Disconnect phone line

I work from home and have a lot of conference calls on my work phone and nothing is more unprofessional than having my home phone ring while I'm talking on my work phone.

What would be the best idea to use Arduino to disable the incoming phone line (POTS) while I'm on a call. I was thinking I could just connect the line to a relay but there must be a better way.

Thoughts?

  • Bob

This circuit is a simple circuit which prevents picking up other telephone when one telephone is in use. This can be done easily by installing this type of circuit between any telephone and the telephone line.

if you have 2 line, then use he pots line and MCU/Arduino interface detect work phone line and use phone privacy circuit to control home line.

sonnyyu:
first, let me fill in what OP asked "to light a LED to let my college know that I´m talking at the moment"

next,

sonnyyu:
however we are in Arduino forum and fall in this situation - "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
"if all you have is a brand name Atmel hammer, everything looks like a brand name Atmel nail".

Here we go- The pots line and MCU/Arduino interface;-

next, The item OP is truefully need;-

This circuit is a simple circuit which prevents picking up other telephone when one telephone is in use. This can be done easily by installing this type of circuit between any telephone and the telephone line.

This type of function is very useful when you don't want other people from disturbing your modem connection or listening to your telephone calls by picking up other telephone connected to same line. The idea of the circuit is to sense the voltage in the telephone line when the telephone is picked up. If that voltage is higher than about 30V (normal on-hook voltages is about 48V) then the circuit lets the telephone to work normally. If the voltage is lower 30V it prevents the current from going to telephone line to telehone (normally the voltage in line is about 6-10V when one telephone is off-hook). The circuit is designed so that is passes the ring voltage to all telephones without problems.

Telephone privacy circuit

last, if u still need tap the phone for other purpose.

just like Lakes told, make sure it is legal at your country.

Wiretapping - Wikipedia

final caution: the pots line might be last life savers. don't do anything unless you know what you are doing.

disable the incoming phone line (POTS) while I'm on a call

If all you want to do is have the other line not RING, and it's OK that callers on the other line simply get "no answer" when they call, a simple relay that disconnects one side of the POTS line will do that.

You need to make that connection "upstream" of any phones on the other line, probably near the entrance to the house.

You don't need Arduino for this. One simple way would be to use a small 5V power supply near your working position with a simple mechanical switch to send 5V to a relay. The relay would simply "open" the phone line connection. The relay would be switching 48V DC, and occasionally 110V (approx) AC when a ringing signal is on the line.

You could use one of those knob-twist timers for your local AC power to control the small 5V supply, if you wanted to make sure you would not forget to tun the other line back on. Or an Arduino :slight_smile:

See: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower

terryking228:

disable the incoming phone line (POTS) while I'm on a call

The relay would be switching 48V DC, and occasionally 110V (approx) AC when a ringing signal is on the line.

In the UK, the ringing signal is 75V AC.

terryking228:
...
You don't need Arduino for this.
...

I am falling into a trap

"if all you have is a brand name Atmel hammer, everything looks like a brand name Atmel nail".

Here is the Plan C;-

and connect both circuit with one transistor to convert from logic high to lower. This will give you auto phone line switch.

Very important: put one a simple mechanical switch to allow by pass triac or relay. POT line is working without Con Edison. We need to make sure it stay that way.