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> I'm building my own phone. Can you elaborate? This sounds pretty interesting.
by Diederich 8y ago
> I'm building my own phone.
Can you elaborate? This sounds pretty interesting.
- JohnFen 8y agoIt's essentially simple. What I have breadboarded and working right now is based on a Raspberry Pi (although I won't be using the Pi in the end, as it's too bulky -- I'll be using the functional equivalent on a board I'm designing). I'm using a 4G module to provide the cell functionality (you communicate with it much like with a modem) and a 4" LCD touch panel for the display. It is running Linux as the OS, with some custom code for things like the phone dialer, etc. It also has the other usual features like WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. It's really nothing more than a small Linux computer with a cell phone module attached. That was one of my design goals -- I wanted a real OS rather than something like Android. The only thing that I'm not entirely happy with at the moment is power draw, but I can greatly reduce that with a bit more work.
- borgel 8y agoWhose 4G modem did you go with?
- JohnFen 8y agoI'm using a Quectel EC25-E 4G/LTE.
- borgel 8y agoInteresting part! Looks like Mini PCI-E is the common formfactor, but some come on a little USB dongle. Is that the version you're using? Will it do voice/SMS? I haven't found any indicators either way.
- JohnFen 8y agoI'm using the Mini PCI for development, but I really need something that is a bit smaller for the final product. I haven't yet determined if this means that I'll need to use a different chipset. > Will it do voice/SMS? Yes, it does.
- borgel 8y agoCool thanks! It's exciting to run into an inexpensive LTE modem that can come in an easy to use package to use for stuff like this. If you get to a point where you've learned some interesting things and generated documentation/video/etc send me a note on Twitter (@ borgel). Might make a good Hackaday writeup!