Thread

1. noahnathan25 · 1790859627 · focus · HN ↗

   You could just use an old second-hand phone for under $60. You’d get a built-in battery, much more RAM, and a screen included. For the output, just use a $3 ESP32 connected over Wi-Fi or USB. Seems like a much better deal for a lot of projects.

   1. Reubachi · 1790865614 · focus · HN ↗

      Making any recent second-hand smartphone a SBC-equivilent field computer is always a custom job/not scalable.

      OF course, that shouldn't matter for most tinkerer jobs like a CarPi. But anecdotally, I tried using my old iphone 13 (idk why I tried this) and then a couple old galaxies for my car project taking data from bluetooth dongle and relaying to a custom gui I made. Of course also dealing with power cycles and screen, data trasnfer etc.

      Very, very quickly it became easier to justify buying a SBC for the same project

      1. alex7o · 1790869246 · focus · HN ↗

         Yes but also find a phone that is not top of the line and can be flashed with a custom ROM/kernel like linage OS, or Ubuntu touch, postmakret OS, then you can customize and have your pie and eat it too. Since you won't be needing the phone to have security for you banking stuff

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