Poll: How much would you be willing to pay for a Neo900 (complete device) with TI DM3730 1GHz/512M-RAM/1GB
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How much would you be willing to pay for a Neo900 (complete device) with TI DM3730 1GHz/512M-RAM/1GB

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#2121
we could discuss about the meaning of "standby mode" for a week :-)
But please stay on topic.

cheers
jOERG
 

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#2122
BTW, I was comparing the block diagrams of N900 and Neo900, and noticed the privacy indicador next to the flash LEDs (the red light on the N900) is missing. I also saw there is a LED called "Privacy" attached to the "Basic RGB LED drivers" block, but I assumed this was meant as the privacy "alarm" feature for the modem monitor, because of what I understood how this feature would work and the fact that it is attached to i2c #3 instead of #2. I searched in this thread but found nothing (sorry if I missed something!), so I wondered if this feature is just missing in the diagram for the moment, if it isn't planned at all, or I misread/misunderstood the diagram! I mostly do high-level programming and some sysadmin stuff, so the latter could very much be the case...

Thank you! Nice progress!!
 

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#2123
Originally Posted by txus View Post
BTW, I was comparing the block diagrams of N900 and Neo900, and noticed the privacy indicador next to the flash LEDs (the red light on the N900) is missing. I also saw there is a LED called "Privacy" attached to the "Basic RGB LED drivers" block, but I assumed this was meant as the privacy "alarm" feature for the modem monitor, because of what I understood how this feature would work and the fact that it is attached to i2c #3 instead of #2. I searched in this thread but found nothing (sorry if I missed something!), so I wondered if this feature is just missing in the diagram for the moment, if it isn't planned at all, or I misread/misunderstood the diagram! I mostly do high-level programming and some sysadmin stuff, so the latter could very much be the case...

Thank you! Nice progress!!
The N900 has a simple red privacy LED which is controlled by same chip as the flashlight. In Neo900 we will replace that by a RGB-LED (called "PRIVACY" which you already spotted) which cannot get controlled by that chip and thus is connected to one of our LED controller chips.
The purpose is to have an additional info channel to user when s/he does some activity in battery compartment, like swapping uSD or battery. In this case a RGB LED comes in convenient for signalling e.g. umount of any swap completed so it's safe to remove uSD - in case you decided to have your swap on uSD rather than eMMC. Or - for battery swap - user might want to know if either suspend-to-disk or charging the "huge buffer capacitor" already finished so it's safe to proceed with battery swap.
If there are still questions regarding this detail, please don't hesitate to ask.

cheers
jOERG

Last edited by joerg_rw; 2014-10-09 at 12:49.
 

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#2124
Originally Posted by joerg_rw View Post
The N900 has a simple red privacy LED which is controlled by same chip as the flashlight. In Neo900 we will replace that by a RGB-LED (called "PRIVACY" which you already spotted) which cannot get controlled by that chip and thus is connected to one of our LED controller chips.
The purpose is to have an additional info channel to user when s/he does some activity in battery compartment, like swapping uSD or battery. In this case a RGB LED comes in convenient for signalling e.g. umount of any swap completed so it's safe to remove uSD - in case you decided to have your swap on uSD rather than eMMC. Or - for battery swap - user might want to know if either suspend-to-disk or charging the "huge buffer capacitor" already finished so it's safe to proceed with battery swap.
If there are still questions regarding this detail, please don't hesitate to ask.

cheers
jOERG
Thank you for the quick answer!

My only concern was compatibilty with existing apps, like cameras and things like that, although this LED is not actually used much. I've digged around and found that at least in CSSUs camera-ui it is controlled through some ioctl from the camera device (V4L2_CID_INDICATOR_INTENSITY), so if I understand it correctly it's basically a driver issue, and adapting it to use the new LED (maybe with a predefined red color) should be enough to keep 100% feature parity (not considering all the extra stuff on top ) and compatibility?

That said, the ideas you propose are excellent, specially the one for the battery swap! Really looking forward to seeing the next proto board!

And I also just saw that every LED, including keyboard LEDs, will also be RGB?? If it's true, that's going to be fun. Cyberpunk neon-glowing NeoN!
 

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#2125
a simple "yes" to answer all parts of above msg :-) Neo900 shall be fun as well, besides of course being smart and versatile. ;-)

Last edited by joerg_rw; 2014-10-09 at 19:42.
 

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#2126
I think 300 eur Is a right price, he hasn't an excellent hardware....has an excellent os but who pay more For 1ghz core and 512 ram???.....i was in love For this N900 but 300 eur it's ok!....good job!....i Will buy it!
 

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#2127
Originally Posted by unicopippo View Post
I think 300 eur Is a right price, he hasn't an excellent hardware....has an excellent os but who pay more For 1ghz core and 512 ram???.....i was in love For this N900 but 300 eur it's ok!....good job!....i Will buy it!
http://www.wmshop.cz/en/Modules-GSM-...archparam=pls8 modem 113EUR plus shipping
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...100-ND/2695734 SoC/CPU ~50US$
http://www.netcomponents.com/sitemap...00CA-A506.html 1GB RAM + 512MB NAND POP chip: probably 25EUR
http://www.jorjin.com.tw/#!wg7351-00/c1dnh WLAN+BT+FM module ~30..40EUR
http://www.handy-ersatzteil-service....er_Tastur.html kbd 18EUR
http://neo900.org/stuff/joerg/N97-ca...7_06-13-16.jpg main camera ~15EUR
http://neo900.org/stuff/joerg/random-media/DSCF0308.JPG 8-layer & 4 -layer PCB some maybe 50EUR
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...3CF-ND/4316075 32GB eMMC storage 66US$
or http://octopart.com/mtfc64gjddn-3m+wt-micron-29101638 64GB eMMC storage 95US$
or the original one with much doubt about possible counterfeit or defect chips: http://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesal...g8d8eba12.html

several other "smaller" components that finally add up to >300EUR (or even >400EUR) for Bill Of Materials (BOM) without assembly, just for getting the mere chips/parts
Add on top the costs for R&D (incl FCC/CE et al cert), the assembly(making the boards, SMT)/QA/packaging, 10..15% at least for warranty excess production, and maybe we also want to earn a buck or two on each board.

"case":
NEW: custom made spacer frame http://neo900.org/stuff/joerg/spacerframe/sketch.pdf - maybe 10-20EUR
"OLD" (from existing N900, or spare parts)
http://www.handy-ersatzteil-service....uchscreen.html ~60EUR
http://www.amazon.com/Screen-Display.../dp/B0055MQ408 40EUR
http://www.handy-ersatzteil-service...._Platinen.html 40EUR
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs...568751892.html 10..20US$
(all of the above - 'case' - might be available for - even much - better price, but not guaranteed that we can find sufficient numbers of them)

When you're interested in a 300EUR device and don't mind the downsides this inevitably comes with, you're better off with e.g. a Jolla.

cheers
jOERG

Last edited by joerg_rw; 2014-10-14 at 06:34.
 

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#2128
joerg_rw: And if somebody converted their N900 into Neo900, what would be the minimal cost? (provided they use all possible parts from the old N900)
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#2129
Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post
joerg_rw: And if somebody converted their N900 into Neo900, what would be the minimal cost? (provided they use all possible parts from the old N900)
See above post, the parts under "case" are what you could as well reuse from an "old" N900. While first section lists (some of the) cost for the NeoN-board
 

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#2130
Also remember that there is no plan to build 100,000 units, just like the pandore this is a special custom job and it costs bigger $ then what a vendor like samsung can do when making 1,000,000+ units of a galaxy phone.

Just like some kids once asked me, 'can you make a gameboy?' (this was some time back hehe), and as i said to them yes i probably can but it will cost many times more then a new one....

Now the Neo900 will of course be NO WHERE NEAR a old galaxy phone in terms of performance but it is not so much the performance we are after but a combination of that and the freedom that comes with the Neo, to have a custom and free phone in the form factor we come to love, having a keyboard (something that is REALLY scares these days), having all the stuff like we have in the N900 but with more and more performance.

We all would be thrilled if it could be done for 300Euro but i look at it this way, i got my N900 back in 2010 and i paid 400Euro at that point, it has been my phone all this time and still works just fine today, now the Neo upgrade will be more costly but it i can have a phone for 4+ years that i will enjoy as much as i have done with the N900 then the price is not that high, we properly all have those friends that get a new phone every year or sooner and that's a MUCH higher price then what i see in this upgrade.
 

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