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Build a Skype phone |
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Last update: 2005-05-29
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All pictures are clickable for a full resolution picture |
Cost $0.
Material used: one wireless phone, and one 3.5mm to 3.5mm plug (cut in half).
Tools used: screwdriver, knife, soldering iron.
So, the problem. You have a computer, your friend has a computer, you both have a broadband connection, and you make use of Skype or like the voice chat in MSN or something like this – And – you’re sick and tired to sit by the computer all the time when you talk. And you might even sit with one of these ridiculous headset (hmm, yes I also have one) on your head just because the echo cancellation feature isn’t that great in reality.
So, the solution. A year ago or so I tried to connect a professional headset from Plantronics to my computer just because they’re so damn good and fit perfect. Well, I did get it to work after having a couple of boxes in-between the computer and the headset, but I was still tied to the computer. Now, I’ve seen some other devices around that basically give you an handset to connect to the USB port and then you can use that. Well, you’re still tied to the computer huh? No fun. Then I read in a local magazine (Veronica magazine here in the Netherlands) about Siemens making a DECT USB adapter so that you can connect your DECT phone to the computer – and I though Wow! that’s what I need. Well, €119 for another toy that I’ll use like not that often? I don’t think so. But hey, I have an old Siemens Gigaset 3010 phone laying around that my children play with (’cause the 2 key was a bit broken), I wonder if I can use that one? So I did.
The victim
On the next page we’ll continue with the actual process of converting the phone
Free conferance call, Internet telephony with Skype, Skype, , chatcord, VoIP,Voice over IP, save, new, cordless, Free phone calls, chat-cord, IP Phone, Skype compatible, free voip, dualphone,rapidbox skype adaptor voip voice over ip,Go wireless with Olympia Cordless DUALphone, CyberPhone,skype usb phone rj11 adapter, cordless dualphone, FWD, Skype, Xten, Yahoo, Stanaphone,
TerraCall pc mac laptop
So, how did I do it?
Not that simple at first, but very much simpler at the end. I started with opening the base station (Duh!) to see what chipsets were in it. I was hoping for like an RF part a couple of lines on the circuit board and then a telephone circuit. Tji fick jag! No of course not. As any standard electronics they make use of a whole bunch of circuits, so I started looking up on the internet what they did and again – nothing to be found. Then I decided to make use of the highly scientific method Trial and Error and hoping for a bit of good luck.
By having the phone off hook I carefully inserted my little screwdriver here and there until a heard a click in the handset. And when I found that click I injected a signal from my MP3 player – and it worked! Then reverse, by blowing in the handsets microphone I used the regular headphone for my MP3 player to see where I could ‘hear’ the phone. By grounding on wire and using the other as a probe I quickly found the spot next to the first spot.
Note the red (sound to the phone) and green (sound from the phone) circles on the board.
Then taking an 3.5mm to 3.5mm plug cut in half connecting L+R and then attaching it or respective place (for in and out) making use of the downside of the RF part as ground plane I ended up with this.
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As you can see I’ve used an unshielded cable, but it works perfect anyway!
On the last page we’ll have a look at the end result and how it works.
Free conferance call, Internet telephony with Skype, Skype, , chatcord, VoIP,Voice over IP, save, new, cordless, Free phone calls, chat-cord, IP Phone, Skype compatible, free voip, dualphone,rapidbox skype adaptor voip voice over ip,Go wireless with Olympia Cordless DUALphone, CyberPhone,skype usb phone rj11 adapter, cordless dualphone, FWD, Skype, Xten, Yahoo, Stanaphone,
TerraCall pc mac laptop
So how did it work? Outstanding!!! Incoming sound in the handset
is perfect. Outgoing sound is a bit on the loud side but that’s easy to adjust on the computer. It really feels like you’re talking on the phone and I have a 300m radius from the house that I can use. While chatting on MSN! Perfect!!!
So, what are my tips to you? Do you want to try it, but you don’t have an Gigaset 3010? The tips I can give you is the following:
Look in the forum, there you’ll find step by step instructions on how I did this.
Look at the picture above and you’ll see two big capacitors (silver can with a black line on it) and a voltage controller (black small box with five legs) in the lower right corner. Avoid this area! If you connect your headphones or MP3 player here you will most likely fry them. In any other base station you should find a similar area close to the power input (red on mine).
Be prepared that if you connect anything in the wrong place, even when trying to figure out where the signals are, you can damage the phone, MP3 player or whatever you connect. That is a -might-, and my experience is that it usually turns out fine. But be aware of it.
Avoid messing around in the RF (radio frequency) box. The electronics here is veeery sensitive.
Even though my conversion went fine, I did manage to fry some part of the actual telephone part. So I can’t use the phone anymore for regular calls. But what the heck! It works for my purpose perfect.
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The finished phone.
Continue to the success story page with peopels own results with pictures and instructions. |
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June 13th, 2005 at 2:24
Is there a way so we can dial the number from the phone and be
recognised by skype? As i understood, you still have to make the call from
your pc, correct?
thanks
June 13th, 2005 at 8:49
Maurice is working on a solution for this. Have a look at the comments at the success stories page on what he’s doing.
/Chris
June 13th, 2005 at 18:52
look this pulso!!!!1111
June 21st, 2005 at 19:42
Dude! Nice work! ^^
June 22nd, 2005 at 17:05
that’s cool…I’ll do this some day also :).
June 23rd, 2005 at 14:53
Hey guys,
I ran across the chat-cord once and I thought it was a perfect solution for replacing those stupid headsets, but they are way to expensive (and I can’t by them here in the Netherlands).
So I googled a lot, and now I’ve built my own chatcord for only like 7 euro’s (most of it went to the cables…) The advantage over the system presented at this site is that you don’t have to modify your phone, but you just place the device between you phone and pc.
Furthermore it does work with the chatcord software to use the buttons of your phone to answer and make calls. So actually it has the same functionality as the chat-cord except that is uses a 9V battery for the power instead of the USB-port (because I was afraid I would ruin my USB).
It is actually really easy, if you’re interested just ask for it at this site and I’ll give a detailed description.
June 23rd, 2005 at 18:08
Hey Mr. Blond,
Would you send me your description on how you did it (by the contact form) and I’ll publish it here.
I know for sure that I’m interested
June 24th, 2005 at 20:46
Mr. Blond, I too would be very interested to know how you made your own chat-cord!!
June 25th, 2005 at 0:15
Franc: I’ve just recieved the work from Mr. Blond and will put it up here in the beginning of next week.
June 26th, 2005 at 18:13
Hello
Would you send me your description on how you built your own chatcord.
Thanks
Have a nice day.
June 27th, 2005 at 9:42
Guess we’re all waiting for you Chris 😉
June 27th, 2005 at 14:15
Patiently waiting to see this myself.
June 27th, 2005 at 20:36
All: Hang on. It’s coming…
June 27th, 2005 at 21:19
Got my iron heated up and ready to go… 😀
June 28th, 2005 at 2:28
I dont need to wait on mine to heat up I have ColdHeat soldering iron. Although I need to get more batteries.
June 29th, 2005 at 20:03
Hi,
i am from germany. Good idea.Thanks
June 29th, 2005 at 21:15
All: Mr. Blond’s Build your own chat-cord is now up running here
July 1st, 2005 at 5:50
Good idea,
I tried something similar with a land phone,
But just cant get skype to recognize the numbers dialed,
I made an application to read dial tones, but no idea to transfer the data to skype.
Any skype developers out there ?
Gunesh Raj
Malaysia
July 1st, 2005 at 18:11
“ColdHeat soldering iron”… you mean Cold Solder Joint maker.
July 4th, 2005 at 3:51
Hey Chris! Great project you have here, I’m already starte on mine!
I was talking to my friend on how the best way to go about this was and we decided on having a race to see who could finish first …. but he then asked me, “well, what the hell, why not just plug the phone cord in and splice the wires on?” You know, just cut open the phone cable and put on the 3.5mm jacks ??? I’m not really sure, but that seems like a much better idea to me.
July 4th, 2005 at 10:31
mike sty:
Inside an RJ11 the two middle pins (2&3) are the ones that carry your telephone voice. The two other ones (1&4) send the telephone to the next phone so this we can ignore.
The problem is that in the computer we have one cable (ground & signal) with audio in and one cable (ground & signal) with audio out. A telephone also has this internally, but it mixes the two before it reaches the actual telephone line.
