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.

  • socphoenix
    9·
    7 months ago

    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…

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        5·
        7 months ago

        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.

      • socphoenix
        3·
        7 months ago

        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.

        • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comEnglish
          4·
          7 months ago

          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.

              • Moonrise2473@feddit.it
                21·
                7 months ago

                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

    • over_clox@lemmy.world
      5·
      7 months ago

      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…

      • Moonrise2473@feddit.it
        3·
        7 months ago

        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

        • over_clox@lemmy.world
          1·
          7 months ago

          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.

  • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    7 months ago

    I really want to run some of my old androids as security cams. They have WiFi, processing, and … Cameras!

    Haven’t done it yet though tbh