Thinkpad USB Keyboard: Upgrade to USB-C Connector Replacement

ID: 157366

Description: The micro-B USB connector on the back is flimsy...

Remove the frame with a soft thin plastic tool (or finger-nails)
Carefully remove the keyboard from the back-cover. There is quite a lot of double sided tape. Be careful to not bend the metal frame of the keyboard.
As a result, you will be able to separate the keyboard from tha back cover. Only two flex PCB cables are still connecting them.

Both flex PCB connections need to be disconnected. This is done by lifting the lids on CN2 and CN3.
Careful to not lose the lid of connector CN2. It might come lose.
The PCB needs to be removed from the back shell. It is also glued in with double sided tape. Fortunately the back of the PCB is not having any components.

The USB-C connector component chosen was the USB4520-03-1-A made by GCT
You can buy it e.g. at Digi-Key
Datasheet https://gct.co/files/drawings/usb4520.pd...
Digi-Key: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/deta...
After unsoldering the Micro-B connector the sides of the rectangular cutout needs to be filed out very little to make space for the slightly wider new connector
File out also the opening in the back shell to allow the new part to fit through.
In the image the soldering and how it maps to the pads on the PCB are shown.
The GND can be connected to the large copper area. Just scratch away a bit of the green isolating layer. A bit of flux helps.
The soldering of the data lines is abit fiddly and rather for people with some soldering skills. Thin coil wire is a helpful.
In yellow the CC2 connection is shown. It requires a 5.1kOhm resistor to GND for correct identification by USB standard. The yellow rectangle represents the small SMD resistor.
If rotation of the cable is not needed, the data lines can be soldered to only the two 1DP and 1DN pins.
After testing, reassemble the whole keyboard. Thelast image shows how the USB-C fits into the opening.

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