Thanks for all of your hard work on this! I think I might build a couple of boards of your design to use as a starting point for a slightly different take. It seems that each node could support more than one phone line, more like a central office. Another idea is using a RJ45 interconnect between nodes. The four pairs of wires in the RJ45 (ethernet cable) would be enough for the RS-485 control link as well as two phones (if someone did not want to use WiFi for the control link) or 4 phones plus WiFi for control link. Of course, as you say the WiFi also provides the possibility of 'wireless' nodes. Good work!
I am working on an idea to make an expansion board where each node can have its RJ 11 cable going to a matrix board with at least four channels so then that can become more of the central office controlling who gets routed to which node so I’m going to be experimenting over the next couple of months with that.
Thanks much. Very cool. I have an old crank style phone, a dial wall phone, some old modems, and some 8 bit computers. I'd like to set up my own phone system for testing and demonstration of this equipment. Calls, ringing phones, BBS on Apple ][ etc... Is your board available as a kit from JLPCB or PCBway?
The project is shared on PCBway www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Phone_Line_Simulator_POTS_Land_Line_1d34078f.html The one component they seem to have trouble sourcing is the 600 ohm transformer because I just buy them on eBay or AliExpress so when people buy the assembled project there, I think they have to just tell them don’t put the transformer and people solder one in themselves.
@@gadgetsideload Thanks I submitted an order for 5 units to your link. It is being reviewed for assembly now. I made note of omitting the 600 ohm transformer if it was not stocked. I will let you know how it goes.
I am also currently working on another accessory board where if it works, several of these can be plugged into it so that calls can be made between multiple boards at the same time or even party line multiple notes together. if that goes well I could be making a video within the next two months for it.
mostly nostalgia, partly for fun, partly for learning new things, the same way some people will buy a broken down car or house for the purpose of fixing it up themselves and learning along the way as well. if people have older phones like these, the project could possibly be adapted to use those old phones as Internet voip phones as a novelty. or for fun if somebody has a bunch of phones like this they can build an intercom system like if they have a house where the land line is disconnected from the outside and they have all of these phone jacks still wired up in the house, they can create their own little phone system. it can also be used to test phones and make sure they work if that’s needed for any reason, and another more practical use could be theatre or even movie or TV applications where they need a phone like this to be ringing so they can answer it in the scene so this can be used to make that happen.
@Darkk6969 Dial up modems were probably my bigger motivation for setting up a nostalgic environment and tonight I finally got that working. A video update will be coming on that. I used two 386 machines with external modems, one had a bbs set up and the other dialed into it.
Thanks for all of your hard work on this! I think I might build a couple of boards of your design to use as a starting point for a slightly different take. It seems that each node could support more than one phone line, more like a central office. Another idea is using a RJ45 interconnect between nodes. The four pairs of wires in the RJ45 (ethernet cable) would be enough for the RS-485 control link as well as two phones (if someone did not want to use WiFi for the control link) or 4 phones plus WiFi for control link. Of course, as you say the WiFi also provides the possibility of 'wireless' nodes.
Good work!
I am working on an idea to make an expansion board where each node can have its RJ 11 cable going to a matrix board with at least four channels so then that can become more of the central office controlling who gets routed to which node so I’m going to be experimenting over the next couple of months with that.
This is so ridiculously cool. I can't imagine how much time it takes to develop everything involved
About 5 years and counting!
@@gadgetsideloadsounds about right :)
Thanks much. Very cool. I have an old crank style phone, a dial wall phone, some old modems, and some 8 bit computers. I'd like to set up my own phone system for testing and demonstration of this equipment. Calls, ringing phones, BBS on Apple ][ etc... Is your board available as a kit from JLPCB or PCBway?
The project is shared on PCBway
www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Phone_Line_Simulator_POTS_Land_Line_1d34078f.html
The one component they seem to have trouble sourcing is the 600 ohm transformer because I just buy them on eBay or AliExpress so when people buy the assembled project there, I think they have to just tell them don’t put the transformer and people solder one in themselves.
@@gadgetsideload Thanks I submitted an order for 5 units to your link. It is being reviewed for assembly now. I made note of omitting the 600 ohm transformer if it was not stocked. I will let you know how it goes.
I am also currently working on another accessory board where if it works, several of these can be plugged into it so that calls can be made between multiple boards at the same time or even party line multiple notes together.
if that goes well I could be making a video within the next two months for it.
Respectfully, I've got to ask Why? What's the motivation for doing this?
mostly nostalgia, partly for fun, partly for learning new things, the same way some people will buy a broken down car or house for the purpose of fixing it up themselves and learning along the way as well.
if people have older phones like these, the project could possibly be adapted to use those old phones as Internet voip phones as a novelty.
or for fun if somebody has a bunch of phones like this they can build an intercom system like if they have a house where the land line is disconnected from the outside and they have all of these phone jacks still wired up in the house, they can create their own little phone system.
it can also be used to test phones and make sure they work if that’s needed for any reason,
and another more practical use could be theatre or even movie or TV applications where they need a phone like this to be ringing so they can answer it in the scene so this can be used to make that happen.
@@gadgetsideload Would be curious if this could be used to fool dial up modems?
@Darkk6969 Dial up modems were probably my bigger motivation for setting up a nostalgic environment and tonight I finally got that working. A video update will be coming on that. I used two 386 machines with external modems, one had a bbs set up and the other dialed into it.
@@gadgetsideload Sweet!! Looking forward to that video!
Understood. I can get on board with that.