Mini USB Connector Broken

[paul_mac1]

I bought a TomTom 1 XL 2 years ago, I am a truck driver and rely heavily on this product, I got what I thought was the best one on the market at the time........$560 here in Australia, however, the mini usb connector on the bottom is faulty, and TomTom dont want to know, I was quoted $400 to get it fixed....What? I might as well just buy a Navman

In future, if Icant get this repaired at a decent price, Ill be changing to NavMan.....its cheaper and has a real plug for the power, not a rubbish mini usb connector......Shame on you TomTom.

Does anyone know of a repairer here in Adelaide who can repair these at a reasonable price?

Regards,
Paul

(This is my 1st post and Im sorry its a whinge)

 

[dhn]

Sorry for your problem, Paul.........

Look for supermod, Mikealder, to respond here with 24 hours. He probably knows more about taking things apart (and putting them together, of course) than anybody here.......

He may be able to suggest how you can go about getting a replacement usb port or fix the one you have if at all possible.

If he doesn't reply, send him a pm.

 

[mikealder]

Lets start with a look at how to get at the damaged socket, if you don't feel happy taking the device to bits you can always print this and take it to someone who does have the skill set to take the device to bits and use a fine tipped soldering iron - The Mini USB sockets are available as a spare part from some retailers, fitting them isn't too easy though.
Here is how to get in to the device:

Lay the unit screen side down and remove the four Torx size 8 screws



Use your thumb nails to pry apart the two halves of the case



Separate the two halves take care as there are still the wires between the two parts holding it together



A close up of the Mini USB socket:



Mike

 

[paul_mac1]

Hi Mike, Thanks for that, I have already taken the unit apart, but the soldering on the socket is really tiny, this is probably why the repair guy quoted me $400. Is the removal of the socket easy? Also, are replacement sockets readily available?

Regards,
Paul

 

[mikealder]

Replacing the socket isn't the easiest of jobs but it isn't worth $400 AUS IMHO, you can get the socket for next to nothing see Here but the skills required to change a damaged socket will be what you are paying for, to be honest a replacement device is probably the easier option - Mike

 

[paul_mac1]

Replacing the socket isn't the easiest of jobs but it isn't worth $400 AUS IMHO, you can get the socket for next to nothing see Here but the skills required to change a damaged socket will be what you are paying for, to be honest a replacement device is probably the easier option - Mike

I wonder how difficult it would be to hard wire the cigarette lighter cable to the board?
Replacing the unit is what TomTom wants........its a disposable unit to them.......its nearly a weeks wage for me...LOL

 

[mikealder]

The easy way would be to find a car charger regulated to 3,7 volts capable of at least 1 Amp, you could then wire this in lue of the battery and not bother with the mini USB socket at all, you could even fit a 2,5MM socket to the base to take the input but its not a practical long term solution - Mike

 

[XXL540 S OWNER]

Is the socket trashed, or did it come loose and rip a trace on the board? If it loosened, you may be able to re seat it and re solder. Then you could possibly add some U.V. glue or epoxy around the edges to back it up.
Just my $.02

 

[todd5pt0]

Wire to circuit board

The easy way would be to find a car charger regulated to 3,7 volts capable of at least 1 Amp, you could then wire this in lue of the battery and not bother with the mini USB socket at all, you could even fit a 2,5MM socket to the base to take the input but its not a practical long term solution - Mike

Mike,
The mini USB socket has separated from my ONE XL circuit board. I want to know more about bypassing this socket and wire directly to the circuit board. Can I wire the TOMTOM car charge to the 3 pronged connector that the battery plugs into? Thanks

Todd5pt0

 

[canderson]

Mike,
The mini USB socket has separated from my ONE XL circuit board. I want to know more about bypassing this socket and wire directly to the circuit board. Can I wire the TOMTOM car charge to the 3 pronged connector that the battery plugs into? Thanks

Todd5pt0

NO! Don't do that! The battery is rated at 3.7V. The output of the car charger is 5.0V. If you plan to hardwire the car charger to anything, make sure it's the input for the USB power connections! That won't be a simple task, either. All of this surface mount stuff makes it very difficult to repair things these days. I've always believed that as my eyes get older, the pin pitch on components should be getting BIGGER, but alas...

 

[mikealder]

What I was suggesting earlier in this thread would involve making your own ciggy lighter addaptor capable of one to two amps output at 3,7 Volts, not difficult if you work with electronics but its certainly not something you can buy off the shelf and plug straight in to the device.

