- cross-posted to:
- blogging
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- cross-posted to:
- blogging
- [email protected]
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The guide mentions that the phone doesn’t have a wired connection, but couldn’t you just plug in an external USB ethernet adapter. Would be curious if anybody has tried this.
In general, I really find that this is an underappreciated use for old phones. There’s an advantage over using something like RPI since you have a touchscreen built in, making it much easier to troubleshoot without having to plug in a monitor and a keyboard. Meanwhile, the battery can act as a built in UPS. Given how abundant old phones are, seems like it would be cool to make an Android distro specifically designed for this use case. Especially if you could plug in a USB hub for stuff like external storage. This could be a home server, music player, etc.
I have successfully plugged my android into an Ethernet-usbc adapter, yes. A special Ethernet icon actually pops up in my icon bar when it’s using that connection.
oh nice!
At first I thought you were insane but I’m slowly coming around to the idea.
Too bad the screen breaking is usually why mine get replaced
There are just so many of them floating around now, and it feels like such a waste not to use them for anything.
I take it you had to flash the particular rom to install docker (it would work natively on android?)
yeah you need a custom rom to run Docker
Generally speaking I find USB hubs with ports on them work pretty well with android as they’re just relying on the Linux kernel drivers for the USB support.
That’s what I expected, gonna have to play around with an old phone I’ve got lying around.
If that’s the case then I bet this would work with older phones using microusb
https://www.amazon.com/MakerSpot-Accessories-Charging-Extension-Raspberry/dp/B01JL837X8
Since it claims to be built for a Raspberry Pi. All my older devices are still microusb.
yeah that should work
At a functional level I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. Though my preffered method for that has always been old desktops over phones as it gives a lot more flexibility overall.
Power wise, and backup battery, wouldn’t a phone be better?
If those are important to you yes but the old desktop route generally means you’ll get access to more powerful chips plus the ability to add more storage and memory.
I just tried and my hub allows powering the phone while plugging a drive in. I haven’t tried a USB network card though. I agree old desktops or laptops work also work pretty well. It just bothers me how. old phones are fully fledged computers in a really nice small package, and there’s no easy way to make them useful.
The main suggestion I would have in regards to using the battery as a UPS:
If you want the battery to last a long time, you need to figure out how long it takes for it to charge and discharge, and set up an outlet timer (either a manual one or a zigbee operated one) so that the outlet the phone is plugged into turns on just long enough for the battery to charge, and then turns off just long enough for it to discharge, with the aim to keep it in the 30% to 80% charged range.
Otherwise you’re just always charging the battery and significantly reducing it’s life and ability to be a UPS.
https://www.amazon.com/Century-Indoor-24-Hour-Mechanical-Outlet/dp/B01LPSGBZS
I just use these, I have a few old phones set up as a surveillance system. I’ve never tried an external ethernet dongle because unless you search for a special connector cable, you can’t charge the phone and have it plugged into ethernet at the same time.
If you’re selfhosting stuff, you easily host Home Assistant, install the app on the phone, and use the battery sensor from the app to turn on and off a smart plug.
Oh yeah good point with the battery cycling.
Requires PostmarketOS which only has less than 30 phones it’s available for, many of which are very old (Samsung Galaxy S III??? Where would you even find one of these anymore?) and out of the list of less-than-thirty at least five of them don’t offer full support, only partial.
The newest Pixel phone you can use is a Pixel 3a.
Yeah I think I’ll pass on something that requires PostmarketOS.
Yes, title is very misleading. For the curious here is the list of currently supported phones: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices#Phones
You could write a similar article: How to install docker on your microwave oven: Step one, install a linux distro on your microwave…
Nonetheless PMOS is genial, I installed it on my Kobo ebook reader.
For sure, this isn’t against PostmarketOS. PMOS is fine. It’s rather if I’m trying to set up Docker on a phone, I’d rather find a way that’s… less limiting on what hardware can be used.
I mean it’s pretty easy to extrapolate from the article how to do it with any OS that can run Docker. It’s the idea of recycling the phone as a server that’s useful not the specific OS they used in the tutorial.
Goodness I actually have a pixel 3a kicking around.
Now if only I could find a use for my galaxy s8 besides glorified webcam.
Shit side with half the article used by ads no thank you.
Get a pi hole. I see no ads.
Use this article to set up an old phone as a pihoke, so you can then see this article with no ads.
It’s amazing to see that there are still people lacking basic technical knowledge to use ad blockers, even in the year 2024.
And you generate traffic for them, thanks. You could just directly link to the install docs on PostmarketOS, not for a shitty third party site: https://postmarketos.org/install/
The article talks the idea of recycling a phone to use as a home server, which is what I found interesting. Also, if you spend your time worrying what sites you generate traffic for maybe rethink your life.
A lot of liberals are big believers in the power of consumers voting with their dollar/attention.
Ben Burgis: “Voting With Your Dollars” Is an Antidemocratic Illusion
Indeed, libs always think they can vote their way out of systemic problems.
Why?
at the very least it’s probably about as good as a pi, but for free… and has a built-in UPS and backup internet connection… could be actually very helpful for reporting system status through power outages etc - perhaps even use the camera as a remote view of the systems
prevent e-waste
or maybe as a first step into self-hosting for someone who has no access to more suitable hardware
