ACDC and the Power of Europe

I plugged my Librem 5 into the L5 charger, but I forgot one of the styles of Europe adapters so then I plugged the US end into some third party adapter.

The next day the Librem 5 haptic feedback sounded totally off. It sounded almost like cracking something instead of a buzz.

Twice since then, my Librem 5 locked up while running and had to be hardbooted, even though prior to that it almost never had lock up issues.

Is there any known problem with some Europe power outlets by chance?

(Maybe AC versus DC current, or the voltages?)

1 Like

I doubt that any country in the world is using DC mains.

Any half recent AC-to-DC converter will support a range of voltages (typically 100V-240V) and a choice of frequencies (50 Hz or 60 Hz) … so there shouldn’t be issues.

I take it that you aren’t at home at the moment, so actually verifying the voltage and frequency of the AC mains is not an option.

I use my Librem 5 permanently with a mains plug adapter, so that in and of itself is not a problem.

4 Likes

The original L5 charger is good for both US and European standards with the adapters. It’s AC from the wall that is converted to DC in the charger. Is it possible that you charged from a badly wired socket? There’s always potential that electricity is not “clean” (not within specified ranges of volts or hertz, or a power spike) if it’s an old house or someone f’ed up or there was heavy machinery in the same wire.

Also consider that phone behavior is not power related when investigating.

2 Likes