This article was taken from the November 2012 issue of Wired
magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before
they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional
content by subscribing online.
Here's your next mobile-phone upgrade: the one you make
yourself. David Mellis, from
the MIT Media Lab's High-LowTech group, created the DIY Cellphone to "encourage a
proliferation of diverse mobile phones". The open-source prototype
was built from a variety of standard electronics components,
costing around $150 (£100): "it's just pieces that can be put
together."
The phone contains a custom-built circuit board ("some
challenging soldering," Mellis, 32, says), inside a laser-cut
plywood case, and takes any standard SIM card, thanks to a SM5100B
GSM module; the colour display is a 160 x 128 pixel TFT from Adafruit. Version 1.0 can make and
receive calls, but Mellis, a software developer for the Arduino
platform, plans to add text messaging and an address book to the
next iteration. "Will it eventually play Angry Birds? Maybe. I want
to get it to the point where I can carry it as my main phone."
If you want to build your own, the source code, circuit designs
and case-design files can be downloaded from the damellis/cellphone
library on GitHub. Collaboration
is welcome: "I want to work with other designers to come up with
cool, different ideas." Watch out, Apple.
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