Fairphone

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Creating a FairPad2 by upgrading the FP2 display?

#1

Hello,

does anybody allready had the idea by replacing simply the Display by a bigger 7 " one so the FP2 will become a Pad? Any developments started, yet?
The resolution should be the same as like in the FP2 and the interface should also be the same.
The case could be printed by 3-D printers. A bigger battery and maybe electrical drivers is needed to support the bigger displays background leds.

Does anybody knows which kind of display could be used?

What do you think about? Any ideas?

Cheers,…

#2

I don’t think that anybody is working on this and i also don’t think it’s likely that this will happen.

  • Fairphone is still too small to be able to create different versions of the same device.
  • 3rd party companies won’t build an upgrade to a device that is already 2 years old now and
  • The community probably doesn’t have the means to research what displays may work with the FP2, design a way to combine display and phone and port or develop firmware or blobs or whatever to let the phone and display work together.
#3

True, all your bullet-points.
But I just yesterday had the same thougts, as that would make a great device for reading e-books.
Question is, how many FP2-owners would be willing to pay for a larger display with modified cover? (Edit: I would!)
I even could imagine, that it could be feasible to keep the backcover of the slim case and click it into the larger display.

For Fairphone this might even be a business opportunity, as the modularity would make it possible to offer a tablet as well.
Of course priority has to be fixing the problems with FP2 and getting support-times down to a reasonable level. But for a later stage (maybe even not for FP2 but for the next FP), this could be something to think about.

#4

For reference:

#5

It’s probably not too hard actually. If you’d buy a touch display that can be connected to USB, chances are it already works with minor effort. DisplayLink would work for the video, and most USB displays nowadays use a DisplayLink chipset. Android accepts mice as input devices, but I don’t know if touch input is standardized enough already so Android can accept it without additional drivers.
I started trying to build a fair-ish laptop: https://hackaday.io/project/25510
Still stuck on getting the keyboard to work over USB (tiny tiny wires…), and lack of time/priority to work on it the last few months… But in principle it’s possible. I already had a keyboard + mouse + DVI display connected and working. Biggest challenge in my project is that I want to use scrap materials as much as possible. If USB touch is standardized and you’re not limited to scrap, a tablet is much easier to make.

#6

I guess it would mean for Fairphone to “open” the screen connector interface so third party could build their own display. It would be super cool, and I’m also thinking about the Fairphone 1 for which parts are not available anymore: open-sourcing the unmaintained interfaces would allow good hackers to build the spare parts they need.

#7

… which would only be possible if these interfaces / drivers were not part of proprietary blobs which are under the chipset manufacturers copyright.

closed #8

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