5 Pin XLR to USB Cable / Blue Yeti Pro Soldering Help

Hey all.

Im wondering if a 5 pin XLR cable to USB (for my blue yeti pro) exists? I can’t seem to find one, I can only see the female 5 pin to two male 3 pin XLR that came with the product.

The reason I ask is I believe (or want to test if it’s just the mini usb port) the mini USB port is stuffed. My father de-soldered (semi-successfully) the old port and put in a new mini usb port. But it still connects and disconnects every second, or sometimes isn’t detected at all and no power is being supplied. So I want to test if the XLR port works if there’s such a cable that converts 5 pin female to USB-A to plug into my pc.

If this doesn’t exist. I’d love some help on the mini usb port itself, sadly it doesn’t seem any Blue Yeti Pro port replacement videos exist, only blue yeti, where the board is slightly different (2 mounting points on the pro vs 4 on the non-pro), though it shouldn’t make much difference.

I bought desoldering braid and he attempted to solder the new port on, and it was definitely soldered onto the board, although not every pin was fully covered (does that matter?) with solder, they were definitely soldered and not touching from what I could see under the magnifying glass. It may have shorted out when I tried it after the solder as I did smell a smoke smell and it worked for 2 seconds then wouldn’t detect again. I’m wondering if it’s a board issue or we did something wrong in the de-solder/soldering, we followed “Borderline OCD”’s guide, except when I tried it myself to unsolder the new port (since it wasn’t working) it was bloody hard (first time soldering, my dad hasn’t soldered on something this small), we didn’t have that flux paste he had which seemed to help “suck up” all the old solder in the ports, which when I tried to de-solder with the braid and some de-soldering liquid it seemed to be stuck there and just would burn the braid (probably due to me not moving a lot ilike borderline OCD, rookie mistake). Not sure if we need that paste or not.

Tried to ask on airtasker but most want $70+ which is probably worth more than the second hand microphone, so want to try one last time if I can fix it. Any advice would be great, can supply images though it is hard to show something that small through images.

Comments

  • Wouldn't it be easier just to plug the 3-pin XLR plugs that you have now into any sound equipment that can take an XLR input? Ask some friends; I'm sure someone has something lying around somewhere.

    • +1

      I don’t have friends

  • +2

    A 5 pin XLR is usually used for lighting desks rather than audio, more commonly called a DMX. Perhaps if you search for DMX you might find what you need. Can't help much more than that sorry, I haven't used them before.

    • I'm pretty sure a microphone isn't generating a DMX signal. Just because a plug fits doesn't mean the signals are compatible, a USB-DMX adaptor isn't going to help here.

  • Yes, you need every pin. Well almost every pin. The outer two supply power, and the middle two are for data. You get get away without the data pins sometimes if you are just charging, but for a microphone it's essential.

    You definitely need flux. It's about as important to soldering as eggs in a cake recipe. You might get away without it if you're an expert, but as a beginner you got no chance.

    Too bad you're not in melbourne. I'd give this a shot for $10

    • I mean, I could ship it to you?

  • The microphone would have come with a 5-pin -> 2x 3-pin XLR adaptor, once you have that the "XLR->USB cable" would be a USB soundcard with XLR inputs and phantom power. A decent one will probably cost almost as much as a new mic.

    To recap, you tried soldering SMD components, with no experience and no flux, it made a burning smell and then completely stopped responding; Realistically, I'm pretty sure it's dead.

    • I used flux. I didn’t solder it my dad did who has experience, I just de soldered it with flux and braid and then got the burn smell, but even if I killed it, it would’ve been dead before if that’s the case as it wasn’t responding before I even opened it or when my dad did it properly.

      Sucks there’s not an easy way to test if the XLR is working

  • XLR is analog audio, USB is a data port. If you want to convert you need an audio interface.

    I have resoldered a blue yeti usb before, you definitely need a desoldering pump, a burning smell doesn't sound good. Do you get audio out from the xlr?

    • How much for you to do it? I can’t tell because I don’t have anything to test the XLR with sadly

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