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View Full Version : Spacerframe - Impressions of Neo900


jake42
2014-11-19, 23:30
On the way to the inevitable "spacerframe" for our neo900, I sketched some impressions of how the neo900 might look. I also sketched a cross section of neo900 vs n900 to show why a spacerframe is needed.

http://www.rommel.stw.uni-erlangen.de/~jake42/neo900/skizzen/neo900_1_2_an.png
http://www.rommel.stw.uni-erlangen.de/~jake42/neo900/skizzen/neo900_2_2_an.png

And a sketch of a corss section.
http://www.rommel.stw.uni-erlangen.de/~jake42/neo900/skizzen/neo900_n900_querschnitt2.png
(The text describing the parts is in German, sorry.)
Edit: Note: The actuall added height will be 2.8mm. Especially in the sketch it looks alot thicker for explaining purposes.

I'd like to stress these are only sketches/impressions. Nothing is to scale and my drawing skills might not be appropiate ;-)

Tigerroast
2014-11-19, 23:50
Based solely off the rough sketch, I see that the phone might be pretty thick.

How thick is the spacer gonna be?

joerg_rw
2014-11-20, 00:22
Based solely off the rough sketch, I see that the phone might be pretty thick.

How thick is the spacer gonna be?

see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=1379875#post1379875

/j

Tigerroast
2014-11-20, 00:26
see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=1379875#post1379875

/j

Thank you, thank you!

That's actually not bad at all. The spacer's much smaller than depicted from the rough sketch.

joerg_rw
2014-11-20, 00:47
...the spacer's much smaller than depicted from the rough sketch.
I think the sketch is not to scale resp has quite some emphasis on perspective shortening. Actually the N900 is 19mm high and 60mm wide, iow width is >3 times the height. In the sketch it more looks like its width was only twice the hight, so it looks bulkier than it is.
The spacerframe will increase thickness by ~14%, from 19mm to 21.8mm

The sketches are anyway great to explain what is this spacerframe thing. Thanks a lot for posting them here, jake42! Nice and useful work :) Let me add another link to some less beautiful drawing I did: http://neo900.org/stuff/joerg/spacerframe/sketch.pdf. and here are very fine scans Werner did: http://neo900.org/stuff/werner/scans/

/j

Tigerroast
2014-11-20, 01:18
I think the sketch is not to scale resp has quite some emphasis on perspective shortening.

I'm aware. The OP made that quite clear. I just wasn't aware of how thick the spacer actually was until you cleared that up.

Actually the N900 is 19mm high and 60mm wide, iow width is >3 times the height. In the sketch it more looks like its width was only twice the hight, so it looks bulkier than it is.
The spacerframe will increase thickness by ~14%, from 19mm to 21.8mm

That's not too bad. Sure, some might complain about even +1 mm of added thickness, but those people typically aren't looking for smartphones like these anyway.

kain
2015-01-15, 00:29
Not what I was expecting!

joerg_rw
2015-01-15, 00:36
Next time we wll succeed to ask our crystal ball to meet your expectations. Sorry we failed this time

teroyk
2016-06-20, 14:59
Specerframe is not bad. It should be get to good use. Can there be somekind of hole for attachment for this: https://developer.sony.com/devices/cameras/sony-smartphone-attachable-lens-style-camera-dsc-qx10/
:)

Or port for developerport serial. Or just pocket for microSD-cards. Or pocket for little notepaper. Or ...

Kabouik
2016-06-20, 15:51
Specerframe is not bad. It should be get to good use. Can there be somekind of hole for attachment for this: https://developer.sony.com/devices/cameras/sony-smartphone-attachable-lens-style-camera-dsc-qx10/
:)

Or port for developerport serial. Or just pocket for microSD-cards. Or pocket for little notepaper. Or ...

I am afraid it will be too late now for this kind of design decisions, but adding multiple external µSD slots that can be accessed without opening the back cover would be extremely useful. Connection to the PCB would be ideal if there is room on it, of course, but even just slots with no electronic connection would be nice, so that we can use this empty volume to carry multiple extra µSD cards in our Neo900 and connect these new "hard drives" depending on our needs. The cards could even be used for extra OSes.

But again, connected slots would be best, and I am aware that both ideas are probably not feasible anymore now.

pichlo
2016-06-20, 17:48
Guys, guys, hold your horses, please. Don't you think that if there were room in the spacer for all those things, there would be no need for the spacer in the first place? Or was that the point? Am I being obtuse?

joerg_rw
2016-06-21, 00:42
Neo900 won't have an "external" uSD slot, you need to remove the battery lid to access it. Neither any unused free volume inside device nor an unused SD interface exist in Neo900 design.

So here's my suggestion:http://maemo.cloud-7.de/share-service/20160621_002.jpg

[edit] for the mentioned Sony camera: it says it comes with phone attachment

Kabouik
2016-06-21, 01:18
Guys, guys, hold your horses, please. Don't you think that if there were room in the spacer for all those things, there would be no need for the spacer in the first place? Or was that the point? Am I being obtuse?
I believed there was actually a lot of space in there, but apparently I understood something wrong back in the days when the idea of the spacer came up. I thought the spacer was needed only because one component (modem? Don't remember) could not fit on the PCB within N900 thickness, but that the extra thickness provided by the spacerframe was not used over the whole area.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I jumped in after the post I quoted in my previous message. :o

[Edit] Joerg_rw, don't know if that will be possible on the Neo900, but on my N900 I can manage to store an extra µSD on top of the currently used µSD, just by shifting it a little so the bump does not stack. No noticeable extra pressure on the back cover.

pichlo
2016-06-21, 07:54
No, I am sorry. I may have gotten it wrong. Can you clarify, joerg_rw?

joerg_rw
2016-06-21, 09:42
I think you were perfectly right :-) despite the "original rationale for needing the spacerframe" is also correct, it been intorduced by modem module height, but meanwhile we crammed in so much that we used up pretty much all of the additional space

biketool
2016-06-21, 17:37
Can the DIY hacking port be used for these external SD cards and other ideas? How many GPIOs and UARTs are in that?

wpwrak
2016-06-28, 21:36
Can the DIY hacking port be used for these external SD cards and other ideas? How many GPIOs and UARTs are in that?

May I draw your attention to the Hackerbus white paper ?
http://neo900.org/stuff/papers/hb.pdf

There are enough GPIOs for 1 bit operation, or if you use some of the UART signals as GPIOs, then there are enough signals for regular 4 bit operation.

The regulated supply voltage available on Hackerbus will probably be 2.7 V, which is just at the lower end of the standard SD card voltage range.

Finding a nice place for the card holder would be more of a challenge. I guess there should be sufficient room if you remove the camera. Else, some creativity may be needed :-) When looking for such a place, the scans and photos here may help:
https://neo900.org/stuff/werner/scans/

- Werner