Fairphone 2 hardware extensions

12 posts were merged into an existing topic: Potential for a LED back cover on the Fairphone 2

@dvl, I donā€™t know how good you are but Always Innovatingā€™s Smart Book has always intrigued me.

You could view this as the ultimate FP2 case :laughing:

It would extend the FP2 into a Fair Tablet/Netbook/Laptop (take your pick).

How I would see it with the FP2:

  • Take off the back cover. This will help the second step and also allow the extension port to be used.
  • Slide the phone in the back of the panel, with the FP2 screen visible from the outside. That way, you can have the main (e.g. 10") screen to work on and the FP2 as small screen for notifications when the big panel is shut down or not visible (face down on a table or folded against keyboard).
  • The panel would just be like an external screen with a good amount of extra battery power :wink:
  • The FP2 would automatically detect itā€™s attached to the panel and create a second screen with higher resolution.
  • Of course, a detachable or rotateable keyboard should be included (with even more battery power in it :smiley: ).

To top this off, it would be awesome if someone could also duplicate Always Innovatingā€™s Hot Multi-OS switching. That way, when the FP2 is inserted into the panel, it would switch to, e.g., a Debian Gnome desktop and back to Android when itā€™s taken out of the panel. Of course, sharing the the data among all the OSā€™s so if you make a change in your contact information in one OS, it would automatically be picked up in the other one as well.

Ambitious ? Definitely. But Iā€™m willing to put some money down for this. That Asus EeePC was a quite convenient machine to take with you. Being able to combine this with a phone seems a very convenient step to me.

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You can assume I am extremely epic :stuck_out_tongue:

Concept looks cool (like any convertible tablet that exists already but combined with padphone), but that website does not inspire confidence in the slightest. Generally speaking, if a company calls itself innovating, you can assume that innovating is the last thing they do.

I think it is cheaper for you to glue a usb monitor with powerbank to the back of your phone than to fund development :wink:

Your proposal for Multi-OS switching looks quite similar to what Microsoft tried to do with Continuum (a big failure if I am to believe user reviews) and Ubuntu Touch with Convergence which is quite late but scheduled to appear with the launch of Unity 8, planned for next year.

You might have what you want when (and ifā€¦) we get to port Ubuntu Touch on the FP2.

Hello Apple ! :smile:

Luckily weā€™re talking about getting the concept to a fairphone. They had some really good ideas for a while, but seem to have dried up lately. Canā€™t hurt now to implement their ideas on a more modern platform.

LOL. That could really power your ā€œnuclear disasterā€ as well :wink: One big ulgy motherf*er.

Recent history leads me to believe that the last thing they do is litigating.

Hello Apple and Samsung :ohno:

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I would also like a keyboard, although I have not really an idea how it could look like on a FP. The TOH keyboard looks cool, but I donā€™t see a way to combine it with the FP original case, which I really like. Also, in a youtube video it doesnā€™t seem like it is possible to write on it really fast. The best keyboard concept I saw so far was the QWERTY keyboard on the Sony Ericsoson P1I which allows you to write really quick, but then again I would have no idea how to get something like that on a FP2.

@dvl: I like your attitude: ā€œIf I like it, I try it, and then lets see ā€¦ā€ Coming from an environment in which there is almost every time a lot of discussion first, and action later (if ever), I am reallly happy about this thread and you (independent of my personal wishes) :smiley:

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I donā€™t know if that might work for you, but Iā€™ve bought this keyboard (I found it for 8ā‚¬ at the time) recently. When I donā€™t need to enter a lot of stuff on my phone/tablet I just use the software keyboard, and for longer texts I use it (itā€™s not really small but can fit in a small backpack easily).

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Thanks for the tip, but i really really hate typing on a touchscreen (Iā€™m not able to type blind) so for me it would to have be an always-be-able-to-use it thing.
For longer text I use my computer anyway

I would wish for a back cover with integrated e-ink touch screen for reading with less power usage.
main problem probably is finding high resolution parts that are affordable still.
hope to see your projects soon

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Really cool stuff, @dvl. Will you share the 3D printable case somewhere?

Iā€™m also interested in doing some hardware with the FP2, but donā€™t know what Iā€™ll tackle yet :slight_smile: Maybe we (you?) should collect all hardware ideas in a single list somewhere.

Edit: Are there any docs about the expansion port, and how to use it from Android?

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The list is here

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Maybe in this topic: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone2-3d-printed-casings-available-beta/11614

Paul beat me to it.

First post (scroll to top of page) I say: ā€œI will be logging some stuff here and hereā€
One ā€˜hereā€™ refers to this page, the other is a link to what you are looking for.

Maybe a good idea for you to read the rest of that post (and rest of topic) too :wink:

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Of course I read your post, I already follow your repo on Github. To reword my question: Are there any official docs about the expansion port? :wink:

I am looking for the pinout of the expansion port on the backside to develop additional hardware. where could it be found?

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Look at @dvlā€™s GitHub page: GitHub - dirkvl/FairPhone

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Fun and sad to see at the same time. So is it simliar to a I2C with a wakeup?

In the official specification, this is described as an USB port with power input.

@dvl says that itā€™s a ā€œdifferent story altogetherā€.

Please note the ā€œ(2) no ideaā€ is the power input. @dvl said he would modify it when I told him (he was already aware of it but wanted to keep it for himself) but did not.

Itā€™s quite different as dvl said, However itā€™s probably good news because you theoretically could remove the usb male plug from your usb keyboard, separate the cables inside the usb cable and stick them to FP2ā€™s connector (putting the right cable on the right connector pin) and it should work out of the box.

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I am interested in building a module that will plug into a Fairphone 2. I have a few questions: Are the specs open? Where can one get the specifications?

Thanks
Yile

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