We have our first reviews coming in now for the openCom LTE. Things are very positive so far, and we’re pleased customers are happy with our product 
One is currently live, with more expected soon.
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Do you have any Linux user testing so far?
Indeed we do, I’ve tested it on Arch myself (yeah I know haha arch linux user…), things work pretty well to be honest. In fact, it’s much more straightforward than Windows, since the drivers come with the Kernel
The trailer demo was filmed on Linux too, FYI.
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I bet. I have had Windows delete my trackpad driver after an update. And switch my screen upside down even though it shows as upright in their software after every update. Kinda hilarious if it wasn’t so annoying.
Is it in the Ubuntu kernels as well so far?
LOL
Yeah I believe so, the EG95 modem has been around for a good while, so it should have the driver, meaning plug and play really (after NetworkManager config). Just don’t ask me about BSD haha.
As per our newsletter, we are unfortunately discontinuing the openCom LTE. Thank you for all your interest.
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@Jacob_Eva_LES What’s the story on this?
Why has it been discontinued?
(I don’t have access to this newsletter you are talking about.)
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I’ve only seen prototypes for ~150€ being sold there, which is triple the price of an LTE Wifi pocket router, so I’ve been waiting for the start of the mass product sale, which never happened, so I guess the prototypes hardly sold for that price…
@ATi Thanks for expressing your thoughts. Indeed that could be what happened.
However, I’d like to know what actually happened.
(In case you are right, and the project was not profitable, its design could have been opened and shared. That’s not what happened. So I’m not sure you are right. EDIT: it is open source!!)
It is open source! Sadly I didn’t get to get my hands on one before the shop was shut down, but if you feel up to making your own, here is the repo for the project: jacob.eva/opencom-lte - opencom-lte - Git - Liberated Embedded Systems
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Oh!! That is very nice then!!!
Thanks a lot for pointing it to me!
It’s definitely open source, and I’m currently working on seeing if I can get it into a state where I can get a run done–for myself, if nobody else.
(I’ve never ordered a PCB or anything of the sort, so trying to take the provided materials and jumping completely into turning it into a working piece of hardware is… a bit daunting! But I’m learning new things, so that’s cool.)
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Where can we see past newsletters?
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Here’s a link where you can read them without using RSS: https://liberatedsystems.co.uk/newsletters/
OPENCOM LTE CANCELLATION
We have recently been evaluating the viability of our openCom LTE project, and several issues have become apparent to us. Unfortunately, due to many factors (demand, cost, etc.), we have chosen to discontinue this project, and will be issuing refunds to customers who pre-ordered, starting today.
It certainly has been an interesting journey developing this product, and given it’s been our first embedded system we have produced, we have learnt a lot which will certainly assist us in the future.
This is certainly not the last you will see of us, we already have another project in the works, which will be announced soon™.
More to come in the future, TECHNOLOGY FOR FREEDOM.
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Things did sell, but ultimately I overestimated demand for the timescales involved, hence the pricing didn’t end up being profitable for the time invested. Add to this the poor featureset for the price (no fault of my own really, I can confidently say I did my best with the resources & parts I had available) and some manufacturing issues, and I ultimately had to pull the plug.
Please feel free to manufacture your own designs if you wish, of course make sure to give credit to us The master branch is okay to work with, but make sure that you edit the schematic to include a connection to a 10k resistor on pin 16 of the EG95, which is in turn connected to ground (and add it to the PCB of course)! Reference page 31 of the hardware manual. If you don’t do this you may struggle to turn the module on! This is what I was experimenting with in the prototype, hence the discounted price originally (they did power on though). Other than that, the design should be good to go (no warranty though!).
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@Jacob_Eva_LES Thanks a lot for letting us know the story!!
That’s a shame that the manufacturing had to stop, but I hope it will be picked up by somebody else soon!
In other words, the mass sale product would have been even more expensive?
This is correct. The prototypes were intended as a loss leader This is partly what lead to the reevaluation of the project.
However, this of course assumes similar order amounts per patch which we were having!