Hello all!
Due to the recent statements by Google (as well as their track record the last few years) I’ve decided I do not want to use Android as a phone operating system anymore. But Apple is just as bad, if not worse. So I’ve decided to build my own custom device.
I am working on building a phone using a single board computer, right now I’m using the raspberry pi 5. This is still a proof of concept, but I want to share my ideas with others, so like minded individuals can start messing around with this idea in their own homes to further this goal.
You can view more images of the device here, as well as the step by step instructions here (these are still very rough and incomplete) https://github.com/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone OR https://codeberg.org/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone
Right now it just runs raspberry pi OS, with a different desktop look and feel. Everything that normally works in a pi 5 works on this device, additionally I am experimenting with a Mobile Broadband modem, to allow the device to text and call, as well as access internet, like a normal phone off wifi
The total cost is around 200 dollars, not including the 3d printer to make the custom case.
This project is barely off the ground, and I’ve got a lot to learn before I can stop relying strictly on the raspberry pi 5, my end goal is to custom design SBCs, and release those designs for free alongside the plans for the device, so that interested parties can select their own System on a Chip to use for the device. I need to get into designing boards, I’m interested in trying Stephen Hawes’ Lumen PnP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkTcxh-9gA) for that phase.
But that’s for the future, for now, I’m hoping to get more people interested in the prototype so that I’m not the only one noodling around on this idea. I’d love some feedback, and if anyone was willing to put one together for testing, I would appreciate it greatly!
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If you’re really going to do this you need a RISC-V processor SOC. If you look around online there’s a few places where you can obtain these.
Been wanting to do something similar in a small pelican case for my friend and us. Couldn’t figure out what to do for phone signal though which stumped us.
Sorta copying my comment from another response, but it may answer your question as well: Right now I’m using this “Gravity: CAT1 A7670G Global 4G IoT Communication Module”, connected through USB-C https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2802.html I am able to text reliably using a chat software (it came preinstalled with gnome or KDE, not sure which), and connect to mobile data unreliably using ModemManager and mmcli. I haven’t been able to make a call yet, but I think this is due to a software issue, I’m still trying to get everything working reliably. Once I figure out how to do all of these things reliably, I will add it to the guide in the repo https://codeberg.org/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone
OMG, what?!? Holy fuck, this is amazing! This is incredible! Way to go!
I suggest adding a license . i recommend a copyleft license (there are copyleft licenses for hardware. for example the cern licenses).
I also suggest setting up a open collective. i suspect people might be more inclined to donate to a non profit then to for profit companies like purism and Pine64.
Thanks for the suggestions! I’m not actually looking for any donations though. It probably sounds weird, but I don’t want to derive value from this, or even assign value to it, in the interest of keeping the information as freely accessible as possible. Not too get too ideological, seeking money often causes people to make a good idea bad, or to make a simple process inefficient, to make more money from it. I’m thankfully in a position where I can keep (slowly) working on this project in my free time, while still keeping my head above water.
That isn’t to say that no one else should make money from this idea. I just don’t want to personally.
I do like the idea of a copyleft license. I’ll have to look into it a bit more. Thanks again for your suggestions!
Thanks for the suggestions! I’m not actually looking for any donations though. It probably sounds weird, but I don’t want to derive value from this, or even assign value to it, in the interest of keeping the information as freely accessible as possible. Not too get too ideological, seeking money often causes people to make a good idea bad, or to make a simple process inefficient, to make more money from it. I’m thankfully in a position where I can keep (slowly) working on this project in my free time, while still keeping my head above water.
If you want to not get paid that is fine. but donating is the only way some people will be able to help make this happen. you could hire people using something like fiverr to do some of the boring stuff. money is just an efficient way to store and transfer economic resources. There is a significant difference often between a how a non profit allocates a economic resources vs a company that is owned by pension funds and mutual funds and is just trying to maximize a return on investment. Some of the best open source projects (e.g. blender signal thunderbird etc) hire full time workers.
Looks like a GPS
I’m sure you are already aware, but just in case, there’s a lot of prior work in getting a truly Linux mobile phone.
There are ready-made devices like PinePhone (the PinePhone Pro looks the most promising one of the bunch), Librem 5, and Liberux Nexx. I think at least some of those companies publish schematics for their boards, you should probably check those out if you want to design your own.
There is also another direction, taken by postmarketOS and the like, to install Linux on a phone that shipped with Android out of the box.
It should be easy enough to install postmarketOS on your device, since it seems to have support for raspberry pi. The benefit of postmarketOS here is that it makes it really easy to install mobile Linux UI shells, like phosh, gnome-mobile, plasma-mobile, or sxmo. This will let you try all of them out and maybe pick one as a starting point for your software stack.
When i look at postmarketos device wiki . librem 5 seems better, the chart lists the pinephone support for things like calls and SMS as partial. the librem 5 is the more expensive option but it seems like in practice at least some of the money for it went to good use. freedom isn’t free i guess.
the PinePhone Pro looks the most promising one of the bunch
I’ll have to advocate for the Librem 5 over the Pinephone Pro for the following reasons:
- The Pinephone Pro has officially been discontinued as of August 2025 [source].
- The Librem 5 and Liberty phones are still in production [source].
- Librem 5 PCB board design files are also available - not just schematics [source].
- Purism is already working on a Librem 5 version 2.
- Purism is pushing toward FSF RYF certification for the Librem 5 and future models.
Purism is already working on a Librem 5 version 2.
Do you have a source? i could not find anything.
Yes, I am a Purism staff member. Here are a couple Purism forum search results of things I have posed related to the Librem 5 version 2:
Very Interesting. any ETA? will it have faster hardware like a faster CPU? will there be a fundraising campaign like kickstarter?
I own a Librem5, and let me tell ya, it’s not a daily phone, hardware is just way too slow. Even with sxmo it lags a lot, opening a browser is a whole ordeal for it. Meanwhile when I tried my friend’s PinePhone Pro, it felt a lot better. Oh, and for context, I’m currently semi-dailying a OnePlus 6 with NixOS.
I’ve daily-driven my Librem 5 since March 2023. I will certainly not state that this device will meet everyone’s needs or expectations and would consider myself a patient prosumer, but comfortable daily use is possible and is proving easier in testing the next major PureOS release (crimson).
I guess we have vastly different expectations from our phones, then. At a minimum, I need to:
- Have reliable, snappy maps with precise GPS (for trekking)
- Be able to interact with my bank on the go, at least via a web app
- Be able to chat with people via Matrix
- Get transit routing via a web app
And in my experience, Librem5 just doesn’t have enough processing power and RAM to do any of those quickly and reliably. It was not comfortable at all, e.g. the browser kept filling up RAM and locking up the device with constant swapping, and finally OOMing. GPS took 5-10 minutes to get a lock, even with AGPS, and after that wouldn’t reliably keep it. Both Nheko and NeoChat were slow and laggy. It also died after 4-5 hours of suspend with a modem on, unacceptable for a reliable daily.
OnePlus6 is a rocketship in comparison, and performs all those tasks with ease. The battery also lasts for an entire day with conservative suspend settings (but with the modem on), and for a couple days in airplane mode (e.g. while hiking in the mountains).
When planning to go into mass production?
Why does it need to go on mass production? OP explained they want to get to a point where they share their design.
I keep repeating the same about Linux and other free software projects. The main goal is freedom, not market share.
OPs project seems to follow the same goals. And I find it awesome.
I meant the ability to order such a device. I just structured my opinion wrong. Because of sharing the device blueprints and software doesn’t mean that anyone will be able to create it by himself.
can’t see from the pic (more of them appreciated), but it looks like you can desolder the ports to save on space.
I’m not sure how to add more images to the post, sorry. But I uploaded images to a repo, in the pictures directory https://github.com/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone OR https://codeberg.org/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone
i love this kind of thing. yeah you can definitely desolder the ports and try to squeeze it closer to the screen, you can rewire them with smaller connectors if you need to. round the printed chassis down and you got something much more ergonomic.
others mentioned you can run postmarketos, but i’m sure you can also get android running too. with the low resolution it is at least running smooooth.
also aliexpress is your friend. a lot of stuff is already designed and made and can be a stepping stone into making it work better as an actual phone, and as “inspiration” if you really want to eventually design the circuits involved into a single board. things like the charging and control circuit for that battery, for starters. or better screens/batteries.
i wish you best of luck!
there’s a youtuber working on something similar, maybe yous can join forces: https://youtu.be/OgMdO0ckICg
Wow! That does seem really similar to what I’m doing. And they seem further along than I am. I’ll have to look into this project some more. Thank you!
you could try one of these guys and a cm5 saves you some space https://www.pi-shop.ch/nano-base-board-a-for-raspberry-pi-compute-module-5
This is a very helpful suggestion, thank you! I have been having some issues figuring out spacing, the battery sticks out like a sore thumb right now, so if this can save me some space I may end up moving in this direction for further prototyping. Thanks!
Happy to see this out there, love the idea. Watching the repo may mess around with this at some point when I have more time.
Not trying to dump on your efforts or anything here, but you’d be better off first defining a scope of what you’re trying to do, and then work off an existing hardware or software platform.
You can get phone dev kits for cheaper than $200 if you just want to build something that works without Android, but if you intend to take that further and design some of the software experience, you’d be better off just working or contributing to something that already exists.
A single person can’t even begin to touch on the fundamentals of what it takes to run a phone experience in that that we currently understand and use them. Touch UX, software<>hardware integration, peripherals like cameras…it’s A LOT. Doing it well as a single developer is just not going to happen.
If your goal is simply to not have to buy another shit Google-infested phone, you can get a cheap that runs other things right now.
From the sounds of it, it’s just a hobby project for fun for OP. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing something just for the sake of it.
Plus, if OP’s project catches steam, it provides more competition and cult followings which adds to the flair of hobby phones and its attraction thus helping to pave the way for more adoption and development.
This is definitely the angle I’m trying to work. The more people who know how to build these sorts of devices, the more software and hardware will be supported, and standard custom software/hardware pairings can be documented. But we won’t know what works till we try it
This seems like a very ambitious project and a great learning experience for someone working on their own. For a similarly ambitious project, check out the Liberux NEXX. The project didn’t reach its crowdfunding goal, but they did make some progress before rolling up the rugs.
I don’t know if they’re looking for contributors or if you’re in a place to contribute, but most of the project is open source. You could probably get in touch with them and ask for any advice, successes and failures, and even if they have parts (such as their dev-board) that they can give you access to.
I’m interested in this. Especially at that price point. I didn’t see any photos of device though.
I’m not sure how to add more images to the post, sorry. But I uploaded images to a repo, in the pictures directory. There are also step by step instructions to make one yourself! https://github.com/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone OR https://codeberg.org/muhammadmanwar/cheaphone