Axis 206 Power Connector repair

[MrForbes]

Our good friend Toasty the Camera (named in 2009) was acting up. We taped the power cable to one side, and he worked some of the time. We need him to be reliable, so we decided to see what's wrong. Taking the cover off, we didn't really notice anything wrong with the power connector. We put him back together, and tried it with a different power supply with the correct size connector and voltage rating. He worked sometimes, I noticed that holding the power plug against the side so the outer conductor touched the metal casing, would make the power light come on. We took the cover off again, and plugged in the cable, and noticed the whole connector housing moved relative to the circuit board. One of the surface mount solder connections was loose. It's really hard to see this without moving the connector around, but then it becomes obvious. A modification to the soldering iron (filing the tip to a more pointed shape) allowed us to fix the solder connection. It doesn't look very good, but Toasty is again happy.

[RoboMaster]

Thanks for the tip! I think those cameras are known for going on the fritz; our team has had our regular fair share of annoyance with it.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jim,
I immediately thought of the 'do not modify' rule but found that it does not include the camera. (at least I do not see any reference to the camera) I suspect you ran into the dreaded ROHS solder vs tin/lead and that is why the joint looks funky.

[MrForbes]

We checked the rules first, I recalled something about it in the past, like you.

Oh...that explains the soldering thing....

(and all the soldering I've done with lead over the years might explain why I didn't figure that out myself)