A total newbie question on a little home phone project!

Thread Starter

weavo

Joined Apr 5, 2012
1
For some time I've been wanting to get into electronics but never really taken the plunge, maybe this is just what I need..

Today, my wife brought into the house one of those really old phones where there's a dial on the front and you plug your finger into the selected number and spin the number-hub thing round and around (just like this one actually - even has the same connector on the end) http://www.retrolovedeluxe.co.uk/UploadedFiles/Products/Ivory 746.JPG - she purely wants to put it on display..

So anyway, I looked at this old blower and thought to myself absolutely everyone that sees that phone will pick up the ear piece and place it to their ear and perhaps give the dial a little twist. Wouldn't it be cool I thought if I could some how plug the phone into a piece of circuitry that would simply play back a recorded message just to give all those curious people a little surprise.... So in brief that outlines my intentions for my first electronics project and I am hoping you experts can help....

All I know at this point is that I will need:

  • a female connection for the phone to plug into
  • some wires
  • a pcb with some electronics on it - something to store the recorded message I want to playback?
  • a battery to power the circuitry
So what do you think? Is this reasonable for my first electronics project???



Your help would be brilliant - Thanks, Weavo!!!
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
That phone has a "rotary dial" that disconnects the phone from the telephone line the number of times it shows on the hole you put your finger into. If you put your finger into hole "8" and turn the dial then it disconnects the phone from the telephone line 8 times when you let go.

My phone line at home has always been for that kind of phone since I refuse to pay EXTRA for "touchtone" dialing (because it actually costs the telephone company less). My phones look modern with a pushbutton dial but are programmed to send dial pulses instead of touch-tones. When I call my bank with pulses and it answers, then I switch my phone to touch-tones and do my banking with the tones like everybody else.

You need a circuit to power the phone then detect when it disconnects when sombody dials. The detection sends your recording to the earphone.
 
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