Has anyone had any success replacing the socket on a garmin 520?

[smileydave]

...or any others for that matter. My trusty garmin 520, which is c. 5 years old, and pre-pandemic was getting used twice daily, seems to be reaching the end of its natural life. Battery life is terrible (2 hours or so in the winter, when it used to be 14+), and to charge it I have to press the cable hard into the socket at a funny angle, which hurts the thumbs after a few minutes... Dodgy sockets seems to be a known problem, if unacknowledged by Garmin themselves. So I've been onto ebay and have splurged <£20 on a new battery and a new socket.
Before I get stuck in, I thought I'd ask around. I've found videos for the battery replacement, which seems simple enough. Replacing the socket looks like it's likely to be a soldering job, but I cna't find any videos tosuggest how. perhaps I'm using the wrong search terms, but it can't be that difficult, can it...?
Any advice gratefully received

[Kim]

*googles*

Socket looks like this?  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174196583513

De-soldering the old one's going to be a right bastard of a job, as presumably the prongs on the shell go through the board and are soldered on the far side, and you'd need to be a trained octopus with multiple irons/hot air guns to melt all the joints at once.  What you're trying to avoid is lifting the tracks on the connector pins^[1] (which will be fairly delicate, on account of smallness) as you apply the requisite amount of heat and wiggling to de-solder the prongs in what are undoubtedly going to be plated through-holes.

The approach I'd take would be to attack the connector with edge cutters to sever the prongs, then melt the SMD connections (either using hot air, or an iron and a blob of (preferably lead-based) solder) to remove the bulk of the connector without damaging the PCB tracks.  Then remove the remains of the prongs individually, which is going to be annoying, but less risk of damaging something important, and clean up using solder braid.

If you can manage that, installing the new connector should be straightforward: Standard through-hole soldering for the prongs to secure it in place, then your SMD technique of choice for the pins.  (I'd favour drag soldering with a small beveled tip, but solder-blob-and-mop-it-up-with-braid is probably easier for beginners.  Alternatively, solder paste and reflow with hot air.)  Go and watch some YouTube tutorial videos about SMD soldering, and find a board from an old computer or something that has components with a similar pin pitch to practice on.

Multiply the difficulty level by lots if there's bulky or delicate stuff close to the connector that prevents you getting in there with hot melty tools; I don't know what the innards of an Edge 520 look like.


_{[1] This may already have happened, and be the cause of the fault.  In which case you're into bodge-wire territory.}

[haywire]

I had a similar problem, but having disassembled it and liberally covered the socket with contact cleaner, it worked well enough for me to tolerate. As Kim says, looks like a bugger of a job ideally requiring a hot air tool I don't have. Battery replacement was not too much trouble once I'd opened it.

Never did a great job of reassembly, and it died 6 months later during an off road excursion.

[Pingu]

I had a similar problem, but having disassembled it and liberally covered the socket with contact cleaner, it worked well enough for me to tolerate. As Kim says, looks like a bugger of a job ideally requiring a hot air tool I don't have. Battery replacement was not too much trouble once I'd opened it.

Never did a great job of reassembly, and it died 6 months later during an off road excursion.

Nominative determinism in action.

[drossall]

Just a thought - would a local phone repairer take the job on, given that you have parts?

[smileydave]

Yes, the socket looks like that. it's tiny. I've just googled SMD, and it turns out this is a bit more serious than 6th form electronics, which was the last time I did any soldering. When the battery arrives I'll take it apart and have a proper look at it. I'll have a go at cleaning first and see how it goes.
Phone repairer sounds like a very good idea. I'll ask in town.
Thanks all for help. I'll report back once I've got around to doing it...

[Feanor]

I've not had a 500 series device in bits, but I've repaired drowned 800 series devices a couple of times.
The 800 series has a daughter board which holds the USC connector and Micro-SD card slot, and the daughter board can be replaced easily:
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=99493.msg2080977#msg2080977

More lately, the daughter board became unobtainable, and I had to resort to replacing the actual USB connector, and it does require Advanced Level soldering skills, using soldering stations which are somewhat beyond most home-grade soldering irons. Even then, it's a delicate job.

[smileydave]

I've managed to open this up and haven't cracked the screen in the prising open procedure, so we're off to a good start. Old battery snipped away and removed. New battery attached. I'll need to solder the speaker wires together, which is something I ought to be able to handle.

On to the tricky bit. No need for any of the doom laden warnings - the connector popped straight off. Looking at it (and if I could work out how to host pics I'd put some up), the connector case has four pins that hold it onto the board. There are then the five connection pins that must transmit the power and data. They don't seem to be soldered at all, but rather connect purely from being pressed together and held there by the case being stuck down (if that makes sense).
If that is the case, then it should (should...) be trivial to solder the case on, or even to stick it down with some glue. Maybe a job for saturday night when I've been abandoned by my wife for the evening.

Maybe I'll try and solder the old one back on, but held together tightly, adn if that works, then great. if not, then I'll unstick it and think again with the new socket...
ho hum

[Feanor]

There are then the five connection pins that must transmit the power and data. They don't seem to be soldered at all, but rather connect purely from being pressed together and held there by the case being stuck down (if that makes sense).

Absolutely not! They should be soldered.

Maybe I'll try and solder the old one back on,

Worth a try.

[smileydave]

alright, alright! Evidently they weren't soldered very well in the first place, or they wouldn't have become so detached, and require pressing together...
I shall have a look in my big borrowed box of electronics tools and see if I can find some suitably fine tips.

Absolutely not! They should be soldered.

[smileydave]

Success! All it took was a few months to find one of the dads on smileyson major's football team, who designs electronics for a living, and a little light begging, pleading and wheedling, and bribing with bottles of drink, and the socket has successfully been reattached.
Thanks to all for advice and encouragement.
The final challenge is to reassmble it, which requires locating the small screwdriver, and then to stick the screen down with something. any ideas with what?

[smileydave]

well, an edit to above, on paying more attention, it won't even switch on. Plugged in, it has power, but no data connection. unplugged, nothing.... I must go and bash my artisan electronicist.

[smileydave]

On revisiting this, I've discovered that by assembling it carefully and making sure the buttons on the circuit board line up properly with the buttons on the case, then it does work.
The next job is to stick the screen back on, so I'd welcome any suggestions