A new flaw has been discovered in the new mini-computer Raspberry Pi 2, which sees the device instantly power off every time Raspberry Pi 2 is exposed to a camera flash.
The discovery was made by Raspberry Pi 2 user PeterO who was photographing the system, when Peter found that taking picture of Raspberry Pi 2 with a flash led to an instant power off.
Peter said: "First two times I didn’t realise what had happened as I wasn’t looking at the screen at the time and only noticed a few minutes afterwards."
"Third time I did it just to watch the screen…. Instant power off."
The company addressed the issue and said the shutting down only occurred under specific circumstances with flashes of high-intensity or long-wave light, like xenon flashes in cameras and laser pointers.
According to the findings, xenon flashes and laser pointers caused the chip marked U16 in the silkscreening, responsible for regulating the processor core power, to get confused and undergo core voltage drop.
According to the company, the flash did not cause any permanent damage to the system but if exposed it is likely to cause the system to crash or reboot.
In its blog the company said: "If you need to use your Pi 2 in a situation where it might be flashed at, our advice is to cover U16 (make sure you get the sides too) – the current easy fix is to use a small blob of Sugru or Blu-Tak covering the whole component (someone in the forums used a pellet of bread: the first yeasted bug fix we have encountered), or simply put the Pi in an opaque case."
