Project Ara MDC - Concept is Very Real

[mallenwho]

Last week Project Ara had their MDC (Module Developers Conference) and showed off a lot of the hardware behind how Project Ara is going to work.

 

http://www.tested.com/tech/smartphones/460765-tested-explains-how-googles-project-ara-smartphone-works/

 

Because Project Ara is designed to be a modular smartphone, Google does not want to control this market with an iron fist. They want to make it an open marketplace with open standards like the PC market. This MDC was to give hardware manufacturers the specifications on how to make modules for the phone. Therefore specs of size, connector location and type, how the blocks are held together, and even the manufacturing process that Google is trying to implement. 

 

All very exciting.

 

(replacing a broken screen is as easy as yanking it off and buying a new one - while the phone's still turned on!)

 

 

To start with, Google does indeed have a working prototype of the Ara Phone. So it is possible to work.

The $50 (actually 'Sub $100') price tag "for what [Google] calls a basic "grey" phone includes $15 for the Endo [Chassis], $15 for the display, $5 for a battery, $10 for the main Application Processor module[AP] [small SSD for OS storage, CPU and RAM on one chip, where the entire chip is interchangeable but within you can't keep the cpu while changing the ram], and $5 for a Wi-Fi unit". This does aim at the cheap phone market, but you could chuck out all of that and build a baller enthusiasts phone with awesome hardware for $1500. Its possible.

 

Parents buy kid a basic grey phone when they're 7, and every year get something new for it. Age 8, an HD display, age 9, better camera, age 10, more storage, etc.

Or you could buy just an Endo Frame for really cheap and customize from there from a marketplace of different manufacturers.

 

(The stock AP module. Other companies (like Intel or Nvidia) could make their own if they wanted to)

 

The other slots can be filled with whatever you want, and are interchangeable. If you're a cloud user but 2 weeks battery life, you can ditch the hard drive and have all battery modules. You can have no battery if you're always charging it, and just get a wireless charging port and then awesome speakers and camera and such. Position of all the components can be wherever (with restrictions on physical size of course) as the connecting pins are the same on every slot.

 

Another thing is that if you had a tiny camera thing, the manufacturer could put in lightweight spacer material to fill in the module (lightweight phone) or they could but in some storage to save all the photos to, depending on what they decided. Depth is not an issue so long as users are ok with chunkier phones, but that is a user decision.

 

The connection is though a 10 pin port. where pins 1 and 2 are power and ground, and the other 8 pins are 2 way data transfer (or more power if its a battery) depending on what the hardware manufacturer decides. 

The bandwidth should keep the Ara phone moderately future proofed. The interface can handle 10gb/s for most modules, and 20gb/s on the larger ones. So even an ethernet port block could transmit at close to full speed for quite some time.

 

This connection allows the modules to talk to each other through a very basic low level firmware, so communication between camera and gyroscope and microphone could be a thing for augmented reality creating devices for the "FPS game where you map out a location first" software thing Linus seems interested in.

 

The Endo also contains a small battery designed for hot swapping. It can keep the stock AP block powered for a few minutes while swapping battery blocks out when one dies, giving this phone essentially unlimited battery life. That's built into the frame of the phone, on top of all the other batteries that could be chucked everywhere (around the screen, next to the camera, around a wifi block, essentially anywhere where the PCB and components of a block don't fill up the whole thing.)

 

Hopefully the things that made the PC marketplace great a decade ago with all sorts of graphics cards and hard drives and CPUs for different audiences and prices will make this phone great too.

 

 

 

Next thing was the attachment method. Many people have wondered whether blocks will just fall out if you're not careful, or whether they need screws or latches or are one way or something.

Nope.

They're held in place with "Electropermanent Magnets" (EPMs)

Essentially electromagnets that don't loose their charge when powered off.

I don;t know the strength of these magnets, or how you release them when you want to remove blocks (maybe they just make it stiff to release and you can tug it free), but they will hold stuff in place when you don't want it to move.

Theft could be interesting though. Rather than stealing phones, people might start stealing blocks...

 

(cross section of how a block will be built. all the layers for every block as well as the Endo Frame will make this phone thicker than current, but its a price to pay for modularity.)

 

(conceptual idea for the 3D printer. Not yet built but should be fully built and tested by this time next year for full scale production)

 

Finally, Google announced their production method for the Ara Phone.

3D Printing.

 

Google has teamed up with 3D Systems and asked them to design a mass production 3D printer for the backs of modules, as well as potentially the entire module (now that we can 3D print PCBs and electronics)

It will work by having a more or less stationary head while the work moves underneath along a conveyor belt, slowly being built as it goes along. 

The slow part of most 3D printers is that the head makes a line, it then lifts up and moves back to the start to make another line.

If you could have heads always applying stuff, and have multiple heads applying different colours or shapes at the same time, you could 3D print anything REALLY FAST.

 

This allows for customization of the back of the phone. Choose colour or even get a photo there.

Depending on end cost and size, it also allows Google to have production anywhere in the world. If demand is high in Germany, just put a Printer in Germany to save on shipping.

 

(examples of what designs you could have on your phone. The plastic backs are removable to put on other modules when you buy them.)

 

 

Really exciting stuff.

 

Even if Google decides to NOT build Ara Phones (which i doubt they will this far along) they still have all the tech they have now developed - the Electropermanent Magnets, the 10 pin interface with 10 gigabit transfer speeds as well as power, the 3D printer...

 

Looking forward to April next year! =D

 

 

 

I covered a week ago the differences in what Linus talked about in the WAN show with what's actually happening with Project Ara, thought i'd clear up some misinformation that was going around.

Link to my other topic here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/142942-the-good-parts-of-project-ara/#entry1908417

[AMICLG]

Is that screen cracked in the pic?

[mallenwho]

Is that screen cracked in the pic?

Yes. Showing how easy and quick it is to replace a cracked screen, and that cost is as much as the new screen is

[AMICLG]

Yes. Showing how easy and quick it is to replace a cracked screen, and that cost is as much as the new screen is

Ah, I'm tired excuse my overlooking of details.

[ZetZet]

I'm still not impressed, battery looks waaaaay too tiny to be enough in this thing.

[Musikman]

I'm still not impressed, battery looks waaaaay too tiny to be enough in this thing.

But does it really matter if it's small when you can swap it out for a fresh one with out having to pay a massive out of pocket price or turn off the device.

[mallenwho]

I'm still not impressed, battery looks waaaaay too tiny to be enough in this thing.

 

you don't have to have one battery. If you only wanted one in order to fit in everything else well that's a compromise you make. You could have all of it battery. Depending on what modules companies make, every tiny spare space around smaller components could be battery. This phone could end up with a 9000 mA/h battery. Or a charging pad and a 300 mA/h battery.

 

It's custom.

And yes, how swappable batteries for the cost, of the battery.

[Curemylife]

IF they pull it of... I will spend so much money:p

I'll be able to walk aroubd with a little case with parts and oh! My battery ran out (swap) oh thats one pretty flower, bring out the better camera module.... Or one phone could do all that but it wouldn't be upgradable but does it really need to be?

This is interesting, sure, but more as a concept not really when it comes to android, if this was an idea paired together with some like ububtu which is meant to be docked! We would be loocking at something really sucessful, it would be your computer for everyday tasks. A computer dock, a tablet/notebook dock and it's one device to rule them all (platforms).

Edit: (Lol.. Didn't realize but I went from "take my money" to "this isn't good enough" in one post without thinking about it..)

[mvitkun]

Next thing was the attachment method. Many people have wondered whether blocks will just fall out if you're not careful, or whether they need screws or latches or are one way or something.

Nope.

They're held in place with "Electropermanent Magnets" (EPMs)

Essentially electromagnets that don't loose their charge when powered off.

I don;t know the strength of these magnets, or how you release them when you want to remove blocks (maybe they just make it stiff to release and you can tug it free), but they will hold stuff in place when you don't want it to move.

Theft could be interesting though. Rather than stealing phones, people might start stealing blocks...

I made a post explaining this to a user when google demo'd the ARA 3d printed prototype

 he said 

The other issue I see is how they plan to keep all the modules in. I'm assuming they're using a weak magnet for the prototype, but magnets are not something I'd want to see in a production device.

Solid, locking click or no go for me.

From what I recall they said that the type of locking mechanism you would want would be much larger and that they plan to keep the magnets,although i recall they had said something about the magnets being an order of magnitude stronger in the actual phone to the point where the force required to remove it can't be exerted by your fingers.The magnets have an on and off state,both being passive and change between the states requires a charge.The on state being 10x stronger,the off state being similar to a regular magnet where you can easily just slide out the module and slide a new one in.

 

I imagine it'll be something like a software version of a circuit breaker where you can toggle between on/off in a control panel.

So if you need to remove and insert a module you'd toggle it to off,it'd send a charge which would change the magnet to the off state,would weaken the magnet to 10x weaker where it is easy to move the modules,and you'd remove the old module and insert the new module,then toggle the magnet back to the on state where it has enough force where your fingers can no longer move the modules,and you're set to go.

watch the video from 17:30 to hear it from his mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=18LU5UtG5-M#t=1050

[Nineshadow]

$5 for a battery?Guys,we can use this phone continuously from now!Just buy 10 batteries.

[matin94]

in 3 years time, when it'll be decent. maybe ill look into it

[bcredeur97]

$5 for a battery?Guys,we can use this phone continuously from now!Just buy 10 batteries.

this would be awesome if you can just lay all the batteries (by themselves) on a charging pad. Have charging pads at home and work. put 4 batteries on each and carry two with you

[DLM_012]

Words cannot express my excitement for this. Google pretty much has unlimited funding for projects and some of the best talent available in the industry so I don't see why people never thought this was possible. Haters can suck it. Seriously this is freaking awesome. Finally phones are moving forward yet again. 

 

 

Here's to hoping more is shown at I/O.

[SLPNTIM]

This will be a enthusiest thing. Just like us computer builders. Computers are really common but having it built by companies is the normal thing to do.

[brownninja97]

Hopefully this becomes a thing

[mallenwho]

in 3 years time, when it'll be decent. maybe ill look into it

 

Is that the same sort of thing you say about Oculus, or are you totally pumped for that instead?

 

It's a new technology; its a new market. Yes it will take some years to take off, but get on board and make it take off faster.

 

actually, no. It's not a new market. Its re purposing an old market into a new one.

 

Something called convergent technology.

 

besides individual companies making blocks and production processes and refining design and construction, this is an already ready to bring to market concept. They're holding off for 3D printing (more awesome for consumers) and getting a marketplace built (more awesome for consumers).

 

So go and get one board! =D

[Goldilock]

awesome, I can see it as my next smartphone.

[Fred Castellum]

Really looking forward to the results... I definitely want to pick on of these up once their out for sale... I'll customize the shit out of it.... 

[matin94]

Is that the same sort of thing you say about Oculus, or are you totally pumped for that instead?

 

It's a new technology; its a new market. Yes it will take some years to take off, but get on board and make it take off faster.

 

actually, no. It's not a new market. Its re purposing an old market into a new one.

 

Something called convergent technology.

 

besides individual companies making blocks and production processes and refining design and construction, this is an already ready to bring to market concept. They're holding off for 3D printing (more awesome for consumers) and getting a marketplace built (more awesome for consumers).

 

So go and get one board! =D

oculus has nearly been out 1 year and yes i said the same thing for that aswell. im not a fan of dev kits and shiz like that. star citizen, i bought the cheapest ship Ever and waiting for the beta to see if its any good (reason for that is, Star citizen seemed too good to be true. but they have proven themselves now) i was gonna buy more ships till i found out dogfighting will unlock every ship for everyone to try, so im gonna see what i like first. in the past i've spent so much money on mostly games that wherent even that good. hardware wise, i took a gamble and got the 6870 on release 3 years ago. at the time, it was okay because it had driver issues but then i loved it. still lives on in my friends computer.

 

and we haven't seen anything like the oculus dev kit 1 or 2 for this phone. like 3 people have used it or something. so maybe when people are able to try it. depending on the price. ill get one.

[samuel]

- Sir, you dropped your phone!

- Sorry for the mess on the floor!

[mallenwho]

- Sir, you dropped your phone!

- Sorry for the mess on the floor!

 

even if power's off, the blocks will still have enough clamping force that you can't move them with just your hands.

when the electropermanent magnets are off, they'll be strong rare earth magnet strength.

 

If anything this adds in a designed flaw so it will reduce the impact making everything last longer.

 

As in if they're designed to split, that absorbs all the energy from the impact causing less damage overall.