4 ms·

So the take-away for consumers is...what exactly? Don't use certain types of cables to power a RaspberryPi 4? And how does one identify a cable that could cause

So the take-away for consumers is...what exactly? Don't use certain types of cables to power a RaspberryPi 4? And how does one identify a cable that could cause problems?

HappyRobot 7y ago
I don't think there is any take away for consumers. This seems to be an explanation for why certain cables do not work and how to avoid this issue when designing electronics that accept USB-C power input.
qmarchi 7y ago
Although the blog post is directed towards the Raspberry Pi Foundation, consumers essentially only have one option, use a "dumb" cable.
kenny_r 7y ago
My personal take-away is "hold off on buying a Pi4 until this issue has been addressed in a future revision".
- tryptophan 7y ago
  My takeaway is "use the official $8 charger they sell".
  - baq 7y ago
    i bought the rpi4 and the official charger and the combo works FWIW. it's good to know that it just might not work with some cables though. probably saved a few hours of head scratching in the future for a few folks.
  - walshemj 7y ago
    But if you want to power a cluster from a single beefier usbc power pack
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    I'd agree (and that's what I did) except here I'd suggest "maybe wait until they solve the core overheating issue". Mine is idling at 64°C now that I took off the official cover; with the cover on, it was idling just below the CPU throttling point of 80°C, which meant that almost any computation caused it to start intermittently locking up.
    - zamadatix 7y ago
      Odd, mine is idling at 49 C in a 21 C room. This is the 4G version running fully updated Raspbian without the desktop (one of the updates fixed the USB controller using a lot of power at idle).
      - TeMPOraL 7y ago
        Mine is 4G too; I installed heatsinks on it couple hours ago and it now sits at 61°C idle, with an external HDD attached (but not under I/O load) to USB 3 port. Slightly better, though arguably still ridiculously high.
    - snovv_crash 7y ago
      Apparently this will be fixed with a PCIe firmware update, they're just figuring out the best way to roll this out.
      - gadgetoid 7y ago
        It looks like it'll be mitigated (https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/raspberry-pi-4-firmware-update-tested,news-61071.html https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/raspberry-pi-4-firmware-updat...), but not necessarily fixed- making a difference of a few degrees. Active cooling makes a huge difference, which is why it baffles me that the official case has no ventilation.
    - ehonda 7y ago
      I did not buy the official cover, but a cheap top/bottom (but not side) acrylic case that included a fan, and also applied 3 heat sinks which came in the basic kit that came with the pi from canakit. It idles at 47°C and can browse "new reddit" at 59°C. A samba share its hosting causes it to run at 59°C during file transfers to an external SATA drive connected to the USB 3 port. I'm pretty happy with it considering all the complaints about heat issues. Only issue I've had so far is that you cannot reliably power more than one external hard drive with this. A second one will need its own power adapter. There was a firmware update, so make sure you applied that. Might help bring the temps down a bit.
- ohazi 7y ago
  You'll be waiting for a Pi4+ or a Pi5, then. They've had similar "minor" bugs with trivially easy hardware fixes on older boards, but punted on fixing them until the next major version. I could be wrong, but AFAICT, they've never done a minor board revision for an already released Raspberry Pi.
tracker1 7y ago
I had so many issues with 3B+, that I won't even use a power adapter/cable that wasn't sold as working with the Pi in the first place.

So the take-away for consumers is...what exactly? Don't use certain types of cables to power a RaspberryPi 4? And how does one identify a cable that could cause problems?

HappyRobot 7y ago

I don't think there is any take away for consumers. This seems to be an explanation for why certain cables do not work and how to avoid this issue when designing electronics that accept USB-C power input.

qmarchi 7y ago

Although the blog post is directed towards the Raspberry Pi Foundation, consumers essentially only have one option, use a "dumb" cable.

kenny_r 7y ago

My personal take-away is "hold off on buying a Pi4 until this issue has been addressed in a future revision".

tryptophan 7y ago
My takeaway is "use the official $8 charger they sell".
- baq 7y ago
  i bought the rpi4 and the official charger and the combo works FWIW. it's good to know that it just might not work with some cables though. probably saved a few hours of head scratching in the future for a few folks.
- walshemj 7y ago
  But if you want to power a cluster from a single beefier usbc power pack
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  I'd agree (and that's what I did) except here I'd suggest "maybe wait until they solve the core overheating issue". Mine is idling at 64°C now that I took off the official cover; with the cover on, it was idling just below the CPU throttling point of 80°C, which meant that almost any computation caused it to start intermittently locking up.
  - zamadatix 7y ago
    Odd, mine is idling at 49 C in a 21 C room. This is the 4G version running fully updated Raspbian without the desktop (one of the updates fixed the USB controller using a lot of power at idle).
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Mine is 4G too; I installed heatsinks on it couple hours ago and it now sits at 61°C idle, with an external HDD attached (but not under I/O load) to USB 3 port. Slightly better, though arguably still ridiculously high.
  - snovv_crash 7y ago
    Apparently this will be fixed with a PCIe firmware update, they're just figuring out the best way to roll this out.
    - gadgetoid 7y ago
      It looks like it'll be mitigated (https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/raspberry-pi-4-firmware-update-tested,news-61071.html https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/raspberry-pi-4-firmware-updat...), but not necessarily fixed- making a difference of a few degrees. Active cooling makes a huge difference, which is why it baffles me that the official case has no ventilation.
  - ehonda 7y ago
    I did not buy the official cover, but a cheap top/bottom (but not side) acrylic case that included a fan, and also applied 3 heat sinks which came in the basic kit that came with the pi from canakit. It idles at 47°C and can browse "new reddit" at 59°C. A samba share its hosting causes it to run at 59°C during file transfers to an external SATA drive connected to the USB 3 port. I'm pretty happy with it considering all the complaints about heat issues. Only issue I've had so far is that you cannot reliably power more than one external hard drive with this. A second one will need its own power adapter. There was a firmware update, so make sure you applied that. Might help bring the temps down a bit.
ohazi 7y ago
You'll be waiting for a Pi4+ or a Pi5, then. They've had similar "minor" bugs with trivially easy hardware fixes on older boards, but punted on fixing them until the next major version. I could be wrong, but AFAICT, they've never done a minor board revision for an already released Raspberry Pi.

tracker1 7y ago

I had so many issues with 3B+, that I won't even use a power adapter/cable that wasn't sold as working with the Pi in the first place.