Tinker Board Forum

Hello! 

I come to the board today to see if there are any SBC pros out there that could take a look at my Tinker Board and identify the current issues / damage with it. I am interested to find out what exactly is damaged on my board and whether or not it is possible to somewhat easily repair it with solder / various rail repair techniques.

A while back, when I first bought my Tinker Board, I broke the MicroUSB power port off. Whether I have that port or not, does not concern me, as I will be powering it on via the GPIO pins anyway. However, currently, it does not power on and to some of you here, once you see the screenshots, it may be obvious why. I am looking to find out exactly what might be causing an incomplete circuit or short.

If anyone here has any idea as to what I would have to do to revive this board, it would be greatly appreciated.

Let me know if any other information is necessary. I realize it may be more work than it's worth and that is okay as I wish to learn. If i needed a working tinker board immediately, I would go buy one. I am strictly looking to find out what is causing the issues with this one and whether or not a fix is possible.

Below are the screenshots of the damaged area of the board. 

ALBUM HERE: https://imgur.com/a/Hy5kP

I'm not an electronics expert, but I have tried to repair boards in the past.  The problem is that the surface mount components, like the ones on the Tinker Board, are put on by robots, not people.  They _can_ be repaired effectively if you have the right soldering tools (hot air station and dissecting microscope), and have access to replacement components, but it's a lot harder than running down to the local electronics store to grab a capacitor or resistor and soldering it on with an old fashioned soldering iron.  

So, in my limited experience:  replace a big old dried out capacitor in an old piece of gear, yes; replace surface mount resistors on a $50 board, no.

In 2nd picture, damage is top right corner.
There is a green line going along top and right of board which has been broken, this may be nothing but you could try bridgeing it with a wire, also make sure no tracks are touching near damage point.
Damage looks bad though,

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Actually green line may not be a track.
But looking where the micro USB has snapped off, the
USB wires appear to be touching a big blob of solder.
Compare to a normal tinker board picture and you will
See where the micro USB pins go into the PCB.
Have you checked with a multimeter if the 0 V and 5 V
Gpio pins are shorted.

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I.e peel away any damaged tracks which may be shorting

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https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/u...inker1.jpg

As you can see on the picture above, the port has 5 small connectors.
4 of the 5 connectors are missing on your board, the last one (to the left) is soldered to the ground (the big island just beside it)

Even a professional would have a hard time fixing this one i'm afraid 

It's probably easier just to power it up via GPIO.