Forum menu
For a while now I've been having problems connecting my Garmin Edge 500 to my PC. It's very hit-and-miss, and it looks like the contacts in the port on my unit have become corroded, A symptom of riding in the rain I guess - I've had it for just over 2 years. I have attempted to carefully clean out the USB port, but it seems that this has well and truly killed it, and now it won't connect to the PC at all. Garmin will charge me £70.00 to sort the issue, so I've decided to grab the soldering iron and try and replace the mini USB myself. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had attempted this, and how you got on. Taking the unit apart is childs-play, and the USB is easy to get to, so I'm expecting it to be a fairly simple job?!?
£70 for an exchange (basically new) unit doesn't seem bad to me, I had my Edge 705 4 years and rode in a whole lot of rain without any problems, maybe you need to take more care replacing the cover 🙄
Hello, yes it will be easy. The usb socket i suspect will be a surface mount device ( meaning it will be placed by a machine and not by hand) it would be easy to remove the old one however there are a couple of things to think about.
Do not apply any force to the connector until you are sure the solder has melted on all of the pins as this could cause you to rip off the pads connecting the connector to the rest of the circuit. If any of these come off its probably game over without pcb soldering experience.
Ensure that your soldering iron is hot ( buy this i mean over 360°C) as the solder could be lead free, it has a melting point higher than older lead solder and so will require more heat to melt it.
Lastly if you can flood the connector with solder to melt all the pins at the same time (including side grounding legs) as this should avoid you removing any pads.
Where are you? Have you got any picks of it apart?
Cheers Mark.
Thanks for the advice cyclebiker. I've taken a closer look, and it looks like The USB is an integral part of the PCB? Almost seems to be rivetted. Pics:
[img] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UUzK2wmiM_6AhZANCW7juIe4cB9wScw96lxhmupwzUiuFxwSMMs8Cy-NQlObRftK8KA2aNXkpCs [/img][img] https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/PGhZ-Dwv9EHrzwYHCF7NSjSQpXBZeEnD3M0xdV7xxK_nKEhBEuOg1xcvjcgvtty_YA6G5LNlO0w [/img]
Did you try a different cable first? I had a lot of connection problems with mine and thought it was the plug on the unit. I tried the cable from my PS3 though and its been fine ever since!
Oops, second attempt at adding images:
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7246/7486212364_8dc46c23ae.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/23812117@N05/7486212364/ ]GarminEdge500[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/23812117@N05/ ]neil vingoe[/url], on Flickr
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8022/7486222504_77332f21d6.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/23812117@N05/7486222504/ ]Untitled[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/23812117@N05/ ]neil vingoe[/url], on Flickr
And yes I've tried a number of cables.
By the look of it, it is soldered from the side without the screening can (probably as a ground and to give the connector strength for use), I would not imagine that the USB is part of the PCB though as this would be so difficult to manufacture both for the PCB people and the for the placement of the other components.
The horrible oxidisation around the pins and pads on the PCB would bother me, you may be able to get the USB connector off of the PCB, but this could of cause damage to the pads making soldering the new one a pain in the backside...you will then try to clean up the pads ready for soldering and, only to find that the pads have come off the PCB!
If you do not have a really small soldering iron and ninja soldering skills I would be inclined to send it back for referb (which I guess would be replacement PCB).
Where are you, do you have replacement mini USB connector?
my garmin mini USB connector has 2 bent pins. i was able to remove the usb connector. i'm trying to find a replacement. did you have any luck finding one? i've searched the web and find right-angle mini usb but no vertical surface mount... especially with the 4 soldered thru-hole pins. thanks.