Borked USB connector advice

[rthorntn]

Hi,

I have probably the stupidest USB device ever, the iFi Micro iDSD BL DAC, it sounds great when it works, for some unknown reason it has a male USB 2.0 "A" on it and it's absolute crap, every cable I've tried disconnects out when the connector is touched, I want to get rid of this connector.

The soldering looks OK so I'm guessing that it's an issue with the pins "mating".

What to do, I don't really care if its ugly and I don't care if I have to modify the case?

Thanks.
Richard

[canadaboy25]

A strange design choice for sure.

This is likely a suitable replacement from digikey: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/molex/0480370001/857603

I just went to the category Connectors->USB, DVI, HDMI Connector assemblies
and filtered by

Number of contacts: 4
Connector type: USB-A (USB TYPE-A)
Gender: Male
Mounting Type: Through Hole, Right Angle

I came up with 12 different options from different manufacturers that were in stock.  I'm sure that any one you choose will be of decent quality to not have the problems you're experiencing.

[radiolistener]

Some time ago I had broken micro-usb connector on electronics module, the connector is broken with some parts of PCB wires, so there is no way to replace connector. But I fixed it with help of old broken usb cable. I just cut-off broken connector side from cable and soldered wires directly to the PCB, then I secured the cable to the PCB by soldering it with a thick wire to the ground bus. Works ok. The only con is that there is no way to disconnect cable from the board...

[Ian.M]

USB connectors were supposedly designed so the wear part with the springy contacts is the plug so most connection problems can be fixed with a new cable rather than having to replace a socket.  Obviously mounting a male A plug direct to a PCB ignores this concept.

If you don't want to go the tethered cable route, you could bodge in a micro-B connector breakout e.g: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12035
Design a 3D printed bracket or use epoxy putty to mount it.

[coromonadalix]

why not take a good cable chop the end and connect the 4 wires     red green white black  easy  no ?

[GLouie]

That whole USB audio board appears to be a plug-in card. Are you certain there is no problem with the card edge connector rather than the USB connector itself?

[rthorntn]

Honestly, its a bugger of a thing, the battery section designed by morons, by all accounts it refuses to work if the battery is unhappy, yes, even in bus powered mode it needs a good battery.  Feedback is via an RGB LED, bloody stupid.  The battery has got to be 10yo.

It was pricey and sounds great so I want to salvage something.

Yesterday it wasn't working at all, it powered on but it wouldn't connect, the 3.7v battery was reading 3.5v and I had to try 5 different charger combinations to finally get it to charge overnight.  I'll try again later today.

I saw the PCI-e connector for the USB module so I gave that a check and clean with IPA, I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

I read that the older XMOS's can have issues with USB3.

It's seriously the most temperamental device I've ever had to use.