FC project direction

[Spacefalcon the Outlaw]

Das Signal <das.signal at freecalypso.org> wrote:

> A bare board would do in theory, as I have a power supply that can
> provide up to 1.5A (should be sufficient) on any voltage from 1.5
> to 12V. Soldering the + and - to the board should be no big deal.

OK then, I'll do a little bit of testing on the two boards I have when
I get back home this weekend - right now I'm at my bills-paying job
(or more precisely, at a motel near the company) until Friday evening.
I'll test the boards by connecting USB and seeing if I can get to
U-Boot and Linux etc: GTA02 AP subsystem can run on USB power alone
with no battery present; the battery is only needed to power up the
Calypso modem.

If all is well, I'll send one of these boards to you on Monday.
Having them gather dust at my place doesn't do anyone any good, so if
you can use a bare GTA02 board to help with FC firmware bring-up, it
would be great.

> Regarding the antenna connector, I don't have one at the time, but
> SMA to MS-147 is in stock on mouser, so acquiring one will be possible.

OK, so you haven't been using the MS-147 connector on C1xx either yet?
How were you connecting test phones to your USRP+OpenBTS setup then?
Over the air?  Do you have a shielded room, or are both DL and UL
transmissions of sufficiently low power that no radio regulators come
knocking on your door?

> I second Nick -- your dedication and will to complete the project
> is indeed inspiring :)

It's just that every time I use a phone as a regular end user (Pirelli
DP-L10 running its original proprietary fw since the spring of 2013,
Motorola V66 prior to that, since 2003, seems to be a 2001 design), I
constantly find myself cursing at various bugs and misfeatures in
their UI design which I am powerless to fix because there is no source
code.  These bugs and misfeatures won't go away on their own, hence
I'm working on this project to build a Free Dumb Phone that won't suck
- or at least the firmware for one.

I suppose the specific UI misdesign issues I find myself cursing at
wouldn't be there if I were a smartphone user, i.e., if I were to
install QtMoko on my Freerunner and use it as an end user.  But then I
wouldn't be able to share my joy with others - recommending that they
also get a Freerunner would be pointless as these devices are no longer
made and all unsold surplus is now exhausted - and the minimalist,
all-about-efficiency engineer in me revolts at the idea of using a
device with two processors and a full GNU/Linux OS to do a job that
has been very successfully accomplished with single-processor devices
using low-horsepower chips like Calypso running OSless or RTOS fw.

SF