• Update e-h: The Dark Mode edition

    visualkev • 11/28/2023 at 04:16 • 0 comments

    In this update I have a very prototypey functional phone client. It's good enough for a proof of concept. Here's some highlights of what i have done. 

    I hacked up some USB cables to get the phone client wired up along with a hasty audio patch cord to pipe phone audio between the PI and the cell module. We now have the Pi connected to a modified-to-be-powered USB hub. This powers the cell module and the USB audio adapter.  A 5 volt buck convertor takes the ~16 volts from the 4s battery pack/ BMS to energize the USB hub and the Raspberry PI. 

    Minor victory achieved.

  • Update 1b: The Slow edition

    visualkev • 11/06/2023 at 17:38 • 0 comments

    I'm starting to layout the hardware for the phone client including power system. This is my first time at setting up a multi-cell LI ion, 4s, battery pack. The BMS has no documentation, so learning is slow. I'm debating weather to remove the per cell bms, since its duplicated on the 4s bms and one bms has failed during my troubleshooting.

    Update: The wiring "instructions" for the BMS was practically non-existent, unclear and/ or wrong. Someone on the Amazon product page in the comments section kindly provided a screenshot of the correct wiring of the BMS and now I can move forward with powering things from the battery pack.

  • Update 0.0.12: The Gazelle edition

    visualkev • 10/26/2023 at 19:54 • 0 comments

    I have established internet connectivity to the Phone broker from the cell network via the Phone client.

    That process was easier than expected:

      Turn on routing on the PI Zero

      Add new default route on the Phone Broker

    The internet traffic was not very smooth, so I will be upgrading the Pi Zero W with a Pi Zero 2W in the hopes that it can better process the internet over USB from the cell module.

  • Update 3.76 - The Globe Edition

    visualkev • 10/22/2023 at 21:11 • 0 comments

        The design and testing as it now stands:

            The design:

               The mobile phone device is a modular system. The Phone client device will be a stand alone device housing the cellular board, Raspberry PI Zero W, battery, small display, and nav buttons. With this device alone one can send/receive phone calls and SMS. Hopefully it will be pocketable.

               The display device, aka the Phone broker, also a stand alone device, will house the touch display, Raspberry PI CM4, battery, camera, and some buttons. Without the phone client, this device will connect to any wifi and be a basic tablet, but when connected to the client, they will communicate using mqtt sharing cellular status, control the cell device and other management type actions that can be displayed on the display device in the python gui phone app adapted from the OURS-project.

               Being a modular system, new devices can be easily added to the system, such as a large display module, other cellular modules, packet radio module, Lora wan module and other things that i haven't thought of yet. Some modules would require different software and/ or user interfaces.

            The hardware connections:
                The 4G cellular module is connected via USB to the Phone client, a Raspberry PI Zero W. This pi will control the phone module and provide wifi connectivity to the Phone broker.
                The Phone broker is the Raspberry PI CM4 and it hosts a wifi hotspot that the Phone client connects to.

            Testing so far:

                  The Phone broker hotspot  is working

                  The Phone Client can connect to the broker.

                   Mqtt messages can be transferred between the two.

        The next steps:

           Establish internet connectivity to the Phone broker via the Phone client

           develop python code to control   cell module via mqtt and provide status to the broker

           Adapt the phone.py gui app to utilize mqtt                  

  • More compute and next steps

    visualkev • 10/17/2023 at 02:52 • 0 comments

    The CM4 arrived this evening and its performance is suitable with Firefox.

    Next steps: rough out all the hardware features that i want, setup and test emmc boot, setup and test the touch screen, scale the desktop for the 5 inch display.

    Next-next steps: design custom carrier board and case, design/ test remote display idea

  • Getting familiar

    visualkev • 10/16/2023 at 17:53 • 0 comments

    I've connected the 4G module and display to a Raspberry PI zero W. I quickly learned that the Pi zero is not powerful enough for my purposes, but I was still able to test cell functionality and mobile internet using the OURS-project files.

    Once i have the CM4, i will try Firefox performance. I do envision using web based tools on the device as much as possible.