just a matter of time before it ends up breaking, even if one doesn't physically manipulate the connector.  (I do move the printer from one location to another from time to time.)

I really wish Prusa had provided a better connector, or some other way to direct-connect a serial device to the Buddy board.

Pm

I have five minis and have never had an issue.  I use mine in an enclosure with Octoprint on a pi.  Do you plug and unplug something regularly?  I am trying to figure what is different about my minis and usage.  

RE:

After the first Buddy board broke I purchased a short micro-USB cable and left it permanently plugged in to the new Buddy board... so no plugging and unplugging of the connector at all.   I also have an enclosure with Octoprint on a pi.  The second Buddy board worked fine for a about six months; I took the printer with me on a trip and when I arrived at my destination the micro-USB connection was intermittent, just like the first board.  A day or so later it stopped working entirely.

Pm

RE: Damaged micro USB port

"so no plugging and unplugging of the connector at all"

First:

I would take a fairly high power magnifier and have a close look at inside the USB receptacle for dirt, oxidation  and bent contacts, then look the solder joints at the USB port on the printed circuit board (pcb). In some cases applying a bit of hand pressure on the whole connector or near it you can see the pin move independently from the solder blob. Sometime the solder blob is hiding the pins but there is no contact nevertheless. 

I have found several bad solder joints in my MK3 on the main board at the connectors and at the ribbon on the LCD connector. A quick leaded alloy resolder with flux fixed the issue each time (be careful not to create a short or overheat the pcb,  I have a good smd rework station and lots of time in the field). Lead-free solder quality on these seemed marginal in several spots.

Second:

bring the board to a local store that repairs cell phones or computer cards at the chip level. Some have the expertise and tools to change USB ports and might be of help.

Cheers and best of luck with it.

RE:

Disassemble the printer to extract the board only, optionally also get LCD+cable + power supply management device  you used to connect via usb to allow fast debug in repair shop.

Bring it to the smartphone/small electrinics repair shop or look for hackers pace in the city.

They should be able to resolder or place new port for the price of two cups of coffee in 30min.

If that does not work then get new board and sell old one on eBay etc.

RE: Damaged micro USB port

I've gone ahead and ordered another Buddy board (my 3rd for this printer).  Yes, it's another $120, but I'm not enamored of spending lots of time to try to find somewhere willing to attempt the repair.  It might be "30 mins" to repair, but it'll take a lot of time just to find somewhere/someone that understands it and is willing to do it.

I've looked at reworking the joint myself, but I don't quite have the proper tools, and there's another smd component right by the pads that gets in the way of my iron.  Maybe remove the other smd component, re-flow the connector, re-install the smd component, and then hope it all works afterwards... but if anything goes wrong I just have to buy another Buddy board.  In some ways I'll prefer to be a signpost that says "Prusa Mini is a nice printer, but the micro-USB port can be an expensive flaw."

Pm