From mychaela.falconia at gmail.com Thu Sep 2 03:41:28 2021 From: mychaela.falconia at gmail.com (Mychaela Falconia) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2021 19:41:28 -0800 Subject: Field report: GSM in Mexico Message-ID: Hello FreeCalypso community, Last week I got my gender confirmation surgery done at a Mexican hospital, and I am now staying at a post-surgery recovery facility (a place like an extended stay hotel, but with nurses looking after patients) in Tijuana, the city in Mexico that is right next to the border with USA. Being the kind of girl who is *really* devoted to GSM, I could not pass up the opportunity to explore the GSM situation in Mexico while I am here, thus I am doing this exploration despite simultaneously dealing with significant physical discomforts related to being less than a week out of major surgery. Here are my findings: * There is just one GSM network operator in this non-Rhizomatica part of Mexico, and this operator is Telcel, aka MCC-MNC 334-020. * I and my family have legacy T-Mobile USA SIM cards (the kind which one cannot get any more), and these SIMs roam successfully on Telcel here in Tijuana. * For those who are not fortunate enough to have no-longer-obtainable legacy T-Mobile SIMs, I got good news: unlike T-Mobile USA, currently available Mexican Telcel SIMs (the ones you can buy at any Telcel store or wherever they sell these things - I had my medical tourism coordinator people get me one) are NOT hobbled, i.e., they still have the classic GSM 11.11 SIM application present, in addition to the USIM/ISIM crap. Furthermore, this GSM support is official: the original Telcel paper wrapper in which my SIM was delivered says on it: "Compatible con GSM, 3G y 4G" - GSM listed as officially supported in addition to the 3G/4G abomination. So if any other GSM/2G technology lovers decide to visit Mexico (perhaps for 2G tourism!), Telcel is the way to go. Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, Mychaela aka The Mother From mychaela.falconia at gmail.com Wed Sep 29 02:18:05 2021 From: mychaela.falconia at gmail.com (Mychaela Falconia) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2021 18:18:05 -0800 Subject: Work toward FreeCalypso handset Message-ID: Hello FreeCalypso community, I am still slowly trudging toward my dream goal of designing and building my own FC Libre Dumbphone that would serve as a source-enabled replacement for the Calypso-based but sans-source Pirelli DP-L10. The purpose of this post is to share some updates on current developments toward this goal. The biggest update at the moment is that I have finalized the selection of LCD module that will be used in our Pirelli-replacing FC handset, and I have bought 100 pcs of this chosen LCD module, a quantity which I expect to be a lifetime buy, covering all anticipated prototyping iterations. The LCD module I settled on is a 176x220 pixel 2.0" TFT made by LCD manufacturer Formike; here is the datasheet: ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/embedded/LCDs/KWH020ST23-F01.pdf In terms of the physical size of the display active area in mm, our 2.0" diagonal LCD is about 72% bigger than Pirelli's 1.5" diagonal: the AA of our new LCD is well-defined to be 31.68x39.60 mm; for Pirelli's LCD we have no specs, but measuring the lit-up AA with a ruler shows about 26x28 mm. But in terms of information display capacity, our new 176x220 pixel LCD is 2.36 times larger than Pirelli's 128x128 pix! In any case, my choice of 176x220 as the pixel size for our phone LCD comes from my desire to reuse as much as possible from TI's D-Sample demo/prototype/PoC UI which is coded for this LCD pixel size, and the physical size of 2.0" diagonal comes from the industry standard size selection: most 176x220 pixel LCDs including the one I ultimately ended up choosing are made in this physical size, not some other. I also took a few pictures, although my skills with the camera are abysmal - I am an engineer, not a photographer: https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/pictures/Formike_LCD/ In these pictures you can see the front and back of a bare LCD module, and our lunalcd2 test board which I made a couple of months ago. This test board has the LCD module mounted on it (key mounting feature: see how the module's FPC tail is folded under the body of the module in our mounting arrangement), and the LCD is connected to our Luna interface from 2020. The strip of Kapton tape seen in the lunalcd2.jpeg photo is a hack for holding our LCD module in place. In a complete phone handset with plastics, there will be no issue: in the classic mechanical design of all standard phones, there are screws that hold together the front and back plastic pieces, and the resulting tight grip structure constrains the LCD module to staying where it needs to be. However, in a bare development board setup without plastics, we get this unexpected annoyance: there is a certain elastic force (originating in the area where the tail is folded under the module) that pushes the bottom of the LCD module up, away from the PCB, this force acts against gravity and against the adhesive, but it is strong enough to lift the bottom of the LCD module in a way that at least to me looks aesthetically displeasing and feels like a significantly weakened system. On lunalcd2 I am using a strip of Kapton tape wrapped around the board to keep the LCD module from lifting up at the bottom end (the undesirable elastic force is countered by the tension of this tape), but as my next iterative solution, I am commissioning a local sheet metal shop to make us a custom metal bracket that will be more robust than the tape. Right now I am waiting for this hired local sheet metal company to finish the design and fabrication of our LCD retaining bracket, and I am also waiting for this back-ordered part from Digi-Key: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cui-devices/DS04-254-1-04BK-SMT/11310949 This part has been on backorder since July 1; originally it was supposed to arrive around the time of my surgery in late August, but now it says October 11. The purpose of this DIP switch is to select the backlight LED current from 1 to 15 mA in 1 mA increments, allowing us to evaluate the readability of the LCD under different ambient lighting conditions with different backlight LED currents, with the goal of selecting a subset of just 4 possible LED currents for our Venus board. Because of this insanely long backorder issue, I got our current lunalcd2 board (the one pictured) assembled back in August using a substitute part, a DIP switch pack with less convenient flush actuators instead of raised ones. But now that we are getting a special retaining metal bracket made, I plan on producing a lunalcd3 test board (like lunalcd2, but with appropriate mounting holes added for the bracket) before proceeding with FC Venus, and given that Digi-Key's promised delivery date of Oct 11 is approaching, I am hoping to use the better DIP switch part on lunalcd3. At this point you have every right to ask: so what is the big deal, why am I fussing so much over the LCD and its mounting? The answer is that I am planning our next FreeCalypso development board, and this next FC Venus board will be a major advancement toward our FC Libre Dumbphone handset goal: it will be just like a complete phone, but in the physical form factor of a bare board, without any plastics or mechanical design. With our current FC development boards so far, that is FCDEV3B and Caramel2, you need to connect the board to a host computer and control it with AT commands in order to make it do anything interesting, as in connecting to GSM networks, making and receiving calls, sending and receiving SMS. But FC Venus will be on the next level: the board will include the just-described LCD and keypad buttons in addition to the Calypso GSM core, and it will be designed to be powered either by a fixed supply like our current boards or by a real Li-ion battery, with charging of that battery managed by the Calypso chipset and our firmware! My vision is that I will be able to mount this Venus board plus its powering 18650 battery on some sturdy substrate such as a thick sheet of acrylic, and take it out with me on social outings, demonstrating it to people outside my cave - and given that I live right next to USA-Mexico border and given my ability to cross this border freely back and forth without being subject to any Covidian cult rituals, I hope to be able to demo this next stage of FreeCalypso in both countries. Right now we have only one FC hardware platform on which we can run firmware that is controlled with an LCD+buttons UI, rather than via AT commands, and this platform is FC Luna. However, this Luna platform is very unwieldy - it is not a single board, but a set of 4 boards interconnected with ribbon cables: a Caramel2 motherboard, a lunalcdX board, a keypad board and a DUART28 adapter for the host computer interface. Here is a fairly recent photo of the whole mess: https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/Caramel2/luna-setup-20201206.jpeg As you can surely tell from the above photo, this Luna setup is not exactly suitable for field demos to audiences with limited attention spans where first impression is everything, even if I went through the process of mounting all of these pieces on some solid substrate like our dear Das Signal did. Thus the logical next step is clear: we need to eliminate the maze of ribbon cables and integrate everything on one board. Furthermore, instead of using a Tango module for the Calypso core like we did on Caramel2/Luna, our Venus board will be made from "raw" Calypso and accessory chips like FCDEV3B - this approach will make both design and fabrication more expensive, but it will give us access to a few additional chipset signals which iWOW didn't bring out on their TR-800 module. By connecting a magnetic buzzer to Calypso BU/PWT output like on TI's D-Sample board, we will produce a platform for making a smooth transition from buzzer ringing to Melody E1, and by connecting to all 3 Iota audio channels, we will prototype the complete audio routing subsystem for the Pirelli-replacing handset. If you would like to read more about this Venus board plan and about the more distant handset for which it will serve as a prototype, here is the detailed design specification: https://www.freecalypso.org/hg/freecalypso-docs/file/tip/FC-handset-spec There is just one more complication which I am currently working on: we need to get a custom wired headset made for us. Trying to use any of the commonly available already existing headsets won't work: * Today's mainstream consumer 3.5 mm headsets for Apple/Android phones won't work because they are stereo (left and right ear), whereas we need monaural, as in only one earbud. * Openmoko headsets won't work for the same reason: while they are infinitely better morally and philosophically than sheeple ones, they are still stereo. * Old historical headsets made for classic historical dumbphones (both Motorola C1xx and non-Calypso classic phones like Nokia) are still available in substantial quantities on certain markets, but they