I have an old Nokia N95 8gb sitting here doing nothing, do you think it's worth the effort to try and go as far as hard wiring the CPU up to the bredboard and start experimenting with some kind of mini computer 300mhz ARM processors, the newer phones now are coming out with 1.2gig dual cores along with some pretty powerful GPU's enough to run everything i could ever need, but there must be pins out to graphic etc, turning an old smartphone into a computer which can then run Linux (risc os 5 for eg) ? would it be worth the time.....

 

No, best to keep the display on it and just overwrite the firmware. Very compact (0201 and smaller size) so next to impossible to modify.

 

No, best to keep the display on it and just overwrite the firmware. Very compact (0201 and smaller size) so next to impossible to modify.

I am "tilting at the following windmill"

It seems that one could take the internal camera from a decent cell, and liberate the "eye" from the rest, and put it on an "extension cord", with a white led - in order to produce a pocket "borescope".......or other such "impossible dreams"

Several apps come to mind, being able to look where the eye can't go.

Shall keep this updated if any luck comes my way

 

I think a computer which literally sits in my pocket and runs on a lithium battery with that kind of power should be used as a desktop to do word processing, browse the net with pins out to bigger monitor, you could easily rig up the monitor to 12v..

(on a side topic, I wired up my WifiRouter to the LM317T voltage regulator and set it for 12.25v as recommended by the specs, and here i am now talking to you now being powered off a car battery (float charge 14.5v, Regulated down to 12.25v, with a couple of bypass to give it a nice good constant flow) but im finding the Voltage drop to be a bit of an issue when it drops to about 12.5v (router requies 12.25v) the voltage drop on the LM317t becomes a bit of an issue supplying almost 11v and the wifi/modem is less happy about it and internet fails.. need something with a less voltage drop)

Oh and i did it expecting to see an improved data rate transfer because i'm feeding a pure clean DC signal in, i was expecting the AC switch mode to inject some interference which would not be there from a clean DC source...

Back on top though...

I think a computer as a 'backup' in a crisis, your desktop computer would run for months on end if it used the little LCD screen with the phone, converting everything to run on 12vdc has it's advantages

 

I could double the voltage I guess which requires an oscillator circuit which in turn generates noise!!! don't want that... can a voltage comparator check for a 12v input even though the voltage in would only be around 12.5vdc? if so I should be able to switch from using the Regulator circuit to being fed directly from a power transistor directly to the battery until the voltage rises to say 13volts?...

sorry, getting carried away with sorting this... feel free to split it/edit it sorry.

 

This is apparently continued here - http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=49650