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• The best way to shoot PCBs...

  Shree Kumar • 06/07/2018 at 16:45 • 6 comments

  Shooting PCBs with a camera, and then converting them into flat images can be frustrating.  Fight with lighting, lens correction, perspective correction, remove blemishes, color correction, find the corners, crop... no wonder I don't do a perfect job.  Lazy me just shoots, crops & uploads.

  I seem to have found the best way to shoot PCBs today - don't shoot them, just scan them using a regullar flatbed scanner:
  

  I like the color output from the scanner.  The scan is perfectly rectangular.  Crop & upload.  Could life get simpler ?
  

  (Of course, this technique won't work for PCBs with mounted components. But that's life.)
  

• Kites Flying Around the World

  Shree Kumar • 05/19/2018 at 06:40 • 0 comments

  In our KICKSTARTER campaign, we introduced the idea of "Backers we Love" - basically anybody backing the project on KICKSTARTER gets a chance to try out a Kite.  We now have Kites flying around the world as we speak.
  

  @Lexie Dostal  got the first Kite - shipped to USA.  Lexie is a windows game programmer. He has made a cool game controller Android phone with Kite (painting in progress):

  Do checkout his twitter feed for more work-in-progress images.  He has painted the case with a nice blue color, sanded it, and is making it nice & smooth. 
  

  This prototype will be shown at Maker Faire tomorrow, as part of the Hackaday Prize information session:

  Lexie will also have a separate KitePhone with him as demo unit.  If you are attending Maker Faire, do give a shoutout on twitter to @hxLexie.
  

  On the other side of the world, @Stuart Longland  has been flying one in Australia.  He has made a quick review of the unit:

  We have another Kite flying in Germany too - it's with an Apple fan! ... But that update has to wait for Monday.

  One Kite is with Dave Hakkens (of Phonebloks fame! - he now runs Precious Plastics). We've passed on a unit to him for evaluation.
  

  Our Kickstarter project needs a push at this time.  I have been keeping track of the statistics of the project.  Today, I was startled to see the following information on my project dashboard:

  419 users waiting for a reminder before the project's funding ends !?! Why oh why.  Please jump in guys - this project needs your help...
  

• A sneak peek into Kite v2

  Shree Kumar • 05/09/2018 at 05:28 • 5 comments

  Before reading this post, I highly recommend reading "Design of Kite Open Mobile Platform".
  

  Kite v2 is the upcoming design of Kite.  We are crowdfunding for it on KICKSTARTER  (do look at that page for a quick pitch, but without too many tech details) 
  

  Let’s look at the desirable properties of Kite v2; this is on top of everything that holds for Kite v1:

  • Minimal phone model must be not require soldering, must be very quick to assemble & disassemble. 
  • Swapping custom hardware in & out must be easy
  • Make a powerful, and more generic kit
  • Maximize "open"ness
  • Maximize local sourcing possibilities

  In short, Kite v2 takes a good design, and aims takes it to the next level.

  Design of Kite v2

  Let’s start with a block diagram treatment of the design being considered for Kite v2:

  
  

  Compared to Kite v1, the Core board design has a few major changes.  Let’s run through them.

  We get connectors for audio & standard buttons right on the Core.  This is part of the “soldering free” promise for the minimal phone on Kite v2. Pushing the connectors to the core has an interesting side effect: it makes the expansion board truly optional! Any user who doesn’t need the extra electronics can skip it (everyone will still get it as part of the kit, though). We think that the first assembly of a KitePhone for most users will not include the expansion!

  Kite now includes add a “smart” battery component.  This component integrates a fuel gauge (and protection circuitry) and a Li-poly cell.  To get an accurate estimate of the state of charge (battery percentage), the fuel gauge is programmed with the characteristics of the cell.  If a user wishes to change the cell, it’s possible to do that.  To get accurate fuel gauging, however, the fuel gauge needs to be reprogrammed. 

  Finally, it’s not enough for display & camera connectors to be “generic” (Kite v1).  We need them to be “forward compatible”.  That way, we can upgrade KiteBoard to v3 in the future, while hopefully keeping the same peripherals (hopefully the camera too, but everything else will work 100%).

  Kite v2 will include a camera board.  Like the display, an intermediate board is the key to making the connector independent of the actual camera. The camera board is expected to be much simpler than the display board, and extremely compact.

  We can reasonably expect to have more displays & cameras over a period of time. To accommodate this, we may need to implement a simple way to detect the peripherals.  Simplest way to do that may be a simple I2C EEPROM on the peripheral boards.

  Implementation of Kite v2

  Implementation hasn't started yet (depends on crowdfunding), but we are at an advanced stage of design.  Here's what we know...

  Kite v2 will be based on KiteBoard v2. KiteBoard v2 will be based on Snapdragon 450 (was Snapdragon 625, but we had to change it) - bringing an across-the-board improvement performance in all areas: 

  • Faster octa-core ARM Cortex A53 at 1.8 GHz
  • Adreno 506 GPU
  • 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM at faster speed
  • Faster LTE
  • WiFi ac!
  • BT 4.2
  • USB 3.0
  • Two independent displays
  • Two cameras

  Support for two independent displays will make things very interesting. A few combinations would be interesting:...

  Read more »

• Woohoo! We are in the finals!

  Shree Kumar • 05/04/2018 at 08:45 • 0 comments

  Got the great news - we are in the finals of the Hackaday Prize 2018 ! This project is competing under the "Open Hardware Design Challenge".  A great honour for this project !
  

  The details of the announcement are at this link !   Thanks a lot everyone for all your encouragement too. 
  

  This project branched off to hackaday after a meeting of hardware enthusiasts!
  

  These guys dropped the apple on my head.  Open hardware is the way to go, I said! I am happy to make this idea grow further and become 100% open hardware with our crowdfunding attempts at KICKSTARTER for Kite v2. 
  

  Please back this project there and help Kite v2 reach everyone! Thanks a lot!
  

• Can the makers & hackers show up at the party, please ?

  Shree Kumar • 04/24/2018 at 18:52 • 0 comments

  Hello hackers, makers, DIY enthusiasts, etc!

  A quick introduction for those of you who don't know me: My name is Shree. I am trying to bring a novel idea into this world. The idea that you can make your own smartphone.  Free of chains, in every way.  At $300 a piece, roughly. I have launched a campaign on Kickstarter to realize this dream. 
  

  I have a little more than 25 days from now to make this happen. I need close to a million dollars to make this happen.  That's not chump change,  I know that.  But it's the smartphone we are talking about here.  A million dollars is chump change in that business. Achieving freedom for a smartphone is no small deed.  But there is a price to pay, and it is not too high.  Individually maybe yes. But collectively ? No. 
  

  My campaign has been live for a few days. There is a site called kicktraq that helps campaign creators understand their chances. It's not perfect, but it's probably not too bad either!
  

  We are showing an interesting downward trend. 
  

  So, the simple prediction seems to say that this campaign will fail ?  I refuse to believe that less than 200 people in the world need a DIY smartphone kit...
  

  I need your support to make this successful.  It's a community project designed to save 10% for everyone by avoiding a "publicity/marketing" budget. If you care about this, then you should help me. Not just for me, but for yourself too.
  

  Kite solves many technology problems. I can give you proof for that:

  • Look at the pages of the Kite Open Hardware Android Smartphone project, you will find that I have already made this happen in a large way. If you think that's a fancy claim, let me know & I can explain why it is not.
  • A reasonably complete story is told well on the kickstarter page - it was long to begin with - but we've made it simpler now.

  Please note that I am only looking to take Kite to the next level here - make it soar, into your hands.  I am asking money from you guys to upgrade KiteBoard to v2, running some required safety certifications, and achieve a reasonable volume (3000 pieces) without burning my own hands.

  If you interested to try out Kite, please pledge to the project.  Our very own @Lexie Dostal is trying it a Kite in California, USA, as we speak.  We call this the "Backers we Love" program in KICKSTARTER.

  If you are reading this far, please note that I need your support.  Back this project on KICKSTARTER and I will do everything in my power to do what you need.  I have the technical know-how - but marketing is not my suite. That's why this project is on hackaday!
  

  Please back this project on KICKSTARTER. You don't have to back the kit if you don't want to - even a "Thank You" ($5 or $1) will do!  We can go a long way...
  

  Note that I do appreciate & understand that not everyone needs this. Frankly, this is not a problem for this project - we only need 3000 people to make this happen!  Every donation helps too, and we will use those to ship free kits worldwide to backers.
  

  However, if you don't feel like backing the project, then here is my humble request: Please tell me why! Give me the reasons why you do not need it.  If you have any need that is not met by the project, please let me know. I can find ways to fix things, but not everything. I am talking of technical solutions.  That's what my project promises!

  Finally, do help to share our campaign. Share it with your friends.  Let me hope that the hackers, makers and everyone else shows up to the party, before it is too late...

  Thanks a lot...
  

• Kite is now Live on Kickstarter

  Shree Kumar • 04/23/2018 at 14:31 • 0 comments

  I am excited to announce that Kite is now LIVE on Kickstarter!

  
  Basically, we have kits available at $274+shipping right now.  Please back the project . I can tell you that Glory Days of Open Hardware are ahead - if we do this!

  Thanks in advance & hoping for your support.  If you have any questions, please let me know..
  

• Kickstarter Launch : 23rd April, 2018. 7 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

  Shree Kumar • 04/21/2018 at 16:50 • 0 comments

  Hello World!

  Yes, that's right.  I am preparing for a massive launch on Kickstarter.  The countdown has already begun... to free the Smartphone !
  

  We have subscriptions from USA, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Bulgaria, Lithuania, India, Russian Federation, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Phew!
  

  Apologies, but I would rather not try to convert the launch time to your time zone! Here's a handy conversion link.
  

  Thanks to all who have subscribed..If you subscribed to our mailing list, you should have got an email already with the launch information.  If not, please do check your spam folder!  There is still time to subscribe at www.kiteboard.io/contact !  I look forward to your support... KitePhone is coming to Kickstarter...
  

  And this, I think, is the an important indicator of what is going to happen. I am thrilled to receive this message from a potential backer:
  

  That's an empowering vision - but written by someone else, and someone who uses Apple products! Who would have thought?  
  

  This is the gist of our quest - the personalities that we are after!
  

  To make this idea a reality, I really need your help!  In fact, we all need all our help. I said it on twitter in the morning, and I will say it again: Is this history in the making, or an empowering idea that will go down the drain ? You will get to decide, over the next 35 days.
  

• "Feature Requests" in the Democracy of Kite

  Shree Kumar • 04/17/2018 at 20:33 • 1 comment

  The more I think about Kite, the more interesting I find it.  It is not about me being the creator of Kite. It’s about the possibilities that are open for everyone. 

  Kite is, first and foremost, a hardware freedom project for Android.  Android is the most prevalent open source platform for phones.  There is no open hardware for Android. Kite aims to be that platform.  That’s the primary reason for the existence of Kite!  

  What sort of freedoms are these? Any antenna, any battery, lots of your own hardware you can add, and of course make your own enclosure/case.  We provide Raspberry Pi HAT compatibility – but that’s just a simple board (with a few level converters etc) that anyone can change to adapt to any system.  No restrictions there either.
  

  This immense freedom in hardware makes the software freedoms more than meaningful - it raises the hardware software combination to a level of freedom never attainable before by the masses.
  

  A whole lot of people are sufficiently empowered to do some bits of hardware, courtesy the maker movement.  However, the real problem is in the area of software.  The sort of hardware freedom this project gives has been the territory of OEMs. Phone vendors.  Folks with big pockets. Most of the freedoms of the underlying platforms are suppressed by OEMs to deliver consumer goods; this is not wrong! It’s the nature of their business.  Kite makes those goodies available.  Kite shows you how to mod Android to achieve your goals.  We provide a great starting point so that you can achieve what you want to – without us getting in the way.  That’s what we call, “empowerment”.

  Kite begins as a hardware project with a standard configuration – Kite v2.  The hardware configuration of Kite v2 is setup in a way that attracts maximum users at a fair price point for everyone. This is one of the tricky parts of the project.
  

  The backers of the project are the citizens of the “democracy” of Kite. Each one effectively is a “voter”.  Voter for what? The direction of the project. Note that it’s too early to ask/answer questions like, “if I buy ten kits, will I get ten votes” 😉. Thing about this democracy, like any democracy in the world, is that each voter will have a different interest & agenda. 
  

  Even me, the creator of the project, can’t predict how this democracy looks like.  I can bet, though, that's it is going to be quite diverse.  So, before deciding the future direction of the project, we let the community form.  Kickstarter ends successfully.  And lo & behold – here’s the community. The democracy of Kite.

  What next? Now, people are free to come up with their own list of what they want us, the creators of the project, to focus on.  This is what we call “feature requests”.  Feature requests can be related to hardware or software.  Let me give you some examples.

  Hardware features: 5” 1080p screen, barcode camera, “can I make a tablet with Kite?”, and anything else that you may imagine. There is a large ecosystem of component catering to the mobile, handheld & PDA industries - and it's not only in China. We can tap that as required.
  

  Software features: Can I dual boot linux? How to get <piece_of_hardware_X> working with Kite? Can I have an API to control that camera focus distance from Python? and anything else you may imagine.

  How do we act on feature requests? In a reasonably democratic manner.  Let’s tackle the hardware first.  Hardware may involve costs, but not necessarily always.    E.g. “how do I use that 18650 battery with Kite” is likely to come at zero cost. That flexibility is engineered in Kite; it’s a matter of configuration of the fuel gauge chip & the charger. ...

  Read more »

• IMPORTANT: an update (Crowdfunding D-Date: 23 April), and a downgrade...

  Shree Kumar • 04/16/2018 at 15:31 • 7 comments

  The important update first: assuming all goes well, we should be launching our Kickstarter campaign on 23rd April, 2018 (i.e. exactly one week from now).  I do request anyone who has not done so to subscribe at www.kiteboard.io/contact .  Among other things, this helps us understand the *cellular* requirements.  Please subscribe if you haven't already.  Thank you.
  

  Now, to the other part: I had earlier communicated that we will launch with the Snapdragon 625.  I regret to announce that we will not be able to do so.  Instead, I am forced to settle for the Snapdragon 450 (for reasons read below).

  This downgrade effectively means the following:
  

  • No 4K video encode/decode. (450 is limited to 1080p)
  • The application processor is 1.8 GHz, instead of 2.0 GHz
  • Reduces L1 cache by half - ouch ! (SD450 is 512 KB, compared to 1 MB in SD 625)

  Summary: lower performance in some areas (I am not able to figure out the GPU performance difference. Any info here would be useful).  How exactly it will impact you, I will leave you to decide that. Sorry for the change. I think it's better to do this right now.
  

  I have mixed feelings about this, to be honest.  Of everything, I was hanging onto the SD 625 for the 4K encode/decode capabilities.  I am sad to see it go. 

  So – why did I decide on the Snapdragon 450? To answer that, let me tell you what I think are my responsibilities are in this project:

  • Get great technology to everyone’s hands. Larger the community, better for everyone.
  • Ensure that we have a great, predictable & deliverable plan.  Once I start my campaign, there should be no going back.  (If I am to lose face, now is a great time!)
  • Run the project, with my team.  Deliver as promised during the campaign.

  This project includes certification plans of all sort.  Global LTE will require us to have two SKUs for KiteBoard v2:

  • North America (USA, Canada)
  • Europe & Rest of the World
  
  

  The largest number of folks who are likely to back this project will come from USA. My subscription list tells me that. Kickstarter provides a “Community” part for every project. A cursory scan on a few projects – and surely projects in the DIY Electronics category – will help prove that too.  I expect 40-60% of my backers from USA, if not more.

  So – USA is an important geography for this project.  USA is also a problematic area for cellular connectivity – courtesy carriers & carrier certification requirements.  Countless projects have been delayed due to cellular certifications. And famous ones. I am talking about people with deep pockets. I don’t want to add to that list. I have a great plan for predictable, on time delivery – if I stick to the Snapdragon 450.

  But that’s not the only reason.  Another equally important reason is that I am unable to see who is buying the Snapdragon 625, and for what purposes.  This project is expected to deliver in Dec-Jan window for the early orders.  8 months is a long time in this business.  And if I don’t have this visibility now, you can imagine what will happen next year.  I need a minimum of 3000 backers, but that’s the minimum.  I intend to do a great job – and that means that I should expect more people backing me. 
  

  With larger volumes, and longer life, comes a predictability requirement. That’s where the Snapdragon 450 scores again.  It’s a fresh chip.  The Snapdragon 450 also has most of the goodness of the 625 – two independent displays, two cameras(wee bit less powerful), USB 3.0, WiFi ac, and everything else, including Cat 6 LTE.  What you lose is what I have mentioned earlier.  Whether it’s worth losing that to get what this project gives you - that's something you need to decide.

  There are other benefits of the SD450 being a “fresh chip” – software updates,...

  Read more »

• Design of Kite Open Mobile Platform

  Shree Kumar • 04/08/2018 at 14:41 • 3 comments

  For the past couple of years, me & my team have spent a lot of time working with & refining Kiteboard & Kite.  Things kind of evolved to reach the current state.  Looking back, I can’t find a single document that anybody wrote which summarizes the design in a useful manner.  This post is an attempt to explain what has happened till now, and how we intend to change things in the future. 
   
  Before we go into design, architecture, etc, I would like to offer a simplified bird’s eye view of what goes into creating a phone.  I am painfully aware that it’s a simplification of a rather complex process fit into a few short paragraphs. If you are an expert, please excuse any inaccuracies in the next few paragraphs 😊

  Smartphones are based on SoCs – basically a lot packed into a single chip.  SoC vendors (Qualcomm, MediaTek) don’t stop at providing just SoCs, they provide complete reference designs for phones.  Generally, a reference design tightly integrates various chips from the same vendor – the SoC, a PMIC (power management IC), WiFi/BT, RF circuitry, and Battery Charging.  Reference designs also include other parts required to build the full phone: RAM, storage, peripherals, connectors, antenna designs, and everything including the enclosure of the phone.  A reference design generally provides several alternatives for various components (it’s a huge market, choice rules!).  Reference designs represent reasonably tuned solutions, from a hardware, software, cost and performance perspective (that is saying quite a lot in one sentence, by the way!). 
  

  Most smartphone vendors leverage the reference designs, changing mostly the “peripherals” – display/touch, cameras, maybe sensors, casing, battery.  Peripherals & the base platform decide the market positioning of the device.  Making a smartphone is a tight exercise in space optimization too. For every device, shape of the board and connectors on it are changed to accommodate the selected peripherals & the overall design.  Antennas are designed & positioned carefully, and are highly influenced by safety testing (SAR) considerations.

  Overall, a complete smartphone is a single block of tested hardware & software.  It is “hard”ware – hardcoded (in software terms) to achieve a single, cost optimized device.  Mass market consumer devices essentially go through an aggressive BOM optimization, which eliminates unnecessary components – down to the lowly resistors.  Smartphones are designed to sell in the millions. Even a few wasted resistors are a no-no at that scale.

  Reference designs are the secret to the flood of devices you have been seeing in the market for the past N years.  Most devices based on any given platform don’t differ much in terms of performance and feature set.

  Abstract Design of Kite v1

  We wanted to create a design that would allow us to build a variety of devices using a standard set of components.  Here’s a block diagram that reasonably captures the design of Kite, in generic terms – without reference to specific technology:
  

  Before I get down to explaining each piece, here is the color coding used in the block diagrams in this post:

  • Green for PCB
  • Blue for peripherals
  • Pink for connectors

  At the center of the design is a “Core Board” (henceforth shortened to “Core”). It’s basically the guts of a full featured smartphone… If I were to draw an analogy with the PC, I would call it the “motherboard” of a smartphone....

  Read more »

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