So I had just finished soldering a ATtiny167 Pro (probably a chinese replica) and everything worked flawlessly, except when i went to replug it as I was double checking connections, the USB connector decided to push itself off of the soldering and off of the board.
I looked into programming it with my Arduino Uno but it kept throwing errors with not recognizing the board, probably a connection issue but I really didn't want to go around sextuple checking the connections again so i thought about using the pins dedicated to USB and stripping a B cable, which didn't work. I'm unsure if it was my soldering job or if it's not meant to be used like that at all.
It is not uncommon for these connectors to fail. I would simply buy another and a spare. That is about the only solution I see without checking and repairing the board damage especially since you are not sure of your soldering skills.
Soldering the connector back wouldn't be possible anyways as I am fairly certain it ripped the traces as well and the station I have is a dirt cheap one regardless.
As for a replacement, I did buy a few from china, would have preferred locally but the one I bought turns out is the last one available locally anywhere which is a bit of a shame as I was hoping I could get my LED strip project done this week
It is a crying shame how easy those connectors are to rip off.
Not in the absolute sense (dude just buy a new one, they're cheap as dirt; things like this happening inevitably is why I never buy less than 3 of something, What is truly sad (and shameful!) is the fact that much better microUSB connectors are available, and they cant be saving more than a few cents a board by using bottom of the barrel connectors that are not designed for this application but rather for situations where there will be a plastic case around them to absorb the strain. Couple cents, for a ridiculously high rate of connectors getting ripped off boards.
That said, if reset was enabled, if you want to, go ahead and hook up an ISP programmer USPAsp or Arduino as ISP, install ATTinyCore if you don't already have it, choose the from tools -> board-> ATTinyCore -> non-bootloader ATtiny167, tools -> burn bootloader, if wires are connected correctly it should report success;
You can also compile and upload sketches via the programmer wired up to it like that....
I'm trying to imagine myself bothering to to do that - having trouble - not that its hard, it's just such a bother when they don't have the decency to give you a standard 2x3 pin ISP header on the board. Also notice that:
Thee are THREE schemes to number pins, all completely different (there's a submenu under tools to pick the one you want, presumably the one that matches micronucleus (digispark) boards. - there's the one that someone brought some board to market with years ago, the digispark pro numbering, and the numbering I used that makes sense when I added in the tiny167 and was like "wtf, the pin mappings are beyond awful! By their numbering the ISP programming pins are MISO - 8, MOSI - 10, SCK - 11, RESET - 13, and you also connect 5v and ground of the programmer. shrug It should work without issue, but at best it will always be awkward to use.
I wouldn't mind even paying more if there was one available locally but like I said, I bought quite literally the last one I could find locally and while I've ordered a couple more from china, this will just delay the whole project by upwards of a month if customs takes forever to clear three measly boards.
As for the connector argument,I fully agree, just give us a robust mini connector or at least add the teeniest tiniest bit of plastic around the connector to keep it in place, it.
Not sure exactly what you did but if you’ve got to make it work, you cannot solder direct to the processor pins used for usb. You can find the correct connection points from the schematic below. If you think your soldering is up to the task and you need help identifying the proper places to land the wires, post an in focus photo of your damaged board. We can figure that out together.