all feature the typical 3-wire TRS arrangement with the earpiece speaker connected between a dedicated headset output wire and ground. But for our own FreeCalypso headset I desire a different arrangement which I haven't seen used by any historical player other than iWOW: the arrangement I seek is to use a 4-wire TRRS plug, but still keep it monaural, with 2 non-ground wires used to connect the single earpiece speaker as a bridge-tied load. My idea for the custom headset I'm seeking to get made came from iWOW. In addition to making a huge production run of TR-800 modules (so huge that I consider the NOS supply of these modules to be inexhaustible for the purposes of our community), they also made a small handful of their development board kits - but these iWOW development kits are much rarer than bare TR-800 modules, Das Signal and I found only two of them, and the two kits we have scored may well be the last two in the world. On their development board, iWOW came up with the really neat idea of bringing out the *main* Iota audio channel to a headset jack - this idea is rather revolutionary, as the main audio channel is meant to be used for the phone's built-in earpiece and mic, whereas a typical finished phone's headset jack would normally be wired to the secondary or tertiary Iota audio channel. But Iota's main audio output is differential and the phone's built-in earpiece speaker is meant to be connected to it as a bridge-tied load - thus a traditional 3-wire TRS headset cannot be connected to this main audio channel in the native and straightforward manner as pioneered by iWOW. iWOW's solution was to replace the common 3-wire TRS headset with 4-wire TRRS, even though it is still monaural and NOT stereo. The headset which iWOW supplied with their development boards has its earpiece speaker connected between Tip and Ring2 as a bridge-tied load, and the microphone is connected between Ring1 (positive) and Sleeve (ground). But the problem with those iWOW-supplied headsets is that there are only two of them in the world: I have one, our dear Das Signal has the other, and there are no more. My answer to this situation is to get more of these special headsets custom-made for us on a special order basis: I am the kind of person who will NEVER accept a no for an answer, and if iWOW were somehow able to get such unusual headsets, then we must do likewise. Our Caramel2 board has its main audio channel brought out to a TRRS headset jack in iWOW's pinout just like iWOW's original DSK board, thus anyone who wishes to play with voice call audio on C2 will need one of these special headsets which I am now trying to get made. But even more importantly, I plan to keep the same arrangement on our Venus board, i.e., bring out the main or primary Iota audio channel to a headset jack - thus the special headset will be a required accessory for FC Venus too. I expect FC Venus to be a more interesting board than C2, thus the headset issue is now becoming a big deal. Right now I am actively working on the headset issue, that is, looking for a headset manufacturer who would be willing to do what we need. So far I have reached out to two manufs by direct email; if I don't get a response from either of them, as the next step I will need to brave Alibaba's rather difficult web interface and post a buy request or RFQ or whatever they call it. Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, Mychaela aka The Mother From mail at dmatthews.org Wed Sep 29 09:12:52 2021 From: mail at dmatthews.org (David Matthews) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 10:12:52 +0100 (BST) Subject: Work toward FreeCalypso handset In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <654378926.276.1632906772242@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> >and given that I live right next to USA-Mexico border and given my ability to cross this border freely back and forth without being subject to any Covidian cult rituals, So you live in Eden! I'm wondering if this can be done even without a passport :-) -- David Matthews mail at dmatthews.org From mychaela.falconia at gmail.com Wed Sep 29 11:09:41 2021 From: mychaela.falconia at gmail.com (Mychaela Falconia) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 03:09:41 -0800 Subject: Work toward FreeCalypso handset In-Reply-To: <654378926.276.1632906772242@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> References: <654378926.276.1632906772242@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> Message-ID: Hi David, Nice to hear that you are still around! > > and given that I live right next to USA-Mexico border and given > > my ability to cross this border freely back and forth without being > > subject to any Covidian cult rituals, > > So you live in Eden! Well, the USA side of the border does not feel very Eden-like, given that T-Mobile USA are not only itching to shut down their GSM network, but have already made it impossible for any new subscribers (or anyone who lost their SIM card and needs a replacement) to get unhobbled SIMs that are compatible with classic phones, turning the 4 legacy SIMs on my family plan into precious and irreplaceable relics. However, I did feel a little more Eden-like when I was in Tijuana, especially when one of my medical tourism coordinator people brought me that Telcel prepaid SIM I asked them for, and it says right there on the paper package: "Compatible con GSM, 3G y 4G". (English translation, should be obvious even without knowing Spanish: "Compatible with GSM, 3G and 4G".) So they *officially* support GSM even for new people, even for visiting medical tourists who are buying a prepaid SIM at a kiosk - and sure enough, this prepaid SIM worked just fine in my Pirelli phone while I was chilling at the medical recovery guesthouse after my surgery. > I'm wondering if this can be done even without a passport :-) Ahmm, they do check passports at the border crossing, but only plain old-fashioned passports are needed, NOT the vaccine kind! More specifically, crossing the border from Mexico into USA requires either an American passport or a permanent resident card; I have the latter, while my American-born family members have the former. Astonishingly though, crossing by land from USA into Mexico in your own car does not involve any document checks at all: you literally drive through the border crossing without being stopped by any officials! You do have to drive slowly through the crossing, there are cameras that will take pictures of your car and all people inside, and they do have the power to stop and inspect/question you if they feel reason for suspicion - but as long as you don't look or do anything suspicious and as long as you don't trigger a match in whatever suspect database their cameras must be checking, the vast majority of the time you don't get stopped at all, just drive right through. I would venture a guess that Mexico might be the only country in the world, or one of very few, that allows such free entry. Now if you would like to visit Mexico but you don't live in USA, if you live in Europe/UK/etc instead, then you would need to fly in by plane, and you would need a regular national passport from your home country - but even then the entry requirements into Mexico are super-easy! As I understand it, they allow visa-free entry for almost everyone, and to the best of my knowledge, they never imposed any vaccine or testing or quarantine requirements - in marked contrast with Thailand! Mexico's liberal stance on letting people enter their country for tourist or social visits gives me an idea: if anyone in our FreeCalypso community would like an in-person get-together, Mexico would probably be an ideal place to do it. I could host our get-together in Tijuana, or perhaps our friends over at Rhizomatica could host one in their area. Even if you live in one of the nastier countries where the local Covidian regime is pretty bad, surely you can fly OUT of your country for a little vacation trip to Mexico, can't you? El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido! Hastla la Victoria, Siempre, Mychaela aka The Mother From mail at dmatthews.org Wed Sep 29 14:50:22 2021 From: mail at dmatthews.org (David Matthews) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:50:22 +0100 (BST) Subject: Work toward FreeCalypso handset In-Reply-To: <654378926.276.1632906772242@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> Message-ID: <2020008684.277.1632927022291@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> >Even if you live in one of the nastier countries where the local Covidian regime is pretty bad, surely you can fly OUT of your country for a little vacation trip to Mexico, can't you? hi Mychaela hehe sorry to admit that your last message is more interesting to me than your descriptions of technical endeavours, which are largely over my head, but I am still around. I should also confess that I ahem, once entered South Africa from Zimbabwe, despite being barred from the second of those fair lands. One does that without showing a passport, which of course is bad and wrong :-) You make Mexico sound very interesting. UK is by no means the worst covidian dystopia, but it's bad enough and I will not be surprised if it takes a big dive south within a few weeks. Lot's of jabbed people ill and dying which they will obviously try and blame on the un-jabbed; I'm not sure how that will work out. A lot of very brain washed / bewitched people here. I'd resigned myself to never travelling again; I think if I went to Mexico, I'd have to spend 14 days or so in an isolation facility at my own expense on return. 5 star hotel rates for the privilege of being imprisoned in other words - nice neh? -- David Matthews mail at dmatthews.org From mychaela.falconia at gmail.com Wed Sep 29 20:42:55 2021 From: mychaela.falconia at gmail.com (Mychaela Falconia) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 12:42:55 -0800 Subject: Work toward FreeCalypso handset In-Reply-To: <2020008684.277.1632927022291@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> References: <654378926.276.1632906772242@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> <2020008684.277.1632927022291@eurydice.default.davcmat.uk0.bigv.io> Message-ID: Hi David, > sorry to admit that your last message is more interesting to me than your > descriptions of technical endeavours, which are largely over my head, My vision of FC community is not just technical, but also social. Right now those of us who detest and refuse to use sheeple smartphones, preferring traditional dumbphones instead, and those of us who wish to use GSM instead of the 4G/5G abomination, are a highly oppressed, endangered and trampled-upon minority, EXACTLY the same as the anti- Covidian-cult and anti-injection minority, and we need to stick together socially. It is certainly unfortunate that I have not yet found any other trans women (or helping professionals who work with our kind) who share my anti-smartphone beliefs OR my anti-4G/5G beliefs OR my anti-Covidian beliefs, but there is at least one teensy-tiny overlap between our GSM work in FreeCalypso and the kind people in Mexico who helped me realize my life-long dream of becoming a complete woman: when I told them about Rhizomatica and the indigenous GSM networks they operate in Oaxaca, all of those medical tourism coordinator people in Tijuana really liked it, and I was happy to tell them that I give out free-of-cost FreeCalypso hardware to those kinds of maverick operators. Speaking of the medical tourism industry in Mexico, transgender surgeries like mine are only a very small part of that business - instead the vast majority of their patients are cisgender folks (meaning not transgender), mostly cis women, and the surgeries for which they come to Mexico range from vanity cosmetic stuff to the rather horrible bariatrics - the latter I do NOT approve of. But whatever their reasons and motivations, the steady flow of all those medical tourists keeps the prices very competitive and affordable, and possibly even encourages the Mexican govt to stay away from draconian anti-tourist policies, so as to not bite the hand that feeds them. Some of those non-transgender medical tourists also provide for a lively social company. While I stayed at the medical recovery guesthouse after my surgery, I had a roommate who was a cisgender girl who came for a bunch of vanity cosmetic treatments. She checked into the place where we stayed a couple of days before her surgery, whereas I was already post-op - but I was recovering so well that I was very social despite being only a few days out of my surgery. She quickly realized that I was a hot commodity when I told her not only about my hobby projects like FC, but also about the work I do with terrestrial microwave links in my day job - and then as I was entertaining one of the nurses with my singing, my roommate could not believe that I don't actually speak Spanish, she thought I was pulling her leg - I have a couple of rather long and complicated Spanish songs in my repertoire, I have them meticulously memorized and I sing them from memory without actually speaking the language, and my American roommate thought it was impossible. The other person in my audience, the Mexican nurse who was obviously a most native Spanish speaker, was also impressed by how correctly I was pronouncing some of the more complicated words in those songs. So yes, I had a good amount of entertainment thrown in at no extra cost along with my surgery in Mexico! > I'd resigned myself to never travelling again; In my case, I may indeed never again in my life be able to do the kind of travel that requires getting onto an airplane for an international flight, but I am *so* thankful for my ability to travel by land, including cross-border travel in my car, without having to get onto a plane and be subject to all of the mistreatments that come with the latter. > I think if I went to Mexico, I'd have to spend 14 days or so in an isolation > facility at my own expense on return. Quarantine on return to your own home country, ouch! In the case of USA citizens coming back home from overseas travel, I heard something about them requiring a negative test before you can get on the plane home, which is certainly very problematic: at 40 cycles they are basically amplifying random noise, and if that random noise comes out positive in your case, not being able to get on the plane back home would be really major trouble. Thankfully there are no such impositions for land border crossing back into USA from Mexico: just show them proof that you are either a USA citizen or what they call a "lawful permanent resident" (my status here), and they let you through on your merry way. > 5 star hotel rates for the privilege of being imprisoned in other words > - nice neh? What you just said is exactly what the diabolical govt of Thailand (a country that was once previously referred to as Vaginaland) does to innocent medical tourists (mostly trans women) who go to that country for their quality-of-life surgeries. Unlike Mexico, Thailand is the world capital for gender-affirming surgeries, and many of my kind still go there for that purpose. I am extremely fortunate that I found a kind surgeon in Mexico who was able and willing to do what I wanted (being post-op now, I have no complaints: he did exactly what I asked him to do on me, same YAFIYGI principle as good old UNIX), but many other trans women still go to Thailand, even today with all of their unspeakable Covidian tyranny. Why? Every trans woman's needs in the surgery department are different and unique, some really need a different surgery variant than what I got, and there are many for whom top Thai surgeons are still the only ones in the world who can deliver the desired result. I have read stories that are just heartbreaking: trans women just like me (OK, they may not share my extremely strong anti-Covidian beliefs, but their lack of clarity in this regard does not reduce their humanity) go to Thailand in order to get their long-desired surgeries done by the very best in the field, but as they arrive in the country, they are immediately escorted to what you quite accurately described as a prison implemented inside a 5-star hotel. They are not allowed to leave their room at all, exactly the same as if it were a jail cell, and the only time they take you outside for a few minutes is for the purpose of shoving a hockey stick up your nose. They tear families apart, imprisoning each person separately - I remember reading a story where a married couple had to beg for special permission to be allowed to quarantine together in the same room, and they only found one hotel that allowed them to do so as a special rare exception. The crimes against