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Welcome to the Homebrew Mobile Phone Club Wiki...
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[[Image:ringtoneseal.gif|thumb|One Phone To Rule Them All, One Ringtone To Find Them, One Carrier to Find Them All, And To The Service Plan Bind Them.]]
  
= The Next Meeting =
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=The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club=
  
The Silicon Valley Homebrew Mobile Phone Club has monthly meetings, usually at the TechShop in Menlo Park. See the calendar for meeting dates. Next meeting would normally be scheduled on Wednesday Feb 14th, but has been rescheduled to Monday Feb 12th to allow non-geeky activities to take precendence. For info on previous meetings, check out the [[Previous Meetings Page]].
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Welcome to the "HBMobile Wiki." This is the main wiki site where members of the [http://hbmobile.org/ Homebrew Mobile Phone Club] share information about plans, projects, meetings and musings. There's no fee to participate, and except for spammers and defacers, we welcome most any input. Much of our content is technical, but you don't have to be an über-engineer to participate; part of what we're all about is enabling people to build mobile devices that meet their special needs. So if you have a special need that you've not heard anyone talk about, pipe up and let us know. To experiment with this wiki try [[Sandbox]]. See the [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User's_Guide User's Guide] for usage and configuration help.
  
= News and Events =
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=News and Events=
  
The "official" calendar of the Homebrew Mobile Phone club is hosted by Google at [http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=msh.mobile%40gmail.com The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club Calendar Page].
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The hosting for hbmobile.org (the webserver) & revejo.org (the mailing list) hit a snarl.  Adrian's started a [http://groups.google.com/group/hbmobile hbmobile mailing list at Google Groups,] & [http://hbmobile.pronoiac.org James opened a mirror of wiki.hbmobile.org.] Pass along the new sites!
  
Other events of interest include the [http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etel2007/ 2007 O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference] taking place near the San Francisco Airport on the 28th of February and 1st of March.
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The most recent meeting was at 6:30PM on [[March 2008|March 12th, 2008]] at The Computer History Museum. Mark Wood talked about the Cell Broadcast System, & we showed off the latest myPhone.  Audio & video of Mark Wood's presentation has been posted.
  
= Projects =
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The newly organized [[HOWTO Pages|HOWTO Pages Index]] is at long last ready for public consumption. HOWTOs hosted on this site include details on how to build a myPhone prototype and how to setup your Linux development environment.
  
Homebrew Club members are encouraged to post information about their projects (or other people projects) here.
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Club members who were at a meeting this last fall might remember that Richard Hart from "The Next Step" came by to look at what was going on. He filed [http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=drive_to_discover&id=5671823 this report (mirrored here on the KGO web site.)]
  
One project that's been relatively sucessful is the [[TuxPhone Project]]. TuxPhone was started by Surj Patel and Deva Seetharam and quickly attracted Matt Hamrick, Colin Cross and Leonardo Bonanni. The goal of the TuxPhone project is to produce a design that can lead to a "do it yourself" mobile phone; not just for the project members, but for anyone who wants to use the design.
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=Portals=
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[[HBMobileWiki:Community_Portal|Community]]<br /><br />
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[[Current events]]<br /><br />
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[[Ideas]]
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[[Hardware Projects]]<br /><br />
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[[Software Projects]]<br /><br />
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[[Suppliers]]
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[[:Category:HOWTO|HOWTOs]]<br /><br />
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[[Related Sites]]<br /><br />
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[[Marketplace]]
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</div>
  
Another project we're tracking is the [[SqueakyMoPho Project]]. SqueakyMoPho was Matt Hamrick's original concept for building a Linux-based mobile phone where application and UI code was written in Smalltalk. The project is no on semi-hiatus while Matt works on TuxPhone and Albion. But the "Franken-Phone" GSM Peripheral used to test the SqueakyMoPho software is still in active development. Matt has a "How to Build Your Own USB-Based GSM Peripheral" at the bottom of the [[SqueakyMoPho Project]] page.
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=Administrivia and Background=
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Following some suspicious activity, I'm disabling image uploads for now. I could reinstate that given a reason - just contact me or leave a message on my talk page. - [[User:Pronoiac|Pronoiac]] 19:31, 5 July 2010 (UTC)
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[[Site News]] <br/><br/>
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[[Help:About|About]]<br/><br/>
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[[Help:Editing|Editing Help]]
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[[Wanted|Wanted Pages]]<br/><br/>
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[[HBMobileWiki:Mailing List|Mailing List]]<br/><br/>
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[[Second Life]]
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[[HBMobileWiki:Glossary|Glossary]]<br/><br/>
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[[Help:Contents|Site Policy]]<br/><br/>
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</div>
  
The [[Albion Project]] is a hardware project to build a phone that uses a fully digital audio path. The idea being that the digital audio path will allow you to add features like "[[Data over GSM Voice]]" for [[vCard burst]]ing.
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=Support=
  
While the initial TuxPhone design is just a simple phone that makes calls, there is a lot of interest in a high end open smartphone that extends the TuxPhone design to a large touchscreen format. This is being called [[myPhone]], and everyone who builds one will customize it to their own needs and desires.
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The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the [http://techshop.ws/ TechShop] and [http://gumstix.com/ GumStix]. Thanks to these organizations, we're able to make our dreams solid.
  
= Resources =
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{|
 
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| align="center" | [[Image:Gumstix-3.gif|thumb|[http://gumstix.com/ GumStix] ]] || align="center" | [[Image:Techshop logo.png|thumb|[http://techshop.ws/ TechShop] ]]
Geographically distant persons are also encouraged to participate in discussions on the mailing list or (if you're adventureous) you can form your own local chapter. There is currently no formal national or international membership organization, so starting a local chapter is as simple as finding a few interested people, deciding on a time and location for the meeting and showing up. A [http://www.frappr.com/svhmpc Homebrew Mobile Phone Club Frappr Group] has been created to make it easier to find people with similar interests in your area.
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= Suppliers =
 
''Click here for [[UK Suppliers]]''
 
==GSM Modules==
 
 
 
; [http://www.sparkfun.com/ SparkFun] : SparkFun supports several different electronic hobbyist communities. They provide eval boards and accessories for a number of different hardware architectures. We like them because they will sell Telit GSM modules in single quantities and with USB to Serial eval boards.
 
 
 
==Embedded Controllers==
 
 
 
; [http://www.gumstix.com/ GumStix, Inc.] : GumStix manufactures and sells small ARM based embedded systems for experimenters, hobbyists and companies building small-run systems. Several price-performance points are supported (meaning they have cheaper, slower modules and faster, more expensive modules.) Support for sound, networking, etc. is provided by daughter-boards. GumStix are used by a number of projects and are part of the initial TuxPhone hardware reference design.<br/><br/>Developers should note, however, that typical GumStix systems do not ship with LCDs. GumStix CTO Chris Hughes explains that the company received radically different LCD requirements from their customers, and they could never find a "one size fits all" solution. However, all the control lines for supporting modern LCDs are provided by the system's standard Hirose connector and the [http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Lcd LCD page] on [http://www.gumstix.org/ GumStix.Org] lists the steps to connect typical LCDs to the device. <br/><br/>Also note that GumStix has publicly announced they're working on a GSM gumstix peripheral based on the [https://pia.khe.siemens.com/index14287.htm Seimens MC75] module. So fairly soon you should be able to build your own mobile wireless communication device with EDGE support. w00t!
 
 
 
==Displays==
 
 
 
; [http://www.earthlcd.com/ EarthLCD] : When you need to connect an LCD display to your design, the folks at EarthLCD can help out. They stock a wide range of LCDs and controllers.
 
 
 
; [http://www.sharpsma.com/Page.aspx/americas/en/part/LQ043T3DX02/ Sharp 4.3" Display specification] : This is the Sony PSP display that some of us are using to build myPhone.
 
 
 
; [http://www.cnn.cn/ Cellular Nationwide Network] : These guys look to be an online retailer of surplus or factory seconds for mobile phone parts. They carry cases, LCDs, keypads and a number of other odds-n-ends. My ([[User:Msh]]) experience with them is mixed. My first order with them was filled promptly and everything arrived in reasonable time. My second order was less exciting, 36 hours after having my credit card charged, I got an email saying, "sorry, we really don't have that part in stock." I received a refund, but it was a might annoying to have to find another supplier.
 
 
 
==TouchScreens==
 
 
 
; [http://www.hantouchusa.com/ HanTouch USA] : This is the US sales office for [http://hantouch.com/ HanTouch]. They're supplying the [http://www.hantouchusa.com/drawings/HT043A-NCOFD52.pdf HT043A-NCOFD52] touchscreen for the "myPhone" project. I dug around on their site and found [http://www.hantouchusa.com/HOW%20DOES%20IT%20WORK.pdf this overview of how touch-screens work].
 
 
 
==Cases==
 
 
 
; [http://www.techshop.ws TechShop] : TechShop in Menlo Park California is a large workshop that anyone can use on a subscription basis. Amongst many other tools they have a 3D printer which can be used after taking a short training class, and which can print just about any shape using ABS plastic. SVHMPC has held several of its monthly meetings at Techshop.
 
 
 
; : There are many commercial CAD packages, Pro/Engineer, Solidworks, Autocad, Rhino3d. Our approach is to publish models for simple parts and assemblies in DXF format, so any tool can be used to generate or modify them.
 
 
 
; [http://sketchup.google.com Google SketchUp] : Sketchup is a very easy to use way to generate and edit 3D shapes. It supports Windows and MacOSX, and is free for a basic version, which can import DXF format. The Pro version is needed to generate DXF, and it costs $495, with an 8 hours of use free trial. Most of the examples are architectural shapes. There are excellent video tutorial guides.
 
 
 
; [http://www.alibre.com Alibre] : Alibre is a full function 3D parametric CAD package with a similar interface to Sketchup, but more oriented to creating a set of parts and assembling them. It only runs on Windows. Alibre Express is free, with  restrictions on functionality and a limit of ten parts in an assembly, but it can input and output a DXF file. The unrestricted professional versions start at $995. The video tutorial guides are excellent.
 
 
 
; [http://www.opencascade.org OpenCascade] : OpenCascade is an open source product mainly aimed at developers. It runs on Linux, Windows and Solaris, no MacOSX support. It is scriptable, and Gumstix use it to generate their DXF files.
 
 
 
; [http://brlcad.org BRL-CAD] : BRL-CAD is an open source product based on 20 years of work from the US Army Research Lab, its free, and supports Linux, MacOSX and just about anything else. Its mainly aimed at modelling for analysis, rather than manufacturing, and is reputed to be complex and powerful, and not particularly easy to use.
 
 
 
==Keypads==
 
 
 
; [http://www.nelsonusa.com/ Nelson Nameplate] : Nelson Nameplate is another company that makes custom "membrane" keypads.
 
 
 
; [http://www.pannam.com/ Pannam Imaging] : Pannam manufactures custom "membrane" switch type keypads. These keypads may be slightly expensive for some hobbyist designs, but if you need a custom keypad, it's a good alternative.
 
 
 
; [http://www.ryanscreenprinting.com/ Ryan Screen Printing, Inc.] : These guys do custom membrane and rubber keyboard manufacture. They also have a design guide that helps illuminate the entire keypad design process.
 
 
 
==Discrete Components==
 
 
 
; [http://www.digikey.com/ DigiKey.Com] : With a catalog the size of a phone-book, DigiKey is well known in the hobbyist and entrepreneureal communities as being a highly reliable source for everything from resistors to project enclosures.
 
