I recently purchased one of these Pinecil soldering irons and it is just about usable with difficulty. The main problem is that it keeps cutting out. The leaflet that came with it states the DC jack is 5.5mm with a 2.5mm pin. This is quite a standard size for laptop power supplies which appear to be recommended as a power source. I tried two different power bricks both with a jack of that size (I even checked with a micrometer to be sure).

The problem seems to be the DC connector. A wiggle usually brings it back on. I realise that the problem could be the wire, but both power bricks otherwise work fine with other equipment so I am reasonably certain they are not the problem. Visually, the pin does appeart to be somewhat thinner than the 'hole' in the PSU jack, but its difficult to tell just be sight.

I purchased mine from Mouser who have so far been messing me around rather than just accepting it back for refund. Apparently they need to contact the supplied and investigate etc etc etc. Unfortunately, based on reviews, I also made the mistake, while I was waiting for the Pinecil to arrive, of purchasing a set of Pinecil TIPS4 bits as I had envisaged using this mainly for SMD soldering. These were purchased from another supplier as Mouser didn't have this particular set in stock.

When it is running, the iron seems to work well enough, but the persistent cutting out makes it difficult and annoying to use. My little test project this morning must have taken me more than twice as long as it should have to complete with numerous corrections having to be made to joints each time the iron went cold partway through soldering. I did also increase the sleep timeout but I am confident that it was not just a matter of it going to sleep. The display cuts out completely and does not come back on until I wiggle the plug a bit or unplug it altogether and plug it back in. Pressing a button usually works when it goes to sleep, but not when it cuts out.

The guy at Mouser also said that I shouldn't use a laptop brick rated at more than 3A? I thought that so long as the rated voltage (12V to 24V) is not exceeded, the iron will draw only the current it needs so long as it is available? Both laptop bricks were 19.5V. One is rated 3.5A, the other 6A. If the PSU specification is that critical, why does Pinecil to supply an official PSU for it?

As an aside, I also have a T12 iron which is powered from an old laptop brick and that one has so far worked flawlessly and without any such problems.

Unfortunately, this means that I could potentially be 100GBP out of pocket so right now I am not too happy with Pine64 or Mouser.

Just wondering whether there is anything else I can do to resolve the issue? I did wonder about purchasing a PSU with a USB-C connector, but from what I have already seen with laptops and screens at work, these can also be problematic and sometimes need a wiggle. Perhaps neither jack is suited to a lot of movement?

Hey all..

I have a Pine Rock 64 which has been running for a very long time and really well but because it has been running a long time it is on a very old OS.

Is there a way of upgrading from... ayufan/rock64-ppa/ubuntu bionic to something more recent?

I appreciate upgrading is not as good as starting with a new install but I have lots of configuration that may well be a nightmare to go through again.
I have been previously been bitten by "yeah its all in /etc... it will be fine"

Any advice welcome.

Any ideas?  The main buttons in the launcher though they have a black button...their icons are big enough to recognize.
When you click the grid to see all the apps...the icons on the buttons are tiny.

PineNote as a RDP Server so another system can see/control the PineNote
Works...
I think this is the setup
On PineNote install grd (gnome remote desktop)
aptitude install gnome-remote-desktop 
from the Settings / System / Gnome Remote Desktop
enable desktop sharing and remote control
add password.  I would have hoped grd would auth against PAM so whatever username was used if it was on PineNote it would use that password.

from a linux client with xfreerdp installed

xfreerdp /smart-sizing /u:user /v:<IP address of PineNote>

viola a viewable remote desktop.  The smart-sizing lets you scale...its much bigger than my 3k monitor.

unfortunately...keyboard does not translate through...many mouse clicks are ignored...yet others work fine.

X11...mature...Wayland?  not so much.

Anyone have ideas?  I'd like to dock my PineNote, open it up from my desktop and control it.
Next we'll do the opposite and make PineNote a RDP client.

I’m all in on pbp so I’m trying to build a stock of parts for future repairs. Any idea on if or when touchpads will be available?

I apologize if this post is against the rules.  I have some Quartz64 Zero boards and no matter what Linux image I use the USB port doesn't work.  The Android 13 sdcard image does have USB but the OS is unstable.  Does anyone know how to bring the USB port up?  I have console access via cp2102.

Hello,
I've got the Pinetime, however the screen is simply black on it, though the backlight is on. I've let the battery run out to try to fix it, but its still black when it powers back up. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Hi. I set aside my Pinebook Pro (with the default Manjaro) for a year while I was working on other things, and in the meantime I forgot my password. I don't have it set to require a password on boot, so I can get into the computer. But I can't perform any sudo commands or run the updater.

How can I get this to work?

Thanks,
Tessa

I discovered running sudo apt upgrade breaks armbian. After upgrade, it boots to a black screen. It is repeatable. Version 24.2.1 works.

Hello to everyone.

I want to assemble some kind of tablet powered by FreeBSD. The main electronic components of this tablet that I've bought or that I want to buy in the next future are the following :

1) soc = RockPro64 (Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core SoC) : already bought

2) this enclosure : (already bought)

https://ameridroid.com/products/pine64-p...eq=uniform

3) these batteries : https://www.ebay.com/itm/315203768497 ---> not yet bought

Since I want to create a "tablet" that will be powered by FreeBSD,I need an USB display that does NOT requires any driver to work and the size should fit with the enclosure at point 2 that I like ; because I'm not a programmer, I will be not able to make the porting of a driver from Linux to FreeBSD. I also would like to reuse the screen for different projects,so it is great if it can be powered and work only connecting the HDMI cable from the screen to the soc.

Can someone suggest to me one ? thanks.