FP 2/3/... Modules & Wishlist meta discussion

Ups… Well, then I’m not the only one, who wants that… :slight_smile:

How about an emergency button for elderly people, who need an ambulance?

Or a beamer? There was the Samsung Galaxy Beam, but the time was not right back then. What about.today?

These are bad guesses, I’m gonna sleep over it… :wink:

Like @paulakreuzer says, the only information we have is from blog posts and news articles. The blog posts are very vague and only hint at the possibility of future upgrades. I think this is a good thing because Fairphone doesn’t want to overpromise and their main goal is reparability. Upgradability is – of course – also part of longevity but much harder to achieve, especially for a small team. So I think they do well by not promising too much.

The news articles, on the other hand, frequently mention possible upgrade parts (like “camera modules, or a USB-C upgrade” in the latest Engadget article). I don’t know whether they have more information from Fairphone or are just taking the hints and connecting the dots. Naturally, Fairphone is not bound to anything said by the media.

We should be creative and think about good ways to use the modularity and expandability but we should not expect too much from Fairphone. Maybe, if we have a very good idea, we could try to produce it ourselves and sell it on kickstarter :wink:

In the end, modularity also allows for that: Third parties can offer their own upgrades if there is a market for it.

Isn’t that the thing they use in Star Trek to get people from Enterprise to a planet? Great idea, I also want that. (I think you mean a projector :wink: )

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Yeah, exactly, similar to Star Trek! :wink: It could take a 3D picture of you and send a hologram to another phone… :slight_smile:

Yeah, thank you for correcting me. In German a projector is a “Beamer”.

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One think to keep in mind with updates like camera is that the SoC must be able to handle required workload.

The signal processor of the Snapdragon 801 built into the FP2 is able to capture 4K video and handle cameras up tp 21MPs. So there is pretty much room for camera upgrades – theoretically.

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I dislike sony for a lot of reasons (just google it, there are plenty of reasons … and yes, I know about their ideas for the embedded kernel, but although one can trust one of their devs doesn’t mean you can trust sony, the company … too big and full of marketing) but a Exmor R would be a good 21MP CMOS upgrade for most smartphones. A binary blob that is not as worse as others. But I would try alternatives to an Exmor sensor gladly if sony lets them exist. Is Toshiba still around?

I think transparent solar cells built into the screen, should be the future for fairphone!

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I moved your post here and added your wish to the list. I like the idea a lot! :smile:

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I don’t think making cheaper modules will render the phone that significantly cheaper. The steep price of the phone is mainly due to the resources invested into designing the phone with such level of modularity and repairability as well as the ethical way it was made…

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That is true.
But many people said that the FP2 was too expensive and they’d prefer to buy a cheaper version of the fairphone even if it had a worse price-performance ratio.

A big back cover with extended (multiple parts / sliders / ???) solar panels. I mean, being able to fully trust the solar pannel to recharge the phone and use it as GPS, camera and so on.

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I think cheaper modules oppose longevity and sustainability in some way

Not necessarily. E.g. if you get a cheaper camera module, because you don’t need the phone to take good pictures anyway - and that won’t change in the next years - then that won’t decrease the lifespan of the phone.

7 posts were split to a new topic: (Intentionally) blocking the Phone’s signal

What about a 8th module, a thick soft one-piece additional plastic over-cover. To protect the phone when it falls, with edges topping/protruding from the screen to spare scratchs. Something a bit like the yellow part here : http://www.electricien-quimper.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/testeur.jpeg

It would be equipped with solar cells at the back (something robust, no expendable panels), and would be pluggable in the standard battery reload port of the FP2 (for instance)(with a USB port pointing from inside the over-cover towards the FP2).

It would enhance battery lasting period simply with the habit of laying the phone back-on-top on tables. We’ll need a flashing activity led here, but some softwares simply use regular flash-light for this. We could wear the phone on an arm-band, cells on top, like joggers.

Transparent solar panels are very attractive, but what I suggest here is possible right now.

Solar charging would be more efficient in some countries than in others, but it would provide a hope that the phone won’t shutdown when critically needed… Or that you would be able to starting it again despite everything else, simply waiting near a strong light source. (Remember “Castaway on the moon” movie ?)

Ok we can reload phones regularly at work, at home, in some trains… But if I don’t have to plug it in, because solar pannels are working, I would enjoy the enhancement. I always forgot to plug my phone, and take some time to find my cable back…

I have a solar Casio watch, it just works, it’s a pleasure. Phones require more power, but lets start with something.

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The Fairphone 2 default cover already portrudes over the screen for this purpose.

Another idea would be to save some space inside, with at least a micro USB connectivity, to allow random devices to be plugged in, inside.

It would encourage the development of such new inboard devices, and would allow users with specific needs to get running. We could add a module with : barometer and/or temperature sensor, sonar, radiation sensor, specific additional light (like so called “black-light” / UV light), parking access radio emitter, redundant microSD slot for raid purpose… just what you need and would fit in.

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Space on a phone is quietly critical, and you can’t afford to leave “place”.
For modules exstention you have the 4 pin standart USBport on the backside

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I added those to the list. Thanks for the suggestions.

I don’t think I understand this one. My English is not perfect but doesn’t redundant mean “not necessary”? Why would someone need such a thing? :blush:

@Elipsus is probably right that there is a good reason why phones usually don’t have space inside, but I think if you consider exchangeable internal modules when designing a new phone it could work. So I redesigned the wishlist a bit and added it under “wishes for future fairphones”.

I like that and it made me think. How about an “emergency circuit” that made it possible to start the phone with just the calling function even if all else fails (e.g. battery is [nearly] empty, you FP has a solar charger but there is not much light because you’re inside [or trapped under an avalanche], you installed an alternative OS and bricked your phone, …).
Do you guys think that could be possible?

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From wikipedia:

RAID (originally redundant array of inexpensive disks, now commonly redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into a single logical unit for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both.

It opens the way for scenarios like: One SD card dies, the other seamlessly takes over without data loss. Alternatively, two cards share data, which in theory nearly doubles the read/write speed (but one card dies, and all data is lost).
RAID requires either a hardware controller, or an implementation in software. Both require kernel drivers to handle this.

Part of what you’re describing sounds like the equivalent of dual bios in PCs, i.e. having a failover chip in case something goes wrong. I’m not sure enough of the android boot procedure to know whether would be possible on android. You’d also need a secondary OS option, in case the problem isn’t the bootloader. Something like MSI were doing with Winki perhaps. The latter part can probably be done, but a failover bootloader likely needs hardware as part of the SoC.
For the power reserve, I think I’ve seen batteries that have a physical button on them that enables the battery to drain slightly further than it would normally allow. I wouldn’t go for a separate built-in battery.

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You don’t buy the “thick soft one-piece additional plastic over-cover” ? To add more shocks protection ? If solar panels can arrive, they must be on the outer-side, so both are linked, but solar panels were just the 2nd half of my suggestion :smile: