Buyer beware: librem11 power supply

Hardware Librem 11
1

Day three of librem11 ownership

TL;DR The librem11 PD power supply is permissive and will try to charge just about anything. Don’t carelessly use it to charge 100w devices. The power supply will die.

I have a couple of black USB-C power chords next to one another. I pick one up to power my laptop. It’s providing a slow charge, but chugging along. Twenty minutes later I heard a crackling electric pop. I instinctively unplug the librem11 plug. It’s searingly hot. And it’s also dead.

My experience with other chargers is they either provide a charge or they don’t. I’ve never encountered one that’ll over commit and die trying.

3 Likes
2

My GAN charger works fine from Anker. Small 130W supply, works good. It was around $50

2 Likes
3

That’s why I have my row of cords labeled.

That sounds non-compliant to me. As you say, it should either PD negotiate successfully or provide nothing at all.

Do you happen to know what your laptop requires? i.e. voltage and maximum current.

2 Likes
4

Can I use it to jump start my car?

1 Like
5

@philip_champon Please open a support ticket if you have not already done so. We’d be happy to provide one of our 65W USB-C adapters to replace the failed charger.

I’m glad you were able to unplug it and that nothing else was damaged.

While this sounds like it’s ultimately an issue with the charger, it could also relate to permissiveness on the device. Some devices will try to use sources with insufficient maximum current even though the source is stating the allowed current correctly. (In particular, I have a 100 W laptop that is very problematic with this, it accepts 20 V with as little as 1.5 A, but then tries to draw 5 A anyway.) The only way to be sure is to analyze the PD handshake.

The adapter’s overcurrent protection is supposed to protect against this sort of failure mode though - if the device tries to draw too much current, the adapter should shut off.

2 Likes
6

Thanks!
I picked up a gan charger last night :slight_smile:

2 Likes
7

Honestly, this pd vs pps etc is news to me. I had no idea power supplies were so clever.

I don’t know exactly what my laptop requires. It’s a Dell Precision 3591. I poked around the manual quickly and couldn’t find anything except what the power supply maxes out at (100w).

1 Like
8

Thanks for the offer.

Now that I know a bit more about pd vs pps and how power is dividend between ports when charging multiple devices… I think I’d prefer a higher rated device. I got myself something last that’s supposed to give me 12v 3a out of the pd port as well as a higher wattage for my phone out of the secondary port.

1 Like
9

Nah

Can only use this brick to raise your car

2 Likes
10

Or to keep it from rolling back on a gentle incline?

1 Like
11

I’m still waiting for a restock of the LCD for the L11

1 Like
12

Ah, well, that is more complication still. Different such chargers will have different types of ports, with different individual restrictions per port, and likely an overall restriction. You would need to read the charger’s specifications carefully.

2 Likes