In article ,
Meat Plow wrote:

On Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:37:44 -0700, isw wrote:

Some cellphones (SonyEricsson for sure) use a power/earset/USB connector
that has no pins or sockets; just a row of little flat gold squares.

The one on my phone has developed an intermittent connection to the
circuit board it plugs onto (inside the phone).

Does anyone know of a source for the things (I mean, where I can order
ONE, not a million)?

thx

Isaac

If it is a mini USB connector, snag one out of something else that
uses one.

I guess you didn't read my original description of the connector in
question; see above.

Or open the phone and under magnification inspect the connection to
the board. It may have damaged solder connections that you could
repair provided you have the right iron and motor skills.

I have those skills in spades, but (again, as I originally stated) the
connector isn't soldered; it just pushes over the edge of the PCWB,
where it's little springy fingers are *supposed* to mate with some
little gold-plated pads etched onto the board.

I've had the thing apart four times now, trying without success to bend
the one offending connection so it's not intermittent. I'm pretty
convinced that the problem is that the plastic parts of the connector
are not made of stiff enough material, because it's sort of warped up in
the middle. Although I can get it to work by pressing down on the
connector to remove the warp, there's no room in there for any sort of
stiffener.

I'm contemplating a very careful soldering job, attaching a single fine
strand of copper from the connector to the proper pad on the board.
It'll involve some cutting of plastic to provide clearance, and once
there's solder on the gold, there's no going back to a gold-gold
pressure connection, so I'm still thinking about it. Getting a connector
from a broken phone would work, but even pretty badly damaged ones go
for over $30 on eBay.

I can get it to work by wedging the exterior "plug" to one side with a
piece of popsicle stick, but that's a bit inelegant.

Isaac