At last! Unlike the last attempt I heard of, this one actually uses a rotary dial! However, they say that incoming calls don't ring, and the sound quality is not as good as it should be. But a fine hack nonetheless. rotary cellphone
At last! Unlike the last attempt I heard of, this one actually uses a rotary dial! However, they say that incoming calls don't ring, and the sound quality is not as good as it should be. But a fine hack nonetheless.
Tags: computers, firstperson, phones, retrocomputing, toys
Current Music: Luxt -- Intent ♬
14 Responses:
I saw this through slashdot. Someone linked to http://hackaday.com/ .
Scrolling down on this page I found an interesting (and IMO cooler) article regarding Hacking a Coke Machine. Apparently if you push the buttons in the right sequence, a debug menu comes up, and if the right jumpers are set on the inside you can get yourself free Coke or change.
I searched Snopes and the rest of the net to see if it was a hoax, seems as if no-one's refuting it. It seems as if this article was originally from the Anarchist's Cookbook.
Anyways, give it a read, amused me for a good 10 minutes.
Wiring up a rotary dial to a cellphone is so much cooler than typing in a password to steal a can of coke. Come on.
My friends on another forum heard about this and went crazy, but to date, none of them have found a free soda-dispensing machine. Apparently, though, one of them did manage to botch the settings and the machine guy had to change the code. :P
<LJ USER=mightywombat>: what i wanted?
<LJ USER=mightywombat>: was a cell that would be about the size of a treo with a rotary dialer
<LJ USER=rosefox>: you could mod it from an ipod clickwheel
<LJ USER=rosefox>: ...hmmm....
<LJ USER=rosefox>: in fact, better to keep the ipod housing
<LJ USER=rosefox>: it already has clickwheel interface and screen
<LJ USER=rosefox>: just attach a cellphone and fuck with the firmware
<LJ USER=mightywombat>: it should ring, dial out, and that's it
<LJ USER=mightywombat>: any color faceplate you want as long as it's bakelite black
Now all I need is a phone, an iPod, and a crash course in wiring up stuff like this.
...and now I'm thinking that if Apple ever makes the iPod into a palmtop/phone, they should totally offer a rotary-style one. Make a killing.
I think an ipod wheel would be a profoundly unsatisfying way to dial a phone number. It wouldn't spin back!
True. I'm thinking for the everyday, though. On special occasions you can pull out the authentic one and do the classic carry-it-around-the-room thing. *)
It could just make the noise, and pretend like it was spinning back... but I guess the tacticle sensation is two/thirds of the fun.
sound quality of cell phones are somewhat controlled by the carrier's compression on the server, that might be an element. GSM 6.1 compression is kind of crap
This is the precursor to having a VOIP Rotary phone...
If you've got an Asterisk box with the appropriate hardware, you can plug old POTS phones into VOIP. Not quite IP-to-the-dial, but still awfully cool.
A while ago, didn you say you were looking for something like this? I know it's been done a bit before, but I think this is the first one that uses the actual type bars to trigger the keys which you said was the coup de gra that others where missing -- even if all they do it bridge an electrical connection to a keyboard controller.
Yup, saw that in 2003. It's very nicely done...
http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&itemid=416