October Update: Introducing the PinePhone Pro

Welcome to what will likely be remembered as the most important community update of 2021. Today we’re introducing the PinePhone Pro and announcing that both PinePhone Pro and PineNote pre-orders are now open to developers. I am well aware that this announcement will overshadow everything else that I may wish to report on, so I intentionally chose not to include other exciting news in this post. I will write a follow-up piece covering other topics later this month - stay tuned. 

First steps towards an ITU-T V5.1 / V5.2 implementation

As some of you may know, I've been starting to collect "vintage" telecommunications equipment starting from analog modems to ISDN adapters, but also PBXs and even SDH equipment. The goal is to keep this equipment (and related software) alive for demonstration and practical exploration.

Some [incomplete] information can be found at https://osmocom.org/projects/retro-bbs/wiki/

Working with PBXs to simulate the PSTN (ISDN/POTS) network is fine to some extent, but it's of course not the real deal. You only get S0-buses and no actual Uk0 like actual ISDN lines of the late 80ies and 90ies. You have problems with modems not liking the PBX dialtone, etc.

Hence, I've always wanted to...

Harald "LaF0rge" Welte: First steps towards an ITU-T V5.1 / V5.2 implementation

As some of you may know, I've been starting to collect "vintage" telecommunications equipment starting from analog modems to ISDN adapters, but also PBXs and even SDH equipment. The goal is to keep this equipment (and related software) alive for demonstration and practical exploration.

Some [incomplete] information can be found at https://osmocom.org/projects/retro-bbs/wiki/

Working with PBXs to simulate the PSTN (ISDN/POTS) network is fine to some extent, but it's of course not the real deal. You only get S0-buses and no actual Uk0 like actual ISDN lines of the late 80ies and 90ies. You have problems with modems not liking the PBX dialtone, etc.

Hence, I've always wanted to...

Электролюминесцентные индикаторы из прошлого

Сегодня речь пойдёт об электролюминесцентных индикаторах. Но, не о тех, которые окружают вас повсюду и к которым вы привыкли, а о других — получивших огромную популярность в 60-е годы прошлого века, и так же стремительно канувших в небытие. Заодно запущу свою коллекцию индикаторов, как серийно выпускавшихся, так и уникальных опытных и даже — лабораторных образцов.
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Pmod Host Ports Added to Encased LUNAs

Note: This is a crosspost of a Cynthion update on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna/updates/pmod-host-ports-added-to-encased-lunas

In one of our updates on CrowdSupply we asked you all for feedback about whether populating the optional Pmod host ports would be a welcome addition to LUNA, and whether they should be added to bare board LUNAs, encased LUNAs, or both. We got many comments through our Discord, direct messages, email, and GitHub. The feedback was overwhelmingly in favour of adding Pmod host ports to encased LUNAs only, so we are going ahead with that change!

Our main goal in adding the Pmod host ports/footprints...

September update: Hurdles and Successes

In this community update we’ll discuss PinePhone keyboard progress (and hurdles), add-on back cases awaiting developers approval, initial PineNote impressions and early development progress, as well as news of InfiniTime 1.4 release and a guest post about PineCubes as a part of a security system. We also have an announcement for our community developers: we will be introducing bounties to the DevZone. 

Cluster build log: Moving to temporary cluster

As promised in the last month’s community update Housekeeping section, this is the first part of the cluster’s build log! This mini-series in which I will cover everything about upcoming changes our hosting cluster, and it begins with building a temporary cluster.

OsmoDevCall: "osmo-remsim in practice"

I've presented on osmo-remsim in practice as part of the OsmoDevCall talk series on Osmocom and related technology.

You can find the video recording at https://media.ccc.de/v/osmodevcall-20210827-laforge-osmo-remsim

Second LUNA Enclosure Update

Note: This is a crosspost of a Cynthion update on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna/updates/enclosure-details-and-contest-winner

We have an update on the enclosures! We have received 10 enclosures from our manufacturer and we are impressed.

A LUNA in a case measures 2 inches by 2.5 inches and weighs 103 g with the hardware and lightpipes installed. I’ve been carrying mine around constantly like a pet rock since it has such a comfortable weight. The case has held up really well, regardless of the wine, pesto, sesame oil, and other sauces I’ve gotten on it while cooking. The USB-C ports have a satisfying amount of...

DevZone rollout

First announced in the July community update, the DevZone is a project management system for PINE64 devices. It will allow us to have a better overview of ongoing software development, streamline the product prototyping processes and keep track of suggested hardware changes. It is also a way for us to get an up-to-date survey of our developer-pool, including each developer’s core competences and availability. We believe that the introduction of this system will facilitate cooperation and accelerate the process of bringing new devices to the market.