Ember Mug Charging Base Pogo Pins Replacement

Escrito Por: Jerry Wheeler

Comentários: 18

Ember Mug Charging Base Pogo Pins Replacement

Dificuldade

Moderate

Passos

Tempo necessário

No estimate

Introdução

The spring contacts, AKA pogo pins, are a common point of failure in the charging base for the Ember Mug. Replacement requires a spot of soldering.

Ferramentas

Peças

Passo 1

The charging base has two spring contacts, also called pogo pins, that transfer power from the charging base to the mug.
Over time or due to liquid exposure, the contacts can oxidize or lose their ability to spring back up, resulting in a loss of contact and thus failure to charge the mug.

Passo 2

The rubber base on the bottom of the charging plate covers a Torx screw that must be removed to open up the plate.
Peel back the base far enough to expose the Torx screw.
Using a T8 Torx driver, remove the single retaining screw.

I was able to create a hole to remove the retaining screw.

MavWitt -

Passo 3

Use a metal pry tool such as the iSesamo inserted into the seam between the metal top and the plastic base to open it up.

Passo 4

Here we see the two halves separated, but connected by wiring.
The circuit board is held on with adhesive. Use your pry tool to gently separate the circuit board from the plastic mounting block it sits on.
During reassembly, make sure the cutout in the plastic base sits correctly over the circuit board.

Passo 5

Here you can see a closeup of the pin with the failed spring on the right vs. the functional pin on the left
The pins are approximately 4.5 mm in height on this particular model.
Here is the replacement pin placed next to the originals. So far, so good.

After debonding the PCB, I attached the PCB to the lower housing using double-sided Scotch tape. This gave me a solid holder for the soldering operations. I left the tape in place and did not bond the PCB to the upper housing. There was no detriment to the charging operation after repair was completed.

MavWitt -

Passo 6

Apply flux and unsolder the defective pin or pins.

Passo 7

Tin the replacement pin.

Passo 8

Using the minimum amount of solder, solder the new pin in place.

Passo 9

The adhesive keeps the parts together, but also provides a modicum of waterproofing.
I chose iPhone battery adhesive as it appears to be very similar to the original adhesive found on the charging plate.

Passo 10

Stick the circuit board onto the black plastic mounting pad.

Passo 11

Reassembled with the new pin in place.

Passo 12

Final step, place the mug on the charging base.
Success, we have a charging light once again!

Thank you for taking the time to write this up and provide link to the pins! Definitely a weak point in the home Ember mug2

CR125Honda -

It's easier to use an Xacto knife to cut the rubber away from the screw head than to try to peel the whole rubber thing off. On my unit the screw is a Phillips head, not Torx.

Fish Far -

Same here. Much better than peeling back the rubber pad.

MavWitt -

That's certainly a valid shortcut to use. My guides are written such that the device is returned to the exact same condition it was in before it was repaired, hence the peeling back of the base rubber rather than cutting a hole in it.

Jerry Wheeler -

THANK YOU! This was very easy to follow.

MavWitt -

Conclusão

While the replacement pin from AliExpress wasn't a 100% exact match, it was certainly close enough to be fully functional so all in all, the repair was an unqualified success!

Note that I've added an eBay listing that purports to contain the correct pins for this charger, but I have not seen the kit so I cannot verify that information.

Autor(a)

Jerry Wheeler

Membro desde: 21/03/22

91090 Reputação

11 comentários

Great guide Jerry! The only suggestion is that while the base is opened up and I have a bag of 10 new pogo pins (on their way from AliExpress), I will be replacing them both. It will only will take me another 2 minutes and also ensure the new pins are both protruding the exact same amount. The question is whether I will hang onto that "good" one that I didn't need to replace in the bag of 8 spare pogo pins. If you are a big DIY repair person, you will know this moral dilemma oh too well. ;-)

Chris Sosnowski -

Entirely sound reasoning in my opinion; if one has failed, how far behind will the second one be? And as you say, you've got 10 of them, so it's not like you have to be stingy with them.

As someone who tends to hold onto things for too long (I finally donated the perfectly good iPhone 4's and 5's I had sitting in a box since Verizon will no longer allow 3G devices to be added to their network), I understand the temptation, but then again, you've got 8 brand new ones if you ever need another one, so what's the advantage to hanging on to a used one? Like that commercial about turning into your parents: When will you need it? Never - throw it away. :D

Jerry Wheeler -

Excellent guide thanks for the roadmap to the fix.

I carried out the steps as described, but I used a hole punch to slice a permanent hole over the screw, so I never had to peel back the base rubber. I thought it might not stick back on nicely if I peeled it back. I also used some very thin foam trim tape instead of the IPhone battery adhesive tape. Worked very well

I also ordered my pogo pins from Digikey, and got them overnight. I ordered Mill-Max pogo pins which are rated for 50-100 thousand cycles. That's quite a bit of coffee. Digikey part number ED9001-ND. Mill-Max part number 0900-1-15-20-75-14-11-0. It's a perfect replacement size. 10 of them cost me about $6 CAD, and I got free shipping because I had other stuff to order.

blairtoblan -

Thanks for the feedback. The rubber on the base has not shown any signs of coming off so far, but yours is a perfectly valid alternative.

I do appreciate the information on replacement parts; the more choices we can offer, the better. I'll add them to the parts list when I get a few minutes.

Jerry Wheeler -

Thanks for the guide. I did the resoldering of the pins a couple of times now. Since this is very difficult for me to align the pins correctly when soldering, i just designed a pcb with the pins ontop and ordered this pcb with the pins already assembled 5 times. now i can easily swap it when the pins break XD

Stefan -

is there a link to order this :D need to do a replacement

Ray Lin -

If you can order more pre-made pcb’s there are a lot of people who would buy them including me.

Robby Rob -

Great guide. Was able to repair a broken charging saucer. Strongly recommend just replacing both and using the link to the DigiKey pogo pins.

Griffin -

Thanks Griffin, I appreciate your feedback. What specifically about the DigiKey pins did you like? I know the AliExpress ones I used were a slightly smaller diameter than the originals; did the DigiKey pins fit a little more snugly? I'd almost be nervous about that, as it would mean when soldering you're going to have to get the pins exactly on center, while the smaller AliExpress pins might give you a little wiggle room if you're not 100% precise in positioning the pin while soldering. On the other hand, it's not like it's all that hard to heat it up again and tweak the position slightly until you get a good fit on both pins.

Jerry Wheeler -

I tried to take the pin out, but it broke, and it's difficult to grab now. I've tried to heat it with solder, but it doesn't seem to loosen. Should I drill it out?

Tommy Furmato -

Yikes, no; no drilling should be required. One trick to soldering is that sometimes adding solder will help you in removing parts. Heat the pin up with your soldering gun/iron and add more solder to the joint. The already melted solder will help transfer heat to the existing solder and melt it, letting you take the pin off. If you haven't been using solder flux, you should definitely get some and apply it; that helps with removing oxidation from the surface of the solder which can inhibit heat transfer.

Jerry Wheeler -