How to repair or work around a damaged usb port on the Arduino? While unplugging the usb cable from the Arduino, the plastic piece in the center of the port (the part that separates the pins) broke off and lodged into the end of the usb cable. I didn't notice that it broke off and when I plugged the cable back into the Arduino it bent one of the pins back onto itself.



How would you go about repairing this?

If I fail to repair it is there an alternate method to programming the board?
You would need to replace the whole socket in order to repair it. For that you would need:


Soldering iron
Solder sucker
Solder wick
Patience and experience


Or you just connect an FT232 breakout board to TX, RX and RESET as if you were making a breadboard arduino and program the board through that.