Stratus 1 repair

I use an IPAD MINI with Foreflight for cross countries. It is a great combination and works well, until yesterday. The charging connection on the front of the unit came out with the charging cable and now I have no way to charge it.

I know there are a lot of smart guys out there that can repair anything so does anyone know how to fix this? I called the Appareo guys this morning and they said they don't usually repair this but they would give me a small partial credit toward the Stratus 2. The IPAD still works well in Foreflight mode since it has the Retina display with the built in GPS but just doesn't give any weather info without the Stratus.

I am not good with small electrical stuff, anyone want to help out?

Oly

Oly,
Bring it by and I will take a look. I should be down at the hangar after lunch

That's charged through a USB port, right? If so it should not be terribly difficult. What I hate are the proprietary connectors that can't be found anywhere.

If it's USB I can probably fix it... I've just got enough half baked projects it might take me a while to do it. Bet you've got a local pilot/ham friend who's handy with a soldering iron though.

[edit: See, I was right!]

Stratus 1

It charges with a USB cable but the port that goes into the stratus for charging is a tiny port, the same type I use to charge my Samsung Galaxy phone.

Oly

Yeah... micro USB. No biggie, it's a common connector easily sourced from places like Mouser or Digikey. I don't think I have seen one that's not surface mount, but most hams can deal with it.

same thing

I had the same thing happen to mine. Opened it up, and found the micro usb charge port was soldered directly to the board. It ripped all the pads off the board when it broke free, so I couldn't fix it. Appareo gave me an RMA and told me it would be $150 to fix it. When I got it back, it was actually a different remanufactured unit. Before I sent it in, I asked if they would give me a credit towards a Status 2, and they said no. Good luck!

Just sent my Stratus 1 to Appareo direct in Fargo, ND. They gave me the option of a partial credit toward a brand new Stratus 1 with a redesigned & reinforced USB charging port or credit towards a Stratus 2, I chose the 2.

They admitted that they have had several returns for the same problem. This sounded like a manufacturing design problem but they said it's not really repairable since the port is part of the circuit board. Tried to get them to exchange mine for a new one since this seems to be a product defect but they wouldn't do it.

At least I got something out of it (though very little-$150). Even though it was out of warranty I think they should have done a straight across exchange at no cost. It's not like I abused it or it wore out, this was a poor, weak, non reinforced design for the charging system.

Oly

Repair Attempt

I guess it's not good etiquette to revive an old thread, but I used the information from it when my Stratus broke, so I'll provide a follow-up in case someone finds it in the archive. I opened up the box to attempt a repair, and while I'd not say it is impossible, I'd be very impressed if someone were able to successfully repair the broken USB jack. I took some pictures of how tiny and fragile the pads were. In the end I was fortunately able to send it back for a $150 swap. Here's a link to the pictures of what it looks like in there.