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author | Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org> |
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date | Fri, 30 Dec 2022 00:10:34 +0000 |
parents | f5b954172002 |
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FreeCalypso Handset Specification ================================= The purpose of this document is multifold: * Chapter 1 gives the principal design specification for the FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone handset hardware which I, Mother Mychaela, seek to build as a distant long-term goal. * Chapter 2 defines the scope of functionality to be supported in FreeCalypso handset firmware, including support for additional hardware targets beyond the primary FC handset hw target. * Chapter 3 gives the principal design specification for FreeCalypso Venus development board, which is a more near-term piece of hardware I seek to build, nearer than the long-term goal of Chapter 1. * Chapter 4 explains the side project of FreeCalypso Lite aftermarket firmware on Motorola C139 hardware. 1. FC handset hardware specification 1.1. Basic features The Mother's goal is to produce a replacement for the proprietary Pirelli DP-L10 phone, or more specifically, for the GSM-only subset of this Pirelli phone which the Mother actually uses, *without* Pirelli's key differentiating feature of non-GSM WiFi operation, and without Pirelli's camera. The following hardware features are to be included: * 176x220 pixel color display (no touch) * 21-button main keypad * 3 side buttons for volume control and an auxiliary function * hands-free loudspeaker, also to be used for ringing * vibrator * USB port that combines charging and computer interface * wired analog headset jack * single SIM slot The following features which are commonly found in mainstream proprietary phones, particularly more recent ones, will NOT be included: * camera * Bluetooth * FM radio * MP3 or any other music player * stereo headphone output or any other beyond-voice audio * TV receiver * GPS receiver * dual SIM slot * torch light beyond LCD and keypad backlights 1.2. RF band capability Our FC handset needs to be quadband GSM; this quadband capability will be achieved by copying the RF section and the core PCB layout around it from the reverse-engineered iWOW TR-800 modem module, which is itself a very direct (almost verbatim) derivative of TI's Leonardo+ quadband reference design. 1.3. RAM and flash The Mother's intent is to use Spansion S71PL064JA0 flash+RAM MCP on the final handset motherboard, providing 8 MiB of flash and 2 MiB of XRAM in a 7x9 mm footprint. This flash and RAM capacity is already known to be fully sufficient for our FreeCalypso handset firmware in maximal feature configuration, hence any larger capacity would be excessive. However, on our FC Venus development board we may use the larger S71PL129NC0 MCP, same as used on FCDEV3B V2. 1.4. Liquid crystal display 1.4.1. Display size The size of the display for our FC Libre Dumbphone handset design is fixed at 176x220 pixels, 16-bit color, following TI's D-Sample platform and the starting point UI code that was developed for it. Thoughts of changing to a different display size have been considered and rejected: * If we were to change to a smaller display size, we would have to do extra work on the firmware to shrink the UI to the smaller size, and we would reduce the amount of information that can be displayed at once. We would incur extra work and a functional loss, but gain absolutely nothing in return. * If we were to change to a larger display size (240x320 pixels seems to be the largest reasonable size for dumbphones, used in high-end Nokia models), we would be venturing into uncertain territory - the greatest uncertainty would be the extra CPU load on Calypso to draw the larger UI and to refresh the larger framebuffer, which is done with PIO on Calypso, without any DMA assistance. The D-Sample LCD size of 176x220 pixels already appears to be a strain in some drawing code paths, hence the Mother's decision is to play it safe and stick with the known working display size. Expanding the UI to make sensible use of larger screen real estate would also entail additional work. 176x220 is the display size in pixels, and this resolution number by itself says nothing about the physical display size in inches or mm. However, most readily available LCDs that are made for this pixel resolution are made in 2.0" diagonal physical size, with 31.68x39.60 mm active area and 0.180 mm dot pitch, hence this physical size is the one we are going to use. 1.4.2. Specific LCD module selection Over the summer of 2021 we have selected Formike KWH020ST23-F01 as our LCD module for FreeCalypso; in prior years we had evaluated two other LCD modules from HaoRan and Startek. All relevant datasheets (our finally chosen LCD module, our previous candidate LCD modules and the controller ICs inside these modules) are collected here: ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/embedded/LCDs/ Our LCD module selection criteria were as follows: * TFT color LCD, 2.0" diagonal, 176x220 pixel resolution; * 16-bit microprocessor bus interface; * 6:00 viewing direction as appropriate for cellular handsets; * backlight consisting of 3 white LEDs in parallel, joined at the anode, with separately brought-out cathodes; * mechanical design that supports mounting with the FPC tail folded under the module, either by way of direct solder termination (no connector) or by way of raised sides that create sufficient vertical space to accommodate the FPC connector. The requirement of 16-bit microprocessor bus interface stems from the desire to interface this LCD to the Calypso in exactly the same way how TI did it on the D-Sample, the 6:00 viewing direction and mechanical mounting requirements stem naturally from the target application (cellular phone handset), and the backlight LED wiring requirement stems from the constraints of our chosen MAX1916 backlight LED driver chip - see section 1.4.4. Formike KWH020ST23-F01 is an LCD module that was discovered by Mother Mychaela in May-June of 2021, and it satisfies all of our requirements. In June of 2021 we received sample pieces, then we designed a test board for the purpose of evaluating this new LCD, connecting it to our Luna interface from 2020. Our lunalcd2 test board was finally assembled in August, all tests passed, and in September of 2021 we have bought 100 pcs of this finally chosen LCD module. This stash of 100 LCD modules is expected to be sufficient as a lifetime buy. 1.4.3. Backlight and readability considerations Out of the various pre-existing mobile phones which I (Mychaela) have experienced, there have been 3 different kinds of LCDs in terms of how display operation and readability interacts with the backlight: 1) older phones with black&white LCDs: on all phones of this type which I've ever used, the display is perfectly readable without the backlight given ordinary ambient lighting, be it natural daylight or room lighting. Such LCDs are called transflective: primarily reflective, but can also operate in transmissive mode when the optional backlight is turned on. With these B&W displays, you only need to turn on the backlight if you need to operate the phone in darkness, such as outdoors at night or inside with all lights off. The firmware in such phones is typically designed to leave the actual display functional and updated at all times, with only the backlight subject to on/off control. 2) most newer phones with color displays, of which Pirelli DP-L10 is a representative case, have transmissive LCDs that are not designed to be readable without the backlight at all - backlight required for readability (BLRR) is another way to describe such LCDs. Because the display is not readable at all without the backlight, phone firmware is typically designed to turn off the entire display (not just the backlight) when the screen goes dark, and operation visible to the user is display on/off, rather than backlight on/off. It is a good firmware design practice to "swallow" the initial keypress that turns on the display from dark state, i.e., to block the regular action of whatever button was pressed to "wake up" the display. 3) The color display on Motorola C139 phones is an odd intermediate case: this display is NOT practically readable with the backlight off, yet the firmware is designed as if the display were readable in this condition: the actual display (unsure if it is CSTN or TFT) remains on and updated, and when you press some button to "wake up" the display, that button still takes its regular action, which is really bad for usability. How do we know that the actual CSTN or TFT display remains on and actively updated when it is not readable with the backlight off? Answer: the non-backlit display can be made readable by shining a flashlight directly at it - but this trick requires a directly pointed flashlight; no amount of ordinary ambient light is enough to make the display readable. Because our FC Libre Dumbphone handset will have a color display (contemporary TFT) and because we are sane, not copying the monumental design mistake of Mot C139, our display will fall into class 2 by the above classification: backlight required for readability, full display on/off rather than just backlight on/off, firmware operating like Pirelli's in terms of wake-up keypress swallowing. 1.4.3.1. Backlight dimming mode Because our LCD is of BLRR type and because we seek to fully replicate Pirelli's logic in terms of when keypresses are swallowed and when they are not, we need to implement a dimming mode for our LCD backlight. In Pirelli's design which we are copying, when you are playing with phone menus or composing SMS etc, but are not in an active call, the display switches between full brightness and totally off - it goes fully off on timeout, and when you press a button to wake it up, it switches on at full brightness, together with the keypad backlight. But when you are in a call, when the timer expires (and it's a shorter timer, 10 s instead of 30 s), the display goes dim instead of fully off, and in this dimmed (but still readable) state keypresses are NOT swallowed. In terms of absolute requirements, we only need to implement two different intensity levels for the LCD backlight: full brightness and in-call dimmed. The backlight intensity level in the dimmed state will need to be chosen on this principle: use the lowest backlight LED current (to conserve battery power and allow longest talk time on one charge) at which the display is still readable, similarly to Pirelli's in-call dimmed state. In the user-actively- poking state, as opposed to the long-call dimmed state, there is no strict need to provide different configurable backlight levels - but it so happens that our implementation will allow a total of 4 different backlight intensity levels - see section 1.4.4.1. 1.4.4. Backlight circuit implementation In all candidate TFT LCD modules that have been considered (see section 1.4.2), the backlight consists of 3 white LEDs wired in parallel, joined either at the anode or at the cathode - although as we shall see momentarily, we require an LCD module where the 3 LEDs are joined at the anode, with the 3 cathodes brought out separately. LCD module datasheets call for 15 mA current through each LED at maximum intensity, for 45 mA total, and the LED forward drop voltage (Vf) at this rated current seems to range between 2.9 V (what I actually measured on both Formike and HaoRan LCD modules) to 3.2 V (what the datasheets list as typical) to perhaps as high as 3.4 V (what one datasheet lists as the maximum). Given the parallel (as opposed to series) wiring of the 3 LEDs and the relatively low Vf, there is no need to use any kind of boost converter as part of the LED driver circuit for this backlight - any boost converter will only add inefficiency (more current will be drawn from the battery for the same LED current), hence we need to avoid using such. Regardless of whether a given phone design uses a boost converter or not (it seems that older designs do use boost converters, either because older white LEDs have higher Vf or because 2 or 3 LEDs are wired in series), all traditional phone designs seem to share the quality where the display backlight brightness remains the same as the battery discharges and as Vbat goes down - this quality was directly observed on the Pirelli DP-L10 (unknown circuit design) and inferred from the available schematics for Mot C139 and C155, with both of the latter boost-converting to fixed 5.0 V. In our case, even though we choose to not use a boost converter for efficiency reasons, we still need to achieve the quality of the display brightness remaining the same through the discharge range of our Li-ion battery - having the display dim in half as the battery discharges from 4.2 V peak to 3.6-3.7 V plateau is simply not acceptable. The simplest possible LED driving circuit would be one where a current limiting resistor is inserted in series with each LED, and then the 3 parallel LED+resistor sets are connected across battery terminals, with a transistor inserted somewhere to act as the on/off switch. However, this trivial circuit is not suitable in our application because it would produce unacceptably