I have a dead 920 here which has a broken USB socket so I might try building something to replace the battery with, if it works I will post the details on what to do, but its not going to get created in the next few weeks - Mike

 

[Arno]

What I was suggesting earlier in this thread would involve making your own ciggy lighter addaptor capable of one to two amps output at 3,7 Volts, not difficult if you work with electronics but its certainly not something you can buy off the shelf and plug straight in to the device.

Years ago I made my own adapter for a laptop. From the laptop use group I had learned that the Toshiba was very sensitive to over voltage.
I removed the rivet holding the cigarette lighter halves together and soldered in a voltage regulator chip, then used a screw to put the halves back together.
The adapter was about 5 bucks and the chip 3.

 

[henrii]

I bought a TomTom 1 XL 2 years ago, I am a truck driver and rely heavily on this product, I got what I thought was the best one on the market at the time........$560 here in Australia, however, the mini usb connector on the bottom is faulty, and TomTom dont want to know, I was quoted $400 to get it fixed....What? I might as well just buy a Navman

In future, if Icant get this repaired at a decent price, Ill be changing to NavMan.....its cheaper and has a real plug for the power, not a rubbish mini usb connector......Shame on you TomTom.

Does anyone know of a repairer here in Adelaide who can repair these at a reasonable price?

Regards,
Paul

(This is my 1st post and Im sorry its a whinge)

I got the same problem with my TomTom One :rant:and since it was too old to be repaired for free, i took a look inside myself. I came to the stunning conclusion that the Chinese worker had been soldering the connector only by 2 of 4 pins. Offcourse TomTom denies it to be a structural fault and wants me to pay for the repair if i can't handover the receipt (what is the chance you still have that after over 2 years) It is not so hard to do this repair yourself but i agree that if you paid this ammount for a device these faults should never happen.

 

[Andy_P]

Ill be changing to NavMan.....its cheaper and has a real plug for the power, not a rubbish mini usb connector......Shame on you TomTom.

Er hasn't just about every maker of mobile phones, sat-navs, cameras etc ALL gone over to USB connectors for the power input (usually micro-USB now).

I came to the stunning conclusion that the Chinese worker had been soldering the connector only by 2 of 4 pins.

Got a photo?

 

[henrii]

yes, take a look.....

 

[canderson]

The good news - if those are the only 'pins' that were not soldered, be advised that those are only shield grounds, and your device should work regardless -- and while those outside shield grounds are needed for mechanical stability of the connector, so you'll need to fix 'em, they're also the easiest of the bunch to solder back down again.

 

[Andy_P]

Yup, nothing to worry about there signal-wise.

 

[henrii]

The good news - if those are the only 'pins' that were not soldered, be advised that those are only shield grounds, and your device should work regardless -- and while those outside shield grounds are needed for mechanical stability of the connector, so you'll need to fix 'em, they're also the easiest of the bunch to solder back down again.

thnx for ur reply. You're right, unfortunenatele the connector has worn out after 2 years of use for lack of the mechanical stability. I have to replace the connector, not a thing I'm afraid of, still customersupport of TomTom Holland just stopped mailing me. I've seen better customersupport from carmanufacturers after a hidden fault was discoverered.

 

[jimbob763]

Similar problem

My one XL has suffered the same or very similar problem to henrii, although all four mounting legs have come off the board & the plug did not appear to be soldered to the actual pcb at all, it appeared to be super glued to the pcb. I bought a new socket for £0.99 but it was not possible to solder to the pcb as there was nothing for the solder to set to. What are your suggestions guys as to what to do, I am willing to hard wire it directly to a cable if attaching the new socket is not possible, just want to get it working again.

Thanks in advance.
Jim

 

[Andy_P]

There must have been some solder pads for the connector pins to attach to originally. The trouble is that components and circuit boards are so miniaturised now, they are very prone to damage if the connector comes lose.

I'm afraid I don't think many people will be keen to strip down their working unit, just to trace where the pcb tracks go, and it would be very hard to describe their findings in a forum anyway!

All you can do is use a strong magnifier and (using the pin layout on the USB socket as a guide), try to work out where the tracks originally came from.
Maybe you'll be able to see what's gone missing and be able to replace it with some "wire wrap" wire and a very small soldering iron.

Usually things are just too damn small for much DIY fixing these days

The USB socket will have had 2 or 4 large tabs on the metal shell to support it (and it seems that some or all of these have NOT been soldered down to the board), but the four "real" connections (2 for power, 2 for data) will be much smaller and on the underside.
Remember also that these are multilayer boards with circuit tracks on both sides and usually several layers sandwiched in the middle too.