bhtooefr's Journal: Grr... Got a broken USB connector...

My Kingston UFD died today, after the connector getting bent about a month ago..

I opened it up, and looked inside. This is a quick sketch in Paint of the connector now...

I tried using my soldering iron, but couldn't get it in the area, and couldn't get the broken wires hot enough to melt the solder... Any suggestions?

I can't find my old Lexar UFD to steal the connector from, or I'd remove the whole USB connector from the Kingston drive and solder down the Lexar's.

Couple ideas

[phasm42]

This might be tough, but it's doable:
1. Get a small wire to bridge the gap. Try to wrap it around the wires on both sides of the break, enough so that it won't fall off. If you can't wrap it, you'll have to hold it in position with tape or tweezers. Note that tape will melt and tweezers will sap heat, so both options suck.
2. Put some flux on the wires. Flux is awesome. You don't need anything special -- you can use plain tinning flux from the hardware store.
3. Touch it with a soldering iron and some sold

Re:Couple ideas

[bhtooefr]

I THINK I can get the soldering iron to touch directly, but I'm making contact with the PCB itself - there are a couple tiny scorch marks where I tried to get down there (nowhere near traces or components, thank god)...

It's an el-cheapo 30W RatShack soldering iron - nothing special, that's for sure...

If push comes to shove, I'll snap the connector the rest of the way off (I couldn't really show how it was bent in the sketch), and solder a USB cable to it.