large variation in display brightness as the battery discharges - hence we need a more intelligent LED driving circuit. Our Luna LCD carrier board from the spring of 2020 features an LDO bringing Vbat down to fixed 3.5 V, followed by very low- value resistors in series with each LED - but this approach is not good for production either, as it makes the LED current extremely sensitive to any slight variations in Vf. Fortunately, I was able to find a specialized white LED driver chip that is just perfect for our application, or more precisely, a specialized chip that acts as a constant current sink for such LEDs - Maxim MAX1916, design from 2001, just the right time frame for the kind of phone we are seeking to build. This special chip takes the place of "dumb" ballast resistors: connect Vbat (battery positive terminal) directly to the common anode of the 3 LEDs, but instead of series resistors, connect each cathode to the corresponding LEDn pin of MAX1916 - *without* any resistors or transistors! FETs inside the MAX1916 take the place of resistors as current-limiting elements, and the chip's global on/off control (which will be driven with a Calypso GPIO) takes the place of a separate switching transistor. The special quality of MAX1916 is that it produces constant current through each LED (based on a set reference current and 230x current multiplication circuit inside the chip) regardless of variations in both Vbat and Vf! Of course the requested current can only be sustained as long as Vbat >= Vf + Vds_min, where Vds_min is the lowest drop voltage of the FETs inside MAX1916, and once Vbat falls below this point, the LED current will begin to decline. However, the beauty of this design is that no arbitrary artificial turnover points (like the 3.5 V point in our hacky design from the spring of 2020) need to be set: the battery discharge point at which the LED current begins to decline will be whatever it comes to be naturally, based on Vf (perhaps depending on temperature) and MAX1916 Vds_min, and the decline is expected to be gradual. 1.4.4.1. Backlight current selection and dimming In the simplest MAX1916-based design, a fixed LED current is set by connecting a resistor of appropriately computed value between MAX1916 SET pin and whatever regulated fixed voltage rail happens to be available in the system. However, in our application (see section 1.4.3.1) we need at least two different display brightness levels, and thus at least two switchable LED currents. At first the problem seems difficult, but an elegant solution has been found. LCD backlight LED current will be selected by way of two Calypso GPIO pins configured as outputs, and a 74LVC2G126 dual tristate buffer. Each tristate buffer's A input will be tied high, and the two Calypso GPIO outputs will be connected to buffer output enable inputs. There will be two resistors with different carefully computed values, each connected between one of the two tristate buffer outputs and MAX1916 SET pin. There will also be a third resistor connected between MAX1916 SET pin and the V-IO rail. The values of the 3 just-described resistors will be selected so that the path through each SET resistor will add a different contribution to the total LED current. The always-on SET resistor will provide the smallest current corresponding to the long-call dimmed mode, whereas the sum of all 3 contribution currents will equal the 15 mA limit - the current is reckoned per LED. The difference between the 15 mA maximum and the small dimmed mode current will be split unequally between the two switched SET resistors, allowing a total of 4 different backlight intensity levels to be selected via the two Calypso GPIO outputs going to the 74LVC2G126 buffer's output enable inputs. The actual currents will be determined after some further experimentation with our lunalcd2 test setup: this setup features our KWH020ST23-F01 LCD, a MAX1916-based backlight circuit, and a DIP switch pack selecting the LED current in 1 mA increments. 74LVC2G126 has been chosen as the dual tristate buffer part instead of more common 74LVC2G125 because the '126 has active-high output enable inputs, making the software interface (bits in the GPIO output register) more intuitive: with a '126 buffer, writing 1 into GPIO11 or GPIO12 will turn on the corresponding current contribution, whereas a '125 buffer would produce an inverted sense. 74LVC2G126GT parts were less readily available than the '125 counterpart, but we have now made a lifetime buy of the preferred part. 1.4.5. Slight regression relative to Pirelli DP-L10 The actual LCD backlight LED driving circuit inside the Pirelli phone is not known, but reverse engineering of Pirelli's firmware followed by experimentation reveals that backlight intensity variation is achieved via a form of PWM, using Calypso PWL output - although PWL is used in an inverted sense, such that the backlight intensity increases with more 0s being put out on PWL, as opposed to more 1s. Thus regardless of the unknown actual circuit implementation, the backlight intensity appears to be continuously variable from 1/255 to 255/255, which is certainly a much richer control than our crude selection of just 4 possible LED currents. In terms of what Pirelli's fw offers to end users, the backlight intensity in the dimmed in-call state is always set to 1/255, without any way to change it, whereas the backlight intensity in the active interaction state is selectable via a menu among 5 levels; the 5 offered levels turn into 1/255, 64/255, 128/255, 192/255 and 255/255 in the resulting PWL programming. So in terms of both hardware capabilities and end user offering via the firmware, Pirelli's LCD backlight level control is richer than what we are proposing for our FC Libre Dumbphone. However, engineering is all about trade-offs and compromises, and in the Mother's opinion, this slight reduction in the richness of functionality is sufficiently offset by the efficiency of our MAX1916-based approach: aside from the theoretical possibility of a switching buck converter, which I've never seen used for LED driving applications, our choice of MAX1916 is the most battery-efficient way to drive our backlight LEDs. Furthermore, when dimming is effected by switching the actual regulated LED current, as in our case, as opposed to applying PWM, our backlight becomes more resilient to even lower battery voltages. Consider what happens when Vbat falls below the point at which the design- intended LED current can be maintained - what happens then? If no PWM is applied, or if PWM is set to maximum, then display brightness will be whatever maximum is possible at this low battery voltage. But if PWM is applied, especially very low duty cycles as in the case of Pirelli's dimmed state, then the display that has already been dimmed by low Vbat will be *further* dimmed by this aggressive PWM, likely producing an unreadable display at this point. It may be possible to compensate via extra complexity in the firmware, by turning PWM up when Vbat (as measured via Iota MADC) falls too low - but then we would be getting really messy, whereas switching the regulated current is so much more elegant. With our approach, low-battery-induced dimming in the "full brightness" mode will happen at the same discharge point as it would if we had used PWM (and set PWM to maximum in this "full brightness" mode), but in the in-call dimmed state, further dimming due to low Vbat will probably happen at a lower discharge point (if Vf decreases with decreasing current), and when it does happen, there won't be a combination of both natural and artificially- induced reductions, just the natural one. Thus based on all of the above considerations, I feel justified in my design choice of foregoing PWM control of backlight intensity in favor of fixed current switching with much more limited selection. 1.5. Main keypad The main keypad on our FC Libre Dumbphone handset will have the following 21-button arrangement: left soft key ^ right soft key <O> green call V red power/hang-up button button 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * 0 # The top section above the traditional numeric dial buttons (12) consists of left and right soft keys, green and red buttons (classically called SEND/END), and a 5-way navigation button group (left, right, up, down and center), for a total of 9 buttons in this section. The red hang-up button is also the hardware power-on button; having the same button effect power-off when held down for some time is a firmware function. This 21-button main keypad arrangement is exactly the same as featured on Motorola C1xx and Pirelli DP-L10 phones, on TI's D-Sample development platform, and also on many other phones (non-Calypso) from the appropriate era, such as Samsung E2232. 1.5.1. Keypad backlight All traditional phones including Mot C1xx and Pirelli DP-L10 feature keypad backlights, hence we need to include one as well. The exact structure of this backlight won't be known until we enter the mechanical design phase for the actual handset (as opposed to intermediate development boards), which will be much later in the project, but the Mother's understanding is that keypad backlights are made up of some number of LEDs (2 on Pirelli DP-L10, unknown number on Mot C139) and some kind of light diffuser. Given the discovery of MAX1916 constant-current-sink LED driver chip (see section 1.4.4), the optimal electrical design of the keypad backlight becomes clear: use 3 LEDs, and drive them using another MAX1916 chip, separate from the one used for the LCD backlight. Backlight intensity: neither Mot C139 nor Pirelli DP-L10 provides any way to vary keypad backlight intensity, and no such variability is deemed necessary. In the long-call state when the LCD backlight is dimmed, the keypad backlight is fully off. We shall use a fixed LED current setting for our keypad backlight, set with a single fixed resistor between the keypad MAX1916 chip's SET pin and the V-IO rail, and the actual current value will be determined in a much later phase of the project, when we have the actual keypad backlight LEDs and a better idea of the mechanical design. Backlight color: Mot C139 uses blue LEDs, Pirelli DP-L10 uses white LEDs. Because blue and white LEDs have very similar electrical characteristics (current needed for appropriate brightness, Vf at this current), the choice between the two can be made in a much later project phase, based on input from other team members who are better at aesthetics. 1.5.1.1. Comparison with Mot C139 and Pirelli DP-L10 Both of these two pre-existing reference phones feature keypad backlights that are switched on/off via Iota LEDB; the actual circuit design is unknown. However, in our design we forego Iota LEDB altogether (it won't be used for anything), and use two MAX1916 chips for our LCD and keypad backlights, with each chip's on/off control being a Calypso GPIO. The actual workings of the LEDB driver or switch inside the Iota chip are a mystery. On the one hand it appears to be nothing more than a "dumb" transistor on/off switch, no different from an external "digital transistor" (BJT with bias resistors) controlled by a Calypso GPIO: a resistor still seems to be required for current control, and at least on the Pirelli DP-L10 the keypad backlight intensity visibly varies with Vbat ranging over the Li-ion discharge range. But on the other hand, LEDB requires the 13 MHz clock to be running, and the light goes out when this clock is stopped. Why in the world would any kind of clock be required if the circuit is only a transistor on/off switch controlled by a static register bit? Other parts of TI's Iota datasheet describe its LEDA, LEDB and LEDC as "current drivers" - but in the absence of any way to actually set the desired current without depending on Vbat or Vf variations, whatever the Iota chip actually provides can't be anything like MAX1916. Poorly documented, non-understood mystery hardware is best avoided, hence we are not going to use Iota LEDB, and shall only use MAX1916 instead. We also gain a functional improvement over Pirelli DP-L10 by using MAX1916: our keypad backlight intensity will remain the same over the battery discharge range. 