Cannot power Electra One Mini directly from USB C

Bug reports
1

The Electra One Mini does not seem to be triggering USB C power supplies properly. It does not power up when the USB B is plugged in via USB C directly to a

  • Macbook Pro
  • Macbook Pro power brick
  • Two different Anker power banks

It does power up when the other end of the USB B is plugged into:

  • The same Anker power banks via their USB A port (with the included USB C to A adapter)
  • A USB hub either directly with USB C or USB A (with the included USB C to A adapter).
    • This hub provides power when plugged directly into the USB C port of the Macbook Pro (or any of the other USB C options in the first list which do not power the device directly).
    • Note that this hub has an extra port for incoming USB C power which I did not need to use.
  • A low end USB A power adapter

Hoping this can be fixed with firmware. Please let me know if you you need more information.

it’s a failure mode for me to have to find a USB Hub to connect and power the Mini with my Macbook. Pretty handy to be able to use any USB C power supply directly.

2

It looks like this only happens with the USB C → B cable in the box. I experienced that my Mini doesn’t turn on when connected to my M1 Mac as well. But it works with a 3rd party cable. The original cable also works with my Mac Mini M2.

3

Mystery resolved. I thought the part of the cables was defective but I discovered today - it hurts a little bit to be honest like this - that Zdenek mixed up the USB cables in part of the shipments and included non-OTG cables we have for different project. The cables are ok but do not allow E1 and the host to negotiate the power supply role. Anyone who is affected and would like to have a new cable, please contact me on the PM. Using the bundled adapter, resolves the issue, but it is not the USB C then.

4

Thanks. What’s the “spec” for a cable that we should use? I thought OTG was for phone?

Not sure it makes sense to incur international shipping for this type of thing!