I’m unable to charge my Pocket Reform. I’m aware that not all USB-PD chargers are supported, but at this point I’ve tried five different power supplies from four different manufacturers, along with several USB-C to USB-C cables and the results are consistent:
If the laptop is powered off, the current draw starts out at -1.5 to -2 amps and then drops to < -100 mA after about five seconds.
If the laptop is powered on, the current draw starts out at -1.5 to -2 amps and then drops to approx -800 mA after about five seconds. Curiously, even if I leave it in this state overnight, the reported battery charge level does not increase.
I have verified that the system controller firmware is the latest (only?) release and also attempted reinstalling it. I have also powered off the laptop, toggled the standby switch and powered it back on.
Grateful for any tips others can share on how to debug further.
First, I assume you are charging with the top USB-C port. Do you have a meter that you are plugging inline with the cable? If so what voltage is the charger outputting?
I don’t have anything that would allow me to monitor the output of the charger. All I have to go on is the Battery Status screen from the OLED menu, which tells me whether the batteries are sinking or sourcing current.
What voltage output are your power adapters? I use an HP and a Lenovo adapter they are 20V, 12V, 5V and 20V, 15V, 9V, 5V respectively. The HP seems to work well. The HP idles when at full charge at 20V. The Lenovo sits at 5V when connected. I believe the Lenovo has worked for charging it may just take longer to wake up.
Now that I think about it, the one time I did see it charge (achingly slowly) the current draw was nearly 2 amps, but any time it’s under 1 amp the battery will not charge. Almost willing to bet if I have a charger that’s 5V only it will charge successfully.
There’s now a much improved version of the sysctl firmware with better charger compatibility contributed by @zeha, and an updated keyboard firmware where I refactored the USB comms to be timer interrupt driven.
Edit: link removed due to a bug in this firmware build which disables the internal display and also makes it harder to update the sysctl firmware again.
Not sure what “ttbomk” means, but reason for asking was I had been unable to update the KB firmware previously due to some version issue of the flashing software (forget the specific details, but think the script was expecting an older version)
Not sure, but just tried it with these updated scripts:
Ready to flash System Controller (bus 1, address 2). Make sure all your work is saved--the system will power down after the process is completed.
Press return to continue or CTRL+C to abort.
Tracking device serial number DE63544193591B38 for reboot
The device was asked to reboot into BOOTSEL mode so the command can be executed.
Loading into Flash: [==============================] 100%
The device was asked to reboot back into application mode.
ERROR: The RP2040 device returned an error: rebooting
❯ sudo ./update-keyboard-firmware.sh
Firmware file ../pocket-reform-keyboard-fw/pocket-hid/build/pocket-hid.uf2 is invalid, exiting.
Perhaps I need to restart before attempting the kb update again…?
Same re no screen output on reboot… (That would occasionally happen previously, but randomly somehow got it working… Hopefully it’s restorable this time too…
Have you been able to get it to boot? I’ve tried all kinds, and… nothing aside from the OLED working and the keyboard going purple, but doesn’t trigger a system boot. Not sure if there’s any other way just to get it to boot up to attempt the keyboard firmware update again (after fixing that typo)…?
