Hi,
Which things can I do with an old android phone ? Like a Xiaomi mi a3.
Make it a server/put LineageOS on it.
Depends on the age of the phone and if it is boot loader locked by a carrier.
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I do same. Don’t got any accounts logged in either on it and just runs f-droid apps and Aurora store. It’s reason I value physical Sims since it makes it easy to swap when I need to without having to sign in to anything, since it’s my accountless phone that if I lost has nothing of importance in it.
Become a stalker. Slip into your old girl friends car and use it as a tracker.
It wont last long this way, though
Attach it to a battery pack.
Or get a 12V-5V regulator and connect it up to the car battery.
Turn it into a pihole.
This
I use mine as a camera in the garage when I’m working on my car so I don’t get my current phone all greasy.
Backup
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I use an old Nexus 5 I have as a offline GPS device for cycling.
Install Pixel Experience, and use it to upload photos to your Google account without consuming your Google Drive data allotment.
Superb idea !
I used to use my old android phone to run an octoprint server.
Music player, bedside alarm clock/weather info, time lapse camera
I use an IP webcam app and run my old S10+ as a CCTV camera inside my garage, viewable in Home Assistant.
Battery powered? Screen on/off?
The app lets the screen turn off. I have it plugged in to a smart power switch, and have the HA Android app installed.
This way, I can monitor the phone’s battery level with HA and use automation to keep the battery charged between 40% and 80%.
Nice, I will check that app. In the past I used to separate apps for that and screen off didn’t work well, it would wake even if nothing happened.
Honestly, the screen being on doesn’t really worry me too much now, and I suspect an Android change in the past few releases has made it less reliable when the app tries to do it, because I’ll occasionally walk by and see that it’s on.
I’ve set the brightness all the way down and it sits up at ceiling height, on top of a wall-mounted network cabinet. I remote control it from my computer, using scrcpy (requires adb over TCP/IP).
I use mine as a desktop webcam with droidcam
I do the same thing. The camera on my old phone is much better than the one built into my laptop. And even though the phone’s battery is pretty much dead, that doesn’t matter since I have it hooked up and powered via usb all the time.
I usually give mine away, that said by the time I’m done with a phone it’s usually pretty used up
Old phone? I’m still running a Mi A1 as my daily. I’m on LineageOS 19.1. There have been rumblings of Lineage 20 coming to it, but the Dev community has largely dropped off.
I’d check if there are any local high-schools or support services that are looking to get phones intot he hands of underprivileged teens/adults. A Mi A3 is likely still better than the low end Samsung garbage, or even an old iPhone (below X).
Better to have it be reused than become a paperweight in a cupboard.
