Faulty Pinephone add on Keyboard. Support Ticket: Id #12442

[Kawayuppie]

Hi,

I submitted a ticket on 29/30 January about this issue, but I have had no response there so I am posting my problem here in hope. All I need is a new part or where I can get it.

Date: 29 January 2022

Dear Pine64 Support,

It need a new circuit board for the keyboard.

I think the charging circuit has gone faulty, the 5208 gets extremely hot, too hot to touch.
The battery appears okay and is fully charged.

Also noticed the there is no power being supplied to the phone via the pogo connections if there isn’t a charger cable plugged in. This might be related to the above.

I can use Megi’s tools to still read the i2c bus, but the charger readings show only 2 volts and 0 mA, however the battery is measuring 4 volt directly.
Keyboard still works if a USB charger is plugged into the keyboard.

How it all started:
Keyboard was working just fine ever since I got it a couple weeks ago. No problems. I have been careful to follow the guidelines concerning charging and peripherals.
The charger I use is the PINE64 PinePower 65W.

I left the pinephone and keyboard overnight maybe logger but not plugged into charger.
In the morning I picked it up and it was dead, no power coming form keyboard.
So I plugged the charger into the keyboard USB port and left it for sometime.
Returned and discovered that keyboard power not working, nothing going to phone.

Previously when everything worked you could press the power button on the keyboard and power would d go to the phone.

Some points.

[] keyboard battery is at full charge, so it did charge or kept its charge?
[] there is no power going to the pogo pin connector unless usb cable is plugged in.
[] the i2c tools show the button is registering, but that says the battery has only 2 volts but when in charge mode shows only 0 mA and doe snot indicate sending current to pinephone.
[] the 5208 get really hot, so much so that you can burn your finger on it.
[] I2C bus is working, Tools do read from it, and keyboard works, as long as there the USB charger cable is plugged in.

Would I be able to get another circuit board? 

Yours Faithfully,

André Skarzynski, M0JEK

[Uzi]

Hey, Kawayuppie. Have you heard back from them? I have the same problem with my keyboard: it gets hot and battery doesn't charge. I've opened a support ticket with them but no one replied for weeks and the warranty period of 30 days is gone. I'm also wondering whether can I get another PCB.

[Deus]

Hey, Kawayuppie. Have you heard back from them? I have the same problem with my keyboard: it gets hot and battery doesn't charge. I've opened a support ticket with them but no one replied for weeks and the warranty period of 30 days is gone. I'm also wondering whether can I get another PCB.

I have the same issues. Was it resolved?

[Nfonwpfnf]

+1 - Same issue here. I have to separate the phone and keyboard and charge them individually to get them working every morning.

[acid andy]

Yes after months of the keyboard working fine, I now have a similar problem. I can't charge the keyboard anymore and it won't charge the phone. Pressing over the location of the pogo pins doesn't help. The keyboard doesn't even warm up anymore when the cable is plugged in, so I suspect the charge controller chip is damaged or dead.

I'm not too confident soldering surface mount components otherwise I'd try and replace the chip myself.(Edit: I've just seen how many pins that IP5209 has!) My keyboard still works at the moment (just won't take or supply any charge) so I was wondering if anyone knows if the keyboard can work by taking power from the Pinephone over the pogo pins? I mean, if the charge controller chip and battery were completely removed, would it still work as a keyboard? Edit: It looks like it would, going by the information provided in this article.

If so you can buy small charge controller circuit boards quite cheaply so maybe replacing the battery with a smaller one with such a board could work. It could then either have its own USB output that could be plugged into the phone to charge it like this guy did or maybe there's a way to safely wire that in in place of the old chip. Edit: You'd probably have to cut the power outputs of the IP5209 for safety.

[ClairelyClaire]

Add me as someone who seems to be having the same problem. My case doesn't charge, doesn't get warm, and doesn't show charging in phosh. The keyboard itself still works fine. Has anyone found a solution yet?

[pothos]

Mine is dead, too, first it didn't type anymore then it completely failed to charge…