Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#1

Post by close04 » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 3:56 PM UTC

Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4
arstechnica.com

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#2

Post by jakeogh » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

"E-marked cables are fully featured USB-C cables with chips inside"

That's um... awful.

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#3

Post by thijsvandien » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

Reminder to self: being an early adopter sucks virtually always.

Edit: Sure, the issue is rather easy to circumvent, but anyone would have preferred not to have it. At the very least, it affects the resale value. My point is that whenever the answer to the question 'do I need it absolutely right away?' is no, it's better to wait a bit, no matter how much you intend to buy it at some point.

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#4

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:04 PM UTC

jakeogh wrote: post #2

"E-marked cables are fully featured USB-C cables with chips inside" That's um... awful.

[deleted]

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#5

Post by fit2rule » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

Damn, did they just Osborne themselves? I for sure have decided to hold off on a Pi-4 until this issue is fixed, since its really a hassle.

Maybe a smarter move would've been to bundle the Pi-4 charge (non E-cable) to avoid dissatisfaction with this mis-design ..

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#6

Post by gruez » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

fit2rule wrote: post #5

Damn, did they just Osborne themselves? I for sure have decided to hold off on a Pi-4 until this issue is fixed, since its really a hassle. Maybe a smarter move would've been to bundle the Pi-4 charge (non E-cable) to avoid dissatisfaction with this mis-design ..

Them fixing this issue in a future revision is almost a given (it's a simple fix), so them making that statement doesn't really affect anything. Therefore it's not really the Osborne effect in the sense that people are holding off for a better product, people are holding off buying because it's defective.

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#7

Post by jhbhjjhvhjkgh » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

jakeogh wrote: post #2

"E-marked cables are fully featured USB-C cables with chips inside" That's um... awful.

The whole USB-C PD spec is overly complicated but in this case these chips are to ensure that someone doesn't push 4a/19v over an improperly built USB-C cable - that can lead to fire and burns.

Also, other cables may have chips in them for data negotiation, specifically TB3/PCI encapsulation (the data rate is so high that over 6 inches you start to run into issues).

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#8

Post by jhbhjjhvhjkgh » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

fit2rule wrote: post #5

Damn, did they just Osborne themselves? I for sure have decided to hold off on a Pi-4 until this issue is fixed, since its really a hassle. Maybe a smarter move would've been to bundle the Pi-4 charge (non E-cable) to avoid dissatisfaction with this mis-design ..

or you can just buy a $5 cable on amazon

it sucks but it's not a deal breaker.

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#9

Post by walrus01 » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

fit2rule wrote: post #5

Damn, did they just Osborne themselves? I for sure have decided to hold off on a Pi-4 until this issue is fixed, since its really a hassle. Maybe a smarter move would've been to bundle the Pi-4 charge (non E-cable) to avoid dissatisfaction with this mis-design ..

It's really only an issue if you're trying to power a pi4 from a high powered USB-C power delivery source source like a macbook, macbook air or macbook pro AC wall adapter. It would be a waste of money to use a $18 USB-C cable on a pi4.

I can see how this would be discovered quickly, since a lot of the early purchasers of the pi4 probably tried to power them up using the nearest USB-C power source at hand, which was their laptop's power adapter.

If you use a USB-C phone charger or any of the cheaper USB-C power sources intended to power things under 20 watts, it shouldn't be an issue. But they definitely do need a new board revision.

Re: Raspberry Pi admits to faulty USB-C design on the Pi 4

#10

Post by baq » Tue, Jul 09, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

fit2rule wrote: post #5

Damn, did they just Osborne themselves? I for sure have decided to hold off on a Pi-4 until this issue is fixed, since its really a hassle. Maybe a smarter move would've been to bundle the Pi-4 charge (non E-cable) to avoid dissatisfaction with this mis-design ..

They provide their own charger. It works, I’ve got one.