Fona
Overview
I'm building a phone. Actually it will at first be a GPS tracker, maybe later a phone? Who knows. If I get something going in the next 3 days I can get a free additional line from Ting so there won't be any recurring monthly base cost! I loathe recurring fixed costs! So ONWARD!
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.
All I want to do is power it up and then activate the line.
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