Broken CAT5 ports

[Ron Boyd]

Well good deal. I'm glad it worked out. I'm with you, I would not have thought of checking the pins either. I need to keep that in the trouble shooting pile in the future.

[Tim Fischer]

Glad you got it working. You might want to flag these controllers so if there are any future network issues that they are the first suspect. Personally once the pins get bent, I don't trust them anymore

[storminstang06]

I sharpie important info inside each controller's enclosure: Unit ID (This doesn't change, and all my boards are some sort of DIY), month and year of purchase, and month, year, and part worked on including what was done to the part. I can remember things that are done to the boards, but as more years pass and more boards are added, I forget what was done to which board and when.

So I agree keeping track of that stuff is an excellent idea! And I will certainly keep a close watch on these boards and give the pins a thorough reliability check before 'Lights On.'

(How creative: I just used sharpie as a verb!)

[Sabre03]

I had 1 controller that was acting goofy and could not pass commands down the line to the other controllers, I checked the pins and sure enough a few of them were bent down. carefully pulled them back into place and presto, back up and running perfect.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Sabre03

[R Weiland]

I had 1 controller that was acting goofy and could not pass commands down the line to the other controllers, I checked the pins and sure enough a few of them were bent down. carefully pulled them back into place and presto, back up and running perfect.

Ditto; I had the same problem, used a dental pick to release the pins. It appears that what happened in my case is while I was trying to release the connector from the jack I put too much side pressure on the jack, trying to depress the release tab under the connector boot, and it deformed the jack enough to cause the pins to become hung-up in their guides and not spring back,.but with a little help from a dental pick they sprung back.

[TJ Hvasta]

We will start with the tools we have and go from there. What we have done with other similar parts is heated up all joints (or joints that are near each other) together (without melting the wires) while carefully pulling out the part, then quickly install the new piece while trying to keep the solder melted (without burning the board) then resolder where needed. This is done VERY carefully, but it was the only way we could get multiple small pins out since the vac wasn't working.

The problem with this method is you run a very big risk of heating the board so much the foil trace comes off the board and you're left with a hole and nothing to apply the solder to. Either use desoldering wick, the hand vacuum bulb, or (like some have done), heat the pad, thump the board on the table, the waste solder flies out of the hole leaving it open and shiny.. uh, that method I wouldnt recommend (anymore)