Equipment to deal with possible bricking

[Otter]

Looking ahead and seeing what problems the pros on the various forums and chat channels have dealt with, it looks like there are a few bits of hardware needed to be sure you can easily rescue your phone.

The first is an extra card and a way to write images to it.
The Pine 64 shop offers this: https://pine64.com/product/64gb-class10-microsd-card/

Another item that the pros are using is a serial cable.
The Pine 64 shop offers one and it is a great deal: https://pine64.com/product/pinebook-pine...l-console/
I am going to make one, since it would take forever to get here. I will base mine on this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TXV...UTF8&psc=1
There are pre made serial cables for this sort of thing on Amazon, but all of them I have seen have the tip and ring reversed. For those who are new to the term tip and ring, they are ancient terms. The tip is the connection at the end of the jack. In this case a 3.5mm stereo jack. The ring is the middle connection and the shaft is the base. From what I have been able to find, it looks like the Pine64 standard is tip=rx, ring=tx, and the shaft=gnd. As I said before, most similar items on Amazon show the opposite for tip and ring.

Using the serial cable if you are old school like me, is going to be a pain but not a crazy pain. Expect a learning curve unless you have used one or you are the type that doesn't mind using a bash shell to configure things.

Another issue that has come up is completely discharged batteries. Apparently, if your battery is entirely discharged, then the software to control your battery charging is not going to have power and not be able to charge your battery. So it looks like a spare battery and an external charger might be smart to have.
The PineStore has one: https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-lithium-battery/ but it is currently out of stock. From the data I have gotten it matches with the Samsung EB-BJ700BBC,  EB-BJ700BBE, or EB-BJ700CBE from the 2015 J7 phone.

As far as a charger goes, it might be easy to make a simple charger if you can precisely control power and keep from charging too fast. I will be going with this item just for the convenience: https://www.amazon.com/Onite-Universal-B...B01JZLHTHG
Hopefully it works.

In any case, having an extra battery you can swap out is not a bad thing to have. Hopefully I never need the serial cable, but I have had cell phones brick before and I would rather have a way to unbrick mine ready.

[Otter]

As an update, I do not have my PPPee yet but my anti brick hardware has arrived. The charger appears to be charging the battery and the serial cable I assembled tested out fine with a loop back test. Until my PPPee shows up I cannot confirm positively that everything worked out, but the basic tests look positive. I have two microSD cards ready, I am going to have the latest Manjaro Phosh and Arch Sxmo builds on the SD cards so I update and possibly break one and still be able to play with my Phone while the image is being remade on my PC.

[Conjada]

Im glad i ordered an extra battery. I got the charger from Amazon today (choices were pretty limited) and it is slooooooow. Hopefully, the battery will be the right one. Be here tomorrow. Wanted to ask @Otter, can you describe how you will be using the FTDI adapter? I have one, but havent usef it very often and followed a “recipe” when i did.

ETA: The charger i got looks very similar to yours, but isnt the same. If you dont mind, let me know if yours is faster. My battery was at about 25% when I started charging. About 5 hours later, it is almost charged…lol. My charger is only putting out about 600 mA, according to packaging.

[Otter]

Im glad i ordered an extra battery. I got the charger from Amazon today (choices were pretty limited) and it is slooooooow. Hopefully, the battery will be the right one. Be here tomorrow. Wanted to ask @Otter, can you describe how you will be using the FTDI adapter? I have one, but havent usef it very often and followed a “recipe” when i did.

ETA: The charger i got looks very similar to yours, but isnt the same. If you dont mind, let me know if yours is faster. My battery was at about 25% when I started charging. About 5 hours later, it is almost charged…lol. My charger is only putting out about 600 mA, according to packaging.

I got my serial cable built. I used the cable that came with it stripped the ends of the three wires I was going to use to connect and tinned them before connecting them and testing with an Ohm meter. I also did a simple loop back test after loading the driver for the adapter on my PC. I am using Kitty instead of Putty to test.

For the most part this cable is probably most useful to see if the system is working even if the display is off.  It will also allow configuration commands to be sent. SFor the most part I too will be following recipes. Till I learn more, I will be searching for what others have done. Hopefully I won't have the opportunity to become skilled with this and instead it will be a tool on the shelf reserved for the day my phone inevitably bricks. Since it isn't expensive, I would rather have it handy than have to wait on one to show up and have never tested it when my phone has serious issues.

[Ulfnic]

"As far as a charger goes, since the battery has internals to regulate itself it might be easy to make a simple charger. I will be going with this item just for the convenience: https://www.amazon.com/Onite-Universal-B...B01JZLHTHG
Hopefully it works."

Just a word of caution... if you're buying an external charger make sure to test the battery voltage as it charges. I bought a generic one some time ago and it charged my Pinephone battery way over 4.2v (I can't remember the exact number). I don't think there's "internals to regulate" as the battery allowed this to happen (which is normal for cellphone batteries). It also has 4 pads which expose the poles of each cell for balancing which tends to mean a battery doesn't have it's own controller.

[Otter]

"As far as a charger goes, since the battery has internals to regulate itself it might be easy to make a simple charger. I will be going with this item just for the convenience: https://www.amazon.com/Onite-Universal-B...B01JZLHTHG
Hopefully it works."

Just a word of caution... if you're buying an external charger make sure to test the battery voltage as it charges. I bought a generic one some time ago and it charged my Pinephone battery way over 4.2v (I can't remember the exact number). I don't think there's "internals to regulate" as the battery allowed this to happen (which is normal for cellphone batteries). It also has 4 pads which expose the poles of each cell for balancing which tends to mean a battery doesn't have it's own controller.

Thanks for the corrections. And you are correct, the original battery does not appear to have any extra circuitry. It is also possible that the extra circuitry advertised by some batteries is bogus data.

Inside a battery though you don't need more than the the typical outputs to still have internal circuitry that can regulate the battery. With power provided a batteries controls can still measure voltage, current flow, and heat. With that data it can choose to switch off or throttle charging and/or output if the temperatures or voltage exceeds desired levels. There are batteries that do this. Sadly there are also batteries that are advertised as doing this that do not live up to the hype.

[Conjada]

Just an update on the Samsung J7 battery I got from Amazon… it does fit and works fine electrically. But, it is very slightly longer than the OEM Pine battery. It has to be pressed in and I had to use a knifepoint to remove it because my thumbnail wasn’t strong enough. I cant recommend it. I will only be using it in an emergency. I’ll probably buy another from Pine after CNY is over.

[timonoj]

Just an update on the Samsung J7 battery I got from Amazon… it does fit and works fine electrically. But, it is very slightly longer than the OEM Pine battery. It has to be pressed in and I had to use a knifepoint to remove it because my thumbnail wasn’t strong enough. I cant recommend it. I will only be using it in an emergency. I’ll probably buy another from Pine after CNY is over.

Due to geographical location, I got a Samsung J7 battery off of Taobao. Just as you described, it must be about half a millimeter too long, but the result is too narrow a fit, and I also ended up needing to wedge a knife in to pull the battery out, because nails were not enough. I will keep using the regular Pinephone's battery as spare when needed.

[kqlnut]

Just as you described, it must be about half a millimeter too long, but the result is too narrow a fit, and I also ended up needing to wedge a knife in to pull the battery out, because nails were not enough. I will keep using the regular Pinephone's battery as spare when needed.

At least the Samsung battery I got was too long because of the plastic tabs on the bottom edge. They are made of soft plastic and can be easily filed off. Fits quite well since I did that although it's still a bit tighter than the original battery. To be able to remove it more easily I put some tape on the bottom side that sticks out on the top so I have a tab to pull on. It works.

[zer0sig]

Yeah, the stock pro seems to drain the battery even with the charger built in, but I have the original, a spare battery adn I think one of those little drop-in chargers like are used for radios and drones. So I'm good, looking forward to getting to test and try new stuff soon.