Hello Michaela and others, Another idea is to produce a board what fits into an existing case, e.g. by swapping the mainboard of a cheap dumpphone. In this way we could use some parts of the phone I would think, like the battery, antenna or the display.
Or we could use a board what fits into the case of some standard hardware like a Raspberry pi or Arduino. I've tried it here with an Olinuxio Lime2 case, and it fits into my pocket. With regards, Paul van der Vlis. Op 29-10-16 om 23:14 schreef Mychaela Falconia: > Hello FC community, > > I am getting the impression that some members of our community are > quite displeased with my de-emphasizing of targeting Mot C1xx or > Pirelli DP-L10 hardware in favor of building our own FreeCalypso hw > instead, and I feel a need to address these feelings and concerns. > > My biggest and foremost question to the community is this one: WHY > would you want to use a crippled C1xx or Pirelli phone when our own > FreeCalypso phone hw can be So Much Better? To put this discussion in > the proper context, I have a concrete plan in mind, a plan which seems > perfectly realistic and doable to me, for how we can produce our own > libre dumbphone that may not look all that pretty in the initial > prototype version, but would totally outperform both the C139 and the > Pirelli in terms of libre-firmware-affecting electronic circuit > functionality. > > First, the practical aspects - how can we possibly produce any phone > hw without an astronomical budget? Here is my plan: > > Step 1: Produce a bare board initially, without any kind of case, and > design this board in such a way that it can be fully usable in > its bare state with no plastics or other case around it. > > If you were to disassemble virtually any "standard" commercially made > phone (Mot C1xx, Pirelli, Neo Freerunner etc), extract its motherboard > and try to use this board in its bare state, you will quickly run into > problems: the way in which the battery connection, the antenna > connection and sometimes other important connections are made in all > "standard" phones relies on the plastic case to attach these components > to the motherboard by pressure. Working on a sans-plastics phone > motherboard quickly becomes impractical. > > My solution: forego this "standard" design and go for a non-traditional > design instead. Use connectors for *everything* that is not on the > motherboard itself. For the battery connection, instead of using the > traditional kind of connector that requires the battery to be held in > place by the plastic case, use a connector that takes in a plug, so > that the battery can lie loosely next to the board, attached by wires. > For the antenna, forego the connect-by-pressure gold pads used in the > mainstream phones and put a female SMA connector on the board. The > actual antenna will then stick out of the top of the phone, like they > used to stick out long long ago before the industry moved to internal > antennas, and will be screwed onto the threaded SMA connector. Yes, > having the antenna stick out would make the phone look a lot more old- > fashioned, but in return we gain the ability to put it all together > without molded plastics - a worthy trade in my book. > > This way we'll be able to build the first bare, sans-case prototype of > our FreeCalypso phone *without* the cost of any plastics, and also > without the cost of hiring a mechanical designer - instead of trying > to make our board in the complex shape designed to fit into a plastic > case like all mainstream commercial ones, make it plain rectangular > instead, and do the whole design of our PCB *without* stressing over > "how will it fit in the case?". And once we get this bare board built, > we'll be able to fully exercise all of its functionality and do all > firmware development in this bare, sans-case state. > > Step 2: Once we have our own FreeCalypso phone in the form of a bare > board sans case, how do we transform it into something that > those with the UTMOST devotion to the cause of a libre phone > will be able to carry in their pockets and purses? > > My idea is that I'll take the working bare board and made a very ad hoc > case around it out of some material like plexiglas - I am talking about > the kind of case that can be made in a hobby shop, *not* commercial > quality. This case will need to hold both the main board and all of > the extras (battery, speakers, microphone etc) that are attached to it > with wires and connectors, but it will be a loose ad hoc design, nothing > like the tight everything-fits-perfectly design found in commercial > phones. > > Downsides: the hacked-up home-made phone will very, very obviously look > home-made and not factory-made, the physical construction will very > likely be quite delicate so the user will need to be *very* careful > and gentle with this phone (*no* water exposure of any kind, or even > excessive dust), but I hope that I can make it hold it together just > strongly enough to where I'll be able to carry it in my purse as my > primary phone - remember, dresses don't have pockets, so we ladies > carry purses instead. > > Male users may find this hack-phone to be a bit more difficult to carry > in their pockets though - objects carried in a lady's purse (if that > purse is large enough and loosely packed) tend to be subject to less > mechanical stress than those carried in a guy's jeans pocket. But hey, > you can always try carrying a purse with World's First 100% Libre Phone > in it, or maybe put it on a custom-made belt clip so it won't be > subjected to the mechanical stress of a tightly