humanity that are now being committed in the country that less than 2 y ago was THE beacon of hope for people of my kind (it was called Vaginaland for a reason - just ask Leah Rowe of Libreboot) are just unspeakable. Now if anyone thinks that those of us who seek and eventually undergo sex change surgeries are wrong in our heads and that we bring all of our suffering upon ourselves, including suffering inflicted directly at the hands of tyrannical Covidian govts, you have no idea what you are talking about, so just shut your ignorant trap, please. Just because YOU were born with the PRIVILEGE of soul and body of the same sex does not mean that everyone else was born with the same privilege - some of us were born without such. People with my condition (the currently accepted scientific term as of ICD-11 is gender incongruence, replacing previous terms which were less accurate) have existed for as long as humans existed, our existence in remote antiquity is documented on clay tablets and other similar long-lasting media, and even surgeries, obviously far more primitive than what I just got, were also done for thousands of years. Transgender priestesses devoted to several ancient Goddesses (Hekate and Selene at minimum) very willingly underwent primitive orchiectomies and penectomies without any anaesthesia, without sterile operating rooms and without antibiotics, knowing full well that their chances of making it through alive were maybe 50% at best. Giving gratitude where it is due, I am extremely thankful that I was able to get my body-match-soul surgery done by a good doctor using highly advanced techniques which were simply unavailable even a couple of decades ago - so much more advanced than what I would have been limited to had I lived in ancient Greece some 2500 y ago. Back to Covidian tyranny, when trans women seeking surgeries suffer more than other people at the hands of those evildoers, we are simply being used as the canary in the coal mine. I hold steadfast to my view that all current anti-human Covidian policies are crimes against humanity, and that various high-placed perpetrators of these crimes need to be subjected to the same trials and punishments as the Nazis after WW2. And no, you can't invoke Godwin's Law against me here, as I am the listowner, so there you have it. And to bring this thread back on topic, if anyone reading this rant is an anti-Covidian freedom fighter and you also happen to like GSM, you are welcome to receive whatever FreeCalypso hardware you like free of cost. Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, Mychaela aka The Mother From das.signal at freecalypso.org Thu Sep 30 12:01:57 2021 From: das.signal at freecalypso.org (Das Signal) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2021 12:01:57 +0000 Subject: Work toward FreeCalypso handset In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20210930120157.GA13991@freecalypso.org> Hi Mychaela, First of all, congratulation on your successful operation and recovery, I am glad everything went fine :-) Although I'm afraid I don't have much news to share with the community, I am nonetheless thankful for your continued work towards a completely free handset, for which FC Venus is (imho) an important stepping stone. In addition to the exellent FCDEV3B & Caramel2 (and the quite rare iWOW DSK), a true Pirelli-like handset will be super nice; for instance having a real loudspeaker is a very important requirement, and something lacking on the Motorola C1XX. Similarly, the DP-L10 could use a larger LCD screen, and the Wi-Fi/camera could be dropped completely. Also, the addition of a real lithium battery to FC Venus is super cool and a great feature :-) --DS On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 06:18:05PM -0800, Mychaela Falconia wrote: > Hello FreeCalypso community, > > I am still slowly trudging toward my dream goal of designing and > building my own FC Libre Dumbphone that would serve as a source-enabled > replacement for the Calypso-based but sans-source Pirelli DP-L10. The > purpose of this post is to share some updates on current developments > toward this goal. > > The biggest update at the moment is that I have finalized the selection > of LCD module that will be used in our Pirelli-replacing FC handset, > and I have bought 100 pcs of this chosen LCD module, a quantity which > I expect to be a lifetime buy, covering all anticipated prototyping > iterations. The LCD module I settled on is a 176x220 pixel 2.0" TFT > made by LCD manufacturer Formike; here is the datasheet: > > ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/embedded/LCDs/KWH020ST23-F01.pdf > > In terms of the physical size of the display active area in mm, our > 2.0" diagonal LCD is about 72% bigger than Pirelli's 1.5" diagonal: > the AA of our new LCD is well-defined to be 31.68x39.60 mm; for > Pirelli's LCD we have no specs, but measuring the lit-up AA with a > ruler shows about 26x28 mm. But in terms of information display > capacity, our new 176x220 pixel LCD is 2.36 times larger than > Pirelli's 128x128 pix! In any case, my choice of 176x220 as the pixel > size for our phone LCD comes from my desire to reuse as much as > possible from TI's D-Sample demo/prototype/PoC UI which is coded for > this LCD pixel size, and the physical size of 2.0" diagonal comes from > the industry standard size selection: most 176x220 pixel LCDs including > the one I ultimately ended up choosing are made in this physical size, > not some other. > > I also took a few pictures, although my skills with the camera are > abysmal - I am an engineer, not