Fairphone 2 hardware extensions

That’s not exactly what I want. I often use the phone in places where I don’t have any flat space to lay the phone on.

I want to be able to stand on the street and type on the physical keyboard

Fairphone is simply not the kind of smartphone where customers pay for additional features e.g. hard or software goodies.
In opposite fairphone offers wide openess of hard + software to let users create their own addon solution. In your case it is a simple keyboard bag for tablet or smartphones . In germany Hama is one of the cheapest:
https://de.hama.com/i/00050467/hama-otg-tablet-tasche-mit-integrierter-tastatur-displaygroesse-178-cm-7

Some people are maybe disappointed because they expect from a 500 EU/550$ smartphone “It must have this” or "It must have that for this price. " It is a pity that they misunderstand the concept and business model and feel mislead or even cheated for not so few money. If they don’t open their phone for own extensions and are not very moral inspired for the fairtrade then they maybe better not choose a fairphone.

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True, it’s better to keep the complexity of the “standard” phone down. Thus less hardware/software bugs.

I always thought the modules were made to exactly allow 3rd party extensions. But I’m just not sure how “open” FP as a company is about them right now. Maybe they want to keep it closed so they can make some money licensing it? I asked a few questions related to this but never got a straight answer. Maybe they just don’t know themselves right now and are just experimenting with the very simple camera module. Most modules are not very sophisticated right now and I’m not sure what other extras could be added. Software-wise most of this will be bin-blob’ed anyhow (Camera).

The extension port is, as far as I understand the forum posts here, not OTG. This is sad, because it would have made interesting cases possible. But I don’t know much about this. I was interested in using a YubiKey with a FP2 and that would still have worked.

No, OTG on internal USB host would not make much sense. @dvl informed me about usb host back connector.
So, be lucky, if you are still interested in using YubiKey. @keesj from FP technical team showed on youtube the simple implementation (only USB-A that’s all) of it.

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Yep, that’s what I was trying to say. :wink:

I hope next days I find time for testing my breakouts first. My break through may be earlier by using user space usb drivers . This evening I found the other important link GitHub - skjolber/external-nfc-api: Interaction with external NFC readers in Android . If all works out well than a new custom rom maybe forgo or can be avoided by using the external nfc app. I guess most people will try to print out their own cover. So a new design only for NFC breakout inclusion will soon be necessary.

does a opensource case drawing already exsist?

Yes, due to the origin of keesj youtube video you may find his and dvl’s github links if you search for yubikey here in this topic.

I want to double original FP2 battery while I already have the fitting 3D-FP2 case available.
I hope my request to @keesJ for full pinout about all 4 battery pins get answered soon .
Maybe this topic also helps me in finding out whether tiny battery protection modules (PCM) are really required. Kees didnot mention them nor did he tell if every FP2 battery maybe even include them. If the other 2 pins are used as a good current monitoring then every FP2 should already include such PCM modules . However Kees sent me advice not to connect battery devices directly. At least I wonder if I am really the first who actually doubles his FP2 batteries ?

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do i understand right, you whant to connect the two batteries parallel to the FP2 Batteries connectors?

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I’m not sure what you are planning to do (2 batteries in parallel?) but PCMs are cheap and small, so it doesn’t matter much. Just use them, won’t hurt. I assume you are you talking about the main battery port, not this.

yes, you got it. Any ideas ?

Thanks for quick answer. But don’t mind about the price of PCMs. Mind about the place and cable issues.(what location inside do you recommend?) It becomes much more easier without 2 aded PCMs including cables cross wise over or under the existing battery. Given the hunchback case there would be only connecters to be created instead of erratic cable bridges.

I don’t think thats a good idea. The doubled capacity load will overheat the chargeing parts and break your phone…
I like the idea but don’t think its possible without a connection over the Back connector and implementing it somehow over USB to switch to charge functionality when its on a source and back when the source is gone and the first battery is low… So thats nothing i can help. But i can help if you need to make pcb or mechanical parts…

your ideas are appreciated. You recommend the safe way by an internal power bank. Looks much more complicated . My battery doesnot show any temp increase alone due to my good charger. Maybe 2 batteries show only little temp increase. Have you tested 2 orignal FP2 batteries this way?

Your approach rather looks to me like a research case before even testing anything.
Why are you that sure that slower charging or controlled start/stop charging stepwise couldnot prevent overheating ?

Im not aware of a possibility to get controll over the charging functionality.
Are you able to controll the charging speed or current?

For testing this I am still missing the complete pinout of FP2 battery and maybe internal existing PCMs inside FP2 battery.

Do not connect two batteries in parallel: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/1p0uiw/asking_for_clarification_on_wiring_cell_phone/

From your link I cite Apathetic_Superhero:
"Infact, without building some extended safety circuitry (it doesn’t have to be very complicated) I wouldn’t do it. We weld cells together ranging from several to hundreds of cells at a time. "

This topic is about possibilities to extend FP2 hardware. Feel free to contribute new ideas for this. I am not sure if prohibitions or contradictory external links will ever extend FP2 hardware.

Fair point, @anon9505190 :slight_smile: