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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: rarar on Mon, 10 October 2022, 18:53:03

Title: Micro USB on Vortex Vibe detached. Looking for advice on how to re-attach.
Post by: rarar on Mon, 10 October 2022, 18:53:03

Title's self-explanatory, but I'll elaborate. One day I was going to plug in a Micro USB cable into my Vortex Vibe and the metal housing was pushed inside the case and detached from the PCB. Luckily, none of the pads broke off, but I'm unsure how I should go about re-attaching the housing.

I've tried hot glue and gorilla glue, but I'm starting to suspect I may need to solder it back on.

I'm a newbie when it comes to soldering - haven't picked up my iron in years - Would a wide-tipped head be able to melt all 4 of these pads individually from the housing to the PCB? Or would the solder end up flowing all together and making things worse?

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think.

(https://i.imgur.com/bSq8g8i.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/lr4Cx0c.jpg)

Title: Re: Micro USB on Vortex Vibe detached. Looking for advice on how to re-attach.
Post by: suicidal_orange on Tue, 11 October 2022, 14:37:37

You're lucky that all the pads survived, still not the easiest fix though as It definitely needs to be soldered if you want it to work.

You might be able to "drag solder" it by melting solder on your tip and adding lots of flux to the pins and quickly dragging the solder across them, this technique is usually used to solder ICs (chips) where the pins are really close which is basically the same problem - you can search for a more detailed explanation.

If you want to do it pin by pin you would be better off using a conical (pointy) tip but it looks like there's some room so you might get away with using the thin edge of a wide tip, if it's thin enough.  You'll need some thin solder too, or maybe just some flux if there's enough on the pads/pins, it's hard to see from directly above.