1.6. Side buttons In addition to the 21-button main keypad, our FC Libre Dumbphone handset will include 3 side buttons: two on the left side, intended for volume up/down control, and one on the right side, serving auxiliary functions. This side button arrangement is identical to TI's D-Sample and similar to Pirelli DP-L10: the only difference between our arrangement (matching D-Sample) and Pirelli's is that Pirelli moved the 3rd side button to the left and designated it as the camera button. However, we (FreeCalypso) have no interest in ever implementing any kind of camera on our phones, hence we are moving the 3rd side button back to where it was in TI's original design (on the right), and we will use it for purposes of our own invention. The starting point UI code we got from TI does not do anything with the right side button (even though this button exists and works on the D-Sample platform on which this code was originally developed), hence we have full freedom to invent our own uses for it. The following uses are envisioned: * Long press of this button may be our way of turning the hands-free loudspeaker on and off, a function that does not exist in the starting point UI code from TI. * When the phone is in its normal idle standby operation (not in a call and not being poked at by the user, but registered to a GSM network and ready to accept incoming calls or SMS), the display will be off. Users often desire to check the time and other status (check coverage, see if they missed any calls or SMS), which will require pressing any button to turn on the display. At that point a 30 s timer kicks in, which will turn the display back off after 30 s of inactivity. However, an argument can be made that keeping the display on for 30 s if the user only wanted to quickly glance at the time is a waste of battery. Here is one proposed solution: we can implement a function where a short press of the right side button when the phone is on its idle screen will cause the display to turn off immediately and activate the keyguard. The user can then press the right side button once to turn on the display and look at it, and then press the same button again to turn it back off. * When we are in a long call, the LCD backlight does not turn off completely, instead it will go dim - but still readable. Any button presses in this state are NOT swallowed - they take their regular actions. However, the keypad backlight turns off fully in this state, and under certain conditions (like out at night) the user may not be able to see the keypad. If a short press of the right side button invokes no other action besides switching on full display brightness and the keypad backlight, this right side button can be found by touch, and thus solve this particular problem case. 1.7. Audio routing 3 different audio routing modes will be supported on our FC Libre Dumbphone handset: * Default mode: there will be a 32 ohm earpiece speaker physically mounted in the usual place, on the front bezel above the display, to match up with the user's ear in handheld operation. There will also be a microphone toward the front bottom of the phone, again in the usual place. * Hands-free mode: there will be an 8 ohm loudspeaker physically separate from the 32 ohm earpiece speaker, physical location in the handset TBD. In the hands-free mode, the downlink audio will be switched from the earpiece speaker to the loudspeaker, while the microphone input for the uplink will remain the same. * There will be a wired analog headset jack with plug insertion detection; when a headset is inserted, both audio input and output will be redirected to this headset interface. 1.7.1. Earpiece and loudspeaker separation Most current mainstream phones (in fact, all that I am familiar with) have physically separate speaker transducers for the earpiece function (hold up to ear to talk) and the loudspeaker+ringer function. The not-so-current and not- so-mainstream Pirelli DP-L10 also features the same arrangement. The earpiece speaker is a 32 ohm load, and the loudspeaker is an 8 ohm load. In a Calypso+Iota design, an external amplifier chip is needed to drive the 8 ohm loudspeaker, whereas the little 32 ohm earpiece speaker can be driven directly by Iota EAR output. However, a very different design was implemented by TI on their D-Sample and Leonardo boards. They have only one speaker, one of 8 ohm kind, that is physically mounted in the position where the earpiece speaker would normally go. In order to not overwhelm the user's ear in handheld operation, they have peculiar circuit wiring where the analog signal from Iota to the loudspeaker amplifier goes through different resistor values depending on whether EAR or AUX output from Iota is used, and when the EAR output is selected, the high resistor values produce attenuation, such that the sound pressure level produced by the pressed-to-ear loudspeaker becomes comparable to that produced by a more traditional 32 ohm earpiece speaker. Furthermore, TI's single speaker design was not limited to their development boards. Some years ago I found schematics for some very old LG phone (called A316 or B1200, not sure of the correct designation), this phone is from early TI era (pre-Calypso, using Ulysse/Nausica/Clara chipset), and it has the same arrangement as D-Sample and Leonardo. For our own FC Libre Dumbphone, I am going with the separate speakers architecture, using physically separate earpiece and loudspeaker transducers. This architecture feels more native to me, and it will allow for independent tuning of the two audio paths. In my defense, all current mainstream phones seem to use the same architecture, and so does the Pirelli phone that serves as my personal reference - the other approach with a single loudspeaker in the earpiece physical position seems very uncommon. 1.7.2. Loudspeaker implementation The external amplifier chip for driving the 8 ohm loudspeaker will be TI TPA6203A1, copied from Leonardo schematics and proven good on FCDEV3B. It is a "dumb" loudspeaker amplifier, as opposed to a much more complex chip that combines the loudspeaker amplifier function with a MIDI ringtone player - see section 1.8. On FCDEV3B this amplifier is fed with signal from Iota EAR output, but on the final handset and on the Venus development board this amplifier will be fed with signal from Iota AUX output instead. The loudspeaker amplifier has an on/off control by way of a Calypso GPIO; in order to save battery, this amplifier needs to be off normally, and only turn on when a loudspeaker call is in progress or when a ringtone melody is played. 1.7.3. Wired analog headset jack The analog headset jack on our FC Libre Dumbphone handset will be of 2.5 mm TRRS type, using pinout copied from iWOW DSK. The headset needs to be wired as follows: * 32 ohm earpiece speaker connected between Tip and Ring2; * electret condenser microphone, positive connected to Ring1; * Sleeve is ground, should be needed only for the microphone. The advantage of this TRRS headset specification, as opposed to the simpler kind with a TRS plug and a common ground for the earpiece and the mic, is that our TRRS headset can be driven with either single-ended or differential earpiece driver outputs. On the final handset, the wired headset interface will be connected to the Iota headset channel (HSMICBIAS, HSMICP, HSO) and thus the headset earpiece driver will be single-ended (HSO and GND), but the same headset can also be plugged into other FreeCalypso devices in which the jack is wired to the main Iota audio channel, with Iota EARP & EARN driving Tip and Ring2 on the TRRS headset jack. We already have an official FreeCalypso headset with a TRRS plug and BTL-wired earpiece speaker as described above: it is called FC-HDS4, it was custom-made for us by a professional headset manufacturer company, and we have made 100 pcs at the time of our initial order in the fall of 2021 - this quantity is expected to be a lifetime supply for us. 1.8. Ringtone generation In terms of the physical sound-emitting element, there are two principal ways in which cellphone ringing sounds can be produced: 1) The oldest and most classic way is to use a magnetic buzzer controlled by Calypso BU/PWT digital output. The buzzer is driven with raw battery voltage being switched with a "digital transistor" (BJT with bias resistors), and the control input going to the base of the BJT is Calypso BU/PWT output. This method is standard in older phones that don't have hands-free loudspeakers: since there is no loudspeaker for that other purpose, some loud noise-making element needs to be implemented just for ringing, and old-style buzzers are the traditional choice. Motorola C1xx lower subfamilies (C11x/12x and C139/140) use such buzzers for ringing. 2) In phones that feature a loudspeaker for hands-free operation, the same loudspeaker is also used for ringtone sounding, and the buzzer is eliminated. Apparently hands-free loudspeakers weren't popular in the Calypso era, thus Pirelli DP-L10 is the only known Calypso phone that features one. There is also a more bizarre possibility: some phones have replaced the ringing buzzer with a loudspeaker, but that speaker is used *only* for playing ringtone melodies - no hands-free call feature is offered. This situation exists on Motorola C155/156 phones. Furthermore, if the physical sound-emitting element is a loudspeaker and not an old-fashioned buzzer, and if the chipset is Calypso, as opposed to various newer chipsets, then a further distinction arises: 2a) Most historical commercial phones that are based on Calypso and use a loudspeaker for ringtone sounding, also contain a special ringtone generator chip that drives this speaker when a ringtone is played - in other words, their loudspeaker ringtones do NOT go through the same voice audio path that is used for hands-free calls, if the latter feature is offered at all. The special ringtone generator chip is typically a combined MIDI player and loudspeaker driver. 2b) The much less popular approach is to not implement any extra hardware at all that is specifically for ringtone generation, use only the same loudspeaker audio path hardware that is already needed for hands-free calls (a simple loudspeaker amplifier), generate ringtone melodies in the Calypso DSP (Melody E1 or E2), and play them through the regular voice audio path, routed to the loudspeaker. Approach 2b is the least popular one among historical commercial Calypso phones, but it is the one which I (Mother Mychaela) have selected for our FC Libre Dumbphone handset. But let us nonetheless examine the pros and cons of different approaches, and see why I have settled on option 2b. Buzzer melodies (option 1) are monophonic (the signal carrying the melody to the buzzer is a digital square wave, and there is no way to create multiple overlapping notes in such a signal), but a decent range of tone frequencies is available: the magnetic buzzer hardware can easily produce frequencies all the way up to the limit of human hearing, while Calypso PWT produces musical notes from F4 through E8 in the scientific pitch notation, or 349 to 5274 Hz. In contrast, any tones produced through the 8000 samples/s voice audio path have to be below the Nyquist frequency of 4 kHz - according to TI's document, Melody E1 notes go from E4 (330 Hz) up to G#7 or 3322 Hz. In terms of the richness of possible ringtone melodies that can be played, option 2a (external MIDI player chip that drives the loudspeaker directly, without going through Calypso+Iota voice audio path) is the absolute best. These specialized ringtone generator chips implement full MIDI (128 instruments, 47 drums, up to 64 simultaneous notes, according to one datasheet), and the available ringtone melodies for these MIDI chips are very rich - just take a Pirelli DP-L10 phone and listen through various ringtone melodies it offers. All of Pirelli's melodies are stored as *.mid files in their FFS, thus we could very easily copy them if we were to adopt a MIDI player chip similar to theirs. However, the problem for us with adopting option 2a is that this option would introduce significant extra complexity and adversely affect our already long- overdue project schedule. There is only one MIDI ringtone player chip for which we have enough documentation to attempt such a feat: this chip is Winbond W56964, a slightly more capable sibling of the W56940 used in the Pirelli phone. However, just because we have what at first glance appears to be reasonably complete documentation does not mean that it would be a slam dunk! We would have to build a separate test board for this chip, connect it to a Caramel2 motherboard (it needs to connect to Calypso MEMIF), and then spend significant time climbing the learning curve and getting this chip to actually work: getting it to play melodies, and just as important, getting it into and out of sleep modes. In other words, a lot of extra work and time spent just for this part, not advancing any other project needs - whereas option 2b eliminates all of this extra work. Finally, a philosophical argument can be made that FreeCalypso should be all about simplicity, producing a phone that does its job: implement just what is needed for a functional phone, and omit unnecessary baggage. An extra hardware circuit (a chip connected to Calypso memory bus, no less) and associated software complexity that serves absolutely no other purpose except to produce ringtones that are "richer" than what the Calypso can produce on its own, and does not assist in any way with hands-free loudspeaker operation for calls (it is more of a hindrance in that mode), can be seen as an unwelcome burden similar to other unwelcome burdens which we are already eliminating, like the camera. In contrast, with our chosen option 2b, we have exactly zero extra hardware that is just for ringing: our loudspeaker and its associated driver circuit (simple amplifier) is primarily for hands-free calls, and the ability to use the same audio path to play ringtone melodies comes literally "for free" with the Melody E1 feature built into our Calypso DSP. We already have a selection of nice-sounding ringtone melodies in E1 format, lifted from the legendary TSM30 source, and software complexity is minimal: the melody playing engine has already been implemented by TI, we only need to call RiViera Audio Service API functions. 