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I made a cell phone [video]

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Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#41

Post by zokier »

henrikeh wrote: post #33
ubercow wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was that 3D/CAD software you were using?

It looked like Autodesk Inventor. It is a parametric CAD software like Creo or Solidworks. The parametric part is actually really neat. The lines are drawn and then certain constraints must be applied: These points must be coincident, these lines must be parallel, these must be perpendicular and several others. Dimensional constraints are then applied. The program informs the designer when the drawing is "fully const…

> This allows for making programmable drawings

In the extreme end of this we have OpenSCAD[1] in which models are defined purely by code.

[1] http://www.openscad.org/

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#42

Post by amelius »

Ok, you made a working cell phone. But are you sure you know how to do it? What if, next time, something goes wrong, do you have the proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem?

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#43

Post by Nexxxeh »

amelius wrote: post #42

Ok, you made a working cell phone. But are you sure you know how to do it? What if, next time, something goes wrong, do you have the proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem?

>What if, next time, something goes wrong, do you have the proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem?

Well, he's probably nearly 4% expert by now. Presumably it depends on if the problem occurs with something within that 4% or not... ;)

Two large bits of chippery, both of which will talk (relatively) directly to a PC if needed. If it's a software problem, he'll probably be ok.

If it's an RF problem, maybe not. From what I hear, that's a nightmare.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#44

Post by morb »

amelius wrote: post #42

Ok, you made a working cell phone. But are you sure you know how to do it? What if, next time, something goes wrong, do you have the proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem?

That's discouraging.

He pretty much admits during the whole talk that he doesn't really know what he's doing. But he's doing it nevertheless. He's learning. And he's encouraging others to try and do stuff they don't know much about. And to celebrate small victories.

Also, I never ever have proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem when I'm doing something I've never done before.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#45

Post by theoh »

zokier wrote: post #41
henrikeh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looked like Autodesk Inventor. It is a parametric CAD software like Creo or Solidworks. The parametric part is actually really neat. The lines are drawn and then certain constraints must be applied: These points must be coincident, these lines must be parallel, these must be perpendicular and several others. Dimensional constraints are then applied. The program informs the designer when the drawing is "fully const…

> This allows for making programmable drawings In the extreme end of this we have OpenSCAD[1] in which models are defined purely by code. [1] http://www.openscad.org/

The problem of providing a graphic interface for defining constraints is a serious issue. Current versions of AutoCAD have a toy constraint system (only works in 2D) but the interface is extremely nonintuitive.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#46

Post by nmrm2 »

posborne wrote: post #21
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…

> Certifying a cellular end device is usually

Suppose the author wants to (completely legally) use the phone he just built.

Does he have to go through this "end device" certification? Or does "end device" mean something else here?

what if he wanted to sell the phone?

I was wondering what the regulatory landscape looks like during the last portion of the talk -- it'd be a real shame if he put all this time into designing a beautiful phone and couldn't (legally) use it!

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#47

Post by nmrm2 »

Nexxxeh wrote: post #43
amelius wrote: post #42

Ok, you made a working cell phone. But are you sure you know how to do it? What if, next time, something goes wrong, do you have the proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem?

>What if, next time, something goes wrong, do you have the proper diagnostic skills to figure out the problem? Well, he's probably nearly 4% expert by now. Presumably it depends on if the problem occurs with something within that 4% or not... ;) Two large bits of chippery, both of which will talk (relatively) directly to a PC if needed. If it's a software problem, he'll probably be ok. If it's an RF problem, maybe no…

Indeed, it's important to note that the answer to everything software engineers do is something like this.

"If it's a bug in my application I can probably fix it. If the origin of the bug is the OS kernel I might need some time. If something's wrong with hardware I'm probably screwed." Which is to say that, in some sense, the answer to the grandparent's question for a simple HTML page is quite obviously no, even for the most experienced web developer.

Except of course that this guy is probably less screwed than the typical software engineer because he (at least physically) connected the hardware components.

Re: I made a cell phone [video]

#50

Post by izqui »

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... ).

This is crazy cool. Thanks for the talk
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