ADHD ONE — Anti Distraction Handset Device — is a Bluetooth handset shaped like a 1980s brick phone, built by Cologne-based designer and maker Kevin Noki. It has 19 physical keys, a small OLED display, and no cellular connection of its own.
It is not a phone replacement. It is a peripheral for a phone you have deliberately hidden. Pair it to an iPhone over Bluetooth, configure Do Not Disturb to let calls through from selected contacts, and put the iPhone somewhere out of sight. The brick rings. You answer it on a keypad. The handset preserves one function of a smartphone and refuses to offer any of the others.
The stack
The retro silhouette is doing the opposite of what retro silhouettes usually do — there is nothing salvaged inside it.
| Part | Role |
|---|---|
| FSC-BT1026C module (Qualcomm QCC3024) | Bluetooth, using Hands-Free Profile (HFP) to carry call audio |
| Raspberry Pi Pico | Device logic, keypad scanning, display |
| OLED display | Status and dialling |
| Microphone + speaker | The actual call |
| Rechargeable lithium cell + charge controller | Power |
| Custom PCB | Ties it together inside the housing |
HFP is the specific choice that makes this work rather than being a prop. It is the profile a car kit uses — call audio in both directions plus call control, so answering and hanging up on the brick genuinely answers and hangs up on the iPhone. A project that only forwarded audio would be a speakerphone; one that only forwarded control would be a remote. HFP is both, and it is a profile iOS exposes without any app on the phone side.
The Pico is a sensible fit here for an unglamorous reason: the Bluetooth module handles the hard radio and audio work on its own silicon, so the microcontroller is left doing keypad matrix scanning, an I²C display and a state machine. That is comfortably inside a Pico’s abilities and leaves the BOM cheap.
The enclosure was designed in Autodesk Fusion and 3D printed. Nineteen keys means a real keypad matrix and nineteen switches to seat, which is the part of a project like this that consumes the weekends.
The licensing is the twist
ADHD ONE looks like an open hardware project. It is documented like one: Noki sells a digital package with STL files, gerber and drill files so you can order the custom PCB from a fab, a bill of materials, and a quick start guide.
What the package does not include, per designboom’s account: editable CAD, editable PCB files, or the firmware source. It is licensed for personal use only. A physical DIY kit is listed on his site but is not yet available.
That is worth stating plainly because the distinction gets blurred constantly in maker coverage. Gerbers let you manufacture the board. They do not let you change it — no schematic, no netlist, no way to swap a part that goes end-of-life or to route a different connector. Without firmware source, you cannot alter behaviour at all. This is a buildable project, carefully, and it is not a hackable one.
None of which is a criticism of Noki, who is selling files for a project he spent months on and is explicit about what is in them. It is a caution for anyone budgeting a build on the assumption that they can modify it later.
Why it is more interesting than a digital-detox gadget
The nostalgia framing undersells what is actually being tested here.
There is a real design claim embedded in ADHD ONE: that the problem with a smartphone is not its software but its physical affordances. A screen in your hand invites scrolling because it is a screen in your hand. Noki’s response is to keep the phone’s one irreplaceable function — someone needs to reach you — and move it onto an object whose form offers nothing else. No glass, no apps, nineteen keys that each do one thing.
It is the same reasoning behind the resurgence of single-purpose hardware across the maker world, from e-ink dashboards to dedicated writing decks, and it is a more falsifiable proposition than most wellness-adjacent product design. You either stop picking up the phone or you don’t.
The irony, as designboom notes, is that avoiding one electronic device required designing, printing and assembling another. Noki’s other listed project is a working Commodore 64-style portable, 3D printed in original beige — so the irony is probably the point.
The honest limitation: the iPhone must stay within Bluetooth range. “Out of sight” is the entire mechanism, and roughly ten metres of wall is the enforcement.
Sources
- 3D-printed brick phone brings back the art of simply answering calls — designboom
- kevinnoki.com — ADHD ONE and the Portable 64
- Building a 1980s Brick to Replace My Smartphone — Kevin Noki
- Raspberry Pi Pico documentation