Teracube 2e: USB PD Chargers Do Not Work

Hello Sharad,

What you may consider noting somewhere or communicating to everyone is that the phone is QC 3.0 compatible, but not PD 3.0 compatible. Functionally what you are saying is the same overall, but expressing which protocols are actually supported is likely a better method – noting that QC 3.0 chargers are USB-A to USB-C type chargers. As such, the phone should be advertised as compatible with QC 3.0 standard but not the PD 3.0 standard.

What is really confusing about this is the way that people are seeing things packaged / marketed, QC 3.0 was actually the original protocol used for USB-C charging, so it is very likely that Chinese documentation on the chipset advertises it as USB-C charging compatible, however, doesn’t outline that the protocol of compatibility for USB-C charging is only for the QC 3.0 standard, thus not supporting USB-C to USB-C charging or PD 3.0, but still a method of USB-C charging as your original advertising / marketing would suggest. Likely not your direct fault, but I can see how some will still see this as disingenuous.

Possibly adding something about the terminology and clarifying what was really meant in your advertising in your next update on Indiegogo could help to correct peoples expectations and lessen the backlash / outrage.

Just to be clear for others reading, even though it supports QC 3.0, this still doesn’t mean it supports fast charging, just that the charger will be compatible with the phone and charge it.

My 2 cents.

Cheers!

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Hi @Sharad,

I can confirm that I’ve tested the new phone with a few different native USB-C chargers and a USB-C battery (https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B083ZBMJNT/, https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MHJA3AM/A/20w-usb-c-power-adapter and https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07XNX88G3), and neither charge the 2e at all. Notably, Android’s USB controls show that USB is controlled by the connected device rather than by the 2e, and shows that it is connected as an OTG device - basically, the phone thinks native USB-C chargers are something THEY should try to charge (and presumably doesn’t do the fallback to regular 5V USB charging that it should because of it). This… should not be a hardware level issue with any chipset that conforms to USB specifications. Additionally, the Teracube One, also using a MediaTek processor, charges just fine with all of the chargers I’ve mentioned here. Can you please provide a specific reference to this “limitation of the Mediatek charging protocol” that you have mentioned above, and what actually changed between the phone versions?

Thanks,

Logan Hunter

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Thanks @Logan_Hunter for the extensive testing. It is strange that the Apple USB-C PD charger is able to charge our units (while booted).

Regardless I will take this to my software and the hardware team and report back in a week or so.

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If everything continues to work with the Apple charger for you, and your team could use any more reproduction info on what is happening with the phone on my end, please feel free to reach out - I’d be glad to provide anything that would help tracking down the problem.

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Sorry if this post seems a bit silly, but I had an “oh yeah, I forgot moment.” If you have any “old” USB-A port chargers, the cable that comes with the Nintendo Switch (and some of its accessories) is USB-A to USB-C. I used one with an old QC 2.0 power brick and it worked just fine, even with the phone off. I wasn’t sure how well the Switch charger itself would work, so I went with an old phone charger. I doubt it makes a difference, but the power brick was from a ZTE Axon 7 Mini.

I agree with you 100%. The trade-offs are very small considering the value that these phones offer. Chargers are dirt cheap, any USB A charger can be bought for next to nothing and will charge the phone in a decent amount of time. I have PD and regular and I have no complaints about the charging time. My wish is the next phone they come out with will be higher spec CPU and GPU along with better cameras/sensors.

I’m a UK customer and got my Teracube 2e about a week ago. Happy with the phone so far but I noticed it’s not charging on my Nintendo Switch USB-C charger. This is the only charger I own and it works fine on my Switch and my 3 year old sub-£100 Sony phone.

Having read the discussion someone mentioned that it’s possibly due to missing resistors? Given that the phone is user repairable, would someone be able to point me in the right direction as what I should be looking for? Can Teracube put out a replacement charging module?

We won’t be able to modify the charging sub-module now. The only work around we can think of is to couple a USB-A charger with an affordable USB-A to USB-C cable in UK. Like this one on Amazon UK.

It seems that it is a hardware issue then. Is it a case of the missing pullup resistors? Some of us are willing to do the work to make it function as expected.

I will reiterate what I find frustrating about this - the phone was pushed as greener by eliminating the charger in the box. Now some of us have to buy a charger since we can’t use our modern PD 3.0 chargers… Goes against the original mission…

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Sorry but is it not a requirement now that new android phones support PD? I saw This article from 2 years ago that made it sound like all new android phones were supposed to have them.

Edit: I found the Android 10 compatibility Doc here.

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I had the same problem with my new VW ID.3 electric car which only has USB-C ports. The USB-C to USB-C cable VW supplied charges my wife’s Samsung Android but not my Teracube 2e. So I wondered if I could fool it by using an adapter to convert the socket to USB-A, so I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074P42LS4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Worked fine by plugging one of these in to the USB-C port in the car and then using the standard USB-A to USB-C cable that I always charge with.

Are new cars still coming with the 12V DC port (formerly known as “cigarette lighter plugs”)? My car still has one, and I’ve charged my Teracube 2e with one of these, and a USB A to C cable.

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@PeterC - nice workaround :). @ecs - slightly careful with those high-power chargers. Ideally, it should be ok with the phone and the charger negotiating the right Voltage/Amps. Somewhat related, we have had a few users develop a bad battery/charging board on the T2e. Not sure 100% on the cause - still we are recommending using up to 2A chargers.

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Good point, thanks for the heads up.