During my vacation in Greece last month I took my FPV Racer and my GoPro Hero3 camera with me. I mount the GoPro on the front and use it for filming as well for Live-Video-Out for my FatShark goggles (FPV or first person view). Everything was great until I gave the goggles to my young friend Eli, lost control of the quadcopter and got it stuck on one tree. In the process of getting it down I broke the USB connector of the GoPro because of the attached Live-Out cable.
Back at home, I decided to open the camera and repair the USB connector. Opening was pretty easy and done in a few minutes (there are a lot of videos on YouTube how do it). The USB connector was completely detached from the main board and it fell down. Here is how it looked like without it:
As you can see on the second picture the signal traces are almost completely broken. So just soldering a new USB connector wont help. I didn’t have the time and the needed skill with the solder iron to repair it, so my father helped me. Thanks dad!
Here are some of his notes and pictures. First get one new USB Mini-B 10pin connector. It is not a normal one, as it has 10pins. You can find these also in some old mobile phones, as my dad have done it.
This is how it should look like and the drawing of the USB Mini connector. The Pins on the front side on above and below. On the back side of the connector these are only below.
What are the pins for? Here is the pinout schematics of what he thought:
| 1 | GND (Ground) |
| 2 | Audio-Out |
| 3 | ID |
| 4 | Video-Out |
| 5 | DATA + |
| 6 | Video-GND |
| 7 | DATA – |
| 8 | MicIn |
| 9 | VCC + |
| 10 | MicIn |
He achieved to recover some of the traces and replaces the the tiny component on Pin5 and Pin7, which I think is called choke. Please pay attention while soldering the USB connector, that its inner part have plastic, so do not overheat.
After all my GoPro is working again (except for the Live-Video as this trace was not repaired). I have already ordered one cheaper camera (Xiaomi Yi) for mounting it on my Quadcopter, so I don’t need the Live-Video-Out anymore. So big big thanks to my dad again! Thank you!
