Hi Paul, > Am 19.01.2017 um 13:38 schrieb Paul Boddie <[email protected]>: > > On Thursday 19. January 2017 06.24.35 H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote: >> Hi, >> someone notified me about this project: >> >> https://hackaday.io/project/19035-zerophone-a-raspberry-pi-smartphone/log/5 >> 1839-project-description-and-frequently-asked-questions >> >> What do you think? > > That people are perhaps too obsessed with Raspberry Pi devices, even though > claims are made about Pi Zero availability involving a site which presumably > pays out a jackpot if all three vendor stock indicators show "in stock". > Currently, only one shows "in stock". > > The Pi Zero may be cheap and relatively powerful but there appears to be some > more work required to replace the proprietary "firmware" with Free Software, > with such work apparently being done by the community, not officially. It's > also a product that exists on a seemingly discretionary basis, but I guess > that finding another single-board computer and reworking everything else is > all part of the "fun". > > (I also get infuriated when people just point others to eBay for sourcing of > random components from random vendors.)
Yes, that is too much tinkering. It is not reproducible for others. > > As for the device itself, I think it's an interesting take on older, simpler > phone designs, reminding me of my Nokia 5110 which I did dismantle (and then > reassemble) last year in order to take some photos. Indeed it is a simple "feature phone" from 15 years ago. Two or three years ago I read about a chinese GSM feature phone for 12 USD incl. battery, power supply and packaging. It did consist just of a SoC with GSM baseband glued on the display. Like in cheap pocket calculators. Of course such things are just cheap. And completely closed. > The Pi Zero might not add > too much to the device thickness, presumably being the middle board in the > second device in the picture showing four different things, despite the > pictures showing the Pi Zero separately in a bulky enclosure for no really > good reason. > > I don't really understand why the ATmega328P is needed when the SoC might > have > a chance of doing the keypad scanning, but perhaps that is an easier option > than doing lower-level things in Raspbian. Maybe there are not enough gpios for the keyboard matrix. > I'd also be concerned about power > consumption, mostly around the SoC, and what kind of batteries one might end > up using. I think they glue a power-bank on the side :) In other words: they did not (yet) care about. > There's far too much usage of Li-Poly pouches for everything in the > electronics hobbyist world that is arguably storing up trouble for everybody > down the line. > > But it's nice that the designer is trying to do everything in the open and to > emphasise Free Software. And I like the way that the physical aspects of the > device like the keypad design are freely available. Such things are often > overlooked in favour of the more exciting SoC-related elements of a design, > but here there is an opportunity for people like me to learn from these > things. Yes, that is the reason why I brought it to our attention that we all can learn from it. Innovation is sharing ideas and information and bringing together previously unrelated topics. > > Anyway, I shouldn't be one to criticise given that I'm not at this level when > it comes to designing hardware. But I do think that more sustainable choices > could be made with regard to the SoC solution. I see that the Pyra employs a > modular approach with its own CPU board that could be used with devices such > as this, and I guess that one of the EOMA family of products would be aimed > at > something like this as well. It would be interesting to see such avenues > pursued. Well, maybe someone builds a "Pyra Phone" around the Pyra CPU boards. I personally still have to deliver the GTA4A5 which is more challenging than the A3 an A4 (because there is much less support around and the unexpected production issue). BR, Nikolaus _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
