On: Show HN: An old rotary phone converted into a mobi...

[stavros]

The idea is 100% original, we just had the 100% original idea independently :P Yeah, I don't think this would be possible without the Arduino or a similar embedded processor, and it would certainly be waaaay more involved and slow if I had to do it with custom parts. Nowadays, slap a GSM shield on a $10 Arduino, done.

We truly live in amazing times.

[userbinator → stavros]

Nowadays, slap a GSM shield on a $10 Arduino, done.

You can buy an entire phone for that price:

http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone

Then add a $1 PIC to handle the glue logic and you're done. Collecting the dial pulses could probably be done with the USART configured to 10 baud and 9 bits (the first pulse counts as the start bit, and then you get up to 9 more, nicely mapping to the maximum of 10 pulses you need.) Or if you're really feeling adventurous, modify the original firmware to interface directly to the hardware... But that would mean doing real embedded work, and you wouldn't be able to mention "Arduino". ;-)

[stavros → userbinator]

> But that would mean doing real embedded work, and you wouldn't be able to mention "Arduino". ;-)

Or even do it at all, because I didn't have a month to spend doing real embedded work for a wacky idea!