06-30-2022, 01:44 AM
Yes - from the blog post linked above:
"To be fair, it is possible to turn the PPKB’s 5 V boost output off, both in software that talks to the battery charging IC inside the PPKB and by using the physical button on the PPKB itself, but it was concluded empirically that the inactive status of the charging part of the PPKB achieved that way simply cannot be trusted, because the charging part may become active again unexpectedly. Moreover, nothing gets electrically disconnected that way, which still ends up in a USB charger plugged into the phone’s USB port feeding power into the charging part of the PPKB, which in this case may be even worse for the health of the charging part, because there is now no power coming out of the PPKB to “fight against” the power coming in from the USB charger. Not good at all."
It seems to be a fundamental hardware problem that's going to need a redesign, unfortunately discovered after people had bought them.
"To be fair, it is possible to turn the PPKB’s 5 V boost output off, both in software that talks to the battery charging IC inside the PPKB and by using the physical button on the PPKB itself, but it was concluded empirically that the inactive status of the charging part of the PPKB achieved that way simply cannot be trusted, because the charging part may become active again unexpectedly. Moreover, nothing gets electrically disconnected that way, which still ends up in a USB charger plugged into the phone’s USB port feeding power into the charging part of the PPKB, which in this case may be even worse for the health of the charging part, because there is now no power coming out of the PPKB to “fight against” the power coming in from the USB charger. Not good at all."
It seems to be a fundamental hardware problem that's going to need a redesign, unfortunately discovered after people had bought them.