
I built a dumb cell phone with a rotary dial - dnetesn
https://nautil.us/issue/83/intelligence/why-i-built-a-dumb-cell-phone-with-a-rotary-dial
======
ColinWright
Same story from the original source, previously on HN:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22306801](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22306801)
(572 pts, 165 comments)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22303956](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22303956)
(49 pts, 10 comments)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22352501](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22352501)
(15 pts, 1 comment)

In-depth video of the build:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22519476](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22519476)
(6 pts, 0 comments)

Related: someone converted an old rotary phone into a cellphone:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9610509](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9610509)
(222 pts, 61 comments)

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dghughes
I was reading about the brain's reward system mainly stimulus, response,
reward and how it was used for training US soldiers. I was curious how it
related to slot machines since at the time I was in that field.

In that same article it mentioned how going from rotary dial phones to touch
tone was an easy transition it's intuitive. But having to go back to a rotary
phone after using a touch tone feels terrible. Your brain is expecting you to
push the button for the next number not wait. It's interesting to see how you
can never really go back and expect to feel the same way.

~~~
Ambele
Do you have a link to this article that you read about?

~~~
dghughes
I don't but I remember the name of it was an article about WWII soldiers who
wouldn't shoot at the enemy. The amount of soldiers who shot was something
dismal like 10%. Not just pull the trigger and shoot but shoot and shoot at
the enemy.

A program was developed by the US military to train soldiers to shoot on
command. On the shooting range a target popped up the soldier shot it and when
he hit it the target would fall. stimulus: target appears, response: shoot the
target, reward: target falls, satisfaction. It got to the point where there
was no thought it was instinct, or muscle memory.

I see now it is called "Operant conditioning". In the Wikipedia post about
operant conditioning citations mention some of what I am talking about.
Wikipedia isn't where I originally read about it I read about was probably 10
or 15 years ago?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning)

Korea and especially Vietnam (better weapons?) saw the amount of solider
shooting the enemy go up significantly.

I'm not sure if the rotary phone vs touch tone was in that same article or if
I'm mixing it up with another article.

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ryan_j_naughton
There is a bizarre consequence that you have to remember all the phone numbers
you want to dial or keep a paper contact book with you as well.

Relatedly, how many of you remember a bunch of phone numbers from your
childhood. I can recite my best friend's home phone number, my home phone
number from childhood, my dad's old office number, and my mom's cell number -
despite all but 1 of those numbers having not been valid for 16 years.

Yet ask me to recite any phone number from when I got a cell phone onwards and
I only know my own cell number and my wife's because I have to give them to
other people or fill them into forms.

I wonder if these childhood phone numbers will continue to be retained /
recitable when I'm much older.

~~~
stevewillows
It's actually got a neat interface for finding contacts

[https://youtu.be/0euCWf0FpOA?t=679](https://youtu.be/0euCWf0FpOA?t=679)

The video is worth a watch. The overall use / nav is remarkable considering it
only has a few buttons and a dial.

~~~
war1025
I just watched about five minutes of this video and unlike most odd tech I
come across, I really kind of want this thing.

~~~
stevewillows
I never thought I'd want a rotary phone with modifiers.

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zw123456
I have built a couple different versions of a rotary dial cell phone over the
years but the one that is the most popular that friends and family want is the
one that does not have an actual phone in it but instead is a Bluetooth device
that pairs with your regular phone. The main reason is it is more of a gag
type gift so on one wants to maintain an account or phone number for something
you just pull out once in a while for a hoot. I make them for friends and
family members if they provide the phone. Everyone loves them !

The first one I ever did was way back in 1997 or around there when I was
working for a Wireless company back then. I made it for an April Fools day gag
and it just had an old Nokia stuck inside it. We made up a phony marketing
flyer for it that had a bunch of funny stuff like; Made by Rotomola, has 10
minute battery life. Goofy stuff. Everyone thought it was great and for a
while the marketing people actually thought about making it a product !!!
hahaha.

One other fun fact about rotary dials... have you ever noticed how most
downtown business districts have low digit prefixes, like 221, 223 etc. That
is because it saved time dialing. If you have to dial a bunch of 8's and 9's
it takes forever ! hahaha. Probably why most people I make them for play with
it for a few days but then it goes on a shelf, they are actually pretty
annoying to actually use. But still a fun gag gift.

~~~
Animats
There's a commercial box which pairs with phones over Bluetooth and offers an
RJ-11 jack for classic wired phones. Even provides proper ring voltage and
will ring the phone. I've used one at steampunk conventions to provide a phone
line for an antique dial phone. It's amusing to let kids try it.

~~~
freepor
Do you have a link?

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Animats
Wasn't this on HN previously?

Also, previous dial cell phones.[1][2]

[1] [https://youtu.be/1eCAhyJE3UE](https://youtu.be/1eCAhyJE3UE)

[2] [https://youtu.be/CxeoQlaQWBM](https://youtu.be/CxeoQlaQWBM)

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roywiggins
I love this project, but the ergonomics look kinda bad.

All the crappiness of holding a piece of misshaped plastic to your ear, plus
the crappiness of manual dialing, _and_ you can't slam it down to end a call!

~~~
StavrosK
You'll like my version, then:

[https://www.stavros.io/posts/irotary-
saga/](https://www.stavros.io/posts/irotary-saga/)

A side-effect I didn't initially realize: Sound quality is amazing because the
microphone runs your voice to your speaker, so you hear yourself talk and it's
a much more comfortable experience. I wish modern phones would implement some
sort of loopback too, as you hear yourself and end up speaking more quietly as
a result.

~~~
chronomex
Sidetone!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidetone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidetone)

~~~
im3w1l
If only there was an app for enabling this on other people's phones.

------
a-dub
First time I saw this (15y ago now!):

[https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/51](https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/51)

Also the coolest!

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jka
This is really cool project, but please be careful if you're considering
building or purchasing these for emergency or accessibility-related reasons.

The phone's build-it-yourself kit instructions[0] mention that the battery and
signal strength indicators aren't yet functional.

"Currently, battery and signal strength metering is not working. I hope to
have this fixeed in firmware soon, but this further complicates the above
quirk. If you have a voltmeter, it's easy to probe battery voltage without
opening the case vai the ICSP header on the back"

From previous discussion[1] it sounds like the battery life is approximately
24h.

Not to be a downer but sometimes it concerns me when we celebrate things which
people might consider useful for critical infrastructure when they're not
ready.

[0] -
[http://www.skysedge.us/rotarycellphone/index.html](http://www.skysedge.us/rotarycellphone/index.html)

[1] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22306801](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22306801)

~~~
fludlight
It's a fun engineering-art project. Don't depend on it for survival.

~~~
jka
Exactly, agreed :)

------
hrdwdmrbl
Very cool. Reminds me of the Light Phone version 1
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelightphone/the-
light...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelightphone/the-light-phone)

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mcswell
Some of you may be familiar with the _original_ version:
[http://homepageradio.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html](http://homepageradio.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html)

------
RayMan1
Someone is reposting this every day from multiple URLs

~~~
ColinWright
Every day? I only found 3 previous links to this story, and one link to the
explainer video.

Do you have links?

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testingworks1
In a scary way, that's almost steampunk.

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miduil
@mods can you please add [https://](https://) to the URL?

Update: Why the down-vote?

~~~
tomhoward
> Update: Why the down-vote?

A guess: nautil.us doesn't support https.

~~~
miduil
I checked prior my comment and [https://nautil.us](https://nautil.us) does
work, though there is some remote content that is getting blocked - still the
site is functional.

~~~
tomhoward
But when you try and load the URL for this article with [https://](https://),
it just redirects to [http://](http://).

So it would be pointless to change the URL to https.

~~~
miduil
Ok, for me with a fresh Firefox 74 profile this does not happen.

[https://imgur.com/a/EHpJfGG](https://imgur.com/a/EHpJfGG)

~~~
tomhoward
OK, fair enough, but some of the linked resources are insecure anyway.

So I guess the downvotes were because people think it's irrelevant for a read-
only content page.

