I’ve had my LimeSDR with Type B USB connector since last summer. I never had a suitable enclosure and even though I tried to be very careful I eventually had problems with the connector. Early on I noticed the connector seemed to be slightly wobbly. My clumsy fix for this was to use hot glue to hold the connector in place before any serious damage could occur. What I didn’t anticipate is that the heat emitted during heavy use would start melting the glue and thus weaken the bond. Finally one day, I noticed I could only use USB 2.0 and that even slight movement could cause the stream to fail.
The Junk you see on the connector is left over hot glue.
Through some very careful soldering I was able to keep the board usable in USB 2.0 mode. However, I still have to handle it with great care and I miss the speed of USB 3.0.
I only have a standard Weller Soldering Iron to work with. Is there any possibility I could buy a new connector and install it myself or would this be a reckless endeavor that would almost certainly send my LimeSDR to the electronic graveyard?
I may be willing to pay someone on the forum to fix it if its not cost prohibitive.
You can purchase the new connector almost anywhere. Just be sure to get the same part (BOM on the Lime site). Bring it to your local electronics place (Circuit board manufacturer, cable assembly company, real computer repair company). Most have people that can swwap them out in about 10 minutes.
If you message me where you live, I’ll see what you have around you.
Thanks guys. Honestly I though I was screwed on this. It makes sense though, maybe some of those places that fix smart phones/laptops deal with surface mount components and USB connectors on a regular basis. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.
All else fails you may have more luck with a hot air gun, but you’d need a fine nozzle and need to be very careful not to heat adjacent (including underside!) components so that they don’t move / fall off. If you don’t have one, a stereo microscope would help also.
But in any case, as others have suggested your best bet would be to get someone experienced to do this and not experiment yourself if you haven’t done this sort of work before.
