I suppose I need to gauge interest in the project and if there is interest in me figuring out a dev kit.
I hope that there is because while there is utility in the hardware and software radio switches(I love that you thought to put them on the mic and cams too!),
I feel like without any way to be contacted the switches have few cases of practical utility beyond novelty for most users, when Neo900 team came up with the idea the POCSAG receiver came first and then the hardware/software RF switch idea second because we didn't trust the black box modem modules to assuredly shut off.
There would be three types of kit:
1 - an initially kapton tape and magnet wire POCSAG decoder chip wired with all required pullups/downs and (probably wont need)band passes, probably needs processor and/or rom ICs, with lines for power in, data in, and serial or i2c data out lines though if there is interest the pinephone hardware devs can probably guide us to a good PCB setup, call this about $5 if we do at least 5-10 sets and some SM pin soldering if we DIY it on Kapton tape.
2- same as #1 but with a full function radio receiver chip too, this would be a fully functional breadboard setup and would require #3, a POCSAG paging subscription, or another way to send test pager signals, $10?
3- #2 kit with a cheap low power transmitter to use for reference alphanumeric pagers and the pinephone pager module, I recommend the very inexpensive RFM69 module which in the post above there is Arduino code and schematic to run this as a POCSAG encoder/transmitter $15 for the functional receiver and RFM69 transmitter module, the RFM69 will need an arduino or ATmega32 to control the RFM69 but an Arduino can be found in educational supply shops, even toy stores if you don't want to order one.
4- An ordinary commercial pager would probably be useful reference for devs, I think the Apollo 924 UHF pager(they have low and high VHF and low and high UHF pagers so whatever is useful with the commercial paging service or amateur radio paging rules locally), is pretty cool as it can be hand programmed for both pager ID# and frequency including 433mhz where that is unlicensed or on amateur bands if you are not in a country which still has POCSAG paging subscriptions available. I got one for $20 a few months ago. https://www.apollopagers.com/wp-content/...Manual.pdf
With a transmitter you could at least enjoy the radio silence mode at places in range of where you can build a pager station, if you are an amateur radio user you can put up a tower or strap a mast to your house and cover maybe a few km with permission maybe even use a repeater in your city and cover thousands of square km, at unlicensed micro power you could have a micro station at work and home maybe tied into your landlines caller id, have one installed wherever you spend time, you could even put a module in your car and at least give you a footprint of minimal privacy when you go pedestrian, amateur radio license holders could put a good UHF antenna and receiver in their car and and set up a mobile repeater for signals from the home or amateur radio club pager station, you could even filter the repeater to only pass DIY transmitter or commercial signals with your pager id#.
FYI most people who can solder should be able to assemble from schematic if we decide on a favorite dev kit layout. Where I live postal service is very slow and will probably need to be forwarded to someone to remail as international postal rates are high; also I will probably not be able to do SM soldering for a few months. I plan to use kicad once I have time to sit down and to do schematics and wiring layouts as kicad can also export gerber files which can be sent out for PCB makers later. This will all be low budget DIY friendly with minimal tools and cheap auction site parts as I currently do not have access to proper facilities even my internet is a very slow mobile phone bridge, thanks COVID-19! If anyone has input please let me know.
Also also...
If there is interest I will try to dig up my(edited for privacy/brevity) email thread from years back with Richard Stallman where I get feedback and exchange ideas on a post N900 community designed FOSS ready pager/switches phone, he still wont own a mobile phone.
I hope that there is because while there is utility in the hardware and software radio switches(I love that you thought to put them on the mic and cams too!),
I feel like without any way to be contacted the switches have few cases of practical utility beyond novelty for most users, when Neo900 team came up with the idea the POCSAG receiver came first and then the hardware/software RF switch idea second because we didn't trust the black box modem modules to assuredly shut off.
There would be three types of kit:
1 - an initially kapton tape and magnet wire POCSAG decoder chip wired with all required pullups/downs and (probably wont need)band passes, probably needs processor and/or rom ICs, with lines for power in, data in, and serial or i2c data out lines though if there is interest the pinephone hardware devs can probably guide us to a good PCB setup, call this about $5 if we do at least 5-10 sets and some SM pin soldering if we DIY it on Kapton tape.
2- same as #1 but with a full function radio receiver chip too, this would be a fully functional breadboard setup and would require #3, a POCSAG paging subscription, or another way to send test pager signals, $10?
3- #2 kit with a cheap low power transmitter to use for reference alphanumeric pagers and the pinephone pager module, I recommend the very inexpensive RFM69 module which in the post above there is Arduino code and schematic to run this as a POCSAG encoder/transmitter $15 for the functional receiver and RFM69 transmitter module, the RFM69 will need an arduino or ATmega32 to control the RFM69 but an Arduino can be found in educational supply shops, even toy stores if you don't want to order one.
4- An ordinary commercial pager would probably be useful reference for devs, I think the Apollo 924 UHF pager(they have low and high VHF and low and high UHF pagers so whatever is useful with the commercial paging service or amateur radio paging rules locally), is pretty cool as it can be hand programmed for both pager ID# and frequency including 433mhz where that is unlicensed or on amateur bands if you are not in a country which still has POCSAG paging subscriptions available. I got one for $20 a few months ago. https://www.apollopagers.com/wp-content/...Manual.pdf
With a transmitter you could at least enjoy the radio silence mode at places in range of where you can build a pager station, if you are an amateur radio user you can put up a tower or strap a mast to your house and cover maybe a few km with permission maybe even use a repeater in your city and cover thousands of square km, at unlicensed micro power you could have a micro station at work and home maybe tied into your landlines caller id, have one installed wherever you spend time, you could even put a module in your car and at least give you a footprint of minimal privacy when you go pedestrian, amateur radio license holders could put a good UHF antenna and receiver in their car and and set up a mobile repeater for signals from the home or amateur radio club pager station, you could even filter the repeater to only pass DIY transmitter or commercial signals with your pager id#.
FYI most people who can solder should be able to assemble from schematic if we decide on a favorite dev kit layout. Where I live postal service is very slow and will probably need to be forwarded to someone to remail as international postal rates are high; also I will probably not be able to do SM soldering for a few months. I plan to use kicad once I have time to sit down and to do schematics and wiring layouts as kicad can also export gerber files which can be sent out for PCB makers later. This will all be low budget DIY friendly with minimal tools and cheap auction site parts as I currently do not have access to proper facilities even my internet is a very slow mobile phone bridge, thanks COVID-19! If anyone has input please let me know.
Also also...
If there is interest I will try to dig up my(edited for privacy/brevity) email thread from years back with Richard Stallman where I get feedback and exchange ideas on a post N900 community designed FOSS ready pager/switches phone, he still wont own a mobile phone.
