PSA - The OF 1010 light doesn't charge using 5W+ charging bricks

[bwehman]

So I tried charging the 1010 light on literally every charger I had - integrated ports in wall outlets, MacBook charger, iPhone charger, etc, and thinking I had a bad unit, called Festool and they said they've been having issues with wall bricks that delivered more than 5W. So I found a generic 5W charger we had laying around and tried it out, and sure enough it finally charges.

If your OF 1010 light isn't charging, try that before returning it.

 

[mino]

That is unlikely to have anything to do with the wattage of the chargers but how "smart" they are.

I have seem some high-power "smart" chargers not properly implement the "base/original" USB spec - which calls for 500 mA at 5V to be supplied unconditionally.
The light certainly does not need more than the 500 mA from the USB 2.0 spec, so requiring anything more would make little sense. And then facing the issue that some "modern" chargers either skip or improperly implement the simple original spec.

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To test this, I would try using various computer ports - it should work on all of them, including USB-C ones via adapters. All computer USB ports tend to have the "basic" non-smart-power delivery working as most peripherals use it. If it does work, the issue is indeed the chargers not following the specs per above. If there are still issues, e.g. with the common 3.0A ports seen on motherboards, then there may be a problem with the light module indeed.

 

[bwehman]

That is unlikely to have anything to do with the wattage of the chargers but how "smart" they are.

I have seem some high-power "smart" chargers not properly implement the "base/original" USB spec - which calls for 500 mA at 5V to be supplied unconditionally.
The light certainly does not need more than the 500 mA from the USB 2.0 spec, so requiring anything more would make little sense. And then facing the issue that some "modern" chargers either skip or improperly implement the simple original spec.

---
To test this, I would try using various computer ports - it should work on all of them, including USB-C ones via adapters. All computer USB ports tend to have the "basic" non-smart-power delivery working as most peripherals use it. If it does work, the issue is indeed the chargers not following the specs per above. If there are still issues, e.g. with the common 3.0A ports seen on motherboards, then there may be a problem with the light module indeed.

IDK, just going by what Festool said and also what I observed. I tried using the ports on my MacBook and they didn't work either. The only thing that worked was what Festool said they experienced too, which was a 5W charging brick.

 

[mino]

IDK, just going by what Festool said and also what I observed. I tried using the ports on my MacBook and they didn't work either. The only thing that worked was what Festool said they experienced too, which was a 5W charging brick.

Whatever the cause, that is not "normal". A "5W brick" working while a normal standards-compliant USB port does not is not normal.

True, not writing from experience with that light, the 1010 R still on my to-get list, just from "USB power" experience in over the last 25+ years and a couple hundred diverse devices. Cannot tell you what to do, but I would personally not get shut by such a statement.

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For starters, "5W brick" is a meaningless term in the USB power standards context:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#Allowable_current_draw

5W is 1A@5V i.e. not a power level defined in any standard I am aware of. Seems like a random value taken from empiric experience. Not a good look getting such advice from a service rep. Even if it helps in practice.

 

[onocoffee]

I don't think he's getting "shut", Mino. I think he's probably irritated because he can't just any USB power brick to recharge the light.

I'd be irritated too.

 

[bwehman]

Festool also stated they’re aware it’s not ideal and are coming out with “a fix”. I asked what that might look like since they can’t exactly send firmware updates to these things, and they said they’ll probably have to change the actual internal hardware.

Idk how this happens or why, just passing along information.

 

[jeh]

I recently bought a mini-arcade machine (about 10" tall) that has a Raspberry Pi mini computer inside of it that uses a USB-C power cord. They did not have the power supply in stock when I bought it so I mistakenly thought anyone would work to charge the battery and run the game. I tried a USB-C outlet, two USB-C wall warts, and my MacBook Pro power supply thinking wattage could possibly be the issue which it was not. Turns out it what I tried were all PD chargers which will not work.

This could possibly be the issue since it sounds somewhat similar? If you want to try one search for Raspberry Pi 4 power supply on Amazon. The one I bought was $9.99.

 

[Chainring]

I'll have to dig out my light and see if that's the case with the various chargers I have, including Anker and Baseus. I could swear I charged mine with one of my 100W Anker units and it had no problem.

I can tell you some chargers have problems with less demanding devices.

 

[John T.]

I recently bought a mini-arcade machine (about 10" tall) that has a Raspberry Pi mini computer inside of it that uses a USB-C power cord. They did not have the power supply in stock when I bought it so I mistakenly thought anyone would work to charge the battery and run the game. I tried a USB-C outlet, two USB-C wall warts, and my MacBook Pro power supply thinking wattage could possibly be the issue which it was not. Turns out it what I tried were all PD chargers which will not work.

This could possibly be the issue since it sounds somewhat similar? If you want to try one search for Raspberry Pi 4 power supply on Amazon. The one I bought was $9.99.

I had the same issue with a Raspberry Pi. I returned it but read later that a user or blog found they had implemented the USB PD spec incorrectly on their product. I think they came out with a new revision fixing it.

 

[Chainring]

I have a number of chargers, some with a combination of USB-C and USB-A, some with all USB-A and I also have some USB testers (Charger Lab Power-Z KM003C and FNIRSI FN58B).

The commonality is, every single one of the chargers with a USB-A port works to charge the light module and it doesn't matter if it's the lowest slowest 0.5A or if it supports Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0.

None, not a single one of the USB-C ports will charge the light module. Doesn't matter if DCP is supported on that USB-C port, no charge.

 

[Coen]

The implementation in both chargers and devices of what charging current they support is messed up for a lot of devices.
https://lygte-info.dk/info/ChargerIndex UK.html has a pretty good overview of what charger supports what.

Plain old USB is 5V 500 mA, which is half of 5W.

The market is also swamped with non-compliant cables.

In the past, charging was done at 5V and the lousy cables would loose upward of 1V in the cable, meaning charging to full took forever. These days there are chargers and phones around that negotiate the voltage from the charger up to 9V or even 12V, so the voltage sag problem is solved that way.

My own phone is usually charged by an Ikea charger (this thing;https://lygte-info.dk/review/USBpower Ikea Koppla UK.html )
When I wake up before the phone is charged, I am not charged myself...

As for the chargers you tried; Apple is sh*t with following standard, so wouldn't want to gamble the Festool is to blame here. Apple doesn't even follow basic Displayport standards. Not even a hardware issue with them; if you whipe them and install Linux, it does work.

 

[jeh]

I suspect a PD charger will take care of business for you. PD Charger on Amazon

 

[mino]

I suspect a PD charger will take care of business for you. PD Charger on Amazon

Actually, USB PD (Power Delivery) chargers are precisely the type that causes problems with low power devices ... they are "too smart" for their own good in many cases and some do not even support the base USB 2.0 spec power at 5V at all. All this *without* advertising such limitations explicitly anywhere in the docs.

The USB PD charges that will, by-design, refuse to "startup" the charger with a low-power device attached are often incapable of operating on low loads at all so it is a necessary "feature". And no, that is not a joke, it is cheaper making a high-minimum-load PD-only charger than one which can properly handle low loads.

I suggested testing/checking with computer ports as their primary usage is for low-power peripherals so these do not to suffer from the "minimum load required for operation" hardware problems. Even if software/firmware issues still cannot be excluded as Coen rightly stated.