Rotary mobile phone

I've been considering construction of a rotary candlestick mobile phone. I have a bit of programming experience but am a beginner in the electronics field. Theres a lot of projects that have elements of what I'd like to do but nothing detailed thats close to what I want to do. At most a few pics and whoopee I made a phone.

At minimum I'd like
candlestick form factor
mobile
rotary input
can make and receive calls.

optionally I'd like
txting capability
screen to see txts
rings an actual bell

Components I think I need are

Candlestick Phone (replica rotary ) or at minimum a dial.

DMTF converter (if phone is older pulse)

Cell Module or mobile cell phone

Antenna

Power Source

I'd like to make this as simple as possible. Is this feasible? What components can the Arudino serve as? What exactly should I buy to get started? Is there any detailed accurate tutorial you know of thats as close as possible to what I want?

Thanks

see this link It has been done before, but check where the screen is, this link doesn't show it, apart from underneath the base.

Tom..... :slight_smile:

Yeah, not quite detailed enough of an explanation. I prefer the step by step treatment. I've decided I'll try first to figure out how to hook up a rotary dial to a working mobile phone. Unless somebody thinks thats a bad idea?

The main problem is I'm not sure exactly how to start I have several options on the table.

Cell phone route
cell phone + rotary dial+ DTMF converter?
Advantages: potentially cheaper. Potentially simpler and quicker if I get lucky and figure it out.

Disadvantages: Random phones are usually not intended to be tinkered with, have poor documention and its unknown how difficult they will be to work with or how available they will be.

Arduino Route
arduino phone components + rotary dial+ DTMF converter?
Advantages: Well documented. There is a good tutorial for connecting a dial to an arduino and a good tutorial for making an arduino phone.

Disadvantage: Massively Expensive, around +200 just to assemble the most popular model. Requires me to construct a phone from scratch which I don't mind in and of itself but is not the point of my project and adds expense and complexity. There is no tutorial I know of that combines connecting a dial to an assembled arduino phone.

cell module route
cell module + other phone components + rotary dial+ DTMF converter?
Advantages: Possibly cheaper and quicker than arduino route.
Disadvantage: There is no cell module as popular as the arduino and little documentation. Also it is still expensive and also still requires me to construct a phone which is not the point of the project. I haven't seen any process for connecting a dial to a module.

Any suggestions on the best path to take?

I don't think mobile phones will respond to DTMF audio, to make calls. The electronics of the phone itself generates whatever signals are needed to make the call, and it may or may not be DTMF. In POTS (Plain Ordinary Telephone System), The sequence is that the CO (Central Office) detects off-hook, and waits for either pulses (from a rotary dial), or DTMF. The DTMF can be sent by the phone itself, generated from the number buttons, or by playing the tones into the microphone.

The mobile system does not need to send DTMF, except when you are already connected, and you need to respond to voice mail or send commands or choices to the called phone, and even then, the DTMF os more than likely to be generated at the receiving end, and not as audio to be sent from the calling phone. Though I say DTMF is not needed to make the call, they just might use it, but I really doubt it. A moble sends data, in well defined packets, and that includes data that comes from digitizing any sound you want to send, like voice.

The idea is interesting, though. You could take a few different tacks...

  1. Use mechanical means to depress the keys.

  2. remove the buttons from a mobile phone, and hard-wire the switches to an Arduino.

  3. Find out if you can make calls using the USB connector.

Good Luck.

Sparkfun doesn't sell this rotary phone anymore, but maybe the documentation can help you.

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/51

Alright I'm a beginner so bear with me. This might be a complicated set of questions

I'm thinking of copying sparkfun's Port-o-Rotary.
Unfortunately many of the components look retired and there looks like
there are a ton of additional components and wiring. So would
replacing it with an arduino be feasible/easier?

18 Pin PIC Development Board

Replaceable with Arduino Uno?

PIC 18 Pin 7-A/D 20MHz 4K - 16F88

Replace with the Uno's Microcontroller?

GM862 Cellular Quad Band Module

Replaceable with Arduino GSM shield?

Here is a diagram of the Sparkfun Rotary Board

Here is a diagram of the PIC and Cellular Module portion of the Sparkfun Phone. You can see the connections to the dial here through F rotary and Rotary.

The Ringer Circuit

Power Circuit

and here is a Diagram of the Arduino GSM shield.

  1. So is a substitution with the Arduino GSM possible?

  2. If so where would I connect the rotary elements on the GSM shield or Uno since the shield sits on top?

  3. Where would I connect the ringer circuit?

4.Would it be possible to have a ringer, rotary dial, and some means
of receiving and sending txt messages attached at the same time?

Does anybody know the answers to these questions? I'd research it on my own but aside from the datasheet I posted there isn't any documentation that I can find that comprehensively explains the individual components of the gsm shield and how they can be used.