DIY smartphone?
DIY smartphone?
I am looking to building my own phone from a SBC running a linux distro with plasma mobile and that can make calls. and I have some questions:
Where can I start?
Which SBC to choose?
How would I achieve the call functionality?
I think making an "usable" phone (especially one that is able to make calls, etc.) yourself is extremely hard to do, if not impossible.
Many "tinker"-phone startups/ devices, like PinePhone or Librem, who made the phones from scratch or mostly themselves afaik, had huge problems in the beginning with basic functions, like making calls.
There's a project (mainly for kids and students) somewhere to make E-readers themselves, maybe you can start with that?
I'll link it to you if I found it.
That might act as a base.
If you want a good phone that gives off DIY-vibes (modularity, repairability, etc.) but want something proper and modern, then check out Fairphone. Afaik, the FP4 also supports PostmarketOS and other mobile distros.
Remember to take everything I said with a huge grin of salt, since I'm not that well informed in that area of DIY- or Linux phones. A lot of what I said might be wrong, take it only as idea or starting point.
But if you really want to start this project, good luck. You'll need it đź«
To add, in the US, most service providers will not let a device on their network until it has gone through FCC approval. You can get around this by buying a cell module, which has gone through approval, but most of those are data only last I looked.
Fairphone especially is such an attractive option to me but the thing is that it is a dream to me to build my own smartphone, one that truly is mine . But this gives me an idea I have seen videos of people building cyberdecks from framework laptop parts, makes me wonder if I could do such a thing with fairphone parts.