Replacing a USB Connector

Buy a new cable with two new ends.

Amazon has it in stock. As does Staples.

Price from US$8 to US$15 depending on which bells combined with what whistles you need.

Oh, and Target also.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

If the connector on the kindle itself is damaged, a replacement cable won't help. I stock a number of different style connectors all of which are surface mounted. A hot air station is best for replacement.

Yes, I quickly gave up on trying to replace a USB-B connector, not having surface-mount expertise. Unless the connector itself is on a small daughter board (which I have seen on some variety of tablet recently) which can be purchased cheaply and easily replaced.

Mike.

whistles you need.

If you don't have SMD experience, then changing that connector will be prob lematic. Most people can learn this with time, patience, and donor equipme nt to experiment on. I used to do these with a fine tip solder iron but no w do them with hot air. You need a lot of heat so it can be done as quickl y as possible. Also, bright light, magnification, and flux will improve th e process.

Part of the problem that I foresaw is that the connector has to be firmly fixed mechanically to withstand the forces of insertion and withdrawal, possibly clumsily. Merely soldering may not be adequate!

Mike.

The surface mount connectors are available on Amazon. Those I've seen have solderable mounting taps to provide mechanical support.

But as others have noted, replacing this part is quite difficult unless you have the appropriate equipment - a soldering iron is not enough.

I decided that the micro USB connector looked too fragile to tolerate more than a few hundred insertions. My solution was to get a magnetic USB charg ing cable which almost completely eliminates the strain on the connector. The one disadvantage is that these do not provide any of the data connectio ns, only ground and power.

I got a couple of those and really like them. Not only do they remove much of the strain they also just snap on and rotate to boot. So no twisted cables. Though the ones I use do prevent data transfer I rarely transfer data from my tablets through USB. I mostly use wireless or a micro SD card. Eric

Much of the time the hot air is the way to go. For the hobbiest you can get a hot air and soldering iron station for about $ 75 or less.

Go to you tube and look at how to do it. Not too bad after getting some old circuit boards and practicing. Sometimes the Kapton tape use as a heat resistance and shield will be a big help to keep the hot air from melting out too much stuff.

Thanks. Yes, I haven't done much soldering in a few decades. It is on the board and seems rather tiny and fragile. I tried to straighten it out with tweezers and it seems to have broken or at least gotten pushed in. Certainly the 2011 device is fully depreciated and its economic life has expired, but I'm comfy with it. I guess opening it and trying once can't hurt if it's already gone. Although my repairs usually require opening it, giving up then a while later getting some inspiration to try again.