I am looking for a way to get power in my recharging circuit, since my device uses a battery.
The problem is the USB cable: the connector is soldered on the PCB, but with the stress of plug and unplug, the connection is really prone to breakage, and my PCB is quite small.
Is there an equally flexible way to transfer power from a computer to a device, without use the standard USB connector? I do recall that some devices used induction coils to recharge a device (Samsung phones?) although I am not sure how reliable they are.
My ultimate goal is to get 5V to my PCB to recharge the internal LiPo battery, but without the hassle to have a USB connector.
Best Answer
Many USB socket manufacturers provide sockets with mechanical support.
As one source, some Molex USB sockets have metal tabs on the shield which solder into the board.
I've used a through-hole USB mini AB socket which has five through-hole pins, and two tabs on the shield. They are all soldered to the PCB, into plated-through holes. The tabs are not bent, just soldered. It is quite strongly attached to the PCB, and noticaly stronger than SMD-only attachment.
As mkeith explained, try to use the case to take some of the strain.
Edit:
The space for tabs and through-hole wires will require a little more PCB area than an SMD socket. However, anything which uses through hole attachment to resist stress is likely to have comparable requirements.
A compromise might be a small USB socket with only shield-tabs, but SMD electrical connections.
Another type of USB socket has plastic pins to take some of the stress. The plastic pins penetrate the PCB and AFAIK are melted to form something like a 'rivet'. The small advantage of these sockets over shield-tabs is the pins are under the socket, and so don't necessarily take as much PCB area.
I have never used them, but I believe that an Open Source board had user complaints from a pure SMD USB mini socket. I believe that was addressed using one of those sockets.