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Comment by jbm | Hacker News Reader

I do not understand why so many companies have that charging issue with Linux devices.

Anbernic has the same issue with the RG35XX series. If the battery reaches 0, you may need to pull it out just to get the charging to work. And if you accidentally connect the wrong kind of usb-c charger, it won't charge, so you may have it plugged into the wall for days and come back to it being dead and needing battery surgery.

Great devices for hacking because they are cheap though — cannot understand why an expensive phone would have that problem too.

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Anbernic cheaped out when trying to support USB host mode, as a result the device will not work correctly with an electronically marked cable. You can fix this - but you lose host mode - https://www.wirehead.be/2024/10/21/anbernic-rg35xx-h-charge-... . The article is for the RG35XXH, but pretty much all the XX devices have the same flaw.

This is awesome info and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE I looked, thank you so much!

Some of pre-HSDPA Nokia phones had the same issue. You needed a clip-on raw cell charger to revive them. It's manufacturer skill as well as a bit of cost issue.

> Great devices for hacking because they are cheap though — cannot understand why an expensive phone would have that problem too.

Because the more I read about Pinephone, the more it seems like a grift.

I also had run ins with their Pine A64 LTS.

You can buy eMMC cards that fit on the board. Their documents say you can boot from them. Like 10x performance of a mSD card and less wear-out.

I use a USB device to make the drive mountable from a Linux box, and copy the firmware as prescribed. I then unmount and load in the A64, and.... NOTHING.

Supposedly there's a uboot command that maybe enables it. Or maybe its autodetect. Or maybe (5 other ideas, that all fail).

I returned that shit too because they make claims that it works these official ways, and it never does.

Pine is a parasite. Always has been, but they make-pretend that they're some great FLOSS company.

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