EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: RoGeorge on November 02, 2019, 08:04:44 am
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In many parts of the world 2G networks are already closed. Still bumping into former famous 2G phones, like the indestructible Nokia 3310, or some other brands or models from before the smart phones era. It feels like a waste to just throw them away in the recycling bins for electronics.
There are a lot of RF goodies to scavenge, and other non RF parts, too. Schematics are now easy to find, so anything from single components to entire RF blocks could be reused, or maybe the whole phone if alternative firmwares would exist. Even the batteries are still good enough for DIY projects.
Any interesting links or projects reusing old phones, please?
Any tips for what models have what particularly interesting parts inside?
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Old AMPS phones were a valuable source of parts, the carphone modules were full of useful bits, the later 2G phones were less easy to salvage useable parts form as they were more integrated and far smaller but it's possible to recover useful RF bits like VCO and PA modules from some, batteries, microphones, screens are also useful, the venerable Nokia displays have been widely hacked and documented for instance.
Some use digital microphones which are fun to play with too, I seem to remember some of the phones have been hacked so deeply that it's possible to write your own firmware but how useful that is is another matter entirely.
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If they also work on the ISM band (e.g. 900MHz where commercial cellular is 850MHz and vice versa), they could potentially be used with a DIY base station on the ISM band. Sounds like a lot of effort to get a fancy cordless phone system...