Update! This issue should be fixed with new battery boards: • Installing MNT Reform ... Subscribe to RSS: nattuck.fogclo... This post: nattuck.fogclo...
Until they find a fix I wont even consider buying one at that price point... It's already a stretch with it being super underpowered for $1k, but add in this...
I thought there was a firmware update which shuts off the controller? I thought the whole purpose of that was to prevent the batteries from draining too low. Your response is much appreciated as I'm in the process of getting one of these.
I saw some stuff about trying to significantly reduce power draw when off, but not for going to zero power. That would reduce the problem a bit, but not fix it.
Did you try installing the new firmware? From what I understand, it significantly extends the time you can leave the thing unplugged. Not a full solution of course, but still a welcome patch.
my first thought is: they are going to have to design and build a low power cutoff board themselves. I'm not a hardware designer, but surely that's easier than making your own open-source laptop? Wouldn't it be as simple as an if statement?
Nice work. The general concept of fully "open" is nice. Still, how does one know something is uncompromised? I only recently learned about MNT, so I have nothing to know about it.
My take on trusting vendors is that we know for sure that the big vendors are entirely compromised from sources like the Snowden leaks. Smaller vendors are a better bet. For a very small vendor like this (my MNT Reform is serial# 44) there's a good chance that the device really is being produced by a small team of idealists as described. That still leaves the possibility of supply chain issues, but I think embedded industrial components like the iMX8 SoC are an area where there's some chance that the spooks are defending those supply chains rather than attacking them.
No fan. It's just low power enough that heat isn't a huge issue. They're using the same SoC as in the Librem 5 phone, which also manages to run fanless (although in the phone form factor it does get a little hot).
They've known about it for a while. They're looking at ways to mitigate the issue, but they haven't yet announced any plan to fully fix it. Fixing it would would require some board redesign, and might not be reasonable for the low volume they're doing.
Until they find a fix I wont even consider buying one at that price point... It's already a stretch with it being super underpowered for $1k, but add in this...
To make it worse, there’s a recent price hike recently. Which is even discouraging.
I went with the Framework laptop. It's a good middle ground of repairability without compromise.
that's bad, but maybe as a workaround, there are 18650 with protection circuit included
Yes, there are and you can consider it an upgrade and still aligns with the MNT Reform's ethical goal of a user serviceable computer.
With LiFePO4 chemistry?
I thought there was a firmware update which shuts off the controller? I thought the whole purpose of that was to prevent the batteries from draining too low. Your response is much appreciated as I'm in the process of getting one of these.
I saw some stuff about trying to significantly reduce power draw when off, but not for going to zero power. That would reduce the problem a bit, but not fix it.
Should be easy to fix the issue by adding a cutoff circuit between the the battery cable and the mainboard!?
Did you try installing the new firmware? From what I understand, it significantly extends the time you can leave the thing unplugged. Not a full solution of course, but still a welcome patch.
They apparently fixed it with the new ones :)
Just uploaded a video putting the new boards in: th-cam.com/video/5cGDXyqNqvg/w-d-xo.html
my first thought is: they are going to have to design and build a low power cutoff board themselves.
I'm not a hardware designer, but surely that's easier than making your own open-source laptop? Wouldn't it be as simple as an if statement?
thank you for making this video by the way!
Nice work. The general concept of fully "open" is nice. Still, how does one know something is uncompromised? I only recently learned about MNT, so I have nothing to know about it.
My take on trusting vendors is that we know for sure that the big vendors are entirely compromised from sources like the Snowden leaks. Smaller vendors are a better bet. For a very small vendor like this (my MNT Reform is serial# 44) there's a good chance that the device really is being produced by a small team of idealists as described. That still leaves the possibility of supply chain issues, but I think embedded industrial components like the iMX8 SoC are an area where there's some chance that the spooks are defending those supply chains rather than attacking them.
That's a bit of a flaw. I'll hold off.
Nat, with a laptop like this am i still able to assess things like google and youtube or is it soely for coding
A browser works OK on it, if slightly slowly mostly due to the low amount of RAM.
Also, what is their heat dissipation solution? A fan?
No fan. It's just low power enough that heat isn't a huge issue. They're using the same SoC as in the Librem 5 phone, which also manages to run fanless (although in the phone form factor it does get a little hot).
They should of used square screws
Did you bother to inform them of this defective design?
They've known about it for a while. They're looking at ways to mitigate the issue, but they haven't yet announced any plan to fully fix it. Fixing it would would require some board redesign, and might not be reasonable for the low volume they're doing.
Wow, that’s sad. I really want it, but that mistake is really ba for buy something like these at that high price
@@NatTuck Anyone came up with a hack / workaround for this in the meanwhile?