Story of a FLIR One lightning connector

[giosif]

Hello,

This is likely going to be a long thread, so please feel free to skip if topic is not of interest.
Second, posting this in the Repair section of the forum is not random as, ultimately, my intention is to try to restore functionality to this thermal camera (future will tell if I will succeed in this endeavour).

Background:
* I recently purchased a broken FLIR One for iOS (3rd generation) from fleabay, with the advertised fault being a broken lightning connector.
* First attempt at fixing the said problem was to contact FLIR support and see if they can provide a replacement connector.
   However, although the person at the other end of the emails was really nice and genuinely tried to help, ultimately, the result was no change in my situation (long story short, they don't sell spare parts for such a "small camera", in their words).

So, not wanting to give up, I thought that it shouldn't be that hard to buy a standard USB to lightning cable, snip a section of the cable with the lightning connector attached and solder that to the FLIR board, in place of the original lightning connector.
I was encouraged on this idea also by the fact that the original connector was attaching to the FLIR board via a flex cable that has only 4 traces/wires.
So, I purchased a USB to lightning cable, cut it in two and was glad to notice there are also only 4 wires inside.
This could not be just coincidence.
But then, I wanted to figure out where each of these wires needs to be soldered on the FLIR board.
And this is when I checked the pinout for the lightning connector and realised things are not that simple.

So, the next step was to look to disassemble the original lightning connector and try to understand the circuitry that, ultimately, leads to the 4 traces/wires on the flex cable.
This was not that easy to do, actually, especially the actual connector itself, as it seems to be made as one single metal piece, with the plastic bits and inner board + contacts moulded inside it.
In any case, attached, you can see the final result.

[giosif]

More pictures...

[giosif]

And some more...

[giosif]

And even more...

[giosif]

Keep it coming...

[giosif]

Getting there...

[giosif]

Now, not sure if you noticed but, if you look at some of the above pictures, you may see something looking worryingly close to via's.
Which made me wonder if this tiny board could have more than two layers.
And, checking under the microscope I have, it looks to me like it does have more than two.
Check for yourselves...

[giosif]

If this has indeed more than 2 layers, I wonder what those might be used for: extra current handling capability for the board (the optimistic scenario), or separate traces (the not-so-optimistic scenario).
I am tempted to say it's the former, judging from the number of vias present per trace in the circuit.

But maybe I am overcomplicating things and I should just focus on figuring out where to solder the 4 wires from the section of the USB to lightning cable on the FLIR board.
Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks!

[giosif]

Adding, for completeness, some pictures with the end of the flex cable (from the original lightning connector) that connects to the FLIR board.

[giosif]

And the last picture... for today. 

[plantgrower]

Did you ever get a new lightning connector assembly to repair you're Flir one with? If you did could you please tell me where you sourced it from as I have the same issue.

thanks.

[giosif]

I eventually ended up buying another Flir One with a different problem and used the connector assembly from that.

A shame Flir are so tight "aces"  they don't sell a component such as this one, which is so obviously prone to breaking.
I've seen quite a few such Flir One's on eBay with the same broken connector issue.

[masterprince]

Hi Mate,

What screwdriver did you use from the below please  ?


T6 hexalobular socket screwdriver
0.8 pentalobe screwdriver
1.2 Phillips screw driver
1.8 slot screwdriver
T3 hexalobular socket screwdriver
T5 hexalobular socket screwdriver
1.5 pentalobe screwdriver
1.8 Phillips screw driver