packed jeans pocket. > > OK, so you would have to sacrifice the solid mechanical construction > of a standard commercially made phone for a quite fragile and very > hacky-looking home-made one; what do you get in return? Here is what > you'll get: > > * A guaranteed-working loudspeaker for hands-free calls - contrast > with the Pirelli DP-L10 and Mot C155/156 where the loudspeaker is > physically present, but it is very uncertain if we'll ever figure > out how to make it work. On our own phone, I will NOT connect the > loudspeaker in the Pirelli/C155/C156 way; instead I will connect it > to the Iota ABB's AUX output through a "dumb" loudspeaker amplifier > - a way which we know will work for hands-free calls. And of course > the C139 has no loudspeaker at all. > > * A guaranteed ability to make the phone ring - contrast with the > Pirelli and Mot C155/156 where our ability to make the phone ring is > quite uncertain. In order to ensure that we'll be able to make the > phone ring one way or another, I will equip the hardware with an > old-fashioned piezo buzzer driving circuit (like on the C139) > *in addition* to the loudspeaker: this way if we never get TI's > Melody E1/E2 to work, we'll still have the piezo buzzer as the > fallback for making the phone ring. > > To my knowledge no commercial phone manuf has ever made a phone with > both a loudspeaker and a piezo buzzer (those that have loudspeakers > for hands-free calls also use them to make ringtones), but we are > not a mainstream commercial phone manuf, and our circumstances and > needs are different from theirs. > > * A 176x220 pixel (probably 2" diagonal) color LCD - larger than any > pre-existing Calypso phone I know of. For comparison, Mot C1xx LCDs > are 96x64 pix, whereas Pirelli's is 128x128 pix. > > * A USB port that combines charging with serial access just like on > the Pirelli, with just one difference: I'll connect the CP2102 to > the MODEM UART on the Calypso rather than IrDA, so we'll have the > choice of presenting either RVTMUX or a classic AT command interface > with CSD and GPRS functions on this USB-serial port. (Pirelli's use > of the IrDA UART precludes the latter option.) > > * An FPC/FFC (flexible printed circuit / flat flexible cable) interface > with an add-on debug board just like Openmoko's debug board setup > for the 2nd Calypso UART (now IrDA) and for JTAG. This debug board > hook-up will be required for heavy fw development, but not for casual > end users: for the latter class the main USB-serial port will be > sufficient for loading new fw builds, saving and restoring flash > backups, reading your SMS and contacts out of the phone or composing > outgoing SMS on your GNU/Linux PC, etc. > > All of the hardware features which I have just listed - hardware as in > functionality rather than mechanical construction - are things which I > really, really, really miss on the existing C1xx and Pirelli hw, things > which I miss both as a developer *and* as an end user. These missing > hw features are important enough to me to make the plan of building > our own phone MUCH more attractive than the alternative of limping > along forever on crippled Mot C1xx or Pirelli hw, attractive enough to > justify both the extra cost and the inconvenience of having a phone of > less-than-factory-quality mechanical construction. > > There is also a certain promotional benefit to having a phone of our > own physical make, as "ugly" as it may be, instead of a reprogrammed > Motorola or Pirelli. Considering how much of my life I have devoted > to the FreeCalypso project, the topic of this project comes up in > virtually every social interaction in my day-to-day life. But most > people are totally non-technical, and trying to explain the concept of > "firmware" to such non-technical people tends to be rather futile. > Even if we had our own aftermarket fw for the Pirelli or for some Mot > C1xx variant in a practically usable shape, people still probably won't > "get" it - all they would see is some random old phone. But if I were > to pull our own FreeCalypso phone out of my purse, a phone that very > obviously looks home-made, that might impress even non-technical people > differently. Something to consider. > > So - how do other members of our community feel? Would you *still* > want to use a Mot C1xx or Pirelli phone with aftermarket fw with all > of its limitations (the inherent hw limitations of each given model > PLUS the limitations of our fw stemming from incomplete understanding > of the alien hw) when you have the option of getting a FreeCalypso > phone instead? Or would you see reason and join the forward path of > building and using our own FreeCalypso hardware? > > In terms of firmware work, the bare-board prototype of our own FC phone > will be the perfect platform for me to do the main bulk of the work on > the UI and other handset functionality layers, including the model- > independent parts which will easily port over to the C139 or to the > Pirelli if that desire is still there. Thus if some members of our > community still desire usable FreeCalypso fw for the C139 or for the > Pirelli (no loudspeaker, no ring, vibrate only as discussed before), > it will be much easier for us to produce such firmware *after* our own > FC phone, rather than before. > > So - comments, opinions, flames? > > Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, > Mychaela > -- Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer Groningen https://www.vandervlis.nl/ _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] https://www.freecalypso.org/mailman/listinfo/community
