Collaborate Disseminate
[Yaymukund] made an interesting observation. Old-style rotary phones were made to last and made for service. Why? Because you didn’t own them, the phone company did. There was no advantage …read more Continue reading Hacking a Rotary Phone
Telephone systems predate the use of cheap computers and electronic switches. Yesterday’s phone system used lots of stepping relays in a box known as a “selector.” If you worked for …read more Continue reading Retrotechtacular: The 1951 Telephone Selector
An endless source of amusement for those of advancing years can come from handing a rotary phone to a teenager and asking them to dial a number with it. It’s …read more Continue reading A Dial Phone SIPs Asterisk
There’s an old adage about waiting hours for a bus only for two to appear at once, and for Hackaday this month we’re pleased to have seen this in a …read more Continue reading A Crossbar Telephone Switch Explained
It’s an age-old conundrum for anyone working with retro hardware: preserve its original condition or not? The answer depends so often on a complex mix of how rare, obsolete or …read more Continue reading A Rotary Phone As A Computer Peripheral
A lot of phrases surrounding phones don’t make sense anymore. With a modern cellphone, you don’t really “hang up” and there’s certainly no “dial” to be had. However, with [jakeofalltrades’] …read more Continue reading Dial A for Arduino
One of the useful side effects of the ubiquitous availability of cellular network data modules is that they can be used to create custom mobile phones. It’s surprising in a way that we don’t see as many of these projects as we’d expect, but by way of redressing that deficiency …read more
Continue reading A Mobile Phone For The Pulse Dial Generation
When we make a telephone call in 2020 it is most likely to be made using a smartphone over a cellular or IP-based connection rather than a traditional instrument on a pair of copper wires to an exchange. As we move inexorably towards a wireless world in which the telephone …read more
A few weeks ago we featured a project from [Dan], a work-in-progress in which he was attaching an EMF 2018 electronic conference badge to a rotary phone. At the time we looked forward to his progress, expecting maybe to see it in our travels round the field at EMF 2021. …read more
Continue reading Finally, A Usable Rotary Phone From A Conference Badge
We have covered the astonishing diversity of conference badges to a great extent over the years, and we are always pleased and surprised at the creativity and ingenuity that goes into their creation. But the saddest thing about so many badges is that after the event they go into the …read more
Continue reading A Conference Badge Breathes Life Into A Rotary Phone