a photographer: > > https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/pictures/Formike_LCD/ > > In these pictures you can see the front and back of a bare LCD module, > and our lunalcd2 test board which I made a couple of months ago. This > test board has the LCD module mounted on it (key mounting feature: see > how the module's FPC tail is folded under the body of the module in > our mounting arrangement), and the LCD is connected to our Luna > interface from 2020. > > The strip of Kapton tape seen in the lunalcd2.jpeg photo is a hack for > holding our LCD module in place. In a complete phone handset with > plastics, there will be no issue: in the classic mechanical design of > all standard phones, there are screws that hold together the front and > back plastic pieces, and the resulting tight grip structure constrains > the LCD module to staying where it needs to be. However, in a bare > development board setup without plastics, we get this unexpected > annoyance: there is a certain elastic force (originating in the area > where the tail is folded under the module) that pushes the bottom of > the LCD module up, away from the PCB, this force acts against gravity > and against the adhesive, but it is strong enough to lift the bottom > of the LCD module in a way that at least to me looks aesthetically > displeasing and feels like a significantly weakened system. On > lunalcd2 I am using a strip of Kapton tape wrapped around the board to > keep the LCD module from lifting up at the bottom end (the undesirable > elastic force is countered by the tension of this tape), but as my > next iterative solution, I am commissioning a local sheet metal shop > to make us a custom metal bracket that will be more robust than the > tape. > > Right now I am waiting for this hired local sheet metal company to > finish the design and fabrication of our LCD retaining bracket, and I > am also waiting for this back-ordered part from Digi-Key: > > https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cui-devices/DS04-254-1-04BK-SMT/11310949 > > This part has been on backorder since July 1; originally it was > supposed to arrive around the time of my surgery in late August, but > now it says October 11. The purpose of this DIP switch is to select > the backlight LED current from 1 to 15 mA in 1 mA increments, allowing > us to evaluate the readability of the LCD under different ambient > lighting conditions with different backlight LED currents, with the > goal of selecting a subset of just 4 possible LED currents for our > Venus board. Because of this insanely long backorder issue, I got our > current lunalcd2 board (the one pictured) assembled back in August > using a substitute part, a DIP switch pack with less convenient flush > actuators instead of raised ones. But now that we are getting a > special retaining metal bracket made, I plan on producing a lunalcd3 > test board (like lunalcd2, but with appropriate mounting holes added > for the bracket) before proceeding with FC Venus, and given that > Digi-Key's promised delivery date of Oct 11 is approaching, I am > hoping to use the better DIP switch part on lunalcd3. > > At this point you have every right to ask: so what is the big deal, > why am I fussing so much over the LCD and its mounting? The answer is > that I am planning our next FreeCalypso development board, and this > next FC Venus board will be a major advancement toward our FC Libre > Dumbphone handset goal: it will be just like a complete phone, but in > the physical form factor of a bare board, without any plastics or > mechanical design. With our current FC development boards so far, > that is FCDEV3B and Caramel2, you need to connect the board to a host > computer and control it with AT commands in order to make it do > anything interesting, as in connecting to GSM networks, making and > receiving calls, sending and receiving SMS. But FC Venus will be on > the next level: the board will include the just-described LCD and > keypad buttons in addition to the Calypso GSM core, and it will be > designed to be powered either by a fixed supply like our current > boards or by a real Li-ion battery, with charging of that battery > managed by the Calypso chipset and our firmware! My vision is that I > will be able to mount this Venus board plus its powering 18650 battery > on some sturdy substrate such as a thick sheet of acrylic, and take it > out with me on social outings, demonstrating it to people outside my > cave - and given that I live right next to USA-Mexico border and given > my ability to cross this border freely back and forth without being > subject to any Covidian cult rituals, I hope to be able to demo this > next stage of FreeCalypso in both countries. > > Right now we have only one FC hardware platform on which we can run > firmware that is controlled with an LCD+buttons UI, rather than via AT > commands, and this platform is FC Luna. However, this Luna platform > is very unwieldy - it is not a single board, but a set of 4 boards > interconnected with ribbon cables: a Caramel2 motherboard, a lunalcdX > board, a keypad board and a DUART28 adapter for the host computer > interface. Here is a fairly recent photo of the whole mess: > > https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/Caramel2/luna-setup-20201206.jpeg > > As you can surely tell from the above photo, this Luna setup is not > exactly suitable for field demos to audiences with limited attention > spans where first impression is everything, even if I went through the > process of mounting all of these pieces on some solid substrate like > our dear Das Signal did. Thus the logical next step is clear: we need > to eliminate the maze of ribbon cables and integrate everything on one > board. Furthermore, instead of using a Tango module for the Calypso > core like we did on Caramel2/Luna, our Venus board will be made from > "raw" Calypso and accessory chips like FCDEV3B - this approach will > make both design and fabrication more expensive, but it will give us > access to a few additional chipset signals which iWOW didn't bring out > on their TR-800 module. By connecting a magnetic buzzer to Calypso > BU/PWT output like on TI's D-Sample board, we will produce a platform > for making a smooth transition from buzzer ringing to Melody E1, and > by connecting to all 3 Iota audio channels, we will prototype the > complete audio routing subsystem for the Pirelli-replacing handset. > > If you would like to read more about this Venus board plan and about > the more distant handset for which it will serve as a prototype, here > is the detailed design specification: > > https://www.freecalypso.org/hg/freecalypso-docs/file/tip/FC-handset-spec > > There is just one more complication which I am currently working on: > we need to get a custom wired headset made for us. Trying to use any > of the commonly available already existing headsets won't work: > > * Today's mainstream consumer 3.5 mm headsets for Apple/Android phones > won't work because they are stereo (left and right ear), whereas we > need monaural, as in only one earbud. > > * Openmoko headsets won't work for the same reason: while they are > infinitely better morally and philosophically than sheeple ones, they > are still stereo. > > * Old historical headsets made for classic historical dumbphones (both > Motorola C1xx and non-Calypso classic phones like Nokia) are still > available in substantial quantities on certain markets, but they all > feature the typical 3-wire TRS arrangement with the earpiece speaker > connected between a dedicated headset output wire and ground. But for > our own FreeCalypso headset I desire a different arrangement which I > haven't seen used by any historical player other than iWOW: the > arrangement I seek is to use a 4-wire TRRS plug, but still keep it > monaural, with 2 non-ground wires used to connect the single earpiece > speaker as a bridge-tied load. > > My idea for the custom headset I'm seeking to get made came from iWOW. > In addition to making a huge production run of TR-800 modules (so huge > that I consider the NOS supply of these modules to be inexhaustible > for the purposes of our community), they also made a small handful of > their development board kits - but these iWOW development kits are > much rarer than bare TR-800 modules, Das Signal and I found only two > of them, and the two kits we have scored may well be the last two in > the world. On their development board, iWOW came up with the really > neat idea of bringing out the *main* Iota audio channel to a headset > jack - this idea is rather revolutionary, as the main audio channel is > meant to be used for the phone's built-in earpiece and mic, whereas a > typical finished phone's headset jack would normally be wired to the > secondary or tertiary Iota audio channel. But Iota's main audio > output is differential and the phone's built-in earpiece speaker is > meant to be connected to it as a bridge-tied load - thus a traditional > 3-wire TRS headset cannot be connected to this main audio channel in > the native and straightforward manner as pioneered by iWOW. > > iWOW's solution was to replace the common 3-wire TRS headset with > 4-wire TRRS, even though it is still monaural and NOT stereo. The > headset which iWOW supplied with their development boards has its > earpiece speaker connected between Tip and Ring2 as a bridge-tied > load, and the microphone is connected between Ring1 (positive) and > Sleeve (ground). But the problem with those iWOW-supplied headsets is > that there are only two of them in the world: I have one, our dear Das > Signal has the other, and there are no more. My answer to this > situation is to get more of these special headsets custom-made for us > on a special order basis: I am the kind of person who will NEVER > accept a no for an answer, and if iWOW were somehow able to get such > unusual headsets, then we must do likewise. > > Our Caramel2 board has its main audio channel brought out to a TRRS > headset jack in iWOW's pinout just like iWOW's original DSK board, > thus anyone who wishes to play with voice call audio on C2 will need > one of these special headsets which I am now trying to get made. But > even more importantly, I plan to keep the same arrangement on our > Venus board, i.e., bring out the main or primary Iota audio channel to > a headset jack - thus the special headset will be a required accessory > for FC Venus too. I expect FC Venus to be a more interesting board > than C2, thus the headset issue is now becoming a big deal. > > Right now I am actively working on the headset issue, that is, looking > for a headset manufacturer who would be willing to do what we need. > So far I have reached out to two manufs by direct email; if I don't > get a response from either of them, as the next step I will need to > brave Alibaba's rather difficult web interface and post a buy request > or RFQ or whatever they call it. > > Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, > Mychaela aka The Mother > _______________________________________________ > Community mailing list > Community at freecalypso.org > https://www.freecalypso.org/mailman/listinfo/community