Two Beers and a Pretzel

The Olympus camrea tried hard, but refused to die.  So, the first technological victim of my travels is the Solio solar charger…

The USB connector that charges the external devices broke before I got to my Uncle’s on Dec 22nd, but I haven’t had time to have it looked at.  Today I took the Solio to a repair shop in Buenos Aires, and after opening it he said he could not fix it.  From what I saw, he’s right.  It appears the the USB adapter broke off from the motherboard (including fragments of silicon), and it’s essentially impossible to re-solder it.

Everything else is fine, but the charger is now completely useless to me (after using it only 3 times).  I’m really disappointed that the USB connector was only held to the board by 2 small solder points.  This was the Magnesium version of the charger which is supposed to be lighter and stronger than the normal version.  Clearly not stronger.  In retrospect, the USB plug is an obvious point of stress and wear.  It looks like there are side tabs to solder it to the board, but they were not soldered.  I would have gladly paid a little more for a heavy duty version of the charger than have to go thru this problem.

$100 down the drain, and I obviously cannot recommend this product to anyone who might actually depend on it for power.

Bummer.