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I made a cell phone [video]

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Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#21

Post by posborne »

listic wrote: post #12

I thought cell phone companies don't appear from nowhere because governments and/or organizations like FCC in the USA are not allowing just anyone to sell radio communication equipment (is that why cellular modems are never open sourced, right?) Is it because of the regulations that we don't see lots of cell phone manufacturers? If it wasn't for that, from this presentation I get the feeling that cellphones could be…

I work for a wireless design services company. There is a large divide between using a Cellular module (e.g. Telit LE910) versus doing a chip-down Cellular design (e.g. Qualcomm/Infineon). This design has a module at its core.

Modules are based around the chipsets but they do the most expensive certification (both FCC and Carrier) work for you. As a purchaser of the module, you pay for this on each module.

Certifying a cellular end device is usually <$50K (depending on number of bands, # of carriers, fallback, etc.). Certifying a new chip-down cellular design can easily exceed $1-2M in just certification and testing costs. Development costs and complexity will also be increased.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#22

Post by Radle »

revx wrote: post #14
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #4

I wish the audience's audio wasn't much MUCH louder than the speaker. I had to turn the audio up to hear him, but the laughing was so loud I had to turn it down every few seconds. Also a fun video to watch, but he kind of skips over some of the most interesting technical details (like writing the software).

Hi! I shot the video. We had some problems with the mic hookup on stage so I was using a mic all the way back at the camera that wasn't nearly as directional as I hoped. Apologies to everyone's eardrums !

You could have also run a noise filter over it I believe, the quality wasn't good even when the crowd was quit.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#23

Post by lynaghk »

I gave this talk. Slides are here: https://keminglabs.com/talks/#bangbangcon2015

I'll post some photos of the current version and more details on my twitter (@lynaghk) tomorrow (in 10 hours).

Software is all on an 8-bit Atmel microcontroller, written in C in the style of Harel Statecharts (http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/seoc/2005_2006/reso...).

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#24

Post by superuser2 »

listic wrote: post #12

I thought cell phone companies don't appear from nowhere because governments and/or organizations like FCC in the USA are not allowing just anyone to sell radio communication equipment (is that why cellular modems are never open sourced, right?) Is it because of the regulations that we don't see lots of cell phone manufacturers? If it wasn't for that, from this presentation I get the feeling that cellphones could be…

The FCC requires that RF transmitters behave cooperatively - using the correct parts of the spectrum, not producing interference on other parts. Verifying this behavior is a relatively sophisticated task of electrical engineering, requiring specialized knowledge, expensive calibrated measurement equipment, RF-isolated test facilities, etc. Naturally, the cost burden for this testing falls on the manufacturer, not the taxpayer. So... we do allow "just anyone" to sell radio equipment, as long as they can pay to prove it behaves within the limits of the law. But big players like Motorola are in a much better position to do this than a dude in his basement.

Carriers have paid big bucks for exclusive licenses to useful swaths of the spectrum, and in return they get enforcement to make sure only devices they control can transmit on their spectrum. The FCC would not license a radio capable of transmitting on Verizon spectrum not approved by Verizon.

But this is specific to the radio - the FCC doesn't care about the rest of the phone (or whatever device it is). You can buy a cellular radio chip for your Arduino because it is FCC certified and you can only provide inputs like SMS and audio, not an arbitrary signal to transmit.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#25

Post by byuu »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #4

I wish the audience's audio wasn't much MUCH louder than the speaker. I had to turn the audio up to hear him, but the laughing was so loud I had to turn it down every few seconds. Also a fun video to watch, but he kind of skips over some of the most interesting technical details (like writing the software).

The worst part was that the jokes weren't even funny. It sounded more forced than a '90s sitcom laugh track.

"As you can see, I got a G-" , "that's like ... a good grade" , "of course, an E is for excellent"

... why am I so cynical? ;_;

Agreed though, the actual concept was really cool! Maybe to the author, try subtitling the video given the bad audio? Then we could just watch the video muted, and the (minor) problem would be solved :)

(and feel free to downvote this, I know I sound like a monster, complaining about laughter >_>;)

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#26

Post by samlewis »

lynaghk wrote: post #23

I gave this talk. Slides are here: https://keminglabs.com/talks/#bangbangcon2015 I'll post some photos of the current version and more details on my twitter (@lynaghk) tomorrow (in 10 hours). Software is all on an 8-bit Atmel microcontroller, written in C in the style of Harel Statecharts ( http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/seoc/2005_2006/reso... ).

Super cool, any chance of some pictures or a video of the finished product?

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#27

Post by zaf »

lynaghk wrote: post #23

I gave this talk. Slides are here: https://keminglabs.com/talks/#bangbangcon2015 I'll post some photos of the current version and more details on my twitter (@lynaghk) tomorrow (in 10 hours). Software is all on an 8-bit Atmel microcontroller, written in C in the style of Harel Statecharts ( http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/seoc/2005_2006/reso... ).

Hey, great talk and thanks for the link to the paper.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#29

Post by noobie »

Radle wrote: post #22
revx wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! I shot the video. We had some problems with the mic hookup on stage so I was using a mic all the way back at the camera that wasn't nearly as directional as I hoped. Apologies to everyone's eardrums !

You could have also run a noise filter over it I believe, the quality wasn't good even when the crowd was quit.

Well, you have the video now, you can download it and run said noise filter over it yourself..

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#30

Post by noobie »

revx wrote: post #14
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #4

I wish the audience's audio wasn't much MUCH louder than the speaker. I had to turn the audio up to hear him, but the laughing was so loud I had to turn it down every few seconds. Also a fun video to watch, but he kind of skips over some of the most interesting technical details (like writing the software).

Hi! I shot the video. We had some problems with the mic hookup on stage so I was using a mic all the way back at the camera that wasn't nearly as directional as I hoped. Apologies to everyone's eardrums !

Your effort is much appreciated, the talk was worth it. Thank you!
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