Sub$50 Handheld GPS plotter/Music library/etc (ex-rugged phone)

[CapnK]

(When I finish, this will be a writeup/how-to of the complete process you can follow in order to 'make' one of these for yourself.)

Background: Several years back, maybe 10 or so, Casio came out with a line of rugged phones (the "Gz'Ones" (pronounced 'jeez-wuhns'), waterproof, dust proof, shock resistant) that, once I got one a couple years after they were introduced, I found out totally lived up to their marketing hype.
I *never* buy new phones, so the Casio Gz'One C771 was already almost 'outdated' WRT processor speed and screen size and such techy standards for phone people when I finally got it. Still, I used it as a "phone+" for the next several years until I nearly wore out the charging port and a couple of keys. In the time that I had it, many many times I demonstrated its toughness by flinging it to the floor, dunking it in various liquids, using it uncovered in rain/weather of all sorts, etc... The sorts of things which will make most phones turn into a fancy, expensive little brick of composites and rare metals. It took every abuse I threw at it and never once even stuttered.
After it stopped being my phone+ (I'd finally upgraded to one with a larger screen), I still used it in the capacity I will be describing here. In fact, I still have it - but the model I will be talking about for this purpose is the model which came after that one, the C881, (see picture attached). As far as phones go, these are several generations past prime, so you can buy them used/refurbished very cheaply.

First: what you need for 'the build': Most important, get a Casio Gz'One Commando C881 (see footnotes below for model info). I picked up two of these off of eBay last week for $55, shipped. That price included the phone, a battery, USB cable, and a wall charger. Along with this, you'll need to make a purchase or two from the Google Play store, and, if you want more storage than the available 8-10gb's for music or ebooks or whatever, a micro SD flash memory card. It will handle up to an additional 32gb via SD card.

1) If you wanted to do this the easiest way, for likely under $30, well - that's all you need.
Buy/download a navigation app from Google Play, and you'll be set. You can use the included apps for music listening, book reading, etc... It will bug you for a SIM card, and the Setup Wizard will run every time you start the phone (to try and get you connected with a phone service provider), but after you tel those things to go away, you can use the phone as a handheld chartplotter, mp3 player, book reader, whatever. You can use wifi to access the Play Store.

2) You can pretty easily take it to the next level, however, by "rooting" the phone. iPeople (Apple product users) call this "jailbreaking". Basically, rooting gives you near-complete control over the phone, what is installed or isn't, and how things run.

I'll get more into this, when I update later.

Tentatively, ToDo / Topics coming are:

1) Getting basic Root
2) Installing a Recovery image and a way to access it, for 'worst case scenarios'.
3) Changing basic settings to stop start-up issues.
4) Getting rid of poop you won't need.
5) Adding poop you *will* need. ;)
6) Miscellany.

Footnotes

The above instructions are based on my experience with the particular hardware I had to do this project: the CA201L phone, w/build vers. M70.

- 2 versions of the phone: the version I have is the C881 CA201L, which in my understanding was made for the Korean/Asian market. There is another version, the US version, which is the C811 version. Sometimes it seems eBayers will list the version number, but not usually.

-- "Build versions": this is the core software of the phone, and there seem to be three that were released over its lifespan: M40, M50, and M70. I think the M50 build is relatively rare. The build on my phones is listed in the About section of Settings, as being C881M070 - thus, M70.

[SailorTom]

So CaptK have you made any further progress? Very interesting project.
When you say a chartplotter, does the C881 have "real" GPS hardware or simply cell tower triangulation?
Thanks

[CapnK]

Hi Tom - yep, it works great. I rooted mine, but not my brothers. Intention was to get rid of a bunch of pre-installed apps/stuff, but you don't really need to do that, so root is unnecessary. It does have a for-real GPS, & chartplotting work great. It tries to run thru an 'account setup' wizard/routine every time you turn the phone on, but that is easily bypassed/exited.