1.9. Vibrator All traditional cellphones include a vibrator, and ours needs to include one too. Our firmware will need to offer the options of being silent, vibrating only, ringing only, or ringing and vibrating on an incoming call or SMS - all of these options are genuinely useful to a heavy-duty phone user in different situations. In terms of functionality, the vibrator is envisioned as a simple on/off control in the hardware, with higher-level "pulse train" functionality implemented in the firmware. As far as end user experience goes, the Mother's plan is to copy the way the vibrator works on the Pirelli DP-L10. On this to-be-replaced or to-be-recreated reference phone, the vibrator works as follows: when an incoming call arrives in vibrating alert mode, the firmware turns the vibrator on for 500 ms, then turns it off for 500 ms, and the cycle endlessly repeats until the call is either answered or dropped. This 500 ms on/off cycling is purely a firmware function, the hardware control is an on/off switch. Looking at the hardware implementation of the vibrator driving circuit in the Motorola C1xx family and in the Pirelli DP-L10, both designs support a form of "analog" control of the vibrator beyond simple on/off. In the Mot C1xx family the vibrator is controlled by the output of Iota auxiliary DAC, whereas in the Pirelli DP-L10 Calypso BU output has been repurposed to control the vibrator, allowing either full-on or PWM driving. However, Pirelli's firmware appears to never operate the vibrator in any way other than fully on, and there is no evidence of Mot C1xx firmwares applying any analog control to their vibrator either. The Mother's tentative plan for our FC Libre Dumbphone handset is to copy Pirelli's approach in both hardware and firmware: repurpose Calypso BU output for vibrator control (we won't have a buzzer, see section 1.8), allowing the possibility of PWM, but have our firmware only use fully-on and fully-off states, at least initially. However, because we won't have a vibrator on our Venus development board, only in the final handset, this decision does not have to be made right now. Because our firmware will be designed for a simple on/off vibrator control, during fw development on the Venus board it will be trivial to use a LED to simulate the vibrator on/off state. 1.10. Battery The battery in our FC Libre Dumbphone handset will be single-cell Li-ion. It goes without saying that this battery will be freely removable and replaceable by end users. The specific size, form factor and mAh capacity of this battery won't be addressed until later in the project, when we get closer to building the actual handset. (2021-09 update: we are now looking at using Panasonic NCR18650B as our canonical battery on the Venus board, but we are not yet committing to anything for the actual handset.) Our Calypso+Iota chipset dates from the era when the cellular handset industry was transitioning from NiMH to Li-ion batteries, and the Battery Charger Interface (BCI) block in the Iota chip supports both battery types, or at least TI's documentation claims so. Given that we are going against the mainstream society's ideas in so many other ways, I have given thought to the possibility of using a NiMH battery instead of Li-ion. However, the problem with using a NiMH battery is that we would be going into completely uncharted territory without any guidance. Here are some of the difficulties that would arise with a NiMH battery: 1) In the case of Li-ion batteries the charging process is well-understood in both theory and practice, and our FCHG logic based on reverse engineering of Pirelli's firmware works well both on the same Pirelli and on Motorola C1xx family. In contrast, if we went with NiMH, we would have absolutely no guidance in implementing the necessary charging control logic (TI's LCC code is useless), causing a huge risk to the project. 2) When TI designed their canonical battery charging circuit to be controlled via Iota BCI, they assumed a charging power source that puts out somewhere between 6 and 7 V, not 5.0 V - those were the days before USB charging. For Li-ion batteries charging at around 500 mA, a USB +5V charging power source is good enough, as proven by Pirelli DP-L10. However, this lower charging voltage may not be enough for NiMH - consider the note in the Iota chip datasheet (TWL3025_SWRS021.pdf) that reads "Ni-MH/Ni-Cd 3-cell battery voltage can reach 5.5 V at the end of a charge cycle." 3) Determining the state of charge from Vbat for the purpose of the bars icon is already somewhat challenging even with Li-ion, given the relatively flat middle part of the discharge curve - and with NiMH we can only expect the problem to be even worse, as their discharge curve is said to be even flatter. For these reasons, we are going to play it safe and stick with Li-ion. 1.10.1. Battery ID resistors or thermistors In all classic dumbphones from the era which we seek to revive (the ones with user-removable batteries), the battery pack (flat pouch) has 3 or 4 contacts rather than just 2: in addition to battery +ve and -ve terminals, there are some ID resistors or thermistors included. Both Motorola C1xx and Pirelli DP-L10 batteries have 3 contacts, and so does Nokia BL-6C battery form factor that was copied by FIC/Openmoko. In contrast, cylindrical Li-ion battery cells like 18650 have no such third terminal. As of this writing (2021-09), we do not anticipate using any kind of battery ID resistors or thermistors, neither on our Venus board nor on our final handset. FC Venus will have a provision for bringing out Iota ADIN2 like on Leonardo (see section 3.3.1.1), but we do not anticipate actually using it. The battery on FC Venus will most likely be an 18650; on the final handset we will most likely either keep the same or use a custom-made flat pouch battery pack, and if we go with the latter, it will still most likely only have two terminals. Our current FCHG battery charging driver does not touch ADIN1 or ADIN2 at all. Looking at TI's old PWR reference code and the disassembly of Pirelli's firmware, it appears that when mainstream proprietary firmwares do check those ID resistors or thermistors on ADIN1 or ADIN2, they only act as artificial blockers: the firmware refuses to charge the battery if it sees something it doesn't like, as opposed to using data from these sensors to tune or adjust the charging process in some positive constructive manner. In FreeCalypso we stand against all such artificial blocking, instead we uphold the principles of user empowerment and personal responsibility - thus we do not currently anticipate ever implementing any kind of ADIN1 or ADIN2 logic. 1.11. Charging circuit Our FC Libre Dumbphone will feature a USB port (mini-B, device role only, no OTG) that combines two logically separate functions: battery charging and computer interface. The basic idea of this dual-function USB port comes from Pirelli DP-L10, but we are applying significant refinements of our own to this general idea, as the following description will make clear. This section describes the charging function; the computer interface function is described in section 1.12. One highly non-standard innovation that will appear on our FC handset will be a user-visible mechanical slide switch that will turn the charging circuit on or off. The purpose of this charging on/off switch is to make it possible to connect USB and have the two ttyUSB devices appear (see section 1.12) without presenting a 'charger plug' boot condition to the Calypso+Iota core chipset. From an end user perspective, if you only use the USB port for charging and don't care about the computer interface function, then leave the charging switch always on - USB plug/unplug will mean charger plug/unplug like on any conventional phone. Similarly, if you do use the computer interface function to connect your phone to a host computer in regular operation, with the firmware up and running normally, but you don't mind having the phone also charge from your computer every time you connect USB, then likewise leave the charging switch always on. However, if you are going to reflash phone firmware or do other advanced manipulations using the computer interface, then you will need to turn the charging switch off. With the switch off, the USB port becomes a computer interface only, without charging. Past the switch, the battery charging circuit using USB +5V as the charging power source will be the most classic one depicted in Figure 4-10 in the Iota chip datasheet (TWL3025_SWRS021.pdf), same as in Pirelli DP-L10 and Motorola C1xx phones. Presentation of USB +5V to Iota VCHG terminal past the charging on/off switch is what will cause the chipset to boot in the 'charger plug' mode, or to activate charging functions in the firmware if the phone is already on. 1.11.1. Charging indicator LED We are going to implement a TI-classic charging indicator LED controlled by Iota LEDC; the circuit is nothing more than a LED in series with a resistor, connected between the VCHG rail and Iota LEDC terminal. The LED will probably be red (TBD), such indicator LEDs have low Vf, and because the positive source is USB +5V rather than VBAT, there should be no issues with LED brightness variation. 1.12. Computer interface Our Calypso chip has no native USB, instead the host computer interface of all Calypso-based systems consists of two UARTs. On our development boards starting with FCDEV3B, we got used to interfacing to both of these UARTs by way of FT2232x adapters, a USB to serial adapter that goes from one USB device to two UARTs, presenting two ttyUSB devices to a Linux host. For low-level operations like flash programming, having just one Calypso UART is sufficient (either of the two), but once our regular firmware is up and running, then having both Calypso UARTs gives maximum user empowerment: Modem UART carries a classic AT command interface complete with CSD, GPRS and GSM 07.10 MUX capabilities, while the other UART (IrDA) carries TI's RVTMUX debug and development interface. Before arriving at our current radical approach with the charging on/off switch, for many years previously I was considering a more conservative approach. My original idea was to bring out the two Calypso UARTs in very different ways: my thought was to bring only the Modem UART to the built-in USB port (by way of a built-in single-channel USB-serial chip), and have plugged-in USB always present VCHG to the chipset, but route the debug UART (the one most useful in low-level development and bring-up) to a special FPC connector that would interface to a special debug board, just like Openmoko did on their Neo. Serious development work would then require having that debug board attached, while more casual users would be able to talk AT commands to the phone via the built-in USB port, charging the battery at the same time. What made me change my mind about this design was the realization that I, as the most principal user and developer, would end up wanting to have the debug board attached all the time, and the need to have it hanging externally, or perhaps glued or taped to the back of the phone, would be a huge blemish and inconvenience. Back in the days of Openmoko, someone must have had a similar experience, as I remember reading about a hack where someone built a debug board functional equivalent that fits inside the Neo, in some otherwise unused space. Hence the new design for our planned FC Libre Dumbphone handset: the USB port will have a built-in FT2232D (or perhaps FT2232H) subsystem (USB to two UARTs) connected to it, interfacing to both Calypso UARTs, while the charging on/off switch will make it possible to use this interface for low-level development and bring-up without presenting VCHG to the chipset. In this architecture this FT2232x subsystem should be considered the primary "owner" of the handset's USB port, while the charging function is secondary and optional, enabled or disabled with a switch. To put it another way, if our USB port is connected to a regular USB host (as opposed to a Dedicated Charging Port power-only source), that USB host will always enumerate the FT2232x and see two ttyUSB devices, whereas charging may or may not take place depending on the switch setting. 1.12.1. Set of UART signals The set of signals to be connected between Calypso and FT2232x for the Modem UART is almost complete: USB UART DTE signal Calypso signal ------------------------------ TxD RX_MODEM RxD TX_MODEM RTS CTS_MODEM CTS RTS_MODEM DTR GPIO3 DCD GPIO2 RI GPIO8 Only DSR is omitted for the Modem UART channel, all others are included. The second debug UART channel is only two wires: USB UART DTE signal Calypso signal ------------------------------ TxD2 RX_IRDA RxD2 TX_IRDA However, as shown in the next section, these signals cannot be simply connected between Calypso and FT2232x, instead a more complicated scheme needs to be implemented. 1.12.2. USB and mobile power domains Our FC Libre Dumbphone handset will have two principal power domains in it: the main battery-powered mobile domain, and the USB domain. This power domain situation presents some very significant challenges, a problem generally referred to as "partial power-down". There are two PPD scenarios to be concerned about: 1) In normal operation the phone is mobile and not connected to USB. In this state the mobile power domain is on, whereas USB-powered circuits in the FT2232x subsystem have no power. The two challenges in this state are: 1a) We need to ensure that no currents flow from the powered-on mobile domain into powered-down USB domain circuits, as any such currents would be an unacceptable drain on the battery. 