Open Phone
Made for real connections
Source: https://codeberg.org/bvoigtlaender/open-phone
A cell phone made for those who value true connections, it is reduced to its basic functions, accessible to all age groups, connecting friends and family while respecting their privacy and time.
update 10th of june 2025
I have hoked up the display with the arduino I already did this a couple of times using the example provided by waveshare this time around though i rewrote it (basically copying it line by line) just so I would understand what is going on, it helped alot.
update 14th of june 2025
I wrote a script to convert png files to cpp in python. It was kinda funny as I actually thought about using ai to generate a script as the scope is fairly small. When I did though I felt bad about it and secretly wished it wouldnt work, it in fact did not work. It probably would have worked if i "told" it what exactly didn't work (wrong colors, like it has been inverted or something). However I did use the chance to recover from that slip up and it was really fun and reminded me of my early days of programming with clear instructions and answer.
update 5th of july 2025
I have a first rough protoype of the menu of the operating system and hoocked up a keypad to control it. I also have set a approxmation of how the architecture might look like in the future.
update 6th of july 2025
I transfered the keypad to an button matrix as that is what I have to use in the final product anyways. It worked surprisingly well as the connections are the same. it just takes up more space.
update 14th of july 2025
I have created a scrollable list as an example I have made a contacts list. Its not really generic though right now.
update 13th of august 2025
Today I have transfered my work on the open phone from the breadboard to a
soldered prototype board. The start went for my standards extraordinarly
good. I have attached a video showing that and only that as the quality of
my solders took big turn for the bad right after. Some of the worse sodler
jobs I have every seen but to my surprise I still is working.
update: it still is working as of the 15th of september it even survived
a trip to denmark, but some connections are loose so I am thinking about learning
how to create a prober pcb and order it from pcbway or someplace like that.
Having a real devkit to focus soley on software would be great!
update 14th of august 2025
I have hot glued both pieces together making the open phone for the first time ever recognisable as a phone! Im really happy how it looks, first i wanted to 3d print a case right away but I love the "hacker" aesthetics too much :)
update 30th of august 2025
Today I took my open phone on my our first vacation together!
