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Cell Phone with Disc Dialer



Translation of the article from the do-it-yourself website Justin Hopt

Since I received an incredible number of requests from people who want to buy a disk cell phone, I posted on my site a kit for assembling it, where there is only the most “complex” thing (a printed case with buttons and a board); the dialer and other details you will need to search for yourself.

Why did I decide to make a cell phone with a disk dialer? In a capricious and annoying sensory world of overly connected people using phones that they can neither understand nor control, I wanted to do something completely mine, personal and very tactile, while giving me an excuse not to send text messages.

The point is not anachronism. I wanted to show that you can get a perfectly usable cell phone that has gone as far as possible from the touch screen, and in some cases surpasses it in functionality. In which?

  • Real removable antenna with SMA connector. The reception was excellent, and if necessary, I can always screw a directional antenna there.
  • When I need a phone, I don’t have to get through the menu to call the “application”. Some crap.
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  • The switch is a real, physical switch. No holding a dumb button, without confidence that it turned off there or how.


Therefore, this is not just a project to demonstrate. I intend to use it as my primary phone. He gets into his pocket, it turned out to be compact enough, it’s faster to call people I often speak with than from an old phone, and the battery lasts almost 24 hours.

Open source project: build notes, surprises and clarifications ; files to create .

Project history


Initially, I planned to whip up everything. I laid out everything on the table to prove the project was working, and used the Arduino Micro as a controller:



Then I thought that I would just put everything into the case printed on a 3D printer. Call it ver. 1:



However, the result was too fragile. It was impossible to open it for repairing something without breaking something else. Well, I decided - it means you have to do everything on a printed circuit board. Ver appeared 2:









Everything worked, but with all sorts of problems. The battery lasted for 2 hours. The big mistake was to use Adafruit FONA 2G - I did not know that 2G networks were closing. However, it is seductively close to the phone that I really wanted to get.

Redid the design again. It turned out the current, and so far the final version. The 2nd version used the ATmega2560 microcontroller, and the 3rd version used the ATmega2560V - the low-power version. It is programmed in the Arduino IDE as if it were an Arduino Mega2560.

General scheme: USB bridge: This does not work. Culprit: The scheme looks like this. All real files for KiCad can be downloaded from the link above: Debugging a serial connection to FONA: Against the background, by the way, stands Rigol MSO1104Z - a wonderful gift from my husband for an anniversary: Completed project, top view: ePaper display:































The curved ePaper display was added at the last minute of the creative process, however now it is my favorite part. I imagine that the screen has two parts - one looks at the top of the phone, and the second is at the back. Thus, you can display the desired messages on the top of the display in the style of a pager - for example, the last missed call:



At the same time, the back of the display is available for other messages, a list of contacts, etc.:



Another view:



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