Tutorial: What to expect when replacing connectors

Pebu · 12-18-06, 11:06 AM

Maybe it's not so much a tutorial, but I think it could be very informative. Some time ago I mentioned replacing my connector and someone else has inquired on how to do it. I PMed a basic "what to expect" when opening your axim up. Since then I have been asked again, so I sent the same thing. Since this problem is pretty common I think it might help some people out. If you're the kind of person that already toys around with soldering on pcbs and such then you probably won't get much out of this, but if your pins are bent and you want to know what you're getting into before you start, this should give you an idea.
I'm just gonna copy what I had written in the PM and send it out in this post.
Also, I'd like to note a disclaimer... If you harm your axim in any way while reading my guidlines, I'm sorry but it is not my fault, it is still yours. I don't have all the answers but I will try to answer questions you have pertaining to this info. And last but not least, I fully recommend having this done by the professionals.
Disclaimer over...

Now lets get on to why you're here.

Originally Posted by Me in one of my PMs

My brother and I got our new connectors from a place online. www.ppctechs.com. The great thing about this plae is they'll actually replace your connector for you for a little extra money. You send in your axim and then they'll fix it and send it back. We opted for the cheaper route and just got the connectors. I dont know if you've had it apart yet, but I guess I'll start there just incase you haven't. There are 4 small screws, one under each rubber pad in the back of the axim. After getting those out the case is still snapped together and it's a little touchy getting it off without breaking anything. Taking the battery out might help (of course you're gonna need to do that to replace the connector anyways). You'll be able to see the connector right away and that's the whole thing, unfortunately in order to remove it and to put in the new one you have to take the board out too. I believe there are about 5 wires going to the board. (backup battery, application buttons, screen, digitizer probably and a small wire going to the wireless antenna. Now that you can see the backside of the board you'll see where there are some prong type things that come from the side of the connector and go through the board and they are soldered on both sides. We tried using solder wick, but it didn't really help, so our friend at work used a solder vacuum and that did the trick. Once those are desoldered you can desolder the pins. I think you'll be amazed at how small they are and desoldering them is the easy part. When you put the new one on you'll still have the prongs on the sides of the connector and to keep the connector from moving you'll want to get it in the right spot and secure those. You want to get solder in from both sides (or make sure that the solder is sucked all the way through) because my first one was soldered just from the top and I broke it again. Fortunately I didn't break the pins in back and we were able to salvage it. To solder the pins you need a very small soldering iron and flux. I was told in that case that flux is your friend. Once those are soldered you can put it back together, remember each of the plugs you unplugged and try it out.
As for its difficulty... Our friend has been working on pc boards for the past 20 years and he needed a low powered microscope to solder the pins. It was also pretty ugly, but fortunately electrons don't care about how a connection looks. I guess that's about it
Good luck

vds · 12-22-06, 09:53 PM

Sigh - got my X30 repaired about 18 months ago (three WEEKS after end of maint of course) and since then the wireless is useless. Noticed that the place that did it has the card marked "this side up" upside down. Guessing that they nicked the wire to the antenna or have it disconnected totally, but regardless one non-Internet-enabled X30 was the result. My fault of course that I messed up the pins, and the new card-based connector is better, but still.....

To be fair, I can't find the receipt of the place in CA that did the work, so I can't blame any repair shop in particular.

Pebu · 02-21-07, 09:48 AM

Just want to bump since I've been reading alot about people with this problem.
Also, I want to point out that alot of the cables I have, they'll say "this side up" on them, but in order to plug in that has to be towards the back of the axim. It's annoying, but if you're just gentle when you're plugging it in, you should be able to feel if it's in there correctly before you'll end up doing damage to the pins.

02-21-07, 10:11 AM

Pebu: If we can find you a busted X30, would you be willing to put together a set of pictures with the instructions?

Pebu · 02-21-07, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Noisy Crow

Pebu: If we can find you a busted X30, would you be willing to put together a set of pictures with the instructions?

Actually my brothers is in need of replacing. When we get around to it I'll try to get some pictures, but unfortunately it's been in need of a fix for probably a couple months now and we've always been too busy to get around to it.
If anybody else has any pictures of the open axim I could probably do some mark-ups.

It's kinda funny, cause right now I'm doing visual aides (very detailed instructions) for some processes here at work. :rolling: