First, let my say a heart-felt thanks to Prof. Cunningham, the folks at Pimoroni, et al, for making the unPhone 9 available to the public! When Limor “Lady Ada” Fried mentioned it a few weeks ago on one of her live videos, I took a look at it and realized it’s “just what the doctor ordered” for a project I’ve been thinking about for a while. As soon as they became available (again?) I placed an order, and I’m pretty sure it’ll meet my needs wonderfully.
That being said, I’ll first introduce myself: I’m a retired “Qualified Engineer” (to use the British term), who’s been “doing” electronics for about 60 years and computers for about 55 years. One thing I learned long ago is that “there’s ALWAYS room for improvement!”, so I’ll offer three thoughts for consideration if/when the design is updated:
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Consider making the USB capable of doing “host” mode (think plugging in a Human Interface Device, such as a keyboard or mouse, or maybe being able to transfer a fine containing an ID into a sensor module “in the field”).
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Add an RTC (Real Time Clock), preferably that can “wake up” the unPhone to do something. My experience with datalogging is that “event driven” logging needs to have a time stamp, and (obviously) “time driven” logging needs periodic “wake up” calls.
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Add a Stemma QT/Qwiic connector, preferably one that can be accessed without opening the case. Between Adafruit, Sparkfun, and others there is a plethora of devices that can be added.