Time for an update from me again, 1 year ago i started 3D printing and have made quite a lot of things, and being im so much into audio i made speakers and amps to begin with .

But i got another android phone (free) and now im thinking about printing my own by using an android phone with battery removed and then a bottom body like the N900, but just with BIG battery and BIG speakers.

I have to do some experiments as keyboard is quite a challange, i want it just as good as the N900 but with more buttons, will be a USB keyboard so no bluetooth connection needed and more buttons then N900

This project will take some time as im developing a 3D printed "car" also and much more

And if anybody has a good android phone candidate, pref one that can have a custom linux system installed or dual boot

My other latest work:
Thingiverse, place where this project will end up also
https://www.thingiverse.com/dr_frost_dk/about
Speakers, sent a set to San Fransisco - Make: Magazine
https://makezine.com/projects/3d-printed-egg-speakers/

Will like my fav community's idea's on this

hm...
yeah....
I would like to see such a setup ...esp with the speakers ...on something that can run linux...
perhaps the nexus 5?
UT has come a long long way with containers...and the 5 is the optimum device for it ..
(I have been exploring real time processing via containment in UT lately...)
...librem I believe is what they will be doing next (UT I mean...at least if short term memory loss serves)
your speaker setup would do well on the n900 / nexus 5 ...
once Leste is prime time...as well...
then the future is wide open for audio...
Can't wait...
currently I have been using for portability ...
a headphone / mic adapter for the in / out on my n8x0's and n900's ...
Out to either an 1/8th adapter to amp ...on the couch...or out to headphones at work..
and In from an adapter to a seiko tuner which is In-ed from the pickups in my harps...
So I run gtkgep on my n8x0's / n900's ...with all the real time processor effects it has...
and jam out comfortably on the couch or at work...
(serious real time though...for serious fun...I have to use a serious distro that has more than gtkgep...so I bounced all over looking for a good one...I can't stand the "all your multimedia needs in one place" of ubuntu studio or avlinux....kxstudio is good but fractured in my opinion...So finally stumbled on literally one of the few distros devoted to audio....and only use it now...for real time..IO gnu/linux....excellent distro....but I digress)

So yeah...I hear you frost...sound....good sound is critical...

yea with me audio comes first, ill look into the nexus, only real req for phone for best function is camera on the corner edge so when you flip screen up camera is visible, keeping all guts in the phone it-self makes this much easier
battery space in phone can fit various things like usb hub chip so keyboard is working and hopefully charging also so no external charger is needed like my old fast charger for the dual battery cover for the N900, also fit space for 2x3W amp for speakers, this can be made by shorting the jack detect with a switch that also poweres on the amp, then normal operation will be internal speaker of android phone being used, when better audio is needed you activate the amp and jack detect, audio from jack plug also goes into the amp, will see if any filtering/resistors is needed when i get to it to avoid any noise.
Speaker function (calls) is another thing...

The 3D printed Speakers i made are also VERY good, did also use a lot of time and $ to develop them

besides the nexus 5, what other phones would the maemo community like to see?

And it should be easy if we put linux on the phone (with everything working) to make a Maemo UI "clone" right?, i really miss the "window switcher" from maemo, have to use android because apps needed for various things, or is there a Maemo UI for android that works the same?

Maemo Leste is the next iteration in the maemo os line...
they have gotten further with it than any other attempt...and it has perhaps 6 months to a year before it could be daily driver practical..
Been out of the loop for some time eh Frost?

yes much out of the loop, last 5+ years have been hell, quite literally, so bad i lost 3 months from my life, meaning i cannot remember anything but was in a "zombie" state, but im back and i want my N900 (or DIY "clone") as a daily driver again.

And now with 3D printing i can help develop hardware, have begun programming again a little, but that's mostly for arduino.

Can you point me to projects like Maemo Leste?

Have a lot in the works and only pretty much been doing stuff the last year only, so i have a lot to catch up on

Why not a custom ARM design, start with a beaglebone or rPi to breadboard your design and then send out to China for the board, then hot air down whatever you didn't have them do in Senjen. Otherwish you are forever stuck in driver hell with the nasty production android component environment. Cherry Trail is AMD64 so you can even do some wine compatibility of desktop windows programs for those situations where you need a specific closed app for whatever.

Once it hits the market, I believe a TOHKBD for the Purism Librem 5 would be really nice.

The lack of a hardware keyboard fixed to the device is currently my main reason for not considering it a successor to my N900. And it seems I'm not alone on that. [1]
I don't really care if it would be a slider or a clamshell design. I believe some sort of port replication would be nice too, but that's probably just me dreaming.


[1] https://forums.puri.sm/t/how-about-a...the-phone/1790

with what i have on the 3D print Que and the programming time for the car etc, no i want a simple solution to start with, will go on thingiverse when ready, then we can get someone to design a complete board etc for a "clean" N900 clone

Also looking forward to seeing Librem.
Point with this project is to get as close to N900 as easy as possible, and this time different keyboard layouts are possible, not just the text on keys but key placement for more countries.
Audio is always going to be my thing but as this is 3D printing, different cases can be designed easily, so you can trade audio for BIG battery or some space to fit custom usb hardware or maybe IR

And since this has the possibility to be just android then more can use it if they only need keyboard and better battery life.

Keyboard will still hopefully be USB so no lag or re-connect/power draw problems, and will as with speakers and everything else i make, a lot of time to get the keyboard as good as the N900

Will be focusing on slider to start with, but no problem making a phone mini laptop, but the N900 design is still the best i used so far

I am however looking forward to the upgrade from the N900 with a Bigger keyboard, been looking a GPD WIN 2 but i don' t know if i can fit more then 4 columns on the keyboard