submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/diy@beehaw.org

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am looking to building my own phone from a SBC running a linux distro with plasma mobile and that can make calls. and I have some questions:

Where can I start?

Which SBC to choose?

How would I achieve the call functionality?

top 10 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] Guenther_Amanita@feddit.de 8 points 4 months ago

I think making an "usable" phone (especially one that is able to make calls, etc.) yourself is extremely hard to do, if not impossible.
Many "tinker"-phone startups/ devices, like PinePhone or Librem, who made the phones from scratch or mostly themselves afaik, had huge problems in the beginning with basic functions, like making calls.

There's a project (mainly for kids and students) somewhere to make E-readers themselves, maybe you can start with that?
I'll link it to you if I found it.
That might act as a base.

If you want a good phone that gives off DIY-vibes (modularity, repairability, etc.) but want something proper and modern, then check out Fairphone. Afaik, the FP4 also supports PostmarketOS and other mobile distros.

Remember to take everything I said with a huge grin of salt, since I'm not that well informed in that area of DIY- or Linux phones. A lot of what I said might be wrong, take it only as idea or starting point.

But if you really want to start this project, good luck. You'll need it 🫠

[-] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 4 months ago

To add, in the US, most service providers will not let a device on their network until it has gone through FCC approval. You can get around this by buying a cell module, which has gone through approval, but most of those are data only last I looked.

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago

Fairphone especially is such an attractive option to me but the thing is that it is a dream to me to build my own smartphone, one that truly is mine . But this gives me an idea I have seen videos of people building cyberdecks from framework laptop parts, makes me wonder if I could do such a thing with fairphone parts.

[-] nyan@lemmy.cafe 6 points 4 months ago

Assuming that this is a tinkerer/hobby project and you know your odds of getting a daily-driver phone out of it aren't good:

You can get various Pi add-ons and USB-addressable cards that supposedly have texting and/or voice call capability. Look up a company called Sixfab. How well they work in practice, I don't know. Be prepared to immerse yourself in a large manual of AT commands and cell phone protocol stuff.

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 months ago

So things seem to be pointing at a pi for now? Yes this is meant as a hobby project but trying to daily drive it as a phone that can make calls(as it is the only feature of a phone that is really mandatory to me) is also amonv my plans

[-] nyan@lemmy.cafe 3 points 4 months ago

If you're really against Pis, you could get one of the USB-controlled modules and try hooking it up to something like a LattePanda, but that's going to be more expensive.

You could also theoretically get a cell modem chip from a company like Quectel and design the supporting add-on board yourself for any SBC of your choice, but I suspect that's further down the rabbit hole than you want to go.

So, yeah, the Pi is probably the smartest choice if you really want to do your own hardware build instead of just buying a PinePhone.

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I will try a pi alternative first(orange pi etc.)

[-] marv99@feddit.de 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Your question reminded my immediately about one of my favorite 35c3 talks Butterbrotdosen-Smartphone - Mein DIY-Smartphone-Bau from 2018-12-29. It is in German language, but has an English translation, too. Maybe it can give you some good starting ideas?

Video: 1080p

Story, Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

I would like to show you how I built a smartphone from a Raspberry PI. The problems and difficulties I encountered and the solutions I found. The project is not yet finished, there are still a few small things missing. Nevertheless, I want to show you my smartphone in the practical sandwich box and tell you how it came about.

I had no idea that building a smartphone could be so complicated. Raspberry Pi + touch display is not all there is to think about in this project. At the moment, the smartphone project lives in a sandwich box and attracts attention on the subway. If the power bank can passthrough, that's an advantage, I've found. Setting up the X and Y axes on the touch display so that you can also use the on-screen keyboard was not so easy. And I had to realize that Landscape is not the right size to work smoothly. Most Linux programs are not directly touch-compatible or require too much memory. Then there were also big challenges! Learning to solder was one of them. First learning how to solder, then learning how to desolder, and then daring to use the PI. I would like to tell you these and other stories about building my smartphone.

[-] thegreekgeek@midwest.social 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I found a few starting points!

RasPi Smartphone

ESP32 Cell phone

DIY Android Phone

EDIT: I was originally looking for THIS one but it's not smart.

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

thank you ♥

this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024

18 points (100.0% liked)

Do It Yourself

7611 readers

100 users here now

Make it, Fix it, Renovate it, Rehabilitate it - as long as you’ve done some part of it yourself, share!

Especially for gardening related or specific do-it-yourself projects, see also the Nature and Gardening community. For more creative-minded projects, see also the Creative community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Gaywallet@beehaw.org

alyaza@beehaw.org

circularfish@beehaw.org