Broken USB conector

Hi,
I was testing one of my camera boards and the Micro USB connector broke off the board. It appears that not all of the pads attached to the connector body, as one did and one did not. I have other micro USB boards from other projects, such as Raspberry Pi 3, Pine 64, Onion Omega, cheap chinese knockoff Arduino boards and none have had a USB come off the board. I think you guys need to watch out on these boards and get a better handle on your parts attaching to the board.

Bob

We will be switching to another MicroUSB connector with holes that go through the board. We… had already paid for 1500 of these connectors last year before the new board rev so we had to use them.

For the next set of boards we plan to build we will use a connector with more stress relief along with changes to the two IR LEDs to make them surface mount.

Sorry about this problem. You have to be gentle disconnecting.

OK, That sounds good. So when is the new revision board coming out?

Once we have enough funds to do a re order. We have to sell off all the cameras we have in stock right now. The whole Kickstarter fiasco only left one viable path for us.

Good news is that we’ve finally shipped cams to Lextronic and hopefully we will be selling quickly in Europe.

An idea for anyone with a weak USB connector: Perhaps it would be a good idea to reinforce the USB connector by putting in some thick glue, or even some Sugru (https://sugru.com). I’ve been a happy user of Sugru for various purposes; perhaps it will help keeping the USB from breaking. Sugru does not harden completely though; it becomes more like rubber when it cures.

Hi, i have just got my boards out of customs today and wanted to give it a first try.
Guess what happened? When i wanted to look at the board to find boot0 and VCC to flash the new firmware, the board fell off and i had the USB connector and cable in my hand.
Can it by fixed? Please give some advice.

BTW: Should have read the tip for reinforcing with glue before :slight_smile:

Sorry about that, we’re going to replace those SMD USB connectors on the next revision. We’ll send you a new cam, just send us an email at openmv@openmv.io :slight_smile: