[Tinkerphones] DIY "Smart"-Phone

[Paul Boddie]

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.)

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. 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. I'd also be concerned about power 
consumption, mostly around the SoC, and what kind of batteries one might end 
up using. 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.

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.

Paul