djcache

Hi Hugh, I got it fixed. Once you remove the back you will see the main board. The ribbon connectors are all easily released by lifting the clamp gently, it's the brown collar around the base of the ribbon. They only lift about half a millimetre. There are two black parts that look to be part of the case sides half way down either side of the board. They take the middle torx screw holding the back on on either side. They are actually separate to the board & the case. If you flex the sides of the case firmly they separate from the side. They have a tooth that clips into the inner side of the case. Spread the case side firmly but carefully and lift the corner of the board so that one side clips clear then the other. There's a white plug going onto the base of the antenna socket on top that just clips off. The antenna is a real PITA. The antenna cable on mine was soldered straight to the board. It's actually a very fine coax, and the copper on the board is a massive heatsink for a fine soldering iron tip so it's a bit tricky. Being coax you don't want to create a short by heating the shield and melting the inner insulator. It's alot more heat resistant than I thought it would be but I would take great care here. Maybe mine was because it was a refurbed unit, but I reckon they would have plugged this when new. It doesn't figure in a production environment that it would be like this. The screen is in a rubber surround like an iPhone 4 case. It's a press fit into the case. You just carefully extract it. A small lever helps. Don't pull on the ribbon. Once you have the board & screen out you can undo the screws holding the black top surround on. This exposes the connector. It's glued in. Rather than heat it and try and remove it I opted to solve the problem a different way. The cage that forms the mini USB outer was actually fatigue fractured, not the solder joint, so I couldn't have repaired it that way anyway. I made up a mix of 15 min epoxy & microballoons (but you could leave them out) and sharpened an icecream stick to a point. Using the point I dripped epoxy into the gap between the cage & the case being ultra carefull not to get it in the socket. I went all the way round using the side of the external antenna socket for support also. I never plug an antenna onto mine anyway so it doesn't matter that the glue is there but it does impact on the top going back on. See below. Then to get the case back on once the epoxy cured I reversed the process. The only difference was that I trimmed away the top where it had to sleeve over the antenna socket to clear the epoxy that was now there. Just be careful again soldering the antenna cable back on the main board when you get to that bit, and the antenna has a keyway on it so it only goes into the top in one direction. Might be to do with the compass, but I'm not sure. Hope this helps, Dave

RAOFLMAO!! At least it's an estwing - top quality hammer. I have one just like that hanging above the work bench so if I get desperate you never know.... DJ

You'd be surprised. I have the drivers & popped the back off a while ago. I dare say to go further there is a particular order things must be done in to avoid unnecessary damage. Most mechanical faults on electronic gear can be easily repaired. I'm a paramedic these days but for 10 years I was a technician. The reason no one repairs products now is the cost of labour. If your minimum labour charge out is $60-80 an hour (fairly standard for a technician in Australia - at least that's what the company charges, not what they pay their staff) then no one is going to pay for an hour of labour to repair a GPS that's realistically worth about $100 second hand. That's why you can't get stuff repaired, not because you can't get parts. Most of the parts like the USB socket are fairly generic, and if you know what you are doing there are ways to fix them back onto the board even if the pads have lifted, but I'm hoping it's a simple failure of the solder joint. Either way, if I can get it apart, I can fix it purely because my time is my own, I'm not paying for it. Dave

Garmin Australia fix something for free? LOL They'll quote a standard repair charge - from memory about $200 for which they'll bin it and send me another one. I'll have go at repairing it. If that fails I'll buy a new one from the US. Can't believe no-one on here's pulled one apart! DJ

Hi all, Anyone got any tips for disassembly of a Garmin Colorado 300 to the point that I'll be able to resolder the shell of the mini USB back onto the board? I'm not uncomfortable working on electronic gear (tech by trade until career change many years back) but there are often tips/tricks/order to do things that make these things easier. That's what I'm asking. I did pop the back off for a quick look but I've left it for now as it's working, just the cage around the connector on the board is loose. Too many corrugated roads while plugged into a power lead I guess. Any help appreciated. DJ

Just dropping in so I can hover too. GSAK. Another thing the Aussies do better than Poms... it's just not cricket! DJ

Not to mention that with over 100 SBA's they've never logged a cache under that ID. Can we find out who's IP addresses match up? There's nearly a book running on who it is, and there's only a couple of names on short odds. DJ