Ok great loved it, the typical question, can I self host it? Besides privacy, I won’t need internet access.
Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon.
ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
41–50 of 54 posts
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#42Oh wow, although I submitted it some days ago, I somehow got on the front page! Thanks for that! Also as a note: this platform is nowhere near finished! I had this idea in my mind for a long time that I wanted to reuse my old phones and tablets as displays in my home. I also know that finding the right apps for these old platforms is a challenge in itself, that's why I went the route of creating an ES5 (that nobody w…
I have a pile of phones on my desk going back several generations because I've wanted to build exactly this but it's been a constant "soon" project.
Thank you for accelerating "soon". This is wonderful.
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I thought it was risky to leave a phone plugged in all the time I have had phones on a charging dock for long periods. No issues. Unless you have some budget small brand phone that was too cheap to be true, most phones are fine plugged in.
I left my ~$1k OnePlus phone on the wireless charger for after ATT told me I couldn't use it and forced their spyware Samsung phone on me, The battery puffed up after about a year.
I carefully charged a Motorola G Power 2020 to a 60% SoC (which should be very safe) and left it in the car, unplugged, as a spare. It puffed up in about 6 months.
An ignored Galaxy S7 puffed up while sitting on a shelf, unplugged, in a climate-controlled room.
Some other devices have been fine for far longer periods so it's not like I'm thinking it's endemic or anything (my Sony PSP is still working well-enough with its still-flat lipo cell from 2008), but it's certainly a concern.
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
The safest option is probably to remove the battery and run the phone from a (well defined/build) external power source, e.g. like this: https://yaky.dev/2022-09-06-smartphone-without-battery/
Yes that's what I do too! I didn't know that blogpost but I generally replace the battery with a DC-DC converter module from Ali. You can even tune the voltage and see the indicator change the battery charge level. I put them around 4 volt. The advantage of these modules is also that you don't need a beefy 5V power supply, you can simply grab a 12V or so (I have a full drawer of those from shucking external hard driv…
By the way the diode option is a decent one too, I went for this option because I had many 12V PSUs around, and due to the efficiency of the converter I can use ones with pretty low amperage. But if you have a decent 5V supply using a simple diode drop is not a bad option.
What is bad is using a resistor as the voltage drop will depend on the current being drawn by the device, but the article is not doing that (nor woudl I).
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#45Usually I replace a smartphone because it has some hardware fault that makes it unusable and it is hard to repair or the cost of repair vs capability is not very favorable. Even if I was replacing smartphone before they died, I would probably sell them anyway. Do people really have various phones in working order waiting in a drawer?
Hell yes and even tablets.
I keep everything. Usually I use it so long it's not worth selling it anymore anyway. The problem is even old tablets are often too slow to use for something as simple as home automation control because home assistant uses so much JavaScript
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Usually I replace my phone when the battery is almost dead and a full charge doesn't last more than a few hours. At that point the phone is usable but not good enough to sell. I usually keep it as an emergency backup phone
For some reason I tend to break screens way before the battery dies usually. I am not afraid to replace a battery or even a screen if phone is not totally out of date. Having said that there seems to always be a point when they start acting semi eratically or stop booting. I had a totally outdated and probably insecure Samsung S6 edge 2 years ago that started rebooting randomly. I think that prior to that it was so o…
wow, never thought of root certs being a point of failure
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might as well buy a new battery then Did that for 20 € for my Oppo Find X3 Pro at my closest tech store and saved me from buying a brand new phone
I damaged the screen of my pixel trying to open it to replace the battery. It was literally booby trapped to self destroy when trying to repair it
Having replaced batteries on my pixel... The best trick ive found is a ziplock baggie full of near boiling water plopped on the screen until the glue loosens.
Use a thin tool to break the seal all the way around then peek under it like youre checking for spiders. Feels like most electronics these days have sneaky weak ribbon cables with ultra brittle connectors behind them.
This might be what all the youtube tutorials recommend as well I cant recall where I saw it. Of course the YouTube teardowns also show you in advance where the booby traps are.
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#48This looks cool and useful. I'm trying to better understand what's going on behind the scenes.
If the technology is browser-based, why are we being asked to sign up? What are we signing up for?
If the technology runs through third-party infrastructure, is the data e2e encrypted?
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#49This looks cool and useful. I'm trying to better understand what's going on behind the scenes. If the technology is browser-based, why are we being asked to sign up? What are we signing up for? If the technology runs through third-party infrastructure, is the data e2e encrypted?
Hey, owner here. I think it‘s wonderful that you find it useful! Your questions has been answered in the comments already, because some people asked the same. But I think what you probably want is a way to use this without a cloud and run this locally in your network. Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon! Keeping old-devices from beeing thrown away is my number one priority here!
Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space
#50ScreenWall builder here. Thank you so much for the wonderful feedbacks! Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon and open source! Keeping old-devices from beeing thrown away is my number one priority here! They deserve a second life.