Power Supply Design Flaw
#1
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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.


Messages In This Thread
Power Supply Design Flaw - by Siliconserf - 08-13-2017, 01:15 PM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by Siliconserf - 08-13-2017, 05:31 PM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by daid - 08-14-2017, 05:13 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by Wizzard - 08-14-2017, 05:20 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by daid - 08-14-2017, 07:52 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by Wizzard - 08-14-2017, 08:01 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by Luke - 08-14-2017, 08:08 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by daid - 08-14-2017, 08:59 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by Luke - 08-14-2017, 09:08 AM
RE: Power Supply Design Flaw - by Siliconserf - 08-15-2017, 12:26 PM

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