Ask HN: Is anyone working on a open hardware 3G/4G dongle?

• pinephone_modem_sdk

  62 584 3.3 Python

  Pinephone Modem SDK: Tools to build your own bootloader, kernel and rootfs

  

  Some impressing work is indeed being done here on the PinePhone modem: https://github.com/Biktorgj/pinephone_modem_sdk/ (firmware replacement, with a re implementation of many blobs and a mainline linux kernel - I tried and everything works, however the sound is a bit low by default (this can be configured) and the modem is slow to boot)

• nova-hardware

  1 38 0.0

  Hologram Nova Hardware

  

  Depends how open you mean. For a lot of hobbyists and integrators, this works:

  https://github.com/hologram-io/nova-hardware

  And run this on a Pi:

  https://github.com/hologram-io/hologram-python

  If you need something one layer deeper on the module or chipset level, there’s not really a lot out there.

• InfluxDB

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• hologram-python

  9 87 6.5 Python

  Hologram device-side Python SDK - Send messages to the cloud in just 3 lines of code!

  

  Depends how open you mean. For a lot of hobbyists and integrators, this works:

  https://github.com/hologram-io/nova-hardware

  And run this on a Pi:

  https://github.com/hologram-io/hologram-python

  If you need something one layer deeper on the module or chipset level, there’s not really a lot out there.

• hackrf

  34 6,081 8.0 C

  low cost software radio platform

  

  I thought that board looked interesting. Looks like a $50 cellular board, includes 500MB of data over 10 years (though with missing fineprint according the the HN thread). Might not be a terrible board to design around. Though adding it to your BOM will make your final retail cost on the order of $450.

  Some creative googling got me this, for a different starting point. Looks like it might be a useful project writeup dealing with SDR and connecting to some cellular sources.

  https://www.blackhillsinfosec.com/intro-to-software-defined-...

  I'm not sure how common open SDR hardware is, though some forum threads seem to suggest the Hackrf schematics are here, and are meant to be replicated:

  https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf

  I think one of the big problems is ultimately going to be dealing with phone companies. I think that will ultimately stymie any open efforts in this space, since at the end of the day, you need someone to accept your cellular traffic.

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