The actual problem isn’t at all making a 4G mini-computer: you can literally buy the necessary parts as modules and wire them together with a a half-way decent microcontroller board and an smallish LED display and then make some code for it in something like Arduino IDE (though I would recommend Platform IO + VS Code instead).
The problem is making it small (especially thin) and capable of running of batteries for days rather than hours.
For example, if you’re trying to actually solve the hard part of the problem you would be better of using a micro-controller with an ARM core rather than the ESP32 as those things are designed to use less power. Also you wouldn’t be able to use boards as those things usually waste power versus designing your own.
That said, it’s a nice hobbyist project.
How’s RISC doing these days…
Is hackster.io any good for tech news? And is it more of a general tech news site or more specialized?
And if so, any good software/hardware hacking site aside hackaday?I am really interested in where this project goes.
ESP32 projects are low powered. Not everything needs 5G and the latest Snapdragon.
Esp32 isnt really known for being low powered when talking about modules like these in general, quite the opposite really.
Nrf and others are better alternatives
Why are people so pissed at this FelixCress guy? He is just wrong, there is no need to debate.
I’m personally not pissed but I’m not sure if they’re missing something or not. Or just old fashioned ragebaiting. If it’s ragebaiting, they got me.
Because Felix is wrong and hates technology and the people who make it.
They probably hate Linux and being a vegan queer furry too.
Nice. The 4g module is $17.90 from digikey, much less than last time I looked. I wonder if there’s a 5g version. I also wonder if there’s any issue using retail sim cards and making LTE voice calls.
the reddit discussion is interesting
Any particular reason?
There must have been a phone marketed as ePhone before now?
If not maybe try Espressone
Are ESP32 secure enough to have them directly on the internets?
It depends on the code you run on it, really. A lot of the time, too, 4G will be behind CG-NAT which at least means the listening ports aren’t automatically on the internet.
This is ridiculous. What is needed is a support for advert & bloat & forced updates free smart phone, not reinventing the wheel. Yes, someone must be first - but it is about software, not hardware.
Aside from the irony, there’s lots to be improved for a Desktop/touch-only computer if you can start from scratch, vs. the current server hardware and software stack with a desktop HID shoehorned on it.
Also, can we please get rid of “recalculating a still image 60+ times a second just for the fun of it” and take a “changes-only, the rest buffered” approach? We don’t use CRT displays anymore. Also, CPU architectures could be event-driven, instead of cycling.
These two could allow for far simpler Megahertz computer designs in the future, vs. the overpowered and inefficient (GHz) monoliths from only 3 companies we have currently.
Someone: *Makes a cool hobby project*
Internet people: “Trash. I don’t approve. How dare you make something that isn’t useful to me. Fuck you and die.”
People that do shite themselves are the worst.
Someone: makes something completely and utterly useless.
Internet people: voice justified criticism.
Half wits: “how dare you criticise the creators!”
Why does the end product of an electronics learning project need to be useful? Or any hobby project? Your criticism was that their hobbies should yield something useful, but where’s the “justification” for that? What’s wrong with just having fun?
Quarter wits: “How dare you have fun”
Why does the end product of an electronics learning project need to be useful? Or any hobby project?
So we agree it is useless? OK.
Kind of, it’s a pretty shit phone, and the creator is not pretending otherwise. Why are you so offended and why should they do whatever you want them to do instead?
I am not. I said it was ridiculous and led to nowhere with software being much better solution. Suddenly multiple people felt offended by this simple statement of fact.
Solution to what? Electronics hobby? Dictating what people’s projects should and shouldn’t be is kind of an asshole thing to do.
Dude. It’s a hobby project. It doesn’t need to solve major global market problems for you. What an absolutely bizarre thing to get this angry over.
Read again.
And I am not your dude, pal.
Pal, my dude, my buddy, you’re raging against someone’s garage proof-of-concept as if they held the key to the software problems on modern smartphones, and downvoting anyone who tells you to chill out. Lots of people do much more useless things than this every day, so why does this one thing enrage you so much?
I am not raging against anything. I am calling it useless and ridiculous because it is useless and ridiculous.
… And I am not your pal, mate.
