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Chat Online with Cordless Phone
buckymatters writes "Christoffer Järnåker has converted an old home phone to be used with Skype, MSN voice chat or other similar software. Using the 'highly scientific method Trial and Error' he uncovered the input and output of the phone, wired it up and began talking 300 meters away from his computer on MSN."
From the article:
But hey, I have an old Siemens Gigaset 3010 phone laying around that my children play with ('cause the 2 key was a bit broken), I wonder if I can use that one? So I did.
You're a bad, bad man.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
I thought that the guy had come up with some sort of text/speech conversion facility, until I read that MSN has a voice chat capability.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
...I just plug it into the back of the VOIP adapter that Vonage sent me.
Noble effort indeed but here in Japan we Pioneer has a USB Chordless phone that I can use with Skype. Great quality! http://tinyurl.com/9ahkw/ http://tinyurl.com/ckveb/ Are these available in North America/EU? Not sure.
I have a bluetooth headset, i just paired it with my iBook, and now i can walk anywhere within approx. 50 feet and hear my music, or talk in Skype.
Next up, get Bluetooth 2.0 which has a further reach.
cat
When the article said "old phone" I pictured one of those 12 pounders from 1976. You know, the black or beige kind that would allow you to unscrew the mouth piece and pull out the unwired (not wireless) audio receiver so you could listen to your parents conversation downstairs without them hearing you while you hid in their bedroom... Imagine my shock when I saw a cordless handheld like the one in my kitchen right now. I'm super old.
I just bought a VOIP to PSTN box on EBay for approx $50 and am using it to connect a cordless phone with skype.. Works very well.. But, I am not saying what this dude did is not worth it.. I like tinkering with stuff.. but they seldom work after I have torn them apart ;-)
Coral Cache
Thats really neat! perhaps he can make one more modification to it. Make it so he can use it with any wifi router and then he can make calls from anywhere in the city where there is free wifi! It's almost be like a cell phone, only free.
Tired of Apathy? http://apathyonline.net
anyone this uber-nerdy surely would have nobody to call to talk to. . .
Domino's.
KFG
While reading K. Popper my then wife asked me what I was studying. I replied that I was studying the hypothetical-deductive method, being a smart assed lawyer she replied: "You mean trail and error." I'm not sure, even now, that in its bare essentials they aren't one in the same.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
Cost $0.
Material used: one wireless phone, and one 3.5mm to 3.5mm plug (cut in half).
Tools used: screwdriver, knife, soldering iron.
So, the problem. You have a computer, your friend has a computer, you both have a broadband connection, and you make use of Skype or like the voice chat in MSN or something like this - And - you're sick and tired to sit by the computer all the time when you talk. And you might even sit with one of these ridiculous headset (hmm, yes I also have one) on your head just because the echo cancellation feature isn't that great in reality.
So, the solution. A year ago or so I tried to connect a professional headset from Plantronics to my computer just because they're so damn good and fit perfect. Well, I did get it to work after having a couple of boxes in-between the computer and the headset, but I was still tied to the computer. Now, I've seen some other devices around that basically give you an handset to connect to the USB port and then you can use that. Well, you're still tied to the computer huh? No fun. Then I read in a local magazine (Veronica magazine here in the Netherlands) about Siemens making a DECT USB adapter so that you can connect your DECT phone to the computer - and I though Wow! that's what I need. Well, 119 for another toy that I'll use like not that often? I don't think so. But hey, I have an old Siemens Gigaset 3010 phone laying around that my children play with ('cause the 2 key was a bit broken), I wonder if I can use that one? So I did.
The victim
So, how did I do it? Not that simple at first, but very much simpler at the end. I started with opening the base station (Duh!) to see what chipsets were in it. I was hoping for like an RF part a couple of lines on the circuit board and then a telephone circuit. Tji fick jag! No of course not. As any standard electronics they make use of a whole bunch of circuits, so I started looking up on the internet what they did and again - nothing to be found. Then I decided to make use of the highly scientific method Trial and Error and hoping for a bit of good luck.
By having the phone off hook I carefully inserted my little screwdriver here and there until a heard a click in the handset. And when I found that click I injected a signal from my MP3 player - and it worked! Then reverse, by blowing in the handsets microphone I used the regular headphone for my MP3 player to see where I could 'hear' the phone. By grounding on wire and using the other as a probe I quickly found the spot next to the first spot.
Note the red (sound to the phone) and green (sound from the phone) circles on the board.
Then taking an 3.5mm to 3.5mm plug cut in half connecting L+R and then attaching it or respective place (for in and out) making use of the downside of the RF part as ground plane I ended up with this.
As you can see I've used an unshielded cable, but it works perfect anyway!
So how did it work? Outstanding!!! Incoming sound in the handset is perfect. Outgoing sound is a bit on the loud side but that's easy to adjust on the computer. It really feels like you're talking on the phone and I have a 300m radius from the house that I can use. While chatting on MSN! Perfect!!!
So, what are my tips to you? Do you want to try it, but you don't have an Gigaset 3010? The tips I can give you is the following:
*
Look at the picture above and you'll see two big capacitors (silver can with a black line on it) and a voltage controller (black small box with five legs) in the lower right corner. Avoid this area! If you connect your headphones or MP3 player here you will most likely fry them. In any other base station you should find a similar area close to the power input (red on mine).
*
Be prepared that if you connect anything in the wrong place, even when trying to figure out where the signals are, you can damage the phone, MP3 player or whatever you connect. That is a -might-, and my experience is that it usually turns out fine
If you don't want to do all that, get yourself a chat-cord (http://www.chatcord.com/ and just connect your soundcard to your phone using regular pots line. No need to do any modifications. If you buy it through fwd (fwd.pulver.com) it'll only cost you 19.99 (plus 10 bucks shipping unfortunatly)
I've been using this product and it rocks. My wife and I were just talking to our relatives and if you're phone has a sattelite the two of you can talk at the same time!
It comes with free software (on XP) that will allow you to dial a number from the phone as well. Not possible yet in linux, but if you know how to decode the DTMF signals, one could easily write something to do the calling for you through the SKYPE API.
The quality has been great, and you can also use it for free world dialup or whatever. The only disadvantage is that it's not like a real phone, it won't ring if someone calls you. You have to rely on perhaps your computer ringing through the speakers.
sri
Dissodance is not permitted!
Why yes it is. What is also permitted is labeling of each post by the group and filtering based on the label. Perhaps you'd rather Slashdot strip everything from a post but the content, and forbid users from creating an external comment moderation system.
[...] wired it up and began talking 300 meters away from his computer on MSN.
Waht, was he talking to his computer 300 meters away, or was he talking to someone hundreds or thousands of miles away?
FYI... making Slashdot a "slashdot.org" site instead of a "slashdot.com" site (which happened several years ago) is simply another example of this behavior.
A phone uses only one pair of wires. In order to patch into a sound card, you'll need a pair of wires for the line in, and a pair of wires for the line out.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
I'd figure any number of different shorts could cause the phone to stop functioning/lose function
Neat, I hadn't ever looked at which articles I post to. I doubt it matters since most of my comments are pure junk (moderation gives me feedback on how I'm doing, which so far isn't very good). Sorry for getting under your skin, I just think it's stupid to complain that you're being suppressed by the masses. At some point you have to allow for people's own choice to choose what they read. I've read of a few instances of silent removal of comments by admins, but that this is very rare.
When I get moderator points I almost always use them to moderate posts up, not down (I know what I think is good, but am conservative in deciding what's bad).
Regarding the handle, I choose it a long time ago and then didn't use the account for years. I didn't see any easy way to change it without creating a new account.
WTF are you talking about? /. has always been slashdot.org. The slashdot.com domain was only obtained to stop some idiot picking it up instead.
He should have used DC blocking capacitors to couple audio in and out of the phone. He's lucky he didn't blow out something in either the phone or his computer.
Wrong. There was a time when going to "slashdot.com" would not redirect you to "slashdot.org".
The "slashdot.org" gives the site the feel of an innocent bystander. In fact, the site is a corporate site, run by corporate interests.
What story would you post if Microsoft suddenly changed their domain presence from "microsoft.com" to "microsoft.org" ???
I remember in the old days I used a tape record on a phone line somewhat like that and it was even good enough to record the 300 baud line connection. I could even play it back and reproduce the text transmitted. That was when I was a rotten kid and ... errr... experimenting.
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
You can browse your Skype contact list from the handset too.
http://www.dualphone.net/
Skype bashing aside that's still pretty neat!
"Christoffer Järnåker, who knows just enough about electronics to be dangerous, has somehow managed to kludge a new-ish cordless POTS phone to be used with *insert popular MS-based proprietary VOIP software*. Using the 'oh jeez I hope I didn't fry my phone, computer, and mp3 player method' he uncovered a spot on the circuit board which didn't immediately destroy everything, soldered three wires, and somehow got on slashdot for it.
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All of whose base are belong to the what-now?
You don't. Skype is a proprietary protocol and nobody has reverse engineered it yet. IIRC it also uses a patented compression algorithm.
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All of whose base are belong to the what-now?
Isnt the article just about providing for a head phone and mic wire from an existing phone?
It doesnt allow you to punch numbers and call to skype directly.
Nice hack but the story title is misleading.
Siggy Say, Siggy Do
you obviously parsed his username incorrectly... it's "noid entity," a reference to the old Domino's Mascot.
god, you really ARE a dumbass.
Finally got it working and said....
"Mr. Watson come here"
Siemens already has a USB attachment that lets you use VoIP (skype) from your Cordless Phone.
M34 USB
I'm using it now, and it works really well. One thing about using the hack in the article is your phone won't ring when you get a VoIP call... with the adapter it works just like a normal phone.
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
The majority of the Skype protocol has been reverse-engineered. There's a paper on it available at .
That said, you're correct about it using a patented algorithm for its audio compression. Perhaps they'd be willing to give a Free license to said algorithm... doubtful, but possible.
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
Umm if its patented then the specification for the compression is public so wheres the problem with reverse engineering it?
I wasn't aware of this paper. Looks like someone is gunning for the prize
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All of whose base are belong to the what-now?
with a Rolm phone 240. I have quite a few of them so what the hell. Matter of fact, I have a full 12 node Rolm CBX II 9000. And I don't have a POTS line to my name.. Long story..
Anyway, I took the Rolm phone and on the main board in the base unit I soldered two cables to the connection for the handset and speaker. So the handset runs straight into the soundcard of a machine that does Sykpe.
When the phone is on hook, the magnet in the handset cause a reed relay to pass audio from the soundcard to the speakerphone speaker in the base unit so you can hear it ring and hear normal sound events through it. When you lift the handset the sound re-routes to the handset and you use it like a normal phone.
You can't dial from it, none of the buttons or lights work, but the sound quality is excellent and you can rest it on your shoulder because it's a full sized handset, unlike the dinky cell phones of today.
To use it, you would SWEAR you are talking on a standard POTS phone. My friends are amazed and befuddled by it, so I have been building them for all my friends.
Next project is to go buy a cheapo cordless, my local grocery has them on the imported crap isle for $14 for a 2.4ghz.. It's probably crap but it's cheap enough to experiment on. I have a $300 Vtech 2 line cordless that I don't want to experiment on, I'll save it for when I get an adapter..
Just turn on voice chat.. stick a phone up to the speakers or wire it, either way, grab a cordless and start talking.. it works. It doesn't take a genious to figure this stuff out.
You seem to have entirely misunderstood the post you are replying to. The fact that the proprietary Skype program happens to have an API for dealing with the Skype protocol does not mean that the protocol has been reverse-engineered so that any arbitrary program such as Asterisk can interoperate with it (without necessarily needing Skype itself installed). It is certainly true that you could just use the Skype APIs from Asterisk, but that would still require you to have Skype installed. Thus, the statement that "Skype is a proprietary protocol and nobody has reverse engineered it yet." is still correct.
That's not a theory, you know. That's a friggin' AXIOM.
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
If MS started as Bill Gate's blog, then I could see ms.org.
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
It actually is possible to extract audio off of a phone line directly, anyway. That's why I don't understand how this is so impressive.
You just build a special rj11 cable, and done.
I used the same trick to build a speakerphone into my stereo with a microphone. I didn't even have a normal handset in the loop, just an on/off switch.
I also modified a cordless phone for use with online voice conversations. It's a Sanyo CLT-9171, one of the early 900 MHz spread spectrum digital ones. Using an oscilloscope it was easy to find where to connect. The phone still works for standard phone conversations, and I can even use one of the connections I added to record conversations.
Sorry 'bout the bold. "ockquote" got lost in it. :-)
I once converted a cordless phone into a wireless internet connection using modems.
>80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
>life
That's the whole point of patenting it - if you reverse engineer it and indepenently implement it, they can still sue you since the patent covers all uses of the idea (unlike copyrights which generally cover a particular implementation in software). The patent allows them to prevent anyone from using it while not having to worry about secrecy; for example, lock companies have been doing this for years with their high-security locks, patenting the shape of the keyway to prevent others from making key blanks to be used to copy keys.
--- You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad- Neal (not Cowboy) Boortz
Come on man, there are g33ks in the country, and lot's of country houses only have one floor, no attic. Give the guy a break he's already been ostricized enough... So he lives on the same floor as his parents. Does that really make him any less g33ky? Who knows? Maybe they're a whole cult of g33ks running around in Star Wars and LARP attire 24/7, like a non-stop Ren Fest. You just have to accept people's differences.
I'm thinking that a voltimeter would help with the trial and error. Like if you use it to try to find where you can connect the wires. I don't think that would damage anything either.
Would it work? I don't have much electrical experience so I don't know.
Regarding POTS handsets, how does full duplex on one circuit work?
in 1999 when Dialpad was the rage, we went out and bought a telephone handset. It was packaged with a cable that had RJ-11 on one end and mic/speaker miniplugs on the other. What's the big deal here?
...and that's all there is to it.
Get a cheap low power computer with a PCI slot. Some old P2 machine, or better yet a low power mini-itx board. You now have a place for a FXO/FXS card, and can have your laptop connect to that as needed. (Depending on your situation you may want to take the server off of your laptop entirely.