Introduction#

There are a lot of interesting gadgets with very good features (screen, wifi, bluetooth, camera or other) that are currently unused. This is rather sad as they used to be awesome.

The main issues with reusing these old gadgets are:

• usually they miss some key feature to be useful every day (e.g. it's not a phone, so you don't use your Palm Pilot or Zaurus as a PDA anymore)
• they use software that is outdated and different from other older gadgets as well as newer ones. That makes it hard to add new custom software and means that it's harder to reuse multiple older gadgets.

To reuse older gadgets we need to:

• identify use cases where the old gadget fits (i.e. it has the required IO capability and processing power)
• find existing software or write new software needed for the new use case, this might require replacing the older OS or using tools that work on that older OS while being general enough that the software/skills can be reused with other gadgets

Software stacks#

Original stacks#

There are a number of common software stacks that one can find on older gadgets:

• Linux with Qt, GTK, framebuffer or no graphics
• Palm OS
• J2ME on top of a proprietary OS
• Windows Mobile

Replacement stacks#

When replacing the stack it is natural to mainly consider open stacks. This means mainly Linux and possibly some Java-like implementation. The question is then to locate the relevant Linux version and hope that it works well enough.

• Linux for Palm Tungsten E
• OpenWrt, DD-Wrt to handle WRT routers, WD Netcenter and a host of small NAS and routers.
• Android which is Linux-based
• see also Linux for gadgets
• see also Alternative Firmwares

Modern stacks#

It's important to consider new gadgets too. If we can target the new gadgets every time we target an old one it makes it more worthwhile to work on the old gadget. New gadgets often offer:

• HTML5/javascript
• Java
• Linux
• iOS (C++/Objective C on Unix-like with proprietary APIs)
• Flash/Flash Lite
• .Net/C#

Shorting the stack#

Another possibility is to avoid running software on the reused gadget as much as possible. For instance, we can use the device as a dumb terminal and run the software on another machine. Or the gadget may have existing software that lets it share its devices (SMB fileserver, export USB over Ethernet, web service to collect sensor values etc.)

Reuse strategies#

Classic and simple#

Hand-me-down#

A classic way to find new uses for an old gadget is to find somebody who does not need or can't have the new gadget and set them up with the old one. This might require installing some new software (e.g. a drawing program on a Palm so that a kid is happy with it)\

DIY#

One can get parts out of an old gadget or build a system using it.

Old gadgets can be part of a DIY projects. To help with that, a database of projects and a database of gadgets can be useful to help match old gadgets with projects.

Planning ahead#

When buying new gadgets we have the opportunity to prepare for future reuse. Here are criteria of reuse that should be optimized

• connectivity: buy hardware with more connectivity options (USB slave/host, bluetooth, wifi etc.)
• software: buy hardware with Linux support or a native stack that is open
• features: buy hardware with interesting features (camera, thermometer, barometer, GPS etc.)
• maintenance: buy hardware where parts can be replaced (e.g. battery)
• ruggedness: buy hardware that is more susceptible to resist a long time (e.g. Gorilla glass for screen, fewer parts etc.)
• popularity: target devices that are popular, especially popular among geeks. That way a wealth of hacks and parts should be available when you start repurposing the gadget.

Let's try to assess a couple gadgets