There are hackers and techies out there who spend their time transforming devices into amazing things. That is the case of a person who calls himself Remu NotMoe, who has taken a Nokia 1680 cell phone to turn it into a Linux mini-PC called Notkia.
The Nokia 1680 was released in 2008 and is a rather basic mobile with support for calls, sending and receiving text messages and support for 2G networks. As a classic device, the screen is small and it has a physical numeric keypad. Its conversion into Notkia has not only involved changing the software, but also all or almost all of its “guts”.
To turn the Nokia 1680 into a Notkia, Remu NotMoe has removed the original innards of the mobile to replace them with a custom PCB and other components. Of course, the casing, the numeric keypad and other buttons have been preserved, so the experiment has an aspect that has not changed compared to when it was a “pure” mobile.
The custom PCB features a Ingenic X100E processor, which is MIPS, single core and 1GHz. At the memory level it incorporates 64MB RAM, 32MB NOR flash, and 4GB SLC NAND flash. The screen itself has been replaced, since the original was TFT and worked at a resolution of 128×160 pixels, while the new one is IPS LCD and with a native resolution of 240 × 320 pixels. Obviously, for the new screen to fit, both have a size of 2 inches.
#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Other features of Notkia are a port USB Type-C (although it is not known if it is 2.0 or of the third generation), a Waveshare OV5640 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, a Yamaha MA-3 music synthesizer with ringtone support, an analog MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems) microphone, an AMPAK module with Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 4.0 LE support, a Semtech SX126x LoRa transceiver, plus a BL-5C battery.
Notkia works with a standard Linux, more specifically Debian 11 Bullseyebut Remu NotMoe hasn’t been able to find a 4G LTE module small enough to fit in the device, so, At least for now, you can’t make phone calls or use the mobile internet. For headphone support, you have to connect wirelessly or use a USB Type-C to 3.5mm jack adapter, since the models that go directly via USB Type-C are not so widespread. The mini-PC has a GNSS module, but it has not been tested.
All Notkia details are posted by Remu NotMoe on Hackster and HackADay. The project has been sent to the service of crowdfunding Crowd Supply, dedicated to financing open source hardware. If it goes ahead, it is likely that Notkia will end up being marketed in some way in the future, although it is not expected to be a massive product.