1b) Calypso UART inputs that come from the USB domain when the latter is active need to have defined logic levels on them when the USB domain has no power: no floating, no mid-way levels that would cause higher currents in CMOS input structures, and furthermore, some Calypso inputs need to be high in this state, while others need to be low. 2) A reverse PPD scenario occurs when the USB domain has power, but the Calypso+Iota chipset is in its switched-off state per Iota VRPC. This scenario can occur when the charging switch is set to off, or when the battery is critically low and undergoing precharge. The main concern in this state is to avoid feeding power from the USB domain into the Calypso chipset's V-IO rail - our experience on Caramel2 boards conclusively demonstrates that Calypso does not like this condition and can behave oddly, erratically feeding current into its outputs that are supposed to be low or Hi-Z, and thereby erratically turning on various peripherals. If we were to naively connect our UART signals between Calypso and FT2232x, the result would be bad: all of the above concerns would be violated. Instead we need to insert carefully designed isolating buffer circuits in both directions. 1.12.2.1. Calypso to FT2232x signal direction If these signals were connected directly, significant current (in the mA range) would flow from Calypso outputs into powered-down FT2232x inputs, which is not acceptable. Our solution is to insert an LVC buffer (probably 74LVC541A, for the 5 signals that are needed) between Calypso outputs and FT2232x inputs, with the buffer powered from USB domain 3.3V supply. With mobile on and USB power absent, the LVC buffer's Ioff spec will apply, which is listed in Nexperia's 74LVC541A datasheet as 0.1 uA typical, 10 uA maximum. An unfortunate consequence of this design is that in the opposite PPD scenario (USB connected to a host, charging switch off, mobile chipset in its off state) the inputs to the LVC buffer will float, with FT2232x inputs receiving garbage as a result. Adding pull-up resistors to a USB-domain supply would cause other problems, hence the Mother's position is that we'll just live with a few floating inputs in this particular condition - and it is a condition that should not persist for extended lengths of time. There is also a software consideration stemming from this floating input situation: when you are doing low-level programming and development operations in this state, don't open the Modem UART ttyUSB device, and only operate via the other debug UART. The latter is a 2-wire UART without any flow control or modem control signals, hence there will be less bogosity for the Linux host to see in this state. 1.12.2.2. FT2232x to Calypso signal direction This direction is even more difficult, and we will need to insert two chained LVC buffers: the signals will first pass through an LVC buffer powered from the USB domain, and then through another LVC buffer powered from the Calypso+Iota chipset's V-IO rail. There will be pull resistors inserted between the two buffers: either pull-up to VBAT (raw battery positive rail) or pull-down to GND, depending on the needed signal sense. The LVC buffer powered from Calypso V-IO is needed in order to prevent current feeding into Calypso when the mobile is switched off - the buffer's Ioff spec will apply. Pull-up and pull-down resistors in front of this buffer are needed so that Calypso inputs will receive the desired states when no USB host is connected. Pull-ups are being made to VBAT instead of V-IO to eliminate the possibility of current feeding into V-IO through these resistors. (Feeding from 3.3V logic signals into the battery can't happen when the battery is above 3.3 V, and if the battery is below 3.3 V, then we are only adding a little to the precharge current.) The other LVC buffer (the one powered from USB-domain 3.3V) is needed because in the absence of this buffer, current will flow through pull-up resistors and into powered-down FT2232x output pins, the resulting pull-down resistance will be lower than the pull-up, and the next buffer won't receive the desired logic level, not to mention unwanted current flowing. With the other LVC buffer added, that buffer's Ioff spec will apply. The value of pull-up resistors to VBAT will be 22 kOhm. With maximum 15 uA current flowing through each resistor (worst-case Ioff of one buffer plus worst-case Ii of the other buffer), the maximum voltage drop on the 22 kOhm resistor will be 330 mV. In order for the LVC buffer's input structure to not draw extra current, the input voltage needs to be 2.8 V or higher - thus with 22 kOhm resistors we'll keep satisfying this condition until the battery falls to about 3.1 V, which is below the operational range for switched-on mobile. One downside of having pull-ups to VBAT (which can be as high as 4.2 V) on signals that are output from a 3.3V-powered buffer is that when the buffer output is high, there may be current flowing into that high output (not sourcing out of it as normally expected), which is a bad condition for CMOS outputs. However, this current will be limited to a maximum of about 41 uA ((4.2-3.3 V) / 22 kOhm), and my feeling is that such small current won't hurt Nexperia LVC buffers. 1.12.2.2.1. Signal pull-up/down directions Of the 4 UART signals going from FT2232x to Calypso (see section 1.12.1), TxD and TxD2 MUST be sensed high by Calypso when no USB host is connected, hence they will need the two chained LVC buffers with pull-ups to VBAT in between, as described above. RTS and DTR are less critical in that either high or low level would be acceptable, as long as it is stable and not floating. However, it is slightly preferable to have DTR pulled up like TxD (to be sensed as logically negated), and to have RTS (flow control signal going to CTS_MODEM) pulled down, to be sensed as logically asserted. The approach chosen by the Mother is to have TxD, TxD2 and DTR pulled up to VBAT as described above, and to have RTS pulled down to GND. The value of the pull- down resistor to GND will be 47 kOhm, and the USB-side-powered LVC buffer can be skipped for this signal - that buffer is only needed in order to work correctly with the pull-up to VBAT. With only 3 FT2232x-to-Calypso signals needing to go through a USB-side-powered LVC buffer, and with 3 slots remaining available in the 74LVC541A buffer from section 1.12.2.1, that one 74LVC541A IC can serve both signal directions (5 signals from Calypso to FT2232x and 3 signals going the other way), reducing the component count. 1.12.3. Boot control by USB host Our DUART28C adapter (DUART28 hardware, EEPROM in the 'C' configuration) has a nifty feature in the form of CTL1 and CTL2 open drain outputs, intended for triggering Iota VRPC boot control signals on Calypso devices, i.e., boot control signals from the {PWON, RPWON, nTESTRESET} set. So far none of our FreeCalypso development boards bring out RPWON, but both FCDEV3B and Caramel2 feature PWON and nTESTRESET controls, and we have an established convention for driving them with CTL1 and CTL2 from a DUART28C. The end effect for the developer-operator is that one can run operations based on Calypso boot ROM loading path (fc-iram, fc-loadtool etc) purely from the host command line, without needing to press any buttons on the development board: adding -Prts to the command line is equivalent to pressing PWON, or adding -Pdtr is equivalent to pressing RESET. rvinterf can also be run with the same options, allowing flashed firmware to be booted in a similar no-buttons-needed manner. It is the Mother's intent to replicate this boot control feature on our FC Libre Dumbphone handset as well, i.e., make FT2232x Channel B RTS and DTR outputs (otherwise unused) act as host-driven boot control triggers. In hardware terms, this addition consists of just one tiny IC (74LVC2G07) and two pull-up resistors on the BDBUS[24] lines from FT2232x to this OD buffer. FT2232x EEPROM will be programmed with the same custom USB ID as DUART28C, and the Linux kernel ftdi_sio driver will need to have our DUART28C support patch added to it. There will be one change from our previous convention, however: the OD buffer output controlled with Channel B RTS will be wired to RPWON rather than PWON; the other OD buffer output controlled with Channel B DTR will still be wired to nTESTRESET like before. The reason for this change is that our handset firmware has more complex logic that treats different boot causes differently (as required for standard expected handset functionality), and Iota PWON is now reserved solely for the end user power-on button. Host-commanded boot needs to be different from this end user power-on button (no long press is required, and the firmware should enter its misc boot state that behaves like an ACI build), hence we are changing the wiring so that -Prts will trigger RPWON rather than PWON. The same boot effect can still be achieved with -Pdtr triggering nTESTRESET, but it is a bigger hammer (reset of RTC can be unwanted), hence -Prts will be recommended as the gentler option, leaving -Pdtr for times when recovery from runaway code is needed. 2. FC handset firmware functional scope specification FreeCalypso handset firmware will always run (perhaps with subset functionality) on more hardware targets than just our main-goal FC Libre Dumbphone handset. It already does: our firmware currently runs on our Luna development platform, and prior to FC it ran on TI's original D-Sample platform. A very restricted functional subset also runs on Motorola C139 hardware. If we consider only the main goal of FC Libre Dumbphone handset, then our firmware evolution can be seen as strictly linear: we start with what we got from TI, and we morph it toward what will be needed to operate our handset, adding functionality and peripheral support which we need for our FC handset, but which is not present in the starting point code from TI. However, we also have side-branch functionality: at times when the code from TI supports something which we don't need for our own FC handset, but which may be useful for alien hardware targets, a moral imperative can be made for keeping and at least minimally maintaining that functionality as a kind of side-branch feature, a permitted configuration that is not needed for our own FC handset but needed for others. Similarly, when we add support for entirely new peripherals that are planned for our FC handset (such as the loudspeaker), we should make the firmware change in such a way that targets without the extra feature can still be supported. Finally, when we are changing the firmware in ways that significantly depart from TI's original, it may sometimes be prudent to preserve TI's original way as a lorekeeping option. The following sections will spell out what we support and what we don't support in FreeCalypso handset firmware, and how these scoping decisions relate to our starting point from TI, to our main goal of FC Libre Dumbphone handset, and to secondary objectives of alien target support and lorekeeping. 2.1. Display support 2.1.1. Support for different display sizes By the very nature of the problem, any phone handset UI design will always be quite specific to a particular display size in pixels, and also to the display type as in color or black&white. The starting point code we got from TI supports 3 different UI configurations in terms of size and coloration: * 176x220 pixel, 16-bit color; * 176x220 pixel B&W; * 84x48 pixel B&W. In FreeCalypso we have made two changes to this set of possible UI configurations: 1) The large (176x220 pixel) B&W option has been removed. In TI's delivery this option was nothing more than a quick&dirty hack to extend their small (84x48 pixel) B&W UI to the large D-Sample screen, and this configuration offers nothing useful - any real display of such large size will always be color. 2) The small B&W configuration has been extended from 84x48 to 96x64 pixels. Why 96x64? Because it is the size in pixels of Motorola C139 LCD, and it is the smallest LCD size found among those alien Calypso phones whose existence is known to us and for which we have at least minimal support. Extending this UI configuration from 84x48 to 96x64 pixels was an easy change because it is an increase in screen real estate (not a decrease), and it is a fairly small increment, such that UI design choices which were sensible for an 84x48 pixel display are still sensible for 96x64. The main principal difference between our approach in FreeCalypso and what a conventional commercial phone manufacturer would have done is that we are retaining TI's smallbw configuration and keeping it supported, as opposed to disregarding it and working only on the bigcolor UI config for our own planned hardware product. We keep this smallbw UI configuration around, in the extended 96x64 pixel size, for two reasons: 1) Lorekeeping: unlike TI's 176x220 pixel B&W config that was totally uninteresting, TI's old smallbw UI (from the days of C-Sample) is sufficiently interesting and unique (and naturally quite different from the bigcolor version) to be worth preserving. 2) By keeping this configuration around (not discarding it and not allowing it to bitrot beyond repair), we keep the door open for the possibility of a minimally usable FreeCalypso Lite aftermarket firmware for Motorola C139. Both UI configurations can be built for our current Luna platform, and both of them display on our Luna LCD. The virtual framebuffer of 96x64 pix B&W in the smallbw config is displayed in the center of our physical 176x220 pixel color LCD, surrounded by a pale magenta border. The same ability to run both configs will continue on our next development board (Venus). 2.1.2. Backlight readability paradigm (See theoretical background in section 1.4.3.) Our actively maintained FC handset firmware has been paradigmatically redesigned to assume a display which is NOT readable without the backlight. Our logical primitives with respect to display control are display on/off, rather than backlight on/off, and we swallow the initial keypress that turns on the display. This change is a significant departure from TI's original. The LCD on TI's D-Sample is transflective, and when the backlight is off, the display remains readable in ambient light. It is certainly better in this regard than Motorola C139 LCD. And if we go back further in TI's history to C-Sample and earlier, those 84x48 pixel B&W LCDs were the traditional mostly-reflective type, perfectly readable without the backlight. This area is one where we are NOT retaining TI's original way as an option in our actively maintained firmware. The difference between the two principal paradigms is too great, and we don't have any active-demand prospective targets with B&W displays of the old traditional kind. 2.2. Keypad assumptions The keypad arrangement on our FC handset (see sections 1.5 and 1.6) will be exactly the same as on TI's D-Sample, thus no principal changes to the firmware are needed in this regard. Furthermore, the same 21-button keypad exists on Motorola C1xx phones, thus no firmware design variations are needed in this regard for secondary target support. The only issue of concern is that the 3 side buttons which exist on D-Sample and Pirelli DP-L10 and will also exist on our FC handset don't exist on Mot C1xx. Our starting point code from TI does not do anything with these buttons (even though it was developed on the D-Sample platform where they exist), but when we do get around to adding support for these side buttons, we will need to take some extra care in preserving flexibility: * The original code from TI uses navigation up/down buttons for volume control, for both ringer and earpiece volume. We are going to change the code to drive these volume controls with side buttons instead (dedicated volume up/down buttons), but when we make this change, we'll need to provide an option of restoring the old way for less button-equipped phones like Mot C1xx. * Whatever functions we assign to the right side button, all of them will be our own inventions, as none exist in TI's original code. However, this right side button does not exist on Mot C1xx. The Mother's idea is to assign the right side button to loudspeaker on/off control - this arrangement will work well as the same C1xx phones that lack this button also lack the hands-free loudspeaker. 2.2.1. No support for 18-button main keypads Prior to D-Sample, TI's C-Sample and earlier boards had keypads with fewer buttons, 18 instead of 21, and no side buttons. The difference between the C-Sample 18-button main keypad and the 21-button one found on D-Sample, Pirelli DP-L10 and Motorola C1xx is that the older 18-button keypad has only up and down navigation buttons in the place where the 21-button version has a 5-way navigation button group. In other words, navigation left, right and center keys don't exist on the 18-button version. TI's demo/prototype/PoC UI code was originally developed on C-Sample or perhaps even earlier, thus it was originally designed for the 18-button keypad arrangement. For this reason, the code currently makes very little use of navigation left, right and center keys. However, some limited use is already being made of these extra keys (primarily on text and number entry screens, aka the editor), and our use of all available keys in the UI will keep growing. As a matter of project scope, we are NOT supporting backward compatibility with 18-button keypads, given that the lowest-end Mot C1xx family already has 21-button keypads. 2.3. Audio routing TI's demo/prototype/PoC UI code from TCS211 does not use the audio mode facility of the RiViera Audio Service: ABB configuration remains the default set in L1 initialization, volume control is done by calling audio_SetAmplf() in the Condat abstraction layer, which in turn calls ABB_DlVolume(). This design will need to change in FreeCalypso: we will start using the RiViera Audio Service audio mode facility, and the use of this facility (including correct audio mode configuration files under /aud in FFS) will become mandatory on all targets. The following 3 audio modes are defined for call audio routing and idle operation (keyclicks etc), as opposed to Melody E1 ringing covered in section 2.4.2: Mode name Used for ------------------------ handheld Default handheld operation and idle state handfree Calls in hands-free loudspeaker mode headset When a wired analog headset is plugged in At the minimum, valid /aud/handheld.{cfg,vol} files will need to be created in FFS on every supported target; other modes can be omitted if they can't be entered. /aud/*.vol files maintained by RiViera Audio Service will serve as the non-volatile volume setting store for each mode. 2.3.1. Loudspeaker inclusion or omission The Mother's plan is to conditionalize loudspeaker support on the firmware build configuration. Once we implement initial support for audio modes using RiViera Audio Service, our basic bigcolor-{gprs,vo} and smallbw configurations will support only handheld and headset modes, but not handfree. We will then later add new bigcolor-spk-* configurations whose purpose will be to support loudspeaker-equipped phone handset targets; these configurations will enable support for the hands-free loudspeaker mode (and will expect the loudspeaker and handfree audio mode to be available), and will also switch the ringtone generation mechanism from the buzzer to Melody E1 - see section 2.4. 2.3.2. Headset inclusion or omission The code supporting wired headset mode will always be included in the firmware, however, there will be a hardware driver function call to inquire if a headset is inserted or not. If the wired headset jack does not exist on a given target, or more practically if it exists but we don't support it, this headset status function will always return "no headset" indication, and the headset mode will never be entered. 2.4. Ringtone generation See section 1.8 for an overview of possible ways in which ringtone generation may be accomplished. The only ring sound generation method supported by TI's TCS211 version of their demo/prototype/PoC phone UI (the version for Calypso, as opposed to other chipsets) is the original Calypso buzzer, i.e., Calypso digital waveform output intended for switching a magnetic buzzer. The code that rings this buzzer will execute successfully on every Calypso target, regardless of whether it actually has a magnetic buzzer or not: if there is no buzzer and Calypso BU/PWT output is left unconnected, like it is on our Luna platform, the code will still run and emit the intended tone waveform on BU, but this output will go nowhere and no audible sound will be made. As a matter of project scope, in our FreeCalypso handset firmware we shall support two configurations with regard to ringing: 1) TI's original buzzer configuration will be retained for lorekeeping and to keep the door open for the possibility of a minimally usable FreeCalypso Lite aftermarket firmware for Motorola C139. 2) For our own FC Libre Dumbphone handset, we will need to implement ringing by way of the same loudspeaker that will be used for hands-free calls, using the Melody E1 feature of Calypso DSP for ringtone melody generation. 2.4.1. Approach to buzzer melodies My (Mother Mychaela's) original intention was to limit buzzer ringing support to the extremely crude implementation contained in the Condat audio "driver" abstraction layer - this demo/prototype/PoC code uses BU mode rather than PWT, and it only has one extremely basic ringing sound: alternating 800 Hz and 900 Hz tones, no melodies. However, I have subsequently changed my mind on this point: upon further reflection, I realized that the audio "driver" in the Condat abstraction layer is a horrendous mess that needs to be cleaned up, and one very helpful step in cleaning it up will be to remove buzzer functionality from it. Toward this end, I came up with a new architecture: * What little remains of the Condat audio "driver" layer (it will be thinned significantly) will be only for simple audio tones (call waiting, busy, ringing code for the calling party when the GSM network provides no IBT), and it won't be involved in ringing, neither in the buzzer config nor in the Melody E1 loudspeaker config. * For platforms that feature a magnetic buzzer, there is a new BUZM (buzzer melody) service implemented in RiViera land (the part of fw architecture where such application services properly belong), and this BUZM service plays PWT buzzer melodies, rather than BU mode. The bit-level format for these PWT melodies is an original FreeCalypso invention, the necessary tool support for it has been added to the FC host tools package as of fc-host-tools-r17, and the necessary documentation is maintained in the same place. For the end user of a FreeCalypso phone that features an old-fashioned buzzer (e.g., FreeCalypso Lite aftermarket fw on Mot C139), the visible effect of this architecture change is that a decent selection of varied ringtone melodies can be implemented. A basic ring that sounds just like TI's original BU version is still available in PWT mode (it is now composed of alternating G5 and A5 musical notes, rather than alternating 800 Hz and 900 Hz tones, but it sounds just the same at least to my ear), but we are now also able to play ringtone melodies of the same rich kind as those offered by Motorola in their official firmwares for buzzer-equipped phones. 2.4.2. Melody E1 ringer Our Melody E1 ringer implementation will require melody files in FFS, and we will also have a separate audio mode (in the RiViera Audio Service sense) that will be loaded during ringing. Even though the same physical loudspeaker will be used for both hands-free calls and ringing, logically the two are separate modes, and they will be treated as separate for the Audio Service. Separate logical modes will provide separate volume files, which is the correct approach: loudspeaker volume and ringing volume should be separate, just like how ringing volume is entirely separate when a buzzer is used. 2.5. Vibrating alert Our FC handset firmware will support both ringing and vibrating alert modes (as well as a ring+vibrate mode) on all targets. The vibrator will be modeled as a simple on/off control (no "analog" control of different vibration intensity levels, at least initially), and the vibrating alert code path will ultimately boil down to a driver function call for vibrator on/off. Therefore, if the vibrator does not exist on a given target, or if it exists but we don't know how to operate it, the on/off control function can be empty on that target, and the firmware will "vibrate" virtually. On development boards such as FC Venus, the vibrator on/off function can turn a LED on and off to provide an indication of the UI layers making a vibrating alert. 3. Venus development board As of the summer of 2021, FreeCalypso handset development has reached a point where a new development board is desired, to take the place of our current Luna development platform. The newly planned FreeCalypso development board is codenamed Venus, and it is envisioned as serving two goals: 1) Our Venus board will be a close-to-final prototype for the actual FC handset, as close as can be achieved in the physical form factor of a development board meant to be used "bare" on a lab bench; 2) The board will serve as the ideal firmware development platform, covering all features and options that are listed in the previous chapter and defined as being in scope for FC handset firmware. The following sections spell out the design specification for this Venus development board. 3.1. Build principle The board will be built in the "hard" way, with the Calypso+Iota+RF chipset implemented directly on the Venus board itself, as opposed to using a Tango (iWOW TR-800) module. This approach is necessary because we need some Calypso and Iota signals that are not brought out on TR-800: 1) We need Iota HSMICBIAS, HSMICP and HSO signals (the 3rd audio channel) in addition to the primary and secondary audio channels, in order to prototype section 1.7 hardware for the real handset, and in order to provide a proper firmware development platform for section 2.3. 2) We need Calypso BU/PWT output so we can implement an old-fashioned buzzer, which we need in order to develop and maintain firmware per section 2.4, supporting both buzzer and Melody E1 ringing. Once we have accepted that we have to bite the bullet and build our Venus board in the "hard" way, we can also implement some other nice-to-have functions that would have been deemed non-essential otherwise: * We can bring out Calypso JTAG (which is not brought out on TR-800) like we did on FCDEV3B. In the Mother's experience there is very little actual need for Calypso JTAG, but it would be improper to omit this interface on a development board when bringing it out is possible. * With access to the internal ON_nOFF signal, we can implement a reliable chipset-ON LED indicator, also like we did on FCDEV3B. * We can implement both LPG and PWL LEDs like on the original D-Sample. Neither LED is strictly needed for the handset firmware functional scope or for prototyping toward the final handset; at least one LED is desired for the purpose of indicating virtual vibrator on/off state, but similarly to other considerations, it would be improper to pass up the opportunity to implement both LEDs. * Mostly unrelated to the handset project, falling instead into the realm of general Calypso chipset knowledge recovery, I have wanted for a long time to sniff the internal chip-to-chip VSP interface between Calypso and Iota - but such feat cannot be accomplished on any currently existing hardware, as it's an internal interface going from one BGA to another on PCB inner layers. If we are building a new Calypso development board for other purposes, it would be nifty to throw in a VSP tap header as well. 3.2. Purpose and scope Aside from the logically unrelated VSP tap feature, our Venus board will be intended for handset firmware development and handset hardware prototyping only. It is not intended for non-handset directions of interest - for other interests and purposes, use Caramel2 or FCDEV3B. Calypso MCSI will not be available on FC Venus - in handset applications MCSI pins are switched into GPIO mode, and we'll be using these GPIOs for LCD backlight control on both Venus and the final handset. (Our current Luna platform is likewise.) If you need MCSI, then you are doing modem work, not handset, so use Caramel2 or FCDEV3B. 3.3. Handset vs. development board The Mother's vision is that our Venus development board will be fairly close to a final handset motherboard in terms of included hardware and general layout: on the top side it will feature our LCD, underneath this LCD it will feature our keypad button set, whereas the bottom side will feature the same two core component clusters (each possibly covered by a shieldcan) as are envisioned for the final handset: one for the mobile domain (Calypso+RF core) and one for the USB domain (FT2232x subsystem of section 1.12). However, in terms of physical form factor, FC Venus will still be a development board meant to be used "bare" on a lab bench, and will exhibit the following key differences from the final handset motherboard: * The general form factor will be simple rectangular and unconstrained, without highly complex mechanical design effort that will later be needed for a handset motherboard that goes into a plastic case. * Two handset peripheral features will be omitted: the vibrator and the keypad backlight. * There will be one additional peripheral just for the fw development platform role of this board, as opposed to the handset prototype role: the magnetic buzzer described in section 3.8. JTAG and VSP tap header connectors can also be regarded as special development-board-only extra peripherals. * The physical realization of audio interfaces will be a little different from the final handset and more appropriate for a development board, as detailed in section 3.7. * The SIM socket and all developer-user controls and indicators will be located on the top side of the board. 3.3.1. Power supply or battery connection FC Venus will have the same orange Weidmuller power input connector as previous TI and FreeCalypso development boards C-Sample, D-Sample, Leonardo, FCDEV3B and Caramel2. Ready-made VBAT needs to be provided via this connector, fed directly to the core chipset and to VBAT-powered peripherals, no on-board power conversion. During development, operation with an AC-mains-powered fixed 3.6 V DC supply is generally much more convenient than a real battery. However, in a departure from our previous development boards, it will also be possible to connect a real Li-ion battery (instead of a fixed supply) to the same connector - the Mother's intent is to use a common off-the-shelf 18650 battery holder and wire it up to the necessary Weidmuller plug. When a real battery is used, it will also be possible to charge it via Calypso+Iota BCI and FreeCalypso FCHG just like in a real handset - see the following section. Because of the need for battery-specific tuning in FCHG, it will be difficult to use "any" 18650 battery for the real-battery mode of operation on FC Venus - instead we will be on much more solid footing if we select some specific battery model and stick to it. The Mother's current plan is to use Panasonic NCR18650B as our canonical battery. 3.3.1.1. Iota ADIN2 connection Our previous development boards FCDEV3B and Caramel2 use only pins 1 and 3 on the 3-pin Weidmuller battery power input connector - however, TI's Leonardo schematics also connect ADIN2 to the otherwise unused middle pin. Just for the sake of flexibility, we are going to replicate this Leonardo-style ADIN2 connection on our Venus board, allowing the possibility of experimenting with battery packs that include some kind of ID resistor or thermistor and provide a third terminal for it. However, as of this writing (2021-09), we do not anticipate actually using this functionality - the Mother's current plan is to use an 18650 battery that does not provide any kind of third terminal. 3.3.2. USB subsystem Our Venus development board will include the same USB subsystem as intended for the final FC Libre Dumbphone handset, as described in sections 1.11 and 1.12, consisting of a USB mini-B interface connector, a charging on/off switch with the charging circuit behind it, and the FT2232D subsystem of section 1.12. This design is a radical departure from our previous development boards which bring out the two Calypso UARTs in their raw LVCMOS form, leaving the USB interface to an external adapter, most recently our own DUART28. In fact, the Mother's original idea for the Venus board was to keep essentially the same interfaces as on Caramel2, retaining the use of the external DUART28 adapter and calling for a potential separate battery+charger board - but then this design was changed after further reflection. On our previous modem-centric (as opposed to handset-centric) Calypso development boards, the USB interface was kept separate for the sake of modularity, allowing the two Calypso UARTs to be connected to other entities besides just USB. That design made good sense and continues to make good sense for non-handset Calypso modem boards. However, on a handset development board like FC Venus it becomes much more difficult to think of a realistic use case where the two Calypso UARTs (or either one of them) would need to be connected to something other than USB, thus this particular modularity becomes much less of a value - while the opposite approach of integrating USB provides numerous benefits: * One of the primary benefits of the new Venus board over existing Luna is significant reduction in clutter: instead of 3 separate boards (Caramel2 MB, LCD and keypad) connected with ribbon cables, there will be just one integrated board. If we also integrate the functionality of our DUART28C adapter, then we reduce clutter even further. * In the integrated USB arrangement, the Modem UART channel's RI output (coming from Calypso GPIO8) will be connected just like in the final handset - see section 1.12.1. OTOH, this signal would have to be omitted if we were to use our legacy 10-pin DUART interface and a DUART28 adapter - RI does not fit well into that arrangement. * When development is done using an AC-mains-powered fixed DC supply and the BSIM mode in FCHG, there still needs to be a way to present and remove VCHG. Turning on the charging switch will be more convenient than connecting a jumper wire between a VCHG header pin and the USB +5V pin on DUART28. * If our Venus board includes complete charging circuits just like the real handset, operation with an actual battery will become a much more practical option. Such operation can be very useful for the purpose of giving field demos away from FreeCalypso HQ: in such field scenarios, having to connect an AC-mains-powered fixed DC supply may be difficult (limited space, no access to AC power outlets, limited attention span of the audience), and furthermore, if the demo is presented to a less technical audience, it will likely feel more "real" if the phone prototype being demonstrated is powered by a battery rather than an AC mains adapter. In some cases, the charging process itself (with standard USB as the charging power source) can be made a part of the demo. 3.3.2.1. Linux kernel patch requirement The FT2232D USB subsystem implemented on FC Venus will include the boot control feature originating from DUART28C, as described in section 1.12.3. This hardware feature has an implication for developer-users of this board: anyone wishing to play with a Venus board beyond already-flashed fw (i.e., anyone wishing to connect the board to a host computer) will need to apply our DUART28C support patch to the ftdi_sio driver in their Linux kernel; as for other host OSes beyond Linux, absolutely no support exists currently, thus you would need to do all of the necessary support-creating work yourself. The problem with the needed ftdi_sio driver patch is that it has been rejected by mainline Linux maintainers. The patch is purely additive and non-impacting: it simply adds support for an entirely new USB device (a new USB VID:PID) that did not exist before, and has exactly zero impact on anything pre-existing, on anything outside of this brand-spankin'-new USB device. But the power-wielding maintainers rejected the patch because it isn't general enough to them, because it serves only one specific hardware device which they don't wish to support. The Mother's answer to those Linux maintainers' game of hardball is to play back a game of my own: our Venus boards will NOT be sold for money, not for any price, instead they will be given out free of cost to loyal FreeCalypso supporters. Anyone wishing to receive a Venus board will be required to apply the non-mainlined ftdi_sio driver patch locally to their own Linux kernel, and to show proof that they have applied this maintainer-rejected patch as a condition of receiving their board. 3.3.2.2. Board bring-up order The on-board FT2232D subsystem will be the preferred way to interface to the two Calypso UARTs on FC Venus, and also the preferred way of driving RPWON and nTESTRESET boot controls - if everything goes according to plan. However, to guard against inoperable boards in the unfortunate event that the built-in USB subsystem doesn't work as designed, there will also be a "rescue" 10-pin DUART header on the board. If all USB subsystem components are populated on the board as we currently intend, the "rescue" DUART header MUST NOT have anything connected to it, other than oscilloscope probes - however, if a need arises to operate a Venus board via an external DUART28 or other adapter, then some components will need to be removed from the USB section of the board to prevent the scenario of two fighting drivers. There will also be a 3-pin boot control header, bringing out RPWON and nTESTRESET, but this provision does not present the same stringent single driver requirements as the "rescue" DUART header, as all drivers for these boot control signals are open drain. The charging switch will need to be off during board bring-up, and it is expected to remain off during most development activities on FC Venus, to be turned on only rarely when exercising the charging function. 3.3.3. Stepping stone toward the final handset When the time comes to embark on the design of the actual FC Libre Dumbphone handset, after all necessary fw development work gets done on the Venus development board, one of the biggest challenges will be the need for close coordination between electronico-mechanical design of the motherboard PCBA and ergonomico-mechanical design of the handset case. It is the Mother's hope that by being as close as possible to the final handset motherboard while subject to the constraints of a development board, our Venus board will serve as a useful stepping stone toward the actual handset. When the time comes to hire a cellphone mechanical design expert to create the mechanical design for our FC handset, we will present a working Venus board (battery-powered and running well-polished fw, for proper psychological impact) to our hired mechanical designer, and hopefully this Venus board reference will work for the purpose of communicating to that mechanical designer our requirements from the electronics side, as in how much space is required for all of our functional components, which will be quite different from the more recent mainstream proprietary phones. In terms of electronic circuit details, our final FC Libre Dumbphone handset is expected to be somewhat different from FC Venus, different enough to call for a different fw build target, as a matter of fact. However, we expect that in terms of PCB layout, these electronic circuit differences won't be heavily disruptive, and we hope that once our hired mechanical designer gives us a design for the handset, we will then able to transform the PCB layout of FC Venus into the real handset motherboard. 