IoT sensors, thermostats, dashcams, home intercoms, mobile data modems, smart TV dongles... I could name a dozen more products that could have an old phone as their heart, if they were cheap, unlocked, and easier to develop for.

An iPhone doesn't have to be an iPhone forever, and end-users don't have to be the ones doing the conversion. All we need is a law that would stop phones from going to a landfill and instead actually get them recycled as general computing devices.

The market can figure out the rest. If manufacturers today are willing to deal with antique toolchains and expensive programmer gear to save a few cents on microcontrollers, imagine what they could do with cheap boards running Android or iOS.

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gruez a day ago | parent [-]

>IoT sensors

The average person has no need for "IoT sensors", whatever that means.

>thermostats

Seems unlikely given that most HVAC systems in north america operates off 24V wires, so you'd to add some sort of electrical relay switch on top for it to work. That alone is going to kill most of the savings. Moreover is your heating system really something you want to DIY? Sure, it's all fun and games to spend an entire weekend setting up your own home surveillance system from repurposed phones, because if it fails nothing really bad happens. A thermostat is something that you don't want randomly failing because your phone decided to randomly bootloop or turn into a spicy pillow.

>home intercoms

Most people would just use their phones

>mobile data modems

What's wrong with tethering off your phone? Why bring an extra device?

>smart TV dongles

Assuming your phone even supports 4K output in non-mirroring mode (you really want to watch TV shows in 1080 x 2400 that your phone's screen runs at?), this seems like a suboptimal solution given that you'll need a usb-c hub for it to work, and will be missing niceties like supporting a TV remote. All of this hassle, just to save $30 for a fire TV, or $100 for a SBC.

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dvdkon a day ago | parent [-]

Way to go denying the relevance of multiple established product categories.

- IoT sensors are a thing, whether the "average person" needs them or not. Think remote weather stations, car counting cameras, GPS trackers...

- "Smart thermostats" exist, surely you could just copy whatever they're doing with ease. And let's not limit ourselves to DIY here.

- Every block of flats I've been in here has had an intercom system, some even have video transmission. Sounds like a job for old phone hardware, no?

- Carriers still sell USB modems, and I guess they know what they're doing.

- A hardware manufacturer could surely just build in a USB-C to HDMI converter. A DP-to-HDMI chip is a common enough component already.

And just to repeat, I don't want regular people to start making these things out of old phones en masse, I want businesses to have that opportunity. You're arguing against a strawman.

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gruez a day ago | parent [-]

>- IoT sensors are a thing, whether the "average person" needs them or not. Think remote weather stations, car counting cameras, GPS trackers...

Something tells me that your average municipal government or enterprise isn't going to want a hodgepodge fleet of phones as IOT sensors. Most of the applications you describe don't even need to the phone to be reprogrammed. There's a dozen apps that allow your phone to be repurposed as cameras or GPS trackers today, what's holding back their adoption?

>- "Smart thermostats" exist, surely you could just copy whatever they're doing with ease. And let's not limit ourselves to DIY here.

Yeah but how much is this custom hardware going to cost, especially when you don't have economies of scale? You can get a sleek looking smart thermostat for $150-200. Most people will take that over a tangled mess of wires that a DIY solution is going to look like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahmed_Mohamed_Clock_by_Ir...

>- Every block of flats I've been in here has had an intercom system, some even have video transmission. Sounds like a job for old phone hardware, no?

So you're going to be gluing a phone next to your door? Sounds like a great way to lose an old phone.

>And just to repeat, I don't want regular people to start making these things out of old phones en masse, I want businesses to have that opportunity. You're arguing against a strawman.

No, you're arguing against a strawman. If you read my initial comment you'd see it states in no uncertain terms that I'm skeptical of the argument that it'll meaningfully reduce e-waste, not that there's going to be exactly zero people repurposing their phones.

	▲	dvdkon a day ago \| parent [-]
		Why are you assuming the result will be a "hodgepodge" or "tangled mess of wires"? Unless you take it apart, you won't be able to tell if a product runs on a bespoke PCB with SoC, a Raspberry Pi, or an old phone's hardware. Plenty of commercial hardware today is just an Android phone with some custom apps and system modifications, only it's generally a new, expensive, "enterprise-ready" device. > There's a dozen apps that allow your phone to be repurposed as cameras or GPS trackers today, what's holding back their adoption? Personally I think it's the lack of control over devices that's hindering these apps. A common modern phone doesn't let you replace the system UI with some purpose-built app, it doesn't let you run without a battery, it doesn't even let you disable all notifications. The result just isn't up to snuff unless the user/device manufacturer has full access to reduce the system to just the parts they need. > If you read my initial comment you'd see it states in no uncertain terms that I'm skeptical of the argument that it'll meaningfully reduce e-waste, ... And you haven't provided any meaningful counterargument so far. You still seem to be under the impression that reusing phones means hobbyists "gluing phones" places, but that's far from what I'm advocating.