And I’m not your mate, shining star, light of my life
I’m sure many people call you useless, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exist
many people call you useless,
You must be thinking about your parents and yourself.
but it is about software, not hardware.
Hey Bestie! Sorry, but you are absolutely wrong here. 😊
There are several options for free and open source software for mobile applications, and it only works with a teeny tiny sliver of the available hardware because almost none of the hardware is even remotely open. 😭
At this stage, it is absolutely about hardware that actually supports the Open Source community, because all the software imaginable is useless if it can’t run on any available hardware! 😁
Kthx, Lots of Love! 🤩
They are all shit except jello may be. If it was that good it will be a tsunami into the market. You cannot make a phone with such a poor hardware. 4G said it all
I like Jello! My favorite flavor is Lime, how about you? 😃
Also, 4G was the dominant mobile technology for over 10 years, there are probably close to 10 BILLION 4G phones on the planet, WOW! 🤯 It sure seems like someone was able to make a phone with such hardware!
I like Mint too.
Hourra for Jolla
Pinephone is running with 4 x ARM A53 and 1 ARM Mali 400 and it still damn slow. Not reactive. ESP32 is perfect for a DIY phone, for hobbyists. It’s not a first try. The 6G is starting 4G switch off will start in less than 2 years. Dead before to be born lol
Hacking isn’t about reinventing the wheel. This isn’t a finished product destined for a market. Even if it was, think about the small business utilities involved in local knowledge (“low-tech”): many small producers (farmers, shops, etc.) still use “obsolete” mechanisms and improvised mechanical technology. If that could reflect personal or community knowledge into real technology, even if “low technology”, that’s already a social gain for those people.
Besides that, it’s worth it for a personal project where the end goal is obtaining knowledge about how things work in the world. Not everything is about stocks, and stocks doesn’t fill all of the “market” also.
it can make calls, and send texts," LuckyBor writes of the project, which perhaps stretches the definition of “smartphone”
… And you need to remove the screen to insert a sim card. Now tell me again this is not ridiculous.
Take the first one off the shelf smartfone, wipe out the entire software, replace it with bloat free, spyware free, update free equivalent and voila!
Absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel, this is a road to nowhere.
I do not think you understand what a hobby prototype means, educate yourself then come talk amongst adults
My son put a lego car toghther yesterday. Look, a hobby prototype! 🙄
Congratulations, looks like your son has a chance to grow up to be a sensible and creative adult, unlike his wet fart of a father
I wonder how many fucking morons will try to defend this idiocy. Congratulations, you are on the level of 5y/o and so is the creator of this useless junk.
I remember having to remove the battery of one of my phones to change the SIM card. It was particularly annoying because that phone/SIM had issues registering so I would have to reinsert the SIM card a few times and reboot each time.
I think they’re having more fun making it than looking for a perfect solution. The fastest way to accomplish this is just buying some flipphone from Kyocera or something.
Also it’s a prototype. It wouldn’t survive in the real world in it’s current state.
I think they’re having more fun making it than looking for a perfect solution.
Possibly, thus my point - reinventing the wheel.
I wouldn’t consider it reinventing the wheel. Giant algae tanks to replace trees is reinventing the wheel. They’re just making a phone out of parts that would have originally been in a cheap phone at one point (before they got turned into development boards).
If I wanted to be super uncharitable, what the maker did was akin to this.
I wouldn’t consider it reinventing the wheel
I do. What they are trying to create already exists. What is really needed is non intrusive software rather than hardware.
Which already exists and has existed for ages.
Lineage os (Android), e/os (Android), postmarket os (straight up Linux) would all be excellent answers for cutdown/debloatable mobile phone OSes. (also Ubuntu touch and whatever the pinephone shipped with)
Its probably a lot harder making an unintrusive os than it is making this.
This is cutdown hardware leading to simplified and cutdown software as it’s a necessity here.
… And you need to remove the screen to insert a sim card. Now tell me again this is not ridiculous.
Lmao, it prob doesn’t even have a working software kit, you would have to arduino some shit yourself.
I don’t think you understood what this is & who is it for.
Removed by mod
This poster has never made an LED blink and it shows.
