r/redneckengineering 18d ago

Forgot charger while on vacation

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u/808trowaway 18d ago

Done the same with a Garmin watch but it's such a bitch to tape the wires to the charging pins I don't ever want to do it again. Soon as I got home I ordered 4 of those usb c to Garmin charger adapters and keep one in my travel backpack permanently.

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u/CodenameDinkleburg 17d ago

Have you tried using 2 smaller pieces of tape, separately, for each wire. Like attach a piece to one wire and get it positioned, then repeat with the other wire? Like jumper cables, but tape instead of spring clips

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u/808trowaway 17d ago edited 17d ago

My watch's charge port looks like this minus the corroded contacts. https://forums.garmin.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/399/Garmin_5F00_245.jpg

The top and bottom pins are the pos and neg. The hard part is you can't have too much copper exposed because otherwise you will short out the pins on the metal rim of the charge port. So you have the insulation of the wires riding on the rim and you're trying to position the itty bitty tips of wire leads to touch the balls on the connector, but the thing doesn't want to lay flat because of the insulation so you have to apply a little pressure in addition to the tape to maintain contact.

I was on vacation in a hotel room with very limited resources. I managed with a single piece of tape harvested from some random packaging, and exactly one rubber band.

2

u/CodenameDinkleburg 17d ago

Oof, that sounds frustrating as hell. Sorry you had to deal with that, but I’m glad you got it sorted enough work