Great, Bob. Now I can't stop thinking about just how I'd go about hacking this together....
Hm. Anyone know a good site that describes how rotary phones worked? I know they used simple relay-tick pulses, but there's timing issues involved. And I've always wondered just how they made sure that the dials on all the phones spun (during the return-to-start) at the same speed (or, rather, sloe enough -- the out POTS network doubtless had rather forgiving error handling).
Simplest quick-hack would seem to be an app (probably Android) that could listen to the clicks and dial. Error-prone, though. Getting a bit fancier, hacking a small micro that would look/feel like a bluetooh accessory to the smartphone, but had a direct electrical connection to the analog phone, would probably work better. Just have to get 'hold of the correct standards for making both interfaces.
Hm. Anyone know a good site that describes how rotary phones worked? I know they used simple relay-tick pulses, but there's timing issues involved. And I've always wondered just how they made sure that the dials on all the phones spun (during the return-to-start) at the same speed (or, rather, sloe enough -- the out POTS network doubtless had rather forgiving error handling).
Simplest quick-hack would seem to be an app (probably Android) that could listen to the clicks and dial. Error-prone, though. Getting a bit fancier, hacking a small micro that would look/feel like a bluetooh accessory to the smartphone, but had a direct electrical connection to the analog phone, would probably work better. Just have to get 'hold of the correct standards for making both interfaces.