ArduinoPhone 2.0 - an Open Source Mobile Phone

by Seeed Studio

138K78371

Intro: ArduinoPhone 2.0 - an Open Source Mobile Phone

More than 2 years ago I had made an instructable - ArduinoPhone.

ArduinoPhone was big and it's difficult for the beginner to make one. As there's a step to make the charge circuit.

And I had heard so many voice that when will you make ArudinoPhone 2.0 for this 2 years. I think I really should make it someday.

It's lucky that I have got some free time for the past month, so I spend about 3 weekend to design it. And now it's done. Before you read about the steps, let's view some featured of ArduinoPhone2.0.

  • Even more thinner, about 20 mm
  • Support of solar and DC adopt charge
  • Much more easy to install
  • A longer standby time, more that 50 hours
  • On board MIC and Speaker, say goodbye to the earphone
  • 3D print sheel

STEP 1: What Do We Need

Let's prepare some stuff first.

Electronic modules:

Others:

STEP 2: Hack in Seeeduino GPRS

There's some pins on Seeeduino GPRS conflict with TFT Touch Shield.

Here we need to cut a line on the PCB of Seeeduino GPRS, as shown in the Image.

And do some soldering, connect the pin to D3 of Seeeduino GPRS.

Remove R_D7 and R_D8(On the back of the board), and connect R_RX, R_TX together.

STEP 3: Connect the Audio Board

We need a MIC and a speaker to make a call.

Here we will use Xadow Audio to act as mic and speaker.

You need to do some soldering here. As shown at the above image

STEP 4: Hardware Connection

There's a button, to power on/off the screen. Connect it to D2 and GND.

As the power supply, we need to do some solder as well, we will connect 5V and GND to Seeeduino GPRS, and 5V will cross a switch to shut down all the system.

To charge the Li-battery, there's a barrel jack input, connect it to the input port of Lipo Rider, then we can use a 5V adopt to charge the system.

STEP 5: Software Works

Seeeduino GPRS was in Arudino Leonardo bootloader. So if you had ever used Arudino, it's easy for you to make this step. If not please put hand on www.arduino.cc to getting started.

Click here to get more info about the board.

Click hereto download the code.

1. When you get to the github page, find a Download ZIP button, click to download the code.
2. The code you downloaded is not an Arduino library, it's a sketchbook, which is include all the library the project need.

3. Unzip the file you had downloaded from github, you will get a folder namedArduinoPhone-master.

4. Open your Arduino IDE, click File > Preferences > Sketchbook Location, browse to the folder we had mentioned above - ArduinoPhone-master. Then click OK to save it.

5. Close and re-open Arduino IDE, click File > Sketchbook > PhoneCode, then the main code of Arduino Phone is open.

6. Choose the right board(Arduino Leonardo) and port to upload the code. Refer to the image above.

After finished this step, you should get the UI of ArduinoPhone 2.0. If not please make sure if the code had been uploaded well.

STEP 6: Test It

This Arduino Phone contains the following main functions.

1. receive & send message, letter input

2. dial & answer calls

3. real time clock display

4. A simple UI, You can switch function by sliding your finger on the screen. A standard 12 key input method for inputting message.

STEP 7: 3D Print a Shell

STEP 8: Assembly Exploded Figure

There is an assembly exploded figure to give you a clear mind to do the assembly.

Then let's go to the next step.

STEP 9: Fix the Solar Panel

Put the solar panel in the groove of the bottom shell,

Pass the electric wire through the small hole. Paste the solar panel.

STEP 10: Fix Seeeduino GPRS

There are 3 fix palces on the back of the bottom shell, its diameter is 3mm,and the thickness is 1mm.Fix Seeeduino GPRS on the back of the top shell with 3 screws.

STEP 11: Fix the Other Modules

fix the Lipo Rider、 Xadow Audio、 Xadow GSM Breakout

Following the picture to find the right fix places ,then fix the Lipo Rider、 Xadow Audio、 Xadow GSM Breakout on the bottom shell.

STEP 12: Make It Better

It's an open source project.

So far Arduino Phone 2.0 is still simple and crude, it only has the capacity to make the basic communication. But I believe that it will grow up better and better with the help of the community. And this is why people like open source and the community.

If you get a better idea, or you had made some improvement in the code, please give me pull request in Github. I am really appreciate that.

Cheers。

67 Comments

delaportilladev 9 months ago

the seeduino site randomly blocks my connecton. where else can i buy the gsrp chip

butterdoseminecraft122 3 years ago

Idk if anyone will ever get to read this but I'm ganna ask anyway. I'm Farley new to Arduino and I wanna do this project I'll probs do it regardless but my idea is to essentially make this smartphones be but have it be almost like a computer running windows or in this case Ubuntu, then itl have an app for contacts and all the normal phone things but I have absolutely no idea if that will work or how to do it so if anyone has an idea if they could reply and explain what parts I would need and what I'd have to do in order to get this to work

butterdoseminecraft122 3 years ago

I found a better way to word this also I've noticed there's raspberry pi phones but anyway basically what I want to do is make a hand held computer the size of a phone that has the capability to make calls and send messages like a phone be does

3dninja 3 years ago

That could be possible, I would sugest using a sparkfun sam d21g micro controller and expand ardunio phone (made by the same guy who made this instructable). It's possible. Or you could use an ardunio nano. that phone would be cool to see. I might make one like that.

