Does anyone have any experience with soldering tiny wires, or maybe know where I might find a replacement wire for this kit? I bought this microduino IBC set years ago and my second child has grown old enough to want to play with it but sadly, the connector that drives one of the motors is broken - please see attached
Sadly the kit does appear to have replacement parts available through their website Smart Car - Microduino Wiki and I have no soldering experience at all. Any help is appreciated.
(I feel that fixing this arduino lego car will really improve my Kanji learning.)
I can’t tell for certain from the photo, but it appears to me that the connector may be some version of JST connector.
Those typically don’t use solder, rather they involve crimping.
But you could effect a repair by soldering (via patching in an intact connector/cable end to replace the broken one).
If you can determine what version of JST it is (if, indeed it is a JST type) then it should be easy enough to find a suitable replacement cable online, or even in a store if you can locate one that caters to electronics enthusiasts.
In the US, for example, Micro Center stores have a hobby electronics department where it might be possible to find such cables off the shelf. I have bought JST connector kits and cables from Amazon - and from suppliers such as SparkFun and Adafruit - but you would need to determine which of the JST type of connector is involved (by measuring, comparing photos, etc.) in order to find the proper cable…
I wonder whether someplace like Tokyu Hands or BIC Camera might have such cables, but that is just a guess.
@servette is 100% correct; those are JST Connectors. Very commonly used on Lithium battery packs nowadays, and an absolute horror to crimp, but it can be done with patience and a few youtube videos to help! You’ll need the crimping tool as well as the ferrule and housing.
Specifically, those are JST 2.0mm PH style. If you search the usual retail behemoths for “JST PH 2.0” you’ll see all manner of options. This is the official datasheet from JST. When looking at the datasheet, you’ll be concerned with part numbers for the “contact” (the crimped ferrule) and “housing” (the plastic body the crimped ferrule/wire combo is pushed in to). Really though, for this kind of thing, the datasheet is only valuable if you plan on buying from a major electronics distributor like Digi-Key, Mouser, etc.
Alternatively, you can also buy male or female pigtails (depending on which one you need) and clip off the old one and splice on a new one.
If you don’t need to connect/disconnect these things too often you can just remove the connectors on both sides then use something like this to connect them:
