Mini POV3 - serial port connection soldered shut?

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rosciol
 
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Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 11:29 pm

Mini POV3 - serial port connection soldered shut?

Post by rosciol »

I'm using a Minipov3 from a Make.com kit. I had a problem powering the kit on that stemmed from my limited powers of observation, but now that I have power, I want to program it via serial. When I went to plug the kit into my computer, however, it wouldn't go into the serial port. I peeked inside the serial port receptacle, and it looks like there might be a bit of solder in there. I'm going to take a wild guess and suppose those pins that I soldered onto the board go all the way through to where the male plug connects (which makes sense, but I wasn't thinking about it during soldering). If I use too much solder on the pins, then, it can leak back into the receptacle(?).

At this point, I think my only option is to desolder the serial port connection, buy another one, and solder that one. Is there another solution I'm missing? Is there a good parts distributor (online or in Southern California) who sells these kinds of parts by the piece? I checked radioshack.com's website, and the only serial port for sale I could find got horrible reviews.

The reason I was checking radioshack is because I was hoping to pick up the part locally and keep working. If that's not a possibility, I'll move to online distribution. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time.

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Mini POV3 - serial port connection soldered shut?

Post by adafruit »

hmm, thats a new one. id be surprised if you put -that much- solder on. you could try sacrificing a cable and forcing it in while heating up the clogged pin...?
jameco has tons of cheap parts and they're in north cal but thats better than nothing :)

SolidSilver
 
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:29 am

Re: Mini POV3 - serial port connection soldered shut?

Post by SolidSilver »

rosciol wrote:The reason I was checking radioshack is because I was hoping to pick up the part locally and keep working. If that's not a possibility, I'll move to online distribution. Any suggestions?
Though they're gawd-awful expensive, RadShack does stock these female 9-pin D-sub connectors in stores that have the "chest of drawers" parts department. The bad reviews you saw may have been for serial cable assemblies or perhaps USB serial cables (although my USB->serial cable is from RS, and I'm perfectly happy with it). It's hard to see how they could screw up a connector they source from somebody.

rosciol
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 11:29 pm

Re: Mini POV3 - serial port connection soldered shut?

Post by rosciol »

For anyone who was curious, I ended up having to scrap the board. I couldn't get anything into the serial port, and I couldn't safely extract the serial port (all the solder was under the pins where I couldn't get at it). Forceful removal had (understandably) bad consequences.

I bought a new kit and the new MiniPOV3 was assembled perfectly the first time in only about an hour. I programmed some messages on it today, and I have yet to solder on the serial port. I'm going to leave it unsoldered and just attach it when I need to program messages, because without the serial port on I can fit this in tighter spaces.

Thanks for all the help.

mtbf0
 
Posts: 1645
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:59 am

Re: Mini POV3 - serial port connection soldered shut?

Post by mtbf0 »

keep in mind that removing and replacing that db9 connector will eventually scrape the copper off the board.

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