[Noisebridge-discuss] has anyone used a gsm cellphone module from sparkfun to build a cellphone?

[Thomas Stowe]

Today, so many technologies are built that we can read summaries of the
technologies on the web, patents on the technologies and also ask a
scientist in physics or microelectronics "how it might be done" but in many
ways, building or disassembling a phone or another electronic device isn't
going to tell you how it works. You might be able to learn enough to find a
hardware or software hack that works with it or a new way to apply it into
another technology (cell module into a car for example) but with the way
that the laws like the DMCA reverse-engineering prevent people from taking
things apart and companies protect their secrets by mislabeling, not
labeling or obfuscated which part does what I also don't think that taking
apart a phone or wireless modem would give you a great deal of insight into
how it works. For a rival cellular phone company or government organization
to reverse engineer it, they'd already have the knowledge and understanding
of similar technologies and have the equipment and resources to take it
apart, part by part and experts would test it to figure out what plays what
role each part plays in that device doing what it does. It's a matter of
resources and expert knowledge. It can be done but putting one together
won't help you more than to understand that the battery is connected to the
board which leads to the display, keypad, speaker, microphone and
transceiver. You might be able to make it into art if you were disassembling
it or assembling it and it broke, though. :D
I'd thought about building my own phone or getting a kit that would allow
you to build a phone that you could program a phone to do what you want or
build into something else but unless you want to spend more money than
buying even a droid phone or apple iphone just to say that you did it, why
bother? A DIY phone kit still has to be connected to the phone networks and
all of those are partnered with phone manufacturers. It'd be cool to do if
there was some kind of free or cheap cellular service that were compatible
with any phone that could handle a specific frequency and handshake into the
network. You could always build a set of phones that handle encryption or
that transfer data in audio, though. GSMs been around for awhile and if you
search for an hour or two with Google you can probably find some good info
on it. Personally I think it's a waste of money unless you have a goal in
mind and a plan to ensure that it will work.



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On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 2:06 PM, Joel Jaeggli <joelja at bogus.com> wrote:

> On 9/10/10 4:35 PM, Michael Shiloh wrote:
> > Noisebridge, of all places, is the last place I'd expect to hear anyone
> > ask "Why would you want to?"
>
> I think it's reaonable to ask that in the context of what value are you
> trying to derive from the experience... neither cellphone modules nor
> whole phones reveal their secrets terribly easily so if the goal were
> for example to understand how the gsm system works while building a
> phone,neither are terribly useful.
>
> want to move data off an aurduino then it's a slam dunk. Want to graft a
> cellular device into a bell system princess phone? use a nokia 5190...
>
> > On 09/10/2010 04:24 PM, David Rorex wrote:
> >> Why would you want to? Seems like the whole point of these modules is
> >> when you want cell network connectivity, but you don't want the
> >> expense/bulk of having an entire cellphone full of other components that
> >> you may not need for your project.
> >>
> >> On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 2:55 PM, Michael Shiloh
> >> <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com <mailto:michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>     want to?
> >>
> >>     e.g.
> >>
> >>     http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=68
> >>
> >>     i'm interested in any experiences, observations, comments
> >>
> >>     M
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> >>
> >>
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