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ESP32 WiPhone

The WiPhone project is an open source mobile IP phone. WiPhone is intended to be hackable, modular, cheap, and open, while remaining usable.

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The campaign is over. You can pre-order here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/wiphone-a-phone-for-hackers-and-makers#/

Or join the mailing list to follow along:


Description

WiPhone Prototype
WiPhone Prototype

The WiPhone project is an open source phone capable of making free calls through the internet. It makes calls over WiFi, without the need for a cellular radio.

It's also an open source, self-contained Arduino development platform. It comes in a nice package, with a battery, power supply, and on/off circuitry, unlike most other dev boards. Once your project is done, instead of an eyesore of tangled wires, it's discreet and visually appealing.

The phone is intended to be hackable, modular, cheap, and open, while remaining usable by everyday people.

Motivation

Modern smartphones are more and more a tool we don't own, we're only allowed to carry around. One that serves the interests of those who allow you to buy it in return for the tentacles that get inserted into your life. You don't own it, it owns you. It tracks you, serves you ads, and sucks away your time with mindless dopamine hits. We want a phone that's firmly in our control, optimized for the convenience of the owner, not various corporate boards, ad and tracking networks and government organizations.

We want a phone that reverses that, and puts us back in control. Maybe even fights back a little. Full control of the firmware to allow us to repurpose the phone into whatever application we want. Hardware with accessible I/O and an easy disassembly process.

Benefits

  • Completely free calling, as long as you can set up an account and install a SIP/VoIP app on the devices you need to call.
  • International calls are same as local ones. No restrictions based on borders or calling plans.
  • Don’t need to deal with another country’s SIM cards or radio compatibility when traveling.
  • Keep the same address all over the world.
  • Set up your kid with a phone that lets them contact you without the distractions of a smartphone.
  • Give a pre-configured phone to an elderly relation set up with just the numbers they need.
  • Keep a spare in a bag in case your primary phone gets broken or lost. Don’t need to maintain a service plan for the backup.
  • Avoid being tracked by cell tower triangulation or IMSI catching (Stingray).
  • Load your own firmware to implement different calling protocols or completely different use-cases. The firmware is unlocked and freely modifiable.
  • Commercial phone interchange services are available if you need to call someone on a regular phone. Typical plans cost about $25/year (US or Europe providers).

Planned Features

  • polished enough normal (non-hackers) are happy to use it as an everyday phone
  • open source
  • can call other WiPhones using the internet
  • can call smartphones or computers (using an app installed on the device being called)
  • wireless firmware updates
  • Arduino compatible software
  • Espressif ESP32 processor
  • roughly 120 x 65 x 12mm
  • 320 x 240 (2.4“) LCD screen
  • spare I/O broken out to user-accessible header

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  • Add A Custom Button Function

    stupid07/16/2021 at 09:25 0 comments

    Having a dedicated button on your phone to do something special can be convenient.

    This video shows how to customize the WiPhone to respond to a button press and run custom software. Using software, or software combined with a daughterboard, this can give you a custom input for almost anything you like: turn the lights on in your house, remote start your car, open your garage door, control your stereo, or even act as an interface to other equipment built by you.

  • Soldering Tiny Wires To Avoid Buying A Thousand Fake Chips

    stupid06/11/2021 at 02:52 0 comments

    There is currently a shortage of ICs in much of the electronics industry and that means we need to be extra cautious about testing to verify the parts we are buying are actually what we paid for.

    An IC socket and a dev board can quickly test chips from multiple alternate vendors. We start with a regular dev boarddesigned around the same chip we want to test, remove the chip and solder 0.1mm wires between the pads on the dev board and a test socket. Now we have an easy way to swap the chip without additional soldering.


  • Self-Host Your Own Firmware For WiPhone

    stupid05/28/2021 at 10:09 0 comments

    Most phones, you can either accept the updates supplied by whoever made your phone or you just don't get updates.

    We've made the WiPhone firmware update system configurable. If you want to host your own firmware you can with very little setup required. Check the video to see how to do it, but basically you just:

    • set up an HTTPS enabled web server and put the compiled firmware on it
    • put an INI style config file on the same server that can always be found at the same URL. each time you add a new firmware file, update it to hold latest firmware version and what URL to find it at
    • in the WiPhone, set the firmware update URL from the default WiPhone firmware update URL to wherever you store your INI file
    • enjoy the benefits of running your own firmware update server and completely controlling what software runs on your phone

  • LoRa Text Messaging

    stupid04/13/2021 at 20:46 3 comments

    2 WiPhones with LoRa daughterboards can exchange text messages using the regular text message interface on the phone.

    It works just like sending a text message. Contacts have an optional LoRa address field that can be entered in the same place you set up phone contacts. When you send a text there is an option to send either to the contact's LoRa or SIP address.

  • WiPhone Teardown

    stupid03/26/2021 at 04:49 0 comments

    A quick teardown and reassembly of the phone.

  • Production Parts​

    stupid10/23/2019 at 01:57 0 comments

    Note: This post is out of date. Our blog is updated more frequently.

    Status

    Mostly doing assembly and reliability testing while we wait for the certifications to finish. So far we've spent a lot of time on choosing a clear adhesive for the front covers that looks good, is manageable from an assembly standpoint, and strong enough to work well with our limited bonding surface. We've also tracked down why the buttons would sometimes miss clicks. The 3mm metal domes we were using have issues with even slight misalignment so we're moving up to 5mm with a flat on both sides. Like these:

    We did recently exchange a few messages with the compliance lab. Hard to know when they will finish, but at least they are making progress. Fingers crossed for finishing in the next few weeks and then we can order production quantities of the main PCBA.

    We'll also be sending everyone the Cutest Screwdriver Ever for removal of the back cover:

    Daughterboards

    While I've been concentrating on the production side of things, Aamir has been working on releasing a few daughterboard designs: the Mega Battery Pack, LoRa, and a 4G LTE backpack. We committed to LoRa during the campaign, and hopefully at least these other 2 will be ready by ship time. If you want to upgrade, send a message to support@wiphone.io and we'll work out how to send what you want along with your pledge.

    Color Choice:

    After considering the replies, here's the plan: we'll do a green board overall since that's easy for production as well as rework, but we'll add some black to just the areas visible from the front. Best of both worlds. I briefly flirted with the idea of using black FR-4 with clear soldermask (which would have looked absolutely amazing), but backed away from the edge since it would be a colossal pain to find a vendor, expensive, and we need to actually ship parts soon. Maybe some sort of special edition later.

    Slideshow

    Some random pics from recent work:


  • FCC Certification and Reliability Testing

    stupid09/18/2019 at 12:13 0 comments

    Note: This post is mirrored from our Kickstarter page, and is a bit out of date.

    Status

    We got the next board rev back. Board fab took quite a while longer than it was supposed to, but so far it's looking like we may not need another significant revision before we make the real ones, so that's nice and it knocks a big chunk out of the schedule. Sorry for the relative silence, but from the time we got the boards back until now we've been doing everything we could to verify they worked well and prep for certification since that's currently what's blocking the final ship date. Currently working on:

    • debugging the soft reset circuit
    • amp chip isn't accepting the config on the new board. probably because the timing of the signal
    • RF tuning (just finished today)

    As soon as the remainder of the debugging is done we can start the certification process for FCC/IC/CE, assuming we don't find any show-stoppers on this board rev. Certification takes about a month, so we've lost any chance of shipping units in August unless we ship a few to places that don't require certification. But as soon as certification is done we can fab the rest of the production boards. Most of the mechanical parts are starting to be made over the next week or so.

    Board upgrades on this rev:

    • SMD vibration motor and mic
    • better ear speaker
    • added a footprint for a loudspeaker
    • added a footprint for a rear mic
    • brighter backlight, and now dimmable
    • SD card easier to remove

    Mechanical Design Tweaks: For the most part the mechanical design is done now and we've been concentrating on making it durable, easy to manufacture, and user friendly. Some changes:

    • Spent some quality time mashing keys and scratching my head. Finally ended up modifying the design to remove most of the material on the back side. This lets the buttons compress freely and gives a much better button feel. I am satisfied with it now.
    • Finished design of the little grills that go over the mic and ear speaker. These are kind of cool. The tiny holes are actually etched, the stainless steel sheet stock is stamped into a dome shape, then the (black) color is added by vapor deposition.
    • Tightened up some areas for better alignment and fiddled around specifying tolerances for various things so we don't have surprises later where things don't fit right.
    • Added a couple more locations for keypad backlighting to even it out. There were a couple dark spots.
    Mic and Speaker Grill
    Mic and Speaker Grill

    Reliability Testing:

    We're also in the middle of a testing and selection process for the adhesive to bond the screen to the frame. We want to get this right since there's not a lot of area for the bond and it will be exposed to UV over the life of the phone.

    To that end, we bought an oven so we can do some accelerated life testing on the adhesives, as well as general accelerated life testing on the overall phone. We've also been carrying the phones around and generally playing with them for a while now.

    What Color?

    We need to pick a color for the main PCB. I think either green or black would be good. Green is going to be obviously recognizable as a PCB and should provide a nice hacker aesthetic as well as an accent to the otherwise monochromatic color scheme of the front. Black is... black. A hacker-friendly color that matches the rest of the phone. Who has strong opinions on color?

    Backer Surveys

    Backer surveys will go out soon. I think we will try to send the survey to a limited number of people first so we have time to realize what questions we forgot to ask before we blast everyone with it.

    ...

    And finally, some people were asking about the results of the Noisebridge meetup: It went well. I think around 8 different people showed up over the course of the evening. Nobody obviously disliked the phone, so that's cool :). Had a few nice chats about how the phone works and various applications people...

    Read more »

  • Big Dead Bug

    stupid06/28/2019 at 14:25 1 comment

    We finally got to the bottom of some audio issues that had us running in circles for a while. This was a tricky one because there were actually 2 separate issues and we added a codec and changed our audio library at the same time we started noticing them, so we wasted a while thinking it was our stuff, or the new audio library (spoiler: the one that had us spinning our wheels the longest was an ESP32 issue).

    Issue #1 was the clock source for the audio codec. Originally it was coming from a separate oscillator, but apparently the right way to handle it is to drive it from the same source as the I2S.

    Solution: delete the external oscillator and add a jumper the existing boards to use a pin from the ESP32 as the clock signal.

    Issue #2 we originally called the drunken codec because we noticed it around the same time we implemented G.711 and it seemed like that was the source of the weirdness. It make you sound drunk. Funny, but hard to debug. Andriy spent quite a while trying to see if we had some sort of endianness problem or a math mistake in the codec, but everything looked right. Shortly after that we added an audio library so that we could play MP3s, and that sounded great. Yay! We fixed it. Except, no, actually it only sounded good for audio playback. Calls still were still coming from someone who had been at a drinking establishment for quite some time. So we started looking at the network stack and audio buffers used for calling. A lot of debugging later and the audio pipeline for calling is simplified considerably, but the issue remains.

    So eventually we tried recording audio in various situations and noticed something weird:

    For a 16kHz sample, it looked like high frequency (around 8 kHz) noise was overlaid on the signal. Except there was no noise when the input level was low. And we also noticed that what sounded "drunk" at 8kHz sounded like sort of a buzzy robotic voice at 16kHz. Strange.

    Now that we had some real observations to play with, the issue quickly unraveled itself as the following:

    • The ESP32 was doing it.
    • "It" being chronological swapping of every other audio sample.
    • But only for mono. Stereo came through as expected.

    One of the things that made it so hard to debug (apart from all the other changes we made clouding the issue near the time we noticed it), was it only happened in calls since that was the only time we used mono. And it only happened when the call was between a WiPhone and something else (not between WiPhones) since the error self corrected if the audio got sent to and processed another ESP32.

    Anyway, now you will only sound normal instead of drunk or robotic during calls.

  • First Production Candidate PCB

    stupid06/21/2019 at 07:28 2 comments

    The bank situation is resolved. We managed to pay some vendors yesterday. Hoping to switch banks ASAP once I'm back in the States. No sense in wasting any more words on an inefficient system with no hope of influencing changes.

    So, moving on to things we can have a positive effect on:

    Upcoming Board Revision

    Hoping to send out the next PCB revision within a week or so. This is the first production candidate (likely there will be at least one more revision).

    Other Miscellania

    • New speaker sounds better, but it's too thick. The actual part dimensions of the sample didn't match the drawing.
    • Also got a new vibrator motor sample.
    • Switched to a locking style SD card holder
    • Looking into why boot takes so long (bootloader + loading data from the external flash takes around 3 seconds)
    • Changed the I/O to eliminate screen flashing on boot
    • Started work on an automated tester/programmer
    • Added a dialing screen.
    • Ongoing call quality debugging.

  • Chase Bank: #$%^&!!!!

    stupid06/17/2019 at 16:35 3 comments

    Stuck in China due to Chase Bank simultaneously fucking the project in the ass and being a giant bag of limp, helpless dicks.

    Their fraud detection algorithm locked our account and now the WiPhone project can't move forward until Chase unlocks it again. Which apparently requires buying a plane ticket and fly half way around the world. Which requires money that's currently locked in the account. And time that could be more productively spent doing practically anything else.

    Details:

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2103809433/wiphone-a-phone-for-hackers-and-makers/posts/2537406

    And a twitter thread with Chase here. Feel free to join in and let them know what  a bunch of helpless incompetents they are:

    https://twitter.com/Hack_EDA/status/1139769365119684608

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Discussions

CHTung wrote 10/24/2023 at 06:03 point

Is this project still going? or is this project dead?
Can we still get WiPhones from the website? How can I get one if my country is not on the list of delivery?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Nikguy321 wrote 08/15/2023 at 17:27 point

Hey, I was supposed to get the source code with the phone but never did. In fact, I never got a tracking email, but I did get the phone.... Could I get a copy? Order number 9USJ-YUV0

  Are you sure? yes | no

zyndram wrote 07/22/2023 at 14:50 point

I need computer/cell phone compatible communicator.

https://reticulum.network/ or wire, matrix, simplex

  Are you sure? yes | no

tywy wrote 06/14/2022 at 10:27 point

meybe using audio on tox or matrix? in my opinion voip standard is death

  Are you sure? yes | no

tywy wrote 06/14/2022 at 10:24 point

this device can using wifi mesh?

  Are you sure? yes | no

esiako wrote 10/20/2021 at 07:31 point

Lora Module will be compatible with PineDio from Pine64.org?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Vladymyr wrote 06/02/2021 at 08:40 point

Nice idea and such device to have !

Is there any plan in future to implement video support ?
But im afraid that ESP32 is enough fast. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 06/04/2021 at 02:47 point

We would like to add a camera daughterboard but it's going to be tricky to do it with the pins we have available.

  Are you sure? yes | no

esiako wrote 10/20/2021 at 07:34 point

meybe using other 'heart' ? feather format will be great

for example https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/08/28/orangecrab-is-an-open-source-hardware-feather-compatible-lattice-ecp5-fpga-board/

  Are you sure? yes | no

marazm wrote 06/01/2021 at 10:48 point

Why not USB C for power and data?

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 06/04/2021 at 02:48 point

We chose micro USB because we had to limit the scope enough to actually finish the project. If we do a V2 it will most likely use USB-C.

  Are you sure? yes | no

marazm wrote 06/06/2021 at 11:43 point

ok, I'm waiting for usb-c and better ,eficient energetic procesor , for example stm without blob wifi

  Are you sure? yes | no

marazm wrote 03/21/2021 at 15:32 point

I need mesh wifi phone. offgrid device with autonomic infrastructure. 

one small question. Is possible add sorftware mesh for my router, raspberry pi etc? simple backup network and comunication for emergency.

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 05/28/2021 at 09:59 point

You could install Asterisk or another SIP server on your local network. That would give you communications over whatever area your local wifi covers.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ee334 wrote 05/28/2021 at 17:41 point

emergency no need routers. mesh network wifi inside phone (and lora too)

Is possible using any ESP32 directly from linux and send text message to wiphone?

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 05/28/2021 at 23:50 point

@ee334 as written right now, the firmware can send point to point LoRa messages, but the SMS's that go over WiFi would need a central router.

We do have some examples we are about to publish that should show how to programmatically send an SMS, and from those it wouldn't be too hard to have something connected to the WiPhone UART or a UDP/TCP port trigger sending an SMS.

On Linux you wouldn't actually need to connect to a WiPhone to send an SMS. As long as you have a SIP/VoIP account you could send the message directly through a SIP library, assuming both the provider and library support SMS.

  Are you sure? yes | no

marazm wrote 05/29/2021 at 18:05 point

text message != sms

  Are you sure? yes | no

marazm wrote 06/06/2021 at 11:44 point

asterix no have encryption end-to-end

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Leslie Marlowe wrote 01/16/2021 at 02:17 point

I need a Wiphone

  Are you sure? yes | no

marazm wrote 05/29/2021 at 18:05 point

Why only one?

Buy 3 :P

  Are you sure? yes | no

Leslie Marlowe wrote 05/30/2021 at 10:53 point

2 months ago you wanted mesh with wiphone" written above and today you are asking me to buy 3, I'll pay for one can you deliver 3? wiphone with lora

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Sven Jungclaus wrote 03/30/2020 at 10:22 point

It would be great if you could ship the masks to europe as well :-)

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 03/30/2020 at 11:26 point

We can ship to Europe, we just don't have the shipping calculation set up on the website. If you queue up an order and send a screenshot of the checkout page to support@wiphone.io we can make it happen.

  Are you sure? yes | no

mirosan wrote 07/18/2019 at 08:29 point

Any thoughts on incorporating a p2p mode using LoRa modules? This would be a complete telephony network between any LoRa equiped phones within 5-20km radius. Clearly Sip would be for wifi calling and LoRa for offgrid calling. It could be defined on a per caller's phonebook entry and so on. It could be initially only messages and if close enough ie enough bandwidth calling too. 

This would be really excellent between cars/bikes in a convoy or in fact whilst in the backcountry (where the range is the best anyway) and so on.

  Are you sure? yes | no

william wrote 07/22/2019 at 14:56 point

i will be working on just that...  i am a retired hacker/tinker, wanting to link wiphones between myself and my father...  he is 95, going blind, and mostly deaf... my project will include very large (feelable) keypad, and extra large fonts, so my father can even use a phone...  LoRa with hacked gps, and voice/sound packets...

william...

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Hsingai Tigris Altaica wrote 05/18/2020 at 21:40 point

You have a website/gitrepo somewhere? I want to develop a DTN with a near RealTime push to talk style(I'm worried about the throughput for full duplex) thou could do VOX. It's for where you would rather have buffering rather than skipped frames. https://hackaday.io/project/171733-wakan-dtn in my project.

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mirosan wrote 07/23/2019 at 03:58 point

I believe LoRa is a broadcast medium where all modules within range do recieve all signals but only the module with the right encryption key can extract the contents so the destination "phone no" is the encryption key or better said decryption key. Whack that in the address book. Maybe use some sort of a encrypted ping mechanism determines that the contact is reachable via radio and thus LoRa is to be used...

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william wrote 06/25/2019 at 06:01 point

heh...   finally found the "Next" button...

on the digital/analog ground plane issue: don't forget that mic can is an antenna...

yall do some sweet work...

william...

  Are you sure? yes | no

william wrote 06/10/2019 at 13:08 point

first off, awsum project...!   second, wish i were stupid as "stupid"...   ;-)

main interest is in getting communication between myself and my father while shopping (as in walmart)...   he is 95, half blind, and going deaf...   he has problems with "standard" phone keypads, and small type on displays...   so was wondering if  there was any way to rebuild front keyboard for LARGE keys...   and soft load LARGE FONTS...   also, any plans on gps...?

looking at buying 2 pro models with long range radios, will they have soft drivers to "chat" to each other...?   also, (finally), can 2 wifi phones talk WITHOUT a wifi hub...?

(willing to carry around "pocket-pi-wifi-hub" if needed)...

ONE last question: 915mhz is the LoRa freq for usa...?

thanx...

william...

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 06/11/2019 at 13:03 point

It would be pretty tricky to modify the main keypad since the electrical contacts are closely spaced. A daughterboard keypad could be done relatively easily on whatever pitch you like (but that would require some software modifications, and it would make the phone considerably more bulky). We do have the ability to change the font size, but the UI would need to be redone to arrange things properly, new icons, etc.

GPS: likely will do a daughterboard at some point, as long as there's enough of a market to support us doing it.

We are currently working toward fulfilling the commitments for the Kickstarter, which includes the physical LoRa radios. Once that's done we'll figure out what to do next. I'm actually hoping someone who gets an early LoRa radio will add the software for chatting before we have a chance to do it... we'll see.  We have a huge list of stuff people have asked for and it's going to be hard to prioritize it.

At the hardware level I believe 2 WiPhones could talk with each other without a hub. But the software doesn't currently support it. Carrying a hub should work fine, though.

Yes, 915 is the US band. We will attempt to send people a radio that operates in their local band.

  Are you sure? yes | no

william wrote 06/12/2019 at 01:11 point

would the keypad possibly be i2c...?   [ built a keypad / alarm for nokia phone way back when, using philips 82xx parallel to ic2 chip ]

could make cover for present keypad, then have a few big replacement keys for my pop...

for my application, don't care about icons/graphics...  just NEED large fonts...

very few functions required on my pop's phone...  (call me, hang up, simple chats)...

i could work on the LoRa chat...  what dev env do you use as a base...?

any simulator / dev kits i would need...?

most of my hackwork is via (lisp or bash)...

william...

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 06/12/2019 at 06:24 point

@william: our current keypad design uses an SN7326 keyscanner.


datasheet: http://www.si-en.com/uploadpdf/SN7326201291193746.pdf)

A while back we made dev board for testing the keypad, before it was integrated into the main design. It's posted to github: https://github.com/ESP32-WiPhone/SN7326-25-Button-Breakout. It is I2C, along with a reset and interrupt line.


I don't know if the design had any small changes since we posted it, but there is a reasonable chance if you downloaded those Eagle files it would just be a matter of rearranging the buttons to suit your needs. The pitch may even be big enough already. And I think you can buy some keycaps for those switches to make the buttons bigger (there's an image on the github page that shows the old dev board).

If you do this let me know and I can take the time to verify if the design changed or not. I think there are some test points that would be fairly easy to solder to. So if you removed the onboard keyscanner and jumped into those testpoints with your custom keypad it should work.


The firmware is done in Arduino. I think any ESP32 based dev board could be used to debug the keypad (or really anything that speaks I2C), at least initially.

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william wrote 06/24/2019 at 06:10 point

i don't know your business model, but i build things...  willing to give designs to the project if can tap into some assistance in areas where i am weak, to get design completed...  more concerned with having working modules i need than money...

william...

  Are you sure? yes | no

william wrote 06/24/2019 at 06:05 point

RE: stupid wrote 2 days ago@william

cool! thanks for the order.

--------------------------------------------------

need working board which i can hook NEW iic keypad to and also looking at adding a codec via iic (i2c)...

do NOT need everything to be working, just the microprocessor running YOUR code, and a place to hook i2c device(s) to...

breadboard/prototype ok, just must be running real wiphone code...

do not think i need source, as what i will be building will emulate existing hardware...

keypad must operate in real time, and should be tested with central controller under real world load, as close as possible to actual product as possible...

(perhaps might need some source assistance when it comes to the codec for LoRa voice packet, hooks for packet driver mostly)...

if not too late, willing to purchase another wiphone pro as per deal for early developers...

just want what i can get soonest...

william...

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stupid wrote 06/25/2019 at 12:58 point

check your private messages, I listed a couple options for getting you some hardware faster

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Anonymous P wrote 04/04/2019 at 10:42 point

Hello, I am creating a project using a Pi Zero to record audio, playback audio and other features mainly aimed a birdwatchers (search up Pi Portable Recorder). I was seeing if a switch to using an ESP32 would be a great step. However, I don't have the time to code a GUI program from scratch and was wondering if the code is available for the GUI or will be soon as it make a switch to the ESP32 worthwhile. At the moment I am using a good library called ZPUI on the Pi. Also, I notice you have the keypad files on Github, thanks for that! A nice keypad (debounce, rubber overlay etc.) looked to be a hard bit of my project but this looks extremly useful.

Thanks,

Louis

  Are you sure? yes | no

stupid wrote 04/04/2019 at 15:50 point

If you just want to quickly get a GUI working I think I'd recommend sticking with the Pi, unless other parts of your system need real time code or you have other constraints I don't know about. Graphics are just easier to make work on Linux than on a lower level system.

If you want some ESP32 GUI stuff that's ready to go now, there are a number of libraries out there for M5Stack that should work well for you, and will be more thoroughly tested than ours is so far (and probably more general purpose). As our project progresses that should change, but I wouldn't recommend trying to take late-prototype level code that's written for a single purpose and use it for a different project unless you just want to spend time playing around and debugging the code.

We haven't released the code yet. It will be open source, but we're going to ship the hardware before releasing it. Right now that's scheduled for around August.

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Anonymous P wrote 04/05/2019 at 07:57 point

Thanks for your reply. Looking into it there are some decent GUI options for the ESP32. The main constraint meaning I want to switch to the ESP32 is the size. Being a portable device, the Pi is just too big and has parts I wouldn't use. Also, it is quite overpowered for the tasks I want it to do. It seems Espressif officially supports µGFX and LittlevGL which look like great tools for building great GUIs.

Thanks,

Louis

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Nuncio Bitis wrote 03/29/2019 at 10:28 point

Will this work with Google Voice? I don't want to be limited to only calling other people who have WiPhones

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stupid wrote 03/30/2019 at 06:50 point

The WiPhones work using a standard protocol called SIP. They can call regular phones. If you want to stay on the free side of things, we have a guide for getting a free SIP account. If you use this method, your friend will need a SIP account as well.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uPa_2V09S3YnJV_ouEUT19nDvY82nd5PcWwRDm2ayhY/edit?usp=sharing

If you want the WiPhone to act just like a regular phone, with a regular number, most VoIP providers offer that for a few dollars a month. At that point it's not much different from a regular phone, except you get your signal through WiFi and it's cheaper than a cellphone.

If you really like playing around with servers and installing software on linux I believe there is a Google Voice library for Asterisk... but that would definitely be playing in hard mode, at least for now.

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Magke wrote 03/01/2019 at 14:24 point

Really nice project!
And if the "Mega Battery Pack" and "LoRa", maybe also with a good 868MHz antenna, come together on one board, I would be very happy.
:-)
Is a vibration motor installed?

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stupid wrote 03/01/2019 at 17:15 point

It does have a vibration motor. But it overheats if you leave it on for more than a few minutes, so don't you and your mega battery pack be getting any big ideas.

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william wrote 06/14/2019 at 09:19 point

mega battery pack...?

is that a user built item, or did i miss finding where to purchase...?

william...

(where the reply go...?)

which do you suggest...?   kickstarter or indiegogo...?

william...

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stupid wrote 06/14/2019 at 10:13 point

@william: we have a prototype, but we are concentrating on shipping the phones before we start selling more of the add-ons.  if you got a phone through the kickstarter campaign, pre-order one now on indiegogo, or follow through the mailing list we will send an update out once the add-ons are ready to buy

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munchausen wrote 02/13/2019 at 13:45 point

Hi, great project! I was wondering if you've considered an alternative keypad layout using half qwerty like the nokia E55 (http://phonesdata.com/files/models/Nokia-E55-865.jpg)? So you would have a 5 by 4 button grid at the bottom instead of 4 by 4. It makes T9 input work really really well because it massively reduces the possible words the user could have been trying to enter. I know that moulds are expensive things, but perhaps it could be an optional layout? Cheers!

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stupid wrote 02/14/2019 at 00:50 point

That makes a lot of sense.

The production mold hasn't been made yet. The one shown in the build log is only for prototyping and was relatively cheap. But after thinking about it, it might not be possible for this design without increasing the phone width. We'd like to keep the overall phone size as small as we can, and the buttons can only be so small before they are hard to use. And also the electrical contacts need a certain amount of space.

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munchausen wrote 02/14/2019 at 10:11 point

It does look as though you have the space (I don't know about routing, but the PCB button footprints and pop domes look like they would fit). Also the E55 was a very similar sized device - I can assure you it works really well with that size of button! But I know that ultimately I have a niche opinion about this and perhaps most people prefer larger buttons, especially for older people etc. So no worries!

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stupid wrote 02/14/2019 at 10:53 point

I had a look at the mechanical parts again, and actually a different part of the system is the limiter here (though for the manufacturing processes available to us, the other factors I already mentioned are significant).

We are using relatively low tech manufacturing processes compared to a typical mass-produced phone: Our front face is a die cut sheet of polycarbonate, and the keypad is silicone.

We need a certain amount of polycarbonate between each key to keep the mechanical parts stiff and strong enough. The silicone buttons also have a minimum size that's related to the minimum wall thickness you can cast silicone and the geometry necessary to make the button collapse correctly when pressed, but still have a strong enough of a pip over the dome contacts to actuate it. But they also need to be wide enough to sink down into the hole in the front face when pressed by a typical finger. All that together drives the horizontal pitch to 11mm, which is bigger than the E55.

The frame/shell of our phone is also thicker than a mass produced Nokia, and making the buttons a little bigger just makes sense when we don't have a team of people large enough to spend a lot of time getting the actuation of the keypad right.

Anyway, if it was earlier in the design cycle I'd probably see about making it happen since it does make sense to me, it's just not viable right now. Not due to the mold, but just the general amount of design work that's done, but would need to be re-done to make it work.

(reply is to munchausen's other message, it's just not possible to reply to a 3rd level comment on this site)

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william wrote 06/14/2019 at 21:38 point

heh, i wants BIG keys, he wants bunches of smaller ones...   do i smell modular keypad round the corner...?

that SN7326 keyscanner looks like a bunch easier to keyboard than just parallel to i2c we used...    lotz less bugs on board (debouncers)...   those smt's make my eyes cross...

william...

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doanerock wrote 02/07/2019 at 15:48 point

Are there plans to support SRTP and ZRTP?

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stupid wrote 02/08/2019 at 05:31 point

It really depends on how well the crowdfunding goes. If we only make a few hundred units we can't. But if we make lots, and many people express interest in security we'll be able to do more. So far we've seen feedback/interest in making the phone more secure so it's probably down to how many units get made to decide if we'll have the resources to make it happen.

After the crowdfunding we may do a backer survey and/or talk with people whose opinions we respect to help us choose what's most important to make the phone more secure.

(Also, seems like everyone who has contacted us about security has a different opinion of what should be done to make the phone more secure, so there will likely be some work involved in figuring out what's the most effective thing to start with, and what the roadmap might look like for later features.)

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doanerock wrote 02/07/2019 at 01:14 point

I noticed that the antenna is just soldered to the PCB.  It would be much more robust if the antenna was attached to a u.fl connector so you did not have to worry about the solder join breaking.  

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stupid wrote 02/07/2019 at 01:30 point

There's a connector on the latest rev board, we just haven't had time to post pics yet.

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doanerock wrote 02/07/2019 at 15:45 point

That's awesome.  

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