I just received a new 14 inch Pinebook and find on many counts it is as good or better than I had expected. But one area that doesn't pass muster is the power supply. First, the 5V connector on the wall-wart cable is fragile. Mine was broken on arrival and failed entirely the second day - the design of this connector is an invitation to failure. Pine Support consists of telling me to order another supply.
I tried find a replacement. The only bricks that supply 5V at enough current are almost as expensive as the Pinebook, with no guarantee they would work with the computer. As for a replacement for the connector is hard to find.
As an engineer who has worked on the design of electronic products I can readily understand needing to keep Pinbook costs contained and internal power dissipation down, but a 19V SMP regulator wouldn't have dumped any more heat inside the box than a 5V and there are a lot of external power supplies made for various laptop and notebook hardware that would have been just as effective and just as cheap. It is a long established truism that power should be transmitted at high voltages and stepped down at the application -- 5V in was simply a bad mistake born of tunnel vision from the SBC Pine64.
Returning to the support part of this post, replacing a DOA supply should be standard policy.
I tried find a replacement. The only bricks that supply 5V at enough current are almost as expensive as the Pinebook, with no guarantee they would work with the computer. As for a replacement for the connector is hard to find.
As an engineer who has worked on the design of electronic products I can readily understand needing to keep Pinbook costs contained and internal power dissipation down, but a 19V SMP regulator wouldn't have dumped any more heat inside the box than a 5V and there are a lot of external power supplies made for various laptop and notebook hardware that would have been just as effective and just as cheap. It is a long established truism that power should be transmitted at high voltages and stepped down at the application -- 5V in was simply a bad mistake born of tunnel vision from the SBC Pine64.
Returning to the support part of this post, replacing a DOA supply should be standard policy.
Of course, standard micro USB would be fine, but this barrel connector is not a big problem.
