I’m aware that Leah strongly discourages using CH341a, but I understand that this is chiefly because it’s voltage is 5V, whiich risks burning the 1.8V or 3.3V datalines of the devices we’re librebooting.
At the same time, I’ve seen a popular video specifically recommending CH341a when librebooting an X200. I assume this advice should be ignored.
However, Leah also specifies that you can technically tweak the CH341a to reduce it’s voltage, following this guidance.
My question is: is this worth it, or is it safer to just use a Beaglebone Black/Raspbery Pi instead? What’s your experience been?
I’m unfortunately on a budget, and BB/RPi are both prohibitively expensive for me. Then again, so is a laptop that’s bricked thanks to an improperly fixed CH341a.
Have you had problems using a (tweaked or untweaked) CH341a? What’s your advice? I really appreciate it. Thanks!
Are you saying that you got multiple faulty CH341a?
I did ran into an issue of inconsistent chip reading and the issue turned out to be the lack of amps. For that I attached an external power supply. Arduino works as long as the AC plug is used (not the USB).
Oh sorry I meant I’ve seen reports that the voltage issue was due to a few faulty programmers, I’ve personally never used one.
Interestingly, this video also brings up amps as the root cause, not volts. I might get an Arduino in that case just for more control, but would you say it’s beginner-friendly? This would be my first time attempting libreboot (or any kind of chip programming for that matter)…
You’d only need to plug the power in and connect the 3v3 & ground to the chip. I was only mentioning this because then you’d never have to set the voltage and a lot of people have it laying around. Otherwise, any DC power supply would do as long as you can get that 3.3v output.