OpenMoko CAD files available for download

Just thought I’d post this if anyone here wants to take a crack at it with their own ideas.

http://openmoko.com/

Looks like they beat Google’s Adroid to the opensource party.

looks like the pro/e files are either wildfire 3 or 4. I’m still rocking 2 so i had to settle for the step files. :frowning:

Aside from some very light educational value, I can’t really see the point in open-sourcing a phone. Sure, it sounds great on paper, but in practice, it’s not going to work for two reasons:

Actually building anything based on their design is going to cost you a significant amount of money in set-up and running costs - think how much a typical mid-low volume line costs! Even if you work to a unit cost model, where all tooling and line costs are absorbed into the final unit cost, you will still need a significant amount of money to support things. This means it’s not really a venture for smaller companies unless they have some heavyweight backing. In which case:

Anyone with enough money to actually build anything based on this device can already go straight to Foxconn or any other ODM with a sketch and 6-12 months later a finished device will materialise out the other end. The benefit is then that you are dealing with EE and ME’s from companies who design and build 80% of the worlds products - you’re getting some of the latest and greatest DFM skills in the world working on your project.

Other than that, it’s nice for students to be able to dissect a fully detailed, production ready design, but what’s wrong with pulling things apart in real life to see how they work?

Anyone else share my viewpoint?

yes, I agree.

Any small portable device’s internal componentry is completely custom designed to fit. Therefore, the only thing you could do with an existing complete ‘kit of parts’ is a moderately limited styling exercise.

Worthwhile in an educational setting, no application anywhere else.

Thanks Eddison, appreciate the link