Looking for alternative way to interface with the Electronics Explorer... My USB is DESTROYED.

[cjones]

The USB plug was yanked on one too many times and started failing. When it was broke more than it worked, I fixed it enough that I could use the board. I ended up fixing it a couple more times but the last time there just wasn't enough left to succeed.

 

It really sucks because that board was central to so much of getting hobby projects going. It lived a mostly good life since I bought it back in 2011 an I'm not ready to say good bye.

Unless I can get the interface back, it's just a breadboard (a pretty one tho!) so I'm open to try anything if there's a chance.

I'm hoping that there are some solder pads on the bottom that can be accessed, maybe if some supporting electronics or something were in place. Or there's a secret backdoor JTAG if you plug lines in to the right combination of board outputs?

Anyhow, if there are schematics anyone has for the USB area, I'd love to see them.

 

Please help!

[attila]

Hi @cjones

The usb socket can be soldered to the top layer, shield to gnd, just be careful to not get solder in the socket.
You could replace the socket if broken or solder the usb wires to the pads, but pay attention for correct order: vbus, d-/+, id, gnd

[JColvin]

Hi @cjones,

Unfortunately, as far as I understand, that USB port is the only way to configure the board. The schematics for the Electronics Explorer board are available on it's Resource Center: https://digilent.com/reference/test-and-measurement/electronics-explorer/start, though I'm not seeing any way to otherwise access the device (that and you would not be able to directly control the board with WaveForms through a JTAG port anyways).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin

[cjones]

Thank you JColvin and attila.

attila, is the ground contact just connected to the ground plane and ID goes nowhere?

[cjones]

Going to try hot gluing these in place and then connecting them to a new USB micro which will be fixed in place.

Do you think that this will work?

 

[attila]

Hi @cjones

vbus (it goes only to the led), d-/+, id (unused), gnd and the shield can be tied to gnd
I'm not sure how good the hotglue will hold, it may flexible and not stick well.