3.4. RF bands and PCB layout The Mother's intent for the Venus board is to stop copying Openmoko's triband PCB layout and instead switch to TI's original Leonardo+ quadband layout, which has been recovered from iWOW TR-800 via professional PCB reverse engineering. We will need quadband RF for the final FC Libre Dumbphone handset, thus it would be best to switch to it now, starting with Venus. 3.5. LCD module and backlight The LCD module on FC Venus will be Formike KWH020ST23-F01, the same LCD module which we have settled on for the actual FC handset. In 2021-09 we made a lifetime buy of 100 pcs of this LCD module, thus we are now past the point of considering different candidate LCD modules. Our chosen Formike LCD module is almost perfect for development boards such as FC Venus; the only blemish is that in the absence of additional mechanical restraints, an elastic force that originates somewhere in the area of the folded-under FPC tail pushes the bottom of the module upward, away from the PCB, acting against both gravity and adhesive forces. However, we have a planned workaround: we are working with a local-to-us mechanical engineering company to produce a custom retaining bracket; with the addition of this bracket, the mounting of our LCD module is expected to become secure enough for development board purposes. The backlight circuit design of section 1.4.4.1, which is hoped to be final, is being included in the Venus board design. Specific LED currents don't need to be finalized for Venus PCB layout or PCB fabrication; resistor values that set these currents will only need to be finalized when the time comes to populate the first fabricated Venus PCBs with components. 3.6. Keypad buttons The Mother's original intent for FC Venus was to punt on the more complex keypad arrangement that approximates the real handset, instead continuing what we currently have on FC Luna: a "raw" 5x5 matrix of buttons in rows and columns, with silk screen labels indicating the function of each button, matching TI's D-Sample. However, this plan has been changed upon further reflection - the Mother's new thinking is that FC Venus will be a prototype toward the final handset, a prototype as close as possible to "the real thing" while staying within the constraints of a development board, thus the keypad arrangement needs to be made closer to "real" as well. The main 21-button keypad described in section 1.5 will need to be implemented on our Venus board, with the buttons in approximately correct relative positions, all below the LCD. The buttons will be generic off-the-shelf tactile switches with finger-accessible actuators, similar to those used on Caramel2 and on our current Luna keypad add-on, except that SMT parts will need to be used, in order to not put extra constraints on component placement on the opposite side of the board. Because we won't have any overlay with button legends, we will need to put silk screen labels on our PCB next to each button, denoting logical functions. Out of the 21 buttons of the main keypad, 20 will fall onto KBC/KBR cross- points, i.e., they will be "regular" keypad buttons. However, the button in the END position (the one which is traditionally red, for power on/off and call hang-up) will be special: in hardware terms it will be the PWON button, both on FC Venus and on the final handset. This special arrangement exactly follows TI's canon (D-Sample and predecessors), and has also been followed by the makers of Pirelli DP-L10. The 3 side buttons of section 1.6 will also need to be implemented on FC Venus. The two left side buttons (volume up/down) will be placed on the left side of our LCD, and the single right side button will be placed on the right side of our LCD. There will be no keypad backlight on the Venus board. This secondary backlight is not needed for firmware development, as it is not managed separately in our fw architecture - instead its control will be absorbed into our R2D BLRR control mechanism on the final handset where this backlight will be added. 3.6.1. Limited boot control buttons The Mother's original idea for FC Venus was to implement pushbutton switches for all 3 boot controls as in PWON, RPWON and nTESTRESET. However, now that we are integrating the FT2232D USB subsystem of section 1.12 and the boot control mechanism of section 1.12.3 as a non-removable part of the Venus board itself, the pushbutton switch for RPWON is being eliminated, leaving only PWON in the "END" position in the main keypad and a rare-use RESET button. For additional context, when I first decided to integrate the FT2232D subsystem with boot control, I was going to drop the RESET button as well - but then I decided that it would be more proper to include at least a footprint for one. My current intent is to populate an actual button for RESET, but to use a different switch part with a shorter actuator and a greater operating force, reducing the probability of accidental resets. 3.7. Audio interfaces Corresponding to the 3 audio channels of section 1.7, there will be 3 analog audio interfaces on FC Venus: two TRRS jacks and one 2-pin header. These audio interfaces will be as follows: * The main audio channel (the one that will go to the built-in earpiece speaker and mic in the real handset) will be wired to a TRRS jack exactly like on Caramel2. The intent is that an FC-HDS4 headset will be plugged into this main audio jack. * The "official" headset channel (the one that will be a jack in the final handset) will be wired to another identical TRRS jack. This other jack will need plug insertion detection, signaled to a Calypso GPIO input. * The output of the loudspeaker amplifier (see section 1,7.2) will be wired to a 2-pin header exactly like on FCDEV3B, allowing the same 8 ohm lab bench loudspeaker to be connected. 3.8. Magnetic buzzer There will be a magnetic buzzer implemented directly on the Venus board itself (not an externally attached component), exactly like on TI's D-Sample board. This buzzer will be controlled by Calypso BU/PWT output in the canonical manner, allowing the expected sounds to actually emanate when firmware operates the old-fashioned Calypso buzzer output. See section 2.4 for the purpose of this hardware provision. 3.9. LEDs instead of vibrator There will be no vibrator on FC Venus - it is a mechanical function which cannot be sensibly implemented on a development board meant for use on a lab bench. Instead our Venus board will feature both LPG and PWL LEDs (i.e., LEDs controlled by the respective Calypso outputs) exactly like D-Sample, and either of these LEDs can be used to simulate vibrator on/off state. 4. Motorola C139 port 4.1. Background information In FreeCalypso we have low-level support for the following alien targets: * Motorola C11x/12x * Motorola C139/140 * Motorola C155/156 * Pirelli DP-L10 * Sony Ericsson J100 Low-level support means that for all of these targets, we are able to build and load a FreeCalypso firmware image that boots and runs without crashing, operates the phone's GSM radio hardware in proper spec-compliant manner (transmissions verified with a CMU200 RF tester), and allows control via AT commands and FreeCalypso debug & development tools fc-shell, fc-tmsh and fc-fsio. However, in this so-called "voice pseudo-modem" (VPM) operation, the phone's LCD stays dark, the buttons do nothing, and there are no high-level functions of any kind, only low-level control from the attached host computer. It also just happens that in year 2015 I (Mother Mychaela) produced a firmware version for Mot C139 that runs untethered, without host computer connection. However, that untethered FC-on-C139 firmware was produced as a poor man's hack, not as an end user offering! Here is the situation we were in: we did not discover the existence of iWOW TR-800 (an extremely obscure Calypso module) until December of 2019, thus for the 4 years between 2015 and 2019 we had no way of running TI's TCS211 MFW+BMI (handset configuration) firmware in its proper D-Sample config, which is 176x220 pixel color. But we knew that TI also had an older C-Sample UI configuration (84x48 pixel B&W), thus out of poverty, for the lack of proper development hardware, we resurrected that old C-Sample UI config (at first it wouldn't even compile) and got it running on Mot C139 hardware - possible because that 84x48 pixel UI was small enough to fit into Motorola's 96x64 pixel LCD. To be clear, I *never* considered this hacky FC-on-C139 port to be an acceptable substitute or replacement for my real goals of first getting TI's TCS211 UI up and running in its proper 176x220 pixel color configuration, and then producing a FreeCalypso handset that can replace the proprietary Pirelli DP-L10. However, a peculiar situation has arisen: we now know that it is possible to transform Motorola C139 into a sort of Libre Dumbphone Lite with aftermarket FreeCalypso firmware, and it is clear that some users will prefer this "liberated C139" option over the Mother's desired FC Libre Dumbphone handset - probably for reasons of cost more than anything, as our FC phone will likely end up costing thousands of dollars. The rest of this chapter will explore the possibility of practically usable FreeCalypso handset firmware on Mot C139 hardware. 4.2. Why C139? As a matter of general principle, we could probably get our FreeCalypso Lite firmware running on all or most of the 5 alien targets listed in section 4.1. However, the level of usability and the set of user-available features on the other 4 would only be worse than what we would get on C139, thus if someone is looking for a pre-existing phone hw unit to convert to FreeCalypso Lite, then C139 is the best choice in terms of outcome quality. It is particularly worthy of note that if we were to get FreeCalypso Lite firmware running on Pirelli DP-L10 (it hasn't been tried as of this writing, but it is likely possible), the result would be not only much much worse in functionality than Pirelli's official firmware or the Mother's desired full FC handset, but actually even worse than the same FreeCalypso Lite firmware running on Motorola C139! Therefore, even though the Pirelli phone serves as the Mother's inspiration for our own FC handset hardware, the existing Pirelli hardware is mostly useless for the purpose of turning it into a libre phone - all because of the vast amount of completely undocumented hardware in this model. 4.3. How to make it happen The main reason why a practically usable FC firmware version for Mot C139 has not been produced yet is because I, Mother Mychaela, am not willing to do it in such a way that would jeopardize my primary goal of true FC handset hardware. I am willing to support FreeCalypso Lite on C139 as a *side addition* to the main FC handset hardware goal, but never as a replacement. Right now my next project goal is to build my desired Venus development board. Once that board is built, we will be in a better position to whip our TI-based FC handset firmware into shape. No, my priorities won't change, and my initial work on the Venus platform will be on the bigcolor firmware configuration. However, once FC Tourmaline bigcolor firmware runs on FC Venus in a satisfactory manner, with audio mode conversion implemented but still using the Calypso buzzer for ringing, then it may be a good time to bring the smallbw configuration up to par. And once FC Tourmaline smallbw runs in an end-user- acceptable manner on FC Venus, then it will be a slam dunk to move it to actual C139 hardware. 4.4. Functional scope limitations Because FC Lite on Mot C139 can only ever be a side project and can never be my main goal, I have to put some strict limits on the amount of work I am going to do in that direction: * The color capability of C139 physical LCD will not be used by FC Lite firmware, instead the screen of FC-on-C139 will always be black&white. The reason for this limitation is that displaying color on C139 would involve actual work (a non-trivial amount of it) to create an entirely new "small color" UI configuration (as opposed to the existing bigcolor and smallbw), whereas the existing smallbw config is a freebie gift from TI. * No dynamic mode switching support on the headset jack: this jack on all C1xx phones serves a dual function, it is both an analog headset interface and a digital interface for computer connection (UART at 2.8V logic levels), and I currently have no plans to implement dynamic switching between these two modes. There will be one firmware build configuration in which the jack accepts Motorola headsets - serial cables won't work unless you shut down the fw and operate on the phone with tools like fc-loadtool, fc-simint or our FC FFS editor - and another fw build configuration in which the headset jack accepts serial cables, but not actual headsets. In summary, FreeCalypso Lite on Motorola C139 will be an *extremely* basic and "bare bones" phone - but the hope is that it would still be useful to some.