broken micro usb (bela mini)

enrique_tomas

Hi!
a student used a bela mini for a gestural controller/instrument and, during a performance, he pulled the cable too much in perpendicular direction to the board, so the micro usb connector of the board completely fell off.

Is there any chance to connect/solder a usb micro breakout board directly to some pins of the board?
Any other solutions? (soldering the micro usb looks difficult as there is little space to do it...)

thanks
Enrique

giuliomoro

Oh that's unfortunate. You can access the board using the USB pins that are available to the BelaMini cape. For the software setup you can follow the instructions here, keep in mind you will need a v0.3.8f image or above on the SD card. You can open the file bela.version in BELABOOT. If it's empty or it shows a value smaller than v0.3.8f you should reflash your SD card with the latest image from here.

As for how to connect to it, you will need either a (non-standard?) USB-A to USB-A cable or break out signals from a USB-A cable so that they plug into the correct pins on the PocketBeagle as described here.