New Post: My First Week of Librem 5 Convergence

[antonis]

So it is reported by Todd himself. Good.

[nico202]

I tested the L5 with a Trust 7-in-1 dock (HDMI, Ethernet, 2Usb, 2 Card reader, Power In) powered by a 61W PD3.0 power supply (tried both with L5 stock and this one).

Both USB devices work fine (keyboard and mouse), both with and without power supply plugged in (but the battery discharged super fast when not plugged in). HDMI output works, too, sometimes even when it’s not plugged to power supply (but this is inconsistent). Also, when plugged in, /sys/class/power_supply/max_170xx_battery/current_now reports -0.1A/-0.3A (with the L5 display off, wifi off, modem on) which means -1% in a few minutes). Also, sometimes the screen goes blank and reappears with some horizontal shift (the right part of the display is shown on the left. Usually unplugging and replugging the dock restores the right aspect.

The device itself advertise support for USB-C PD pass through up to 5A 100W.
I suspect the dock does not support PD3.0 (I had a problem with a laptop usb-c charger rated 45W = 20V*2.75A maximum, 3A for other voltages including 5V, 9V and 12V) which was not able to charge the L5.

Can this be fixed by some future upgrade, or should I return the dock?

(No battery: power cycling)

[dos]

You can check what power contract does your hub negotiate with:

cat /sys/class/power_supply/tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f/uevent

5V/3A should be able to charge the phone with no issues.

[nico202]

@dos

cat /sys/class/power_supply/tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f/uevent

Thanks!

• Trust 61W Power supply:
  • Alone: 5V2.4A
  • Hub: 5V0.5A
• Purism Power supply:
  • Alone: 5V3A
  • Hub: 5V0.5A
• Varta PowerBank (with PD):
  • Alone: 5V2.4A
  • Alone (non-PD port): 5V0.5A
  • Hub: 5V0.5A

I don’t understand why only the purism power supply gets to 3A even if the trust one should support 5V3A (same goes for the varta power bank, which states: 5V3A, 9V2A, 12V1.5A). I’m using the same usbc-usbc cable (purism one) in this tests.
Also, the usb hub seems not to use PD being always capped at 0.5A.

[irvinewade]

@nico202

the usb hub seems not to use PD being always capped at 0.5A

Likely yes. It is only being recognised as a standard USB 2.0 / 3.0 port and the Librem 5 is limiting to 0.5A.

[nico202]

@irvinewade

the Librem 5 is limiting to 0.5A.

Is it a software thing? If I’ll never be able to use this hub with the L5 keeping its charge, I’d better replace it, but if it’s a matter of “waiting for an upgrade” I’ll keep it…

[irvinewade]

@nico202

Is it a software thing?

If you are connecting the Librem 5 to the correct USB-C port on the dock and it negotiates to standard USB 2.0 max power (500 mA) then it’s probably not going to work for you. Even if the USB-C PD firmware on the Librem 5 changed, that won’t necessarily do anything to override the dock side, which is a blackbox.

Does it make a difference if you vary the order in which you connect things up?

The bottom line though is that unless and until you can see it negotiate a decent amount of power, it isn’t going to work.

@nico202

I don’t understand why only the purism power supply gets to 3A

Yes. Even so, 2.4A should be more than enough to operate and charge the Librem 5.

[nico202]

Ok I found out something that’s even more interesting. I plugged a samsung charger (rated 9V1.67A, 5V2A with adaptive fast charging), which negotiates 5V0.5A. I the used it to power the USB hub, and now I gets 5V0.9A.

The same goes for an Ikea charger (rated 5V2.4A) and for an LG one (rated 5V1.8A).

Too bad that’s not enough to charge the device consistently (I get +/- 0.2A). However I’d say there’s a problem in our tps6598x firmware. Also, according to this, it seems that enabling voltages above 5V in the firmware might fix some of the power supply issues.

[dos]

@nico202

However I’d say there’s a problem in our tps6598x firmware.

Not really. L5 obeys what your hub is telling it, and seems like it tells that it supports up to 500mA over 5V when used with PD source. Some poorly implemented hubs do that, which is why it’s important to check how the hub operates at 5V specifically (https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/firmware-tps6598x-nonfree/-/blob/master/dp-alt-mode-adapters.org). Higher voltages can be enabled in TPS65982 configuration, but that’s not recommended.

If you feel adventurous you can override the input current limit manually:

[MyL5] Received my Librem 5 (Evergreen)

Yes, you could do that already before as well: sudo i2cset -f -y 3 0x6a 0x00 <VALUE> where <VALUE> is between 0x00 (100mA) and 0x3f (3.25A). See https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/bq25895.pdf page 32. You can verify the currently set value with cat /sys/class/power_supply/bq25890-charger/input_current_limit This is also useful to set input current limit to a higher value than the default 500mA when using USB-A chargers.

[nico202]

@dos

If you feel adventurous you can override the input current limit manually:

Thanks! I set the input to 2.1A (0x28), now the phone is always charging with 0.4-1A, 2 usb devices and HDMI plugged in. At first it seemed to work fine (the phone was charging, hdmi output worked ok) but then visual glitches started to appear again. I guess I’ll have to try with a new hub

[ChriChri]

I’m using the same dock and I recently started having problems with the ethernet network: The network connection breaks under some conditions. The case I looked into everything on the linux side looked just normal (interface status, routing), but packages wouldn’t be exchanged anymore.

I’m wondering whether my dock is breaking somehow or if the problems might be connected to kernel updates from the last months (I’d say end of 2022 / beginning 2023).

Do you @bjm still use that dock with your Librem5? Did you notice problems?

I’m using PureOS Byzantium.

[bjm]

unfortunately I can’t help you, it’s been a long time since I used it

[ChriChri]

Thanks for your answer!