It's been a while since I've posted here but I was curious about a project that I don't know if anyone else has thought about. A while ago I read a writeup about the PiPhone which is rather ad-hoc, using an original Raspberry Pi and a lot of zipties. After reading about the release of the new CM3 I started wondering if anyone had designed a compact board that could give the compute module enough smarts to make a smartphone.
After some (not very thorough) Googling I couldn't find any such projects, so I thought I might start a thread talking about the feasibility of such a thing. Obviously this is hardly likely to be a "good" phone, but I think it would be a fun experience to create an open-hardware phone that is also upgradeable (as long as the CM platform is supported at least). Until someone can think of a better name I was thinking of calling this device the Pi Compute Module Phone, PiCMo Phone.
Goals
The goals of this project are to create an open-hardware phone based on the CM platform. At its core this should be a single PCB that a CM can plug into and get all the features required to have cellular capability. Once that is achieved, there should be a power solution designed, an interface, IO and case all designed (but should be open enough so that other users can create their own phone to suit their needs)
Features
This is a list of all features I believe this phone could have ideally, not necessarily what it must or will have, that will rely on what can actually be built.
- Interface for the CM
- GSM Capability
- Audio Out and Audio In
- SIM Card Tray
- Antenna (Either Internal or External)
- Power Input/Output
- Camera Input(s)
- Display Output(s)
- Touchscreen Input
- USB for Peripherals and/or Power
- WiFi and/or Bluetooth
- MicroSD for expandable Storage
- Battery Charging/Discharging
- Control Buttons
- Headphone Jack
- Vibrator for Physical Feedback
- Real Time Clock (RTC)
- Chassis to Contain this All
This is a list of components that could be used for the PiCMo Phone. Some of these are components that could be made into a single PCB to reduce size and complexity. Final Notes
This is so early in development it's not even an idea yet so I don't want anyone subscribing to this thread and setting money aside for a Kickstarter
and it should also be said I have no experience with the CM yet, and I've only made a few PCBs for my other Raspberry Pi projects that were very basic compared to something like this.I would really appreciate any comments, suggestions or thoughts on this, and if you like the idea and think you can do it then by all means do! I don't intend to make a product to sell, I would just like to collect together this information so other users could possibly take the plans and adapt them for their own needs and assemble it themselves.
Thanks for reading, hope it was at least a little interesting