3dninja 3 years ago

I couldn't get to the github files, could you upload them again?

johnjarr 4 years ago

Hi,
as the Xadow Audio is no longer available from SEEED, what would be a most suitable replacement (for arduino with GPRS shield 3.0)
I'll welcome any suggestions, also if someone has a spare Xadow audio to sell!
Thankyou all who read this
John J

warhawk8080 6 years ago

Check out the new SIM808 module...GSM/GPRS/GPS all in one!

https://www.banggood.com/SIM808-GSM-GPRS-GPS-BT-Development-Board-Module-For-Arduino-p-1080013.html

AlbericB 5 years ago

The question is, is SIM808 module as open-hardware as the module in ArduinoPhone

arenalee 6 years ago

Hi, thanks for the tutorial. please it is possible that you realize an instructable on a stationary cellphone, where the cellphone component that emit radio frequency is far away from your house, since I am electromagnetic sensitive person to high frequencies, but because is necessary the communication with friends and family and I live in rural area where there is no electricity, phone lines, but there is near cellphone towers, I like to implement your idea but changing a little the idea. because my english is not good I post an image so you can understand better the idea.

The only problem what I have is the distance between the components and how to connect between them contrary with the idea to put them together in a case.

thanks in advance

SridharP3 6 years ago

Hi hey guys I made it but cause I didn't have a 3d printer I used a nice wooden finished frame with foam padding inside to make it shockproof instead ,I was wondering wether we could make this device waterproof or not

docman100 7 years ago

this looks nice but sadly I don't own a 3d printer

MohamedR23 7 years ago

Hi

Could you help me?

I want Arduino updates the real time clock from a mobile SIM Card, like the Mobile phone always updates the real time clock from the mobile network.

Could it applicable?

Thank you for your help

HrM1 7 years ago

Aw, no pic with display on? I wonder what the GUI looks like in real life...

pablo de paris 7 years ago

I am putting together the phone following your instructions and I can get the screen to light up, but nothing shows up on the screen.

I may have not understood the part where you explain the you have to cut a wire on the board (step 2). Can you explain a bit more where do you have to attach the green wire? Can you post more detailed pictures?

instrkm 7 years ago

Thanks for a nice tutorial. More information on the green wire in steps 2 and 3 would be great. Additional explanation for how it is used to join digital 3 would make following the tutorial easier.

Ambles 7 years ago

This is the coolest project ever. It is exactly what I have wanted to do. In fact, I wish I knew how to take an older unused cell phone I have and make is bluetooth so I can answer and dial phone calls with it. This is so I have a spare handset so when I am doing work and cleaning around the house and I don't want to damage my "real" cell phone, I can just carry the handset with me.

Anyway, this project is my most absolute favorite. Fantastico! Well, well done!

mwellman1 8 years ago

I am a backer of the Pine 64 project on kickstarter, and they will be shipping soon you can see there website here There board is a quad core 64bit board that runs at half an amp at 5v. It also has RPi compatible i/o headers. It runs full android and MAY be a way to make this a full "smart" phone. If there is a gsm/gprs module that will work on it. I wont get my board for a couple months, but it may be worth looking into, and would only need an android phone program to be reworked to function with whatever GSM/GPRS module was installed I would think... I may look into it when I get mine, as one of them will be worked into a tablet to run Linux and Android with swappable sdhc cards, or possibly dual boot, another thing i will be looking into but adding phone capabilities to the tablet assembly should not be hard.

leseagle 8 years ago

Thanks for the tip I purchased one of these Pine 64... sounds great I am going to give it to my grandsons who is a wiz and see what he can do with it. Any suggestions? So do think it will ship in May? Les@LesLaMotte.com

mwellman1 8 years ago

I do, I just got my backer kit mail and some of the stuff I want I will have to wait till April for. unfortunately that delays my board by a month as I am in the March shipping group. my first pine I plan to get the tablet enclosure the battery camera 7 inch display as well as the temp and humidity sensor and the light sensors, I also will likely be ordering the 64gb sdhc card loaded with ubuntu, I may get a smaller one with Android installed, I have to look at the install process for Android if it's like I think it is I may just download and get a second card elsewhere.

The idea here is that I will be able to use it as a full Android/ubuntu tablet by opening it and swapping memory cards. This tablet will be equipped with at minimum the batter and real time clock backup battery, screen side camera for Skype or whatever, Ambient light detector to automatically adjust screen brightness, and the temp/humidity sensor so I can get those readings. I expect to have to program Ubuntu to use some of this, but I am not sure as I have not looked into how Android or ubuntu will interface with the i2c headers. I may get the i2c expansion board for kicks as I doubt it will fit inside the tablet enclosure but I can setup a connectors for it possibly, but since i2c is serial I can use more than one sensor per port, they just need separate addresses, either way I hope to add a full weather suite to the tablet eventually and possibly phone abilities. I am a star trek fan, but I think real tricorders will never be a tool by themselves I think they will be contained in our phones, just like the padd and communicator was joined in a smartphone. someday all those devices will probably be one device with the hardware unlocked with key codes to access the stuff you want instead of a bunch of different devices with differing capabilities. Companies have started doing this like Rigol oscilloscopes... anyways that's my idea, I may even use it to run the cnc router design software and to control the cnc router all in one unit instead of having to design on one computer and route from another. I have all sorts of ideas... router, etc, the applications are almost endless, it's a very powerful embedded computer at a really inexpensive price point. It only lacks in a configurable memory port, the boys have to be ordered with the amount of ram you want, almost always you will want all 2gb. The other place is graphics, I don't know how well it will run graphics, but if you want something that power full invidea has a similar board that's almost 200 dollars... but that is very spendy for something you tinker with so I don't recommend it, besides, this isn't really for doing that though it will play many games fine.
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