In the summer of 2024, I developed an insatiable drive to do and experience new things. I was just bored mostly, as my dayjob as a life scientist had turned away from what I love, which is the actual doing of biology and bioengineering, and more towards mentoring, writing, meeting-sitting, and computer touching. So, I wanted to pursue making and doing things again in my spare time. Having always had a knack for tech and electronics, the first project I settled on was "make my own cell phone." Exactly the kind of project to get me locked in HARD; something I already know about so there are easy "toeholds" in the knowledge base were I can begin, impressive sounding, technically feasible but non-trivial, and has that certain je ne sais quoi. So the work began...

A year later and I can definitely say that I've made a lot of progress towards getting there, though I'm moving at a slower rate than initially anticipated. Part of that is the state of the world: after my last update in March I sunk into a bit of a depression that didn't really lift until maybe the beginning of this month, and I made little progress. Part of that depression was also from 3 out of 4 submodule boards completely bombing with nothing working at all on them, as it felt terrible to put together a prototype and you cant even get fucking current coming out of it. Still, I have a short list of things I can do now that I couldn't do a year ago:

-built a functioning 2 m transceiver for the Flipper Zero
-built a functioning keyboard prototype for the Outlander with the RP2350, complete with software
-learned enough C, CircuitPython, and MicroPython to write simple programs and modify existing codebase
-use, modify, repair, and maintain FDM 3D printers
-design multipart structures using FreeCAD for 3D printing

While I had initially hoped to have an in-hand prototype by beginning of 2026, that's looking less and less likely. Unfortunately after designing the keyboard I realized I hated how small it was. It was also causing design constraint, and I despise those tiny Hirose connectors. I also have all but given up on using DSI screens out of the box, so if I get a DSI bridge all-in-one unit that should just solve all these problems. If I can get the screen solved and a prototype keyboard made, I should be halfway there to the device. I also decided to change the interface with the CM4 module to make the Outlander compatible with other CM-like devices. Instead of plugging directly into the Outlander mainboard, the CM will plug into a card, which will allow for peripherial devices specific to that certain CM to be added to the other side of the card. For instance, the RPi CM4 only has one USB2 port (LAAAAME!) but the Outlander needs three (one "out" of the device, one to the 4G/LTE module {because why would you have an LTE modem running at 4 Mbps?}, and one to the RP2354 driving the GPIO and the keyboard; for its card, I'll add a 3 port USB chip to the back along with the SSD to save space.

While saying I look forward to the coming year is 100% incorrect, I do hope I can keep this momentum. This hobby has become a very welcome distraction with the state of the world, and I'm fortunate to be able to engage in it as I do.