usb port broke off, soldering advice needed

[cnc_dave]

hey all,
as title says, 2 month old matek f405 ctr. when first got it i thought the port seemed kind of flimsy. well was messing with it today, now it's totally broke.
got it completely removed, pads are still there, found a pack 10 micro usb sockets.
my only concern at the moment, those little pads are close any suggestions to keep
the solder where its supposed to be.
currently have .032 rosin core, have not been using any extra flux for general board connections

thanks in advance

 

[PsyBorg]

Those are put on by a hot air machine solder station. I don't think they can be done by hand mate. It is possible under enough magnification and a small enough solder tip but man that's gonna take some seriously stable hands.

 

[cnc_dave]

guess i'm gonna find out, just bought pack of 10 sockets. figure its worth a shot.
got a pretty fine tip and my trusty magni visor.

 

[ElectriSean]

I remember watching this a while back, some good tips for you if you decide to go ahead.

Alternatively, I believe it's possible to flash using an Arduino and a UART on the FC, but I've never attempted that. Most tweaking can just be done through the OSD, though any real configuring (like after a flash) would be tricky.

 

[PsyBorg]

That is a great find Sean. That trick to bridge the pins makes a lot of sense now that I have seen it done. I don't think I would run the iron as hot as he did but still a very good video for sure. Thanks mate.

 

[cnc_dave]

great vid there sean, not quite as daunting as i first thought.
i'll report back one way or the other

 

[French]

Best of luck. It’s a giant pain to fix it right. After I busted one once, I started using Bondic uv plastic weld to reinforce all my FC connectors. It’s amazing stuff.

https://notaglue.com

 

[cnc_dave]

well i got it and on the first try, took me about 30 minutes.
now all i got to do put it all back together.
this all started with wanting to upgrade the firmware

 

[ElectriSean]

Nice job

 

[Daniel Kezar]

wow!! that is tiny!!!

 

[cnc_dave]

yeah, sort of went like the vid sean posted, except i didn't have any bridging to deal with. it helped that the replacement sockets had slightly longer tabs than the original, provided a lil bigger target.
i re tinned the pads, if you could call it that, just very very little solder on the tip and re touched the pads, just sort of brightened them up.
soldered one of the anchor points. then touched each little tab, the tabs are sort of brass colored, as i touched though you could see them turn bright silver. tip was pretty near clean during this part of it, temp was set at 350
wasn't sure i could do this at all, let alone on first try. bought a pack of 12 sockets for $5 shipped. not planning on making a habit of this though.

thanks much again for that vid sean

 

[ElectriSean]

You're welcome, I'm glad you got it fixed up

 

[cnc_dave]

hum, well i'm sort of motivated because i was getting ready to buy stuff for another build.
having to buy a fc to replace this one would have thrown a wrench into my budget