

Show HN: I'm trying to turn an old rotary phone into a mobile phone - StavrosK
http://www.stavros.io/posts/irotary-part-one/

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Animats
There are commercial products to do that, such as the XLink BT, which connects
land-line phones to a Bluetooth cell phone. Both dial pulses and Touch-Tone
tones are accepted. The XLink box even produces the proper 88V 20Hz ring
signal old mechanical ringers need. I considered building an interface, but
the off the shelf solution was only $50.

I use one in our telegraph office at steampunk conventions, attached to an
antique-looking phone. See:

[https://vimeo.com/97062822](https://vimeo.com/97062822)

Here's an example of a vintage phone interfaced to an Android phone.

[http://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/vintage-phone-has-a-dirty-
and...](http://hackaday.com/2011/08/25/vintage-phone-has-a-dirty-android-
secret/)

When you pick up the receiver, it says "Number, please", and gets the number
via voice recognition.

~~~
StavrosK
Haha, that's pretty nice as well. I aim for my project to go places, so I'm
looking to make it completely self-contained and stick a battery in it.

I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get the ringer working (there isn't
enough space or power for the original one), but if I do, it will be
completely complete.

~~~
jessaustin
Not enough power, or not enough voltage? If it's just the latter, you could
use a boost converter...

~~~
StavrosK
Hopefully just the latter, I'll give it a shot. Sadly, I think I just burnt my
Arduino, so I'll have to get another one.

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TeMPOraL
Not to steal your show, but my friend did something very similar -
[https://hackaday.io/project/2933-Retro-
GSM](https://hackaday.io/project/2933-Retro-GSM). Fully functional and with a
very classy look :).

Good luck with your project! Things like this are extremely rewarding.

~~~
StavrosK
Damn! Show: stolen! Your friend's looks very nice, good job!

~~~
TeMPOraL
Now that I think of it, I apologize and hope that I didn't discourage you in
any way.

Like many, I myself hate the feeling one gets when one discovers that an
awesome idea one had was already made by someone else on the Internet. I just
hope you'll use this to improve your idea even further, and I await the
completion of your project. Don't forget to post a post-mortem and share the
project on Hackaday.

~~~
StavrosK
Don't worry about it, I almost finished it last night and I've been using it
all day, it's fantastic. I'm going to write up the other three steps, I also
want to make a short video for the last step. I'll post them all here for
sure!

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hkmurakami
This is glorious, and I absolutely loved your writing. I had a good laugh (no,
not just a chuckle, but a strong, hearty one!), and can't wait for the next
update.

Cheers for an awesome project and a great sense of humor. :)

~~~
StavrosK
Thank you! Here's a sneak peek a few steps ahead, just for you!

[http://youtu.be/v_e1oqCkeng](http://youtu.be/v_e1oqCkeng)

------
codewritinfool
Sparkfun used to sell one of these.
[https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/287](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/287)

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kken
Do it, then return.

~~~
StavrosK
You can't tell me what to do!

