The major takeaways of this work are:
(1) For specific workloads, clusters of repurposed phones are cheaper and more carbon efficient than traditional servers.
(2) More broadly, scavenging unwanted equipment shows excellent potential for building economic and carbon-efficient systems, especially when renewable energy is plentiful.
(3) Sustainability has operational and manufacturing facets; manufacturing dominates as operating trends towards zero with cleaner energy mixes.
(4) Accurate LCA information is essential for carbon-based analyses; it would be beneficial if more ICT manufacturers published this information, including cloud providers who build custom systems. Our work highlights the need for more holistic analyses of the environmental impact of computing. With the substantial carbon cost of manufacturing and the difficulties of responsible recycling, the energy efficiency of a device may be the least significant component of its environmental and human impact.
Is there a way to run these phones without the batteries? I have several android phones that are old/no longer getting updates I’d love to repurpose but don’t really want a bunch of batteries sitting juiced up around the house all the time…
Unlike laptops, 99.9% of phones can only run using the battery, even if they’re plugged in
There are ways to bypass that though, especially on mildly older phones before battery management chips went all digital.
On slightly older phones (you know, ones that don’t have the battery glued in), you can usually power them up with like 4.2 volts, and use an appropriate jumper resistor to the thermal sensor battery pin.
Easy peasy, except for these newest anti-repair phones.
Well I’m not sure such phones are good enough for being servers
Then maybe you should check this…
The INSANE Evolution of Click Farms: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-CoEHDHb0lE
That is incredibly unfortunate, as I don’t exactly want a bunch of plugged in 24/7 lithium batteries sitting around. I’d rather take the extra time to take them to the recycler than risk missing a spicy pillow.
I use Home Assistant, and install that on all my old, re-purposed smartphones (usually as cheap CCTV). Each phone is plugged into a smart power socket.
I then use automation to turn a phone’s charger off when it hits 80%, then back on when it reaches 50%. No overcharging, no overheating, and actually helps keep the batteries in good shape.
You can do that with root and ACCA instead of being complex like that
I already use Home Assistant for a number of other things, so not really complex. Also, you’re assuming Android only.
Because I assume that iOS devices become e-waste a few years after discontinuation, unless you write custom software on some outdated xcode+MacOS combo
There are still ROG phones though
The battery doesn’t look removable on those?
Of course it isn’t removable. But I think you still can do it with the classic 90°C + isopropanol. Not sure though
Surely there is some good cheap dummy batteries out there.
I piggyback this question: Also, can they be used without screens? I’ve got a couple I’ve found on the side of the road smashed up, but if I had to guess, the logic boards might be intact and maybe usable…
If the person that lost them unlocked the bootloader, didn’t use a lock screen password and enabled USB adb debugging on any connection hacking it to work without the confirmation on screen then it would work. Extremely unlikely that would be the case
Meh, depends on which device I’m using. Not looking to use my devices in such a way, unless they break, but I have a phone and a tablet that meet all those qualifications.
Granted, not very common, but they do exist.
The answer seems to be “it depends” and “if you have the right equipment and know-how”
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