Tuesday, May 16, 2006

cheap VOIP


I ran across a circuit here to convert mic/speaker to RJ11 for your old crappy cordless phone you have laying around.

from mobilewhack.com

7 comments:

forkev said...

DUDE, i just bookmarked that schematic! after reading about skype opening up comp to phone in USA for free, it's had me thinking.

i've been wondering how to hack up my old 900mhz phones (I had one, and then bought another for 2$ at a yard sale for the battery - as it turns out the guts of both phones are the same Uniden insides, with the moterola transmitter chip.... anyways)

check out this and this to go along with the article - which he just tapped into the speaker phone portion of - my phones have no speaker phone part.... so i guess i'll start fishing.

k2h said...

yeah.. I figure breaking open a $2 phone is a waste of time if you can make a circuit with 6 parts to do the job. plus... when you get sick of that $2 phone, you can plug in a new one, instead of taking another sunday afternon with you soldering iron to modify your new treasure.

have you used skype yet? i'm interested to see what the quality is. if you get it up and running, either on the ol pc with mic and speaker or your hack-mo-job yard sale phone, give me a call (on my cell) so I can hear it.

forkev said...

i have not called a landline, but a few months ago i got the inlaws setup so they could call a friend in canada. the quality was better then calling next door. no glitches, crystal clear.

forkev said...

there is a skype api - and even a wrapper in .Net. time to loadup the .Net express edition.

forkev said...

i took one of my phones all apart, built a probe with some headphones, and found the mic in and speaker out from the main board of the cordless phone. I think i'll finish wiring it up and testing it, but this is a schematic and method i think i can reproduce for a non-invasive solution.

forkev said...

got my cordless running by soldering straight to the pcb in the phone. cheep, but effective. the caller ID rings up as 000 012 3456
when i call a real phone with it. wierd. my boss thought i was from russia.

k2h said...

was that before or after you called him that he thought you were from russia =)