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Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#191

Post by krackers »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #187
lqet wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Samsung Galaxy S turns 10 this year. It runs the latest compatible version of Cyanogenmod. Despite the obvious security drawbacks, I am still using it as my day-to-day smartphone for these reasons: * These things are seemingly indestructible. In 10 years, the only problems I had was a deteriorating battery (which I replaced once) and a broken back cover (which I replaced by a 2,99 EUR one from eBay). The screen is…

> turns 10 this year. It runs the latest compatible version of Cyanogenmod. Despite the obvious security drawbacks Anecdote: 6 months ago I got a OnePlus 7 Pro and installed LineageOS (continuation of CyanogenMod) on it. The 7 Pro has very small screen borders and no notch (iPhone) / punch hole (Samsung); instead a motor makes the selfie camera pop up & retract from the top of the phone. I also never updated LineageO…

>I could only conclude that it was hacked

That seems like a bit of a leap. Isn't it more likely to have been a software glitch of some sort?

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#193

Post by BrandoElFollito »

ProZsolt wrote: post #157

I got a Raspberry pi 1 B+ for free because it wasn't powerful enough for anything. Put it inside my old but perfectly working laser printer. Got a Google Cloud Print(RIP) enabled printer. https://github.com/ProZsolt/runbook/blob/master/raspberry-pi...

You could still switch it into a network enabled printserver (usb to the printer and a usb wifi card)

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#194

Post by the_pwner224 »

krackers wrote: post #191
the_pwner224 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> turns 10 this year. It runs the latest compatible version of Cyanogenmod. Despite the obvious security drawbacks Anecdote: 6 months ago I got a OnePlus 7 Pro and installed LineageOS (continuation of CyanogenMod) on it. The 7 Pro has very small screen borders and no notch (iPhone) / punch hole (Samsung); instead a motor makes the selfie camera pop up & retract from the top of the phone. I also never updated LineageO…

>I could only conclude that it was hacked That seems like a bit of a leap. Isn't it more likely to have been a software glitch of some sort?

Camera activated for a split second every once in a while, with no apparent relation to what I was using the phone for at that moment.

And it hasn't happened again since I reinstalled the OS two months ago (though admittedly it took ~4 months to start happening the first time).

Doesn't seem like a very big leap to me.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#195

Post by Holmes »

StapleHorse wrote: post #51

Just until recently I was usging an old Nokia N85 for my running sessions. It had dedicated physical buttons for playback, skip song, volume etc, the "Nokia Sports tracker app" also suported polar heart rate monitor. Some years ago it stop supporting direct upload of workouts and I had to send the gpx file via bluetooth. Last year battery died and I haven't found cheap replacements.

Any Android burner phone with LineageOS.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#196

Post by chrisshroba »

speleding wrote: post #190

An old monitor + previous generation Raspberry Pi: hangs on the kitchen wall to display Find My Friends in kiosk mode. Connected to a timer so it's on in the afternoon until dinner so you can see the family come home. Really cute to see your children move as little picture icons across the map towards you from school.

Cool idea! What api did you use to query the data?

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#197

Post by lrem »

metalliqaz wrote: post #169
gwbas1c wrote: post #165

Not very creative: I use my older phone to read books in the hot tub. This way, if I drop it, I don't loose my fancy new expensive phone.

you have a fancy new phone that isn't waterproof? mine is and it's not even that expensive.

I have learned the hard way that today's fancy waterproof phones can lose that magical property when dropped. And then the warranty might not cover you when it dies after being rained upon.

That's not what I, an old Defy user, had in mind :/

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#199

Post by mrguyorama »

Accujack wrote: post #137
reeddavid wrote: post #30

Not a company, but sharing a personal project: I got a free broken 55" TV and turned it into a big daylight panel. I got a great explanation of why this works well (fresnel lens) from the DIY Perks channel on YouTube: Turning Smashed TVs into Realistic Artificial Daylight ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JrqH2oOTK4 ). The main board had failed so the screen was black and the backlight cycled on and off. After disco…

Just FYI, repairing flat panel TVs by replacing the boards is fairly easy. Sometimes it's even an upgrade if you find a newer revision of the same board. The boards tend to be used in multiple models of TV, so they're easier to find than you might think.

Though it's not exactly cheap. Some of the boards are often over one or two hundred dollars
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