The new Raspberry Pi 2 caught a huge number of attention because of its small size and cheap price. However, early users have learned that the credit card-sized PC tends to switch off after they have taken its photo. It seems like the camera's Xenon flash makes tiny device crash.
It was also learned that any cameras that have a Xenon flash can cause a reaction in a chip found in the Raspberry Pi. Perhaps this chip on the PC's circuit board is sensitive to light. Since it's also poorly shielded, a camera flash is enough to trigger the PC to crash entirely.
The issue was first spotted by the user known only as PeterO who immediately posted his finding on the message boards of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and aptly coined the crash as the "Pi2 Xenon Death Flash".
"My Pi2 is camera-shy!," said PeterO. "Taking its picture with a flash causes an instant power-off! I've done it three times now and same thing happens each time. First two times I didn't realize 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...Any ideas?"
Compared to normal flashes, Xenon flashes are stronger which explains why they don't appear in most smartphones. The glitch is also deemed as a new issue and perhaps unique to the new Raspberry Pi 2 as older versions of the Raspberry Pi didn't show a similar reaction. One user known only as mikerr confirmed that older generations of the Pi board were all "xenon death flash" immuned.
The flaw was verified by a Raspberry Pi engineer and moderator after the crash was replicated.
"With a Canon Ixus 60, its flash reliably locks up the Pi," said the engineer who goes by the ID jdb. "You need to be closer than about 50cm to make it happen, though."
Tdicola, another Pi user, said that flashes of light which are at the right frequency could have interrupted the power supply to the rest of the Pi board.
"It's a feature not a bug, it teaches you about the photoelectric effect," said tdicola.
A quick way to solve the issue is by using a Blu-Tack or anything similar to cover the chip. One user suggested a more permanent solution which is to place the Pi 2 in an opaque case.
Raspberry Pi 2 user Tobias Madel was able to reproduce the flaw and posted it on YouTube:
