
ZeroPhone – A Raspberry Pi smartphone - ekianjo
https://hackaday.io/project/19035-zerophone-a-raspberry-pi-smartphone/log/51839-project-description-and-frequently-asked-questions
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rawfan
I have several points on this:

"...yet there isn't a project like that"

Not exactly. There are several Arduino based phones like the DIY Cellphone by
David Mellis. I have an improved version of that right here.

"Open Source / Open Hardware"

All open phone projects have the exact same problem. The core component, the
baseband (which _is_ basically the phone) is a complete blackbox. AFAIK that's
also true for the SIM800 used here. So arguing security is a bit dishonest.

"Price"

I'd say the price calculation is extremely optimistic. You'll only get that
price if you buy the parts in bulk. Especially the PCBs.

Anyways.. cool project!

~~~
Nexxxeh
I wouldn't have said dishonest.

The only access the baseband running on the SIM800 has to the main processor
(Pi) is via the Pi's UART.

It's completely different from the "read and write directly to shared memory"
access the baseband that your average Android potentially has.

If you encrypt your SMS on the Pi and send it, ths SIM800 has no access to the
keys for decryption, for example.

I'm guessing you're talking about his price calculation for the $27, right? A
bit further on he does say:

>In total, it should be 50$ or slightly more.

>Also, price falls quickly if you're assembling one or two more phones for
your friend, too - eBay sellers can make discounts when you buy more than XX$
or "make an offer", and PCBs are cheaper (you won't get less than 3 pcs of
PCBs in any of usual board houses, so you have to pay extra even if you need
only one board - you'll still get two more)

I don't think that's too far off and may be a bit pessimistic. The only
component you can't bulk buy easily and cheaply is the Pi Zero as it's STILL
one per customer.

ABut none of the parts are expensive in single units either, except relatively
speaking the PCBs. Which are non-essential because you could literally
breadboard it.

If you're interested, he did an AMA on Reddit earlier.

~~~
saycheese
Do you have a link to the AMA on Reddit?

~~~
deutronium
[https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/5nwmfx/im_mak...](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/5nwmfx/im_making_a_pipowered_opensource_mobile_phone/)

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jamiesonbecker
A Python, pure Raspbian/Debian phone that's cheap to build, even for kids, and
still in the beginning stages before the software gets too complex and
unwieldy, and without needing to flash firmware and risk brickage. CLI-based
phone interface. Writing scripts that actually control your phone instead of
pretending that you'll actually easily do that (even on a pseudo-hacker-
friendly android..)

Still a bit big and fragile looking but that'll improve. This sounds awesome!

~~~
bostand
You can also buy an old Nexus and put Ubuntu on it...

~~~
stonogo
Not if you want it to work. God knows I've tried every device on ubports.

~~~
bostand
Ubuntu Mobile may be a work in progress, but it still works far better than
the ZeroPhone.

It also look much better :)

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saycheese
Possible I'm missing it, put seems like if you are going to build a phone the
first step would be to state what governements and networks would support it.

For example, appears that in the US that even if the phone would have worked
with AT&T in the past, that as the end of 2016, that is no longer the case:

[https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM10848...](https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM1084805)

~~~
tiatia
Maybe some people would give a f. and just connect it to the network,
certified or not?

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tyingq
Won't work...It's a hard sunset. That's why, for example, the SF muni trains
are not showing estimated arrival times right now. See
[https://www.sfmta.com/about-sfmta/blog/why-muni-arrival-
time...](https://www.sfmta.com/about-sfmta/blog/why-muni-arrival-times-are-
off-week-and-how-we’re-working-fix-them)

~~~
saycheese
Related text:

>> "NextMuni data is transmitted via AT&T’s wireless cell phone network. As
Muni was the first transit agency to adopt the system, the NextMuni
infrastructure installed in 2002 only had the capacity to use a 2G wireless
network – a now outdated technology which AT&T is deactivating nationwide."

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bsder
Until someone actually creates a baseband chip, this is all makerspace
wankery.

I wish these folks would go grab GNU Radio, a USRP/HackRF/whatever and _design
a baseband_. I'd imagine a bunch of Chinese manufacturers would jump all over
it and turn it into chips for them _for free_ just so they could sell the
chips.

~~~
upofadown
You can't trust the network anyway. So as long as your proprietary baseband
modulue can't get control of your application processor you are probably as
good as you can get.

~~~
mindslight
Considering the baseband on the far side of the demarc point is about the best
we can do today. But a trustworthy baseband would actually allow some privacy
advances. Imagine fine-grained powerup/powerdown, cycling through IMEIs, and
even contacting a single tower through a directional antenna to avoid
triangulation.

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rsync
Do I understand that this device, which runs raspbian, has a cellular modem
attached to it and then it runs userland apps for VOIP and sending SMS ?

That is to say, the baseband chipset is on the add-in modem and you simply
interface with the modem on a high level ...

So what is the userland SMS application that will send actual SMS through an
attached modem ? Is there some standard GNU "phoneutils" package (I don't
think there is) or did the maker of this device whip up something on his own ?

~~~
detaro
The modem likely has a serial connection and is sent AT commands, there are a
few packages providing tools for that (can be done with many 3G USB dongles as
well). One is SMS Server Tools:
[http://smstools3.kekekasvi.com/](http://smstools3.kekekasvi.com/)

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znpy
Serious Dumb Question: if I've got a cellular modem in my laptop, why can't I
put my sim into it and use some software to make and receive calls ?

~~~
Nexxxeh
Depending on the cellular modem, you can. Some the USB Huwawai modem dongles
have a "call" mode, a YouTube search will give you a run down.

~~~
opless
Also googling for asterisk chan_dongle takes to to a list of USB voice capable
dongles as well.

Something I've been looking at doing for a while.

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eridal
Been thinking about the implication of Moore law (in the broad sense) and how
easy it's to reinvent the wheel using cheap electronics nowadays.

Giving this trend, how far are we from google/facebook/apple/whatever to start
giving away hardware for free?

It's not so far fetched to envision such devices to be heavily hostile, for
regular users, and makers or tinkerers alike.

~~~
jamiesonbecker
Remember the :CueCat?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat)

It was "hostile" to hardware hackers. That lasted about 10 seconds. Of course,
it's probably a bit harder these days as they embed more and more into SoC.

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hedora
This makes me want a "ThreePhone" with a touchscreen (presumably driven by a
raspberry pi 3).

I wonder how it would compare to an old OpenMoko. The software for that never
quite worked, but it's all open source, and it has been years (and now there
is android to steal stuff from too).

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nkjoep
How does it deal with the IMEI regulation? Isn't the IMEI mandatory for every
cellular phone?

~~~
swiley
It's probably only attached to the modem, which is on an external board.

~~~
Nexxxeh
Indeed, the IMEI is on the SIM800 board, which is hooked up to the Pi's UART.

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TazeTSchnitzel
So… the Raspberry Pi, made out of smartphone parts, is used to make a
smartphone?

We've come full circle.

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phantom_oracle
Is this project current?

The timestamp on some of the photos shows: 2012

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mertd
Timestamp must be wrong. Pi Zero did not exist in 2012.

