Power Supply

[wappi]

Why wasn't Mirco-USB chosen for power supply?

[Luke]

Why wasn't Mirco-USB chosen for power supply?

Because it causes endless problems with people using poor (thin) microUSB cables and subpar PSUs (see early threads concerning the Pine64). People complained that the board doesn't work etc when they used their smartphone chargers - this is a way to assure this doesn't happen.

[xalius]

I will just quote Igor from Armbian here :-) they had so many support issues coming from mainly two sources of error: Power Supplies and SD-Cards

https://forum.armbian.com/index.php?/ann...periences/

Power supply issues are one of the three biggest issues you'll face when starting with Single Board Computers (SBCs). SD card issues, whether fake or faulty, are another and issues resulting from poor board design is the other common issues you can encounter.
 
Power supply issues can be tricky. You might have a noisy power supply that works with one board because it has extra filtering, but won't work with another. Or you're using that cheap phone charger because your board has a microUSB connector, and it is either erratic, or doesn't start up, or even becomes the cause of some SD card issues. 
 
Some tips to avoid the most common causes of problems reported:
 

Don't power via micro USB  - unless you have optimised your setup for low power requirements. Micro USB is great for mobile phones because they are simply charging a battery. It's bad for SBCs. Yes, it does work for a lot of people, but it also causes more problems and headaches over time than it is worth, unless you know exactly what you are doing. If you have a barrel jack power connector on your SBC, use it instead! If there is an option for powering via header connections, use that option!
 

Don't use mobile phone chargers. They might be convenient and cheap, but this is because they are meant for charging phones, not powering your SBC which has particular power requirements.
 

When you are evaluating a power supply, make sure you run some stress tests on your system to ensure that it will not cause issues down the path.
 

(Micro) SD card issues can be sneaky. They might appear right at the start causing strange boot and login errors, or they might cause problems over time. It is best to run a test on any new SD card you use, to ensure that it really is what it is, and to ensure that isn't faulty. Armbian provides you a simple way to do this   --   armbianmonitor -c /path/to/device/to/test

[stephen fleming]

Using a micro USB connector for power is a bad idea on any SBC board, for the above reason. One of the reasons that I bought a SOPINE board is that the base board did not use a micro USB connector for power, while the Pine64+ board does use one.

[pfeerick]

I will just quote Igor from Armbian here :-) they had so many support issues coming from mainly two sources of error: Power Supplies and SD-Cards

That's actually me you're quoting Xalius... I wrote that text and Igor used it to demonstrate the announcement... I still have to go back and finish collating the SD / power stuff so it can go live... should be heading back that way in a day or so... had unexpected enforced 'break' due to last revenge of a tree for being turned into firewood...

But in a nutshell, as I originally wrote above... microUSB is perfectly fine for phone charging as they are only demanding for power, and have very broad tolerances. SBCs are a different kettle of fish entirely. If you have low power configurations, you'll probably get away with it, but the rest of the time, it's a problem just eating to bite you in the bum, and when you least expect it. I'm pretty sure the pine64 now uses a barrel jack but I still need to confirm that. If for some reason you want to use a USB charger to power the rock64, there is nothing to stop you... the standard 3.5x1.35mm barrel jack leads come with a USB connector on the other end. This doesn't really solve the problem that USB chargers/power supplies aren't the best, but it does solve the problem that the microUSB connector is at best only good for 1.8A (it's maximum rating), and depending on tarnishing of the contacts, and quality of the lead used, probably less than half of that, which is not enough for reliable booting or running of the board when loaded.

[zer0sig]

So is this a standard adapter for all PINE devices now? Can the Pinebook PSU or USB>barrel adapter work with the Rock64? Either way I suspect I'd get another one but it'd be nice to know it would be hard to mix these up.

[Luke]

So is this a standard adapter for all PINE devices now? Can the Pinebook PSU or USB>barrel adapter work with the Rock64? Either way I suspect I'd get another one but it'd be nice to know it would be hard to mix these up.

Yep, all devices with the exception of the Pine A64.

[jkmooney]

I can vouch for the fact that changing power supplies did improve the reliability of my Pine board..

[skipper]

I will just quote Igor from Armbian here :-) they had so many support issues coming from mainly two sources of error: Power Supplies and SD-Cards

That's actually me you're quoting Xalius... I wrote that text and Igor used it to demonstrate the announcement... I still have to go back and finish collating the SD / power stuff so it can go live... should be heading back that way in a day or so... had unexpected enforced 'break' due to last revenge of a tree for being turned into firewood...

But in a nutshell, as I originally wrote above... microUSB is perfectly fine for phone charging as they are only demanding for power, and have very broad tolerances. SBCs are a different kettle of fish entirely. If you have low power configurations, you'll probably get away with it, but the rest of the time, it's a problem just eating to bite you in the bum, and when you least expect it. I'm pretty sure the pine64 now uses a barrel jack but I still need to confirm that. If for some reason you want to use a USB charger to power the rock64, there is nothing to stop you... the standard 3.5x1.35mm barrel jack leads come with a USB connector on the other end. This doesn't really solve the problem that USB chargers/power supplies aren't the best, but it does solve the problem that the microUSB connector is at best only good for 1.8A (it's maximum rating), and depending on tarnishing of the contacts, and quality of the lead used, probably less than half of that, which is not enough for reliable booting or running of the board when loaded.

..does PINE64 sell those 3.5x1.35 USB cables? I'm in the process of ordering a couple of ROCK64 and I don't want the wall-plug PS as I have my own USB PS-bank (5V 20A) ready.

[tllim]

I will just quote Igor from Armbian here :-) they had so many support issues coming from mainly two sources of error: Power Supplies and SD-Cards

That's actually me you're quoting Xalius... I wrote that text and Igor used it to demonstrate the announcement... I still have to go back and finish collating the SD / power stuff so it can go live... should be heading back that way in a day or so... had unexpected enforced 'break' due to last revenge of a tree for being turned into firewood...

But in a nutshell, as I originally wrote above... microUSB is perfectly fine for phone charging as they are only demanding for power, and have very broad tolerances. SBCs are a different kettle of fish entirely. If you have low power configurations, you'll probably get away with it, but the rest of the time, it's a problem just eating to bite you in the bum, and when you least expect it. I'm pretty sure the pine64 now uses a barrel jack but I still need to confirm that. If for some reason you want to use a USB charger to power the rock64, there is nothing to stop you... the standard 3.5x1.35mm barrel jack leads come with a USB connector on the other end. This doesn't really solve the problem that USB chargers/power supplies aren't the best, but it does solve the problem that the microUSB connector is at best only good for 1.8A (it's maximum rating), and depending on tarnishing of the contacts, and quality of the lead used, probably less than half of that, which is not enough for reliable booting or running of the board when loaded.

..does PINE64 sell those 3.5x1.35 USB cables? I'm in the process of ordering a couple of ROCK64 and I don't want the wall-plug PS as I have my own USB PS-bank (5V 20A) ready.

Here is the cable, https://www.pine64.org/?product=1-meter-...ower-cable