 
 
; [http://www.mouser.com/ Mouser Electronics ] : With a catalog the size of a small phone-book, Mouser is also well known amongst hobbyists, hackers and prototypers.
 
 
 
; [http://www.jameco.com/ Jameco Electronics ] : Jameco is yet another supplier of small components for people working on electronics projects.
 
 
 
; [http://www.demoboard.com/anchor.htm Anchor Electroncs ] : Persons in Silicon Valley looking for that last minute part may want to visit Anchor Electronics. Their store-front is at [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=2040+Walsh+Avenue+Santa+Clara,+CA.++95050&ie=UTF8&ll=37.369475,-121.960387&spn=0.016951,0.042014&om=1 2040 Walsh Avenue Santa Clara, CA.  95050]. Their catalog indicates they have a reasonably wide selection of surface mount and through-hole components, ICs, boards, etc. They can also be reached via telephone at +1.408.727.3693.
 
 
 
; [http://www.halted.com/ HSC Electronic Supply] : A SiliValley standard for decades, "Halted" has a strange mix of parts and supplies. They have a reliable selection of nuts, bolts, PCB supplies (save solder paste), and a wide (though not complete) selection of resistors, diodes, etc. They're at the corner of Lawrence and Central in Santa Clara, so if you ever get the desire to go to Fry's in Sunnyvale, go here instead. [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=3500+Ryder+Street,+santa+clara,+ca&ie=UTF8&z=15&ll=37.377421,-121.993818&spn=0.017051,0.040898&om=1&iwloc=addr 3500 Ryder Street, Santa Clara, CA 95051], +1.408.732.1573
 
 
 
; [http://www.surfacemountcenter.com/ Surface Mount Center] : If surface mount components are what you're looking for, consider the Surface Mount Center. Their store-front is at [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1580+Oakland+Rd+%23+C114,+San+Jose,+CA+95131&ie=UTF8&ll=37.378922,-121.895499&spn=0.016949,0.042014&om=1 1580 Oakland Rd # C114, San Jose, CA 95131] and their phone number is+1.408.453.2023.
 

Latest revision as of 19:31, 5 July 2010

One Phone To Rule Them All, One Ringtone To Find Them, One Carrier to Find Them All, And To The Service Plan Bind Them.

The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club

Welcome to the "HBMobile Wiki." This is the main wiki site where members of the Homebrew Mobile Phone Club share information about plans, projects, meetings and musings. There's no fee to participate, and except for spammers and defacers, we welcome most any input. Much of our content is technical, but you don't have to be an über-engineer to participate; part of what we're all about is enabling people to build mobile devices that meet their special needs. So if you have a special need that you've not heard anyone talk about, pipe up and let us know. To experiment with this wiki try Sandbox. See the User's Guide for usage and configuration help.

News and Events

The hosting for hbmobile.org (the webserver) & revejo.org (the mailing list) hit a snarl. Adrian's started a hbmobile mailing list at Google Groups, & James opened a mirror of wiki.hbmobile.org. Pass along the new sites!

The most recent meeting was at 6:30PM on March 12th, 2008 at The Computer History Museum. Mark Wood talked about the Cell Broadcast System, & we showed off the latest myPhone. Audio & video of Mark Wood's presentation has been posted.

The newly organized HOWTO Pages Index is at long last ready for public consumption. HOWTOs hosted on this site include details on how to build a myPhone prototype and how to setup your Linux development environment.

Club members who were at a meeting this last fall might remember that Richard Hart from "The Next Step" came by to look at what was going on. He filed this report (mirrored here on the KGO web site.)

Portals

Administrivia and Background

Following some suspicious activity, I'm disabling image uploads for now. I could reinstate that given a reason - just contact me or leave a message on my talk page. - Pronoiac 19:31, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Support

The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the TechShop and GumStix. Thanks to these organizations, we're able to make our dreams solid.