What you want to do it to have a look at another project at Grynx where we do exactly what you want. Have a look at Build your own chat-cord
July 6th, 2005 at 0:30
That is correct about the RJ11, but the RJ10, that goes between a phones handset and the base, these wires can be rewired into an 1/8th jack. You’d be tethered to your computer though which kinda defeats the purpose, but it would work.
You could also unplugged the coiled cable from the handset, plug it into the phone base and you’ve got yourself a local POTS connection to conference in other people via telco copper.
This box is very cool none the less and I do plan on building one. I work at a Telephone/ISP and have DSL filters that I can canabolize for this.
I had gotten to the point that I was about to break my phone open and do the Siemens hack when I read on Slash about the DIY chat-box.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:07
Sorry, I haven’t read the comments, so this might be duplicated.
I just did the above for a Conair cordless phone. I noticed in the chat cord instructions (http://www.grynx.com/index.php/projects/build-your-own-chat-cord/) that it talked about a big coil transformer. If your phone is like mine and has such a transformer, it’s really easy to find the soldier points without much trial and error. Just find where the 6 pins on the coil are soldiered to the board. 3 pins will be on the “phone side” and 3 will be on the “line side”. Of the 3 on the line side, test a pair of headphones on the middle and one of the end pins. If it doesn’t work, you’re probably on the “phone side” so try the other set of 3 pins.
Did mine today in about 2 minutes. Now I just need to dremel the case to get the cords through.
Much cheaper than the DIY chat cord and I can still plug it into the phone line when it’s not hooked to the PC.
Noice. THANKS!
July 11th, 2005 at 23:46
My question is some derivative:
Could anyone do wireless connect two PCs using the base station and headphone attached respectively to each one of PCs as hot points.
July 22nd, 2005 at 20:14
Hernan: Are you asking about networking? It’s probably easier than this hack. All you need is modems on both computers, one cordless phone, and one regular phone. Connect the two phone lines to the modem inputs, and then hold (duct tape) the cordless handset to the regular handset, upside down (speaker to mic and mic to speaker). Then use one computer to dial something (modem command ATDT1234567) and manually answer the other (ATA).
You can try setting up Windows RAS or whatever equivalent, but you’ll have trouble making the other phone ring. I would just use the HyperTerminal window and file transfers…
July 27th, 2005 at 21:08
thanks for this informations, i couldnot find the same transformer in local market and i found
the transformer from my old fax. and i made it very easily and working very smoothly
now i want to dial manually my regular another one phone and want to connect this voice in to that
SKYPE phone(chatcord) >>>>>>>>>> my regular phone >>>>>>>>>>> my friends regular phone
is that possible, any methode this voice in and out to map a regular phone
August 6th, 2005 at 8:47
Hmmm.. but if i put my wireless phone into chatcord, will this work ?
August 12th, 2005 at 23:45
Hi, wow, this is awsome, thanks for the very clear instructions and pictures. I have started to try this myself. I am using an old GE 2.4 ghz cordless phone. I have succsessfuly found the mic input and have been able to hear my portable cd player through the ear peace on the phone. That was easy. However i am not having as much luck with the next part, finding the spot for the speaker. My problem seems to be basicly that i cant figure out how to make an efective probe. My first probe worked fine. But then for the second part i took some old headphones and cut the plug off, it shows two tiny wires for both left and right. The problem is that i cant ever get any single through the headphones ones i cut them. I have tried to get a single through to the headphones by pluging in the jack stub into the cd player and matching up the wires to the headphones. This is just with the cd player now, so im not even dealing w the phone right now. I cant ever get a singnal. I have tried with two sets of headphones. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
PS: skype id = gideonturner
.
thanks so much. sorry about all the vergage!
August 21st, 2005 at 21:02
Hi guys,
Thanks for all tips, i sped just 5min to figure out my connections on a motorola cl3200 phone, it was 2 pins of the transformer, it worked great, but is there a way to use chat-cord software for dialing ? what can i do to make the phone ring with an incoming call ?
WaZZie
August 21st, 2005 at 21:36
Nice,
Got the chatcord software to work (had to disable microsoft amplifier) now it’s very good, it’s not that easy to learn, but ok.
Now just need to make it ring.. it will be perfect
WaZZie
September 3rd, 2005 at 18:56
Hi Mr Blond,
I have read your chat-cord.It is a good product.As we are the Skype USB
Phone manufacturer in China(http://www.beyondtel.com).I wonder if it is
possible for us to cooperate with you and manufacture for you. That cost
will be much cheaper.:) My mail address is susan@beyondtel.com.
September 26th, 2005 at 22:41
I used this guide to convert my spare Uniden “Extend-a-phone”. Works a treat, but i may have to put another sound card (i have plenty anyway) into my MCE box, so the TV can continue to run while talking on the phone. I can upload pic’s of the solder joints if you want, but they are dead easy to find. I was able to solder on the “Links” on the top side of the board. Back to chatting on skype!
September 27th, 2005 at 6:46
Hi All.
I used pretty much the same method on this phone
so ill only include the Final result.
this is an Uniden model EXP970
bought in walmart for a few bucks
using the ilustrated connections.
i get really good sound quality. verry little “hizz”
http://www.grynx.com/index.php/projects/siemens-skype/siemens-skype-success-stories/
Enjoy!
/Rune Kyndal
October 5th, 2005 at 21:35
Hi,
I think this may be of interest to a few of you, especially in regards to DTMF detection (i.e. dial by phone itself) and phone ringing.
I’ve done the same thing as you describe here, with a few additions/changes. First of all, I would recommend to use capacitors for signal coupling to avoid any DC offsets which may destroy the phone or soundcard.
Now, in my setup, I use the left output channel of the soundcard for the phone’s speaker, the left input channel of the soundcard for the phone’s microphone and, *additionally* the right output channel of the soundcard for ringtone generation.
On the PCBs of the phone’s base stations, there should be a signal path for the ring signal. The purpose of the parts in this path are more often than not just to shrink the amplitude of the ring signal enough so that it can be fed directly into one of the digital inputs of the DECT controller in the base station. There, seemingly a frequency counter looks if a signal with constant (and, at least in my cases exactly 50Hz, wtf?) frequency and high enough amplitude is coming into the phone and sends a ring command to the headset.
I have written a patch for the stable version (1.0.9) of the opensource linux PBX “asterisk” that does the following:
– detects offhook/hangup by the amplitude of the noise present on the soundcard’s input. This, even to my surprise, works reliably when properly configured (I don’t have any information about long-time drifts of soundcards, though, but that can’t bee too much)
– does DTMF detection on the soundcard signal -> dialling with the phone is possible
– rings the phone
With the proper dialplan in asterisk, the phone behaves exactly like it is connected to a phone company (dialtone etc. configurable).
Asterisk also fully supports SIP etc., so it is a nice, open alternative to skype.
Please see:
http://www.okay.dyndns.org/chan-oss-dect.patch
and
http://www.okay.dyndns.org/chan-oss-dect.README (coming soon)
I’m in the process of porting this patch to the latest OSS sound driver in CVS head and putting it into the bug tracking system for review.
Cheers,
Onno
October 26th, 2005 at 14:13
is it posible to use the phones normal outup and conecting it to a normal 56k modem and use it that way?
guy
October 26th, 2005 at 17:53
I tried this with an older 900mhz phone and I thought I had everything connected properly. I plugged it into the computer and tried it. The sound back to the phone works fine but when I try to record the sound back to the computer it wis very faint and fuzzy. Any suggestions as to how I can fix this. Thanks!
November 14th, 2005 at 3:01
This discussion got me to wondering if a system could be setup like the old ‘free fax’ where a
connection software could be designed that would allow skype users to dial through skype to
non-skypea users,using volunteer skype connections that are hooked into local numbers to
dial a local number. SOme may remember that is how the free fax by TPC was setup.
November 21st, 2005 at 10:31
I want to know, how to connect a 20 analog phones to a computer and start a voip implementation, I don’t want to buy a costly PBX system and then zapata cards. Is there a simple hack to make a 20 line network using a pc and 1 outside PSTN line.
November 21st, 2005 at 10:38
Priyank Bolia: Have a look at the VoIP dect OSS Linux project. That runs asterix which is a linux free PBX and it can handle all your lines.
December 5th, 2005 at 19:57
Hehe … I just got hand on my old Hagenuk HomeHandy clou which resided in the basement since years (literally!). Gee, those contacts were really hard to find — you wouldn’t believe how frequently a DECT base crashes and “reboots” if you’re stumbling around, grounding various contacts via a headphone ;). — And when I finally had them, they were so darn close together. Anyway: Yes, it works! Cute, really cute …
… But nothing more than that. DECT based Skype-ing might be pretty comfortable, but Skype was designed to deliver near FM radio sound quality — which I really do like when talking to friends or co-workers who acoustically appear to stand right next to me.
Using an actual phone (either wired or DECT) as the mouthpiece and earpiece reduces this quality down those 4 kHz which is immanent to phone connection … and as well to SIP-VoIP, which Skype busts concerning audio quality.
So — if you really think that 4 kHz quality is good enough for Skype (which I definitely don’t), it would be much more versatile to get a Bluetooth USB module and use a BT headpiece for that (you (propably) already own one as a hands-free solution for your mobile phone).
December 10th, 2005 at 2:14
I have successfully done this to a DORO Audioline 25 cordless phone.
PCB-instructions here:
http://skogsmaskin.dyns.net/projects/skypephone/audioline25_pcb_big.jpg
I’ve also tried locating the ring detector circuit on it too (as mentioned by Onno Kortmann above), but no luck with that yet. It would be a killer to have it ringing as well on incoming Skype calls.
December 17th, 2005 at 13:44
When I tinker with telephones to atatch audio in/out- in my case to make studio quality recordings for film scenes, or to send talkback to remote actors, I connect a high voltage capacitor in series with my audio “probe”(whatever piece of sound equipment that may be); This prevents any nasty DC frying your mixer! cheap audio 3.5:1 audio transformers are available from Maplin, in series with the capacitor(about 0.1microfarad) can provide a proper balanced output at quite good quality – certainly well above any phone line!!!
Andy
December 21st, 2005 at 23:59
might put this feed on my website http://www.i-voip.co.uk – do you think that would be ok?
January 6th, 2006 at 15:38
I have found this solution on http://www.skype-forum.com .
Very very good Idea. Thx!!
Greets
Robert
January 8th, 2006 at 14:47
je suisn utilusateur de skype depuis lomptenps et j’aimerais m’abonne pour passe de appelle des appelles telephonique et je suis dan lattente d’une suite favorable je vous remerci
January 8th, 2006 at 23:41
Hi,
I want to build card phone system to use in home. Do you know information about this system please help me.
thanks.
January 10th, 2006 at 2:30
Here is the answer to all of your questions !!!
http://tools.netgear.com/skype/#
Now stop waisting your time trying to build
a Skype phone !!
and wait for it to go on sale !!
January 15th, 2006 at 19:02
In reply to: Pjamies
I think most people do this for the fun of it, and not because they can’t/will not purchase a real product…
January 16th, 2006 at 13:40
hi guyzz nice work…… i have a question can we use a dial-up modem to connect a wired or wireless phone…. if any suggestionz u can get me at desmond.christie@yahoo.com
peace
January 28th, 2006 at 17:21
anyone try using a cell phone for this? ifd so what do you do to do it?
February 11th, 2006 at 5:57
If you are interested in recording calls made through these types of phones try
Skylook .
February 26th, 2006 at 17:41
Can I use as a dialing input the RJ11 port (dial-up modem)of my computer in order to put a phone and dial trough Skype? a software that could be a bridge between Skype
and the modem
March 2nd, 2006 at 14:10
Ebay item – 5872584804
I hope this is you, otherwise someone else is ripping off your great idea !
March 2nd, 2006 at 16:04
kev: Thanks!
No that is not me, and I’ve contacted eBay like a million times regarding that person and item but they just delay it and never deal with it.
Does anyone have any connections within eBay to get this resolved???
March 3rd, 2006 at 14:37
how do you get the origenal phone
March 4th, 2006 at 11:51
So what happens to us laymen who have no idea of what the experts are talking about? How do we get over the problem of having to buy a new cordless phone while the old one is put into the bottom drawer?
March 5th, 2006 at 1:56
I have a working copy of software for windows that will allow you to dial / hangup / and pickup the phone. It’s still in the development stage (2 seperate EXE’s) but it works great with this same modification to a uniden phone. Similar to the way the chat-cord software works. When its finished I’ll post it here.
March 5th, 2006 at 2:04
Regarding message #54 — Make a few listing of your own for $.75 and tell them where to get the info for free online without paying right in the listing or that they can pay $0.75 to have it email to them. Might cost you a few dollars but I bet the listing would stop quickly after that.
March 19th, 2006 at 15:24
oke is goed best programma kan leuk zijn
March 19th, 2006 at 23:20
I am a electronic Technician and can build that phone in one hour. Hoe can I get the phone pieces kit? Let me know if I have to send you any money or what I have to do to get it.
Thanks
Gilbert Santiago
100 Diana Court
Summerville, SC 29483
843-376-9222
March 21st, 2006 at 19:44
Another alternative is to get a bluetooth dongle that supports the headset protocol and to pair it with a bluetooth headset.
March 24th, 2006 at 14:52
sounds good-will try soon,thanks for now-i wonder if it would be possible to put a u.s.b. 2 lead on an ancient radio phone-don,t suppose so!
March 26th, 2006 at 21:51
Oh, if you set Skype to ring via PC speaker, and you connect that PC speaker output to the ‘page’ button on the phone (well, I suppose you could poke around for the actual ring line) – it should work. Otherwise hook it up with a transistor (or more) and it should give enough power to ‘trip’ the line.
April 2nd, 2006 at 15:18
You might want to add a new sound card to your computer so you can hook the phone to it and not interupt the computer’s sound system.
April 4th, 2006 at 13:56
oooooooo, coool
i’m interested to build this, but i don’t know electronic systems
April 9th, 2006 at 14:04
Send the method.
April 21st, 2006 at 4:08
these skype tutorials are better than sliced bread, bigger than texas and in angsty teenage terms, there the “bomb”.
I’ve cut and pasted and printed them all out with a view of collecting all the parts needed secondhand, draging out my favourite tool (soldering iron) and getting to the hacks, please make more gutsy tutorials, especialy as here in australia, we love skype, mostly becouse from experiance its been solid, that is to say, when makeing calls from computer to computer, as for long distance computer to cell (computer in england to my cell/mobile phone in australia, the quality is absolutely crap. but……
i’m still thinking skype is cool and workable and would love to see all kinds of new tutorials from makeing one’s own usb hard drive from an old usb conecter and a very large laptop hard drive (large as in mb.
so almost any cool tutorials or links to sites with detailed instructions on makeing all sorts of interfaces and nifty things, (outher than ir dependant flashing lights)and the turorials so far have been free,for a single parent wityh confidence and joy in makeing ones own gadgets, free tutorials on gadget makeing or links to free instructions would be very very much apreciated.
Thanx skype team and any outhers that help make these idea’s possible.Thanx for a great product and support
cheers
dom
May 9th, 2006 at 10:08
very interesting.Now to find someone who can help me make one
May 11th, 2006 at 21:17
Breakup Voive Distortions – for dom geko & crew.
If anyone has breakup & or voice distortions whilst using Skype I recommend using a VoIP Accelerator, found here: http://tinyurl.com/pnbo7.
Hope this helps.
Bear (Oz)
May 12th, 2006 at 13:35
Hi all!
That’s an incredible device, I want a build one too!
Is there any way to implement “real-phone” calling via this device? For example, if I dial zero at my phone I can access the telco line, and if I dial smth else (not starting with zero) I access the Skype. It’s like office systems.
I’m sure it can be done with any voice modem.
It’s all software thing, does anyone know about some implementations?
May 13th, 2006 at 2:34
Oh sorry. Wrong thread. Question was about http://www.grynx.com/index.php/projects/build-your-own-chat-cord/
May 18th, 2006 at 7:53
I was long looking for solutions to wireless-Skype last year,
and that was quite difficult.
Not that there was no equipment to buy from the shelf, the
prices were scary.
However, now it is not difficult to find a dual phone that
does the usual circuit switching wireless and the Skype / MSN
at the same time.
So, no soldering of wires for me! Payed a few bucks, but got
a decent phone.
By the way, if it comes to hacking wires, I’d rather build a
cable with a standard RJ11 (or like) plug at one end and the
3.5 mm plugs on the other end, without opening the wires.
There are devices that can neatly attach the wires to the RJ11.
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:50
Hi,
I just got a vtech skype capable phone. If this is an internet
phone why do I need to hook up the phone cord to make it work?
Thanks, Eivind
May 23rd, 2006 at 14:35
Does anyone know how to do this for an old PBX phone? My guess is that it’s more difficult since it needs power as well.
May 31st, 2006 at 7:34
Hey guys, try to buy a usb-bluetooth sender (range 100 meters) and use your bluetooth earphone from your mobile phone… it works fine and you can move around the house talking with your friends!
June 5th, 2006 at 11:26
I have a question. I am looking for a skype phone that I can get that doesn’t need internet connectivity and tthat I can take with me anywhere, like our cell phones now. So people out of the country can reach me like anyone can reach me on my cell phone. Where would I get that? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. You can email me at: kellymarielang@hotmail.com
June 12th, 2006 at 13:03
THE EASIEST POSSIBLE SOLUTION!!!
NO SOLDERING! DON’T EVEN HAVE TO OPEN THE PHONE BASE!
Needed: 1) A standard phone cord
2) A headset/microphone cord
Cut the phone cord and the headset/microphone cord. Strip them, twist yellows with reds and blacks with greens (and/or uninsulated). Plug headset and microphone jacks into cpu, plug remaining end of phone cord into your cordless phone’s jack. Done.
Now if someone can figure out a way to dial via the phone that would be much appreciated. Still don’t know if the phone will ring upon someone calling – only had it operational about 5 minutes. Email me with ring/dial solutions : Likecandy7@aol.com
June 26th, 2006 at 0:24
hi there can anybody let me know how to convert my old panasonic KX-T3920 or bellsouth model 674X into a skype phone.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:50
it works with a panasonic chicago 330 also its the same main bord
July 20th, 2006 at 2:46
hello sir,
i am BE student (trade-computer) n want more info about skype because my project group want to do
project on skype..so please can you give us guidelines regarding the same.
waiting for reply.
July 21st, 2006 at 15:51
Rodolfo is such an annoying bastard! i’m pretty sure he never fucks, that’s why he’s so annoying
August 6th, 2006 at 16:47
cooooooool!
August 12th, 2006 at 16:39
Cool! I done it also for several models. Last piece of art is BT Studio 1100 at http://beep.selfip.com
August 16th, 2006 at 9:44
Thanks this look like it could be very cool
August 16th, 2006 at 14:09
I have Skype on my laptop and I have acquired a model KU11208 hand phone (see image at http://www.vivophone.com/imagenes/productos/Usb-ml301_BG.jpg) with a USB connection to the laptop. Windows says the device is working properly. I used to use it with a subscription to Flyfone, but now
I have stopped the subscription which leaves me with a perfectly good phone. I need to know how to use it to place a Skype to Skype call. I have made Skype to Skype calls before from my desk PC using a microphone and the speakers, which worked well. I just can’t seem to twig how to use this KU11208 device on my laptop. Thanks, Bryan
August 22nd, 2006 at 7:45
hi
can i connect a an rj11 headset (without phone) to the PC and use it for skype ?
thanks!
September 5th, 2006 at 12:57
Thanks a lot ! I modified an old Gigaset 3010 bought on Ebay for nothing and it works really perfect, sound is cristal-clear!
September 7th, 2006 at 15:35
success modding a t-concept model c710 (sold by german telekom) following the above instructions. took about an hour.
sound is good, somtimes a little humming which might be due to me soldering for the first time or a bad choice of wires …
i will include a little usb-audio interface into the housing since i’m on a g4 powerbook and that has no line-in.
good luck modding and thanks for the article.
F
October 9th, 2006 at 1:02
Hi Chris,
Do you know if any one done it on a Panasonic KX-TC1597B model?
Thanks a lot.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:54
I have built a chat-cord from the spec on the project pay. Works well enough, but does anyone know how to eliminate the echo on the recipients end? Other Wise I am looking in to alternatives with Skype phone and and dialer.
November 5th, 2006 at 12:28
maybe someone asked already….is it good for Mac powerbook?
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:36
Dear All,
Can any one help me to DIY for L6 motorola Bluetooth 1.2 as a skype internet phone ?
I have successfully connected the L6 handfree voice gateway at my computer with Bluetooth of My mobile phone L6.
Please advice as to use L6 as bluetooth skype internet Phone.
Help Help
December 18th, 2006 at 17:32
Skype phone no computer needed http://tools.netgear.com/skype/
January 1st, 2007 at 20:21
FYI I just posted a success story in the forums for a Vtech 2121 ($20 from walmart in Canada)
February 1st, 2007 at 9:37
Dear Sirs…
This option is a super option and genious… I have an Ericson 388 Mobile Telephone… Can I use it also in this manner ?
Bora
February 7th, 2007 at 16:04
Any way to dial from phone ?!?! A software solution ