Fona

Overview

I am tired of the distraction represented by my smartphone. I am tired of feeling like it watches me all the time.

I'm building a phone.

The turning point was a deal on a free additional line from Ting. I can keep both phones while I develop the new one without incurring any monthly charge.

Adafruit sells breakout boards called FONA

• FONA 3G has a GPS receiver, about $80
• FONA 808 2G + GPS, $50
• FONA 808, shield format $50
• FONA MINI $45 2G only, FM radio

2G is going away next year so that pretty much leaves the only first one.

These are all accessory boards, meaning you probably want to hook it up to a controller like an Arduino for instance.

Adafruit also sells the Particle Electron 3G board too, in fact I have one of those, but it's NOT an accessory board and I am not excited to learn how to program it right now. Maybe later.

How do I get it hooked up?

Follow this guide; here are my own notes.

More docs here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fona-3g-cellular-gps-breakout/downloads

Step 1, power it up and activate the card.

I can connect a UART cable, the phone antenna, and pop in the SIM card, and zingo! Off we go. More or less.

I need to collect together

• Fona 3G
• Headers for the Fona, perhaps I dont want to solder them on just yet
• Ting SIM card
• Micro USB cable
• Li-Ion battery
• Ear buds
• GSM antenna
• A breadboard

Optional

• 8 ohm speaker
• electret microphone
• GPS antenna
• A UART - USB adapter