That’s not true - I have just tested it on Evergreen with provided charger and it works. I had to boot with modem and WiFi turned off via killswitches, but could enable them back afterwards after fully booting. Then I could even play a game and use cameras with modem and WiFi both connected, all without a battery.
You need a PD charger that can negotiate enough amperage on 5V. The provided one goes up to 3A, which is sufficient. With non-PD chargers the current limit will be set to 500mA, which is not enough.
The negotiated current can be checked with cat /sys/class/power_supply/tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f/current_max
Is it possible to read the battery’s voltage early on in the boot process and make the startup use less peak current when there is not enough voltage (such as 0 volts with a battery removed)? It sounds like keeping the WiFi & cell cards disabled until later in the sequence might be enough.
So, if @coconutcream Librem 5 have value of current_max = 500000 he/she cannot boot without healthy battery connected to it (if I’m understanding this right), and for changing this value to something like 1500mA is out of the game here and now (if not done earlier)?
Anyway, the best way to check whether USB power path works (on Evergreen) is to take the battery out and plug the charger provided with the phone while holding the Vol+ button. If the red LED starts to blink, the phone isn’t dead. If it does not, try the other USB-C orientation (this will help if there’s a problem with a single CC line). If it still does not help, then it’s worth trying with other chargers and even a USB-A to C cable (to rule out PD-related issues). If the LED does not light up no matter what, then it’s likely that there’s a hardware problem with that unit.
Thanks, appreciate! In @coconutcream shoes I’d go (give it a try) ahead and use JumpDrive for Librem 5 to bring this smartphone to life, as optional choice.
From the description at the beginning of this topic, it seems like that phone should be able to come back to life just by letting it charge for a few hours, then unplugging the cable and pressing the power button for circa. 20 seconds (or as soon as the green LED shines up). The red LED is shining continuously, which means the USB power path and battery charging circuitry both work fine.
One more datapoint: using the supplied wall wart, and with no battery in my L5, when I connect the power, the L5 immediately boots & functions as expected. No toggling of switches required.
This likely depends on several factors, like wireless reception in your area, whether SIM card is inserted and even the tolerance variance of individual components like capacitors. Cellular connections may require huge power spikes and modem makers generally recommend using a battery for power in order to be able to seamlessly handle them without brownouts. We do provide quite a lot of capacitance there so it’s possible to use the Librem 5 with USB alone and it should be enough to use it with no issues, but don’t be surprised that cranking everything up to eleven will very likely cause it to shutdown/reboot due to power shortage anyway
Hi guys I’m still paying attention and really appreciate all the assistance. I took the ebay sale down as it seems consensus is that the phone is probably fine and I was going to try to fix it first by removing the battery. However, I have been completely swamped recently. I still do plan on selling the phone if there is interest, as I still don’t have much use for it, and it’s a shame to see it unused. Hopefully next week it looks like I’ll have some more time on my schedule to see if any of the suggested fixes work.
Consumer that at least knows on why it is about, at this point of time (as I still recall that in recent past my local Customs office destroyed PinePhone that I preordered, for reason only known to them (just kidding), and to me too as fully-blooded CE certificate was issued only two or three weeks after, pointing here out that Pine64 was very kind to me and that I received replacement, UBports edition containing CE mark on its package, through DHL Express, that I added to my original purchase) to buy particular mainline Linux kernel compatible smartphone (based/running PureOS or installing Mobian/postmarketOS/etc. on top of such portable wireless communication device, with usually mandatory non-free/cooperative firmware packages on top). And even, for difference explained please see, as kindly contributed, below linked post, consumer/customer that purposely chooses to buy de-googled Android (some even without knowing what actually those two words mean together, as “self-explanatory” definition of Android …) might have only a few current new out-of-the-box options like SHIFT6mq or perhaps upcoming OSOM Privacy smartphone (if de-googled) aren’t “ordinary” consumer level products for every potential end user (like the ones bought from neighboring mobile provider shop, etc.), although Librem 5 already recognized as such, as consumer level product.
If I may, please contact @coconutcream (or vice versa, as someone needs to make first step) via private message as if you get this particular Librem 5 in your hands all members from this Forum might only benefit from your, this Forum internal, arrangement, just my thought (serious one of course). And @coconutcream “if/when you put it up for sale again” please think of it as you’ll be able to follow on how your current smartphone (newborn under Amber mainline Linux kernel) is nurtured and grows up. NOTE for both of you: just please don’t put me inside of your private messaging (although this one not serious from my side).
(although this one not serious from my side).