homebrew hardware and WiFi

michael at michaelshiloh.com michael at michaelshiloh.com
Sun Feb 18 22:52:52 CET 2007




On Sun, 18 Feb 2007, adrian cockcroft wrote:

> Hello, I'm new to the OpenMoko lists, but I'm a member of the Silicon
> Valley Homebrew Mobile Phone Club that started up last year at
> http://www.hbmobile.org . We have been working towards our own family
> of hardware designs, based mostly on http://www.gumstix.com processor
> boards, and will be adopting and contributing to whatever software
> seems useful. We are very happy that the Trolltech Greenphone and the
> OpenMoko project seem to have kick started an open source community
> around mobile phone applications, we already have Greenphone-toting
> members and several of us plan to get OpenMoko's when they ship to
> developers.
>
> Homebrew hardware takes the open phone concept one step further, and
> uses exclusively components that can be fully documented and specified
> without needing a manufacturer NDA. We are publishing our designs as
> we get them done, and I've been playing around with one-off case
> designs that can be produced on a 3D printer, to accomodate any LCD
> size and feature set - which has become known as the "my phone"
> project :-)
>
> There is a WiFi and Bluetooth combo card available here that some of
> us intend to use:
> http://www.embeddedworks.net/newsite/WLAN/oem_sip_80211g.html
>
> So if you want different design features than the Neo1973 offers, you
> really can go build it yourself rather than grumbling about it on the
> lists. It should be possible to run most of the OpenMoko software,
> especially if you stay with the same screen resolution etc. Homebrew
> designs are harder to minaturize so it works best with bigger format
> designs  based around 3.7" or 4.3" LCDs.
>
> Open phones are an idea who's time has come, we look forward to
> working together..
>
> Cheers Adrian

Nice to see you here, Adrian. I think there are a couple more of us who are on
both lists.

I encourage other OpenMoko participants to join the SVHMPC list, especially
those of you interested in the technical details of the hardware and software.
Like this list, members of the SVHMPC list are incredibly knowledgeable, have
wonderful insight into the issues and the solution, and are very generous in
sharing their knowledge and experience. I have learned a lot by reading both
of these lists.

Since Etel is near the home base of the SVHMPC, I have taken the liberty of
inviting them to the OpenMoko social gathering that will take place during
Etel at the end of this month. I look forward to a lively discussion,
technical and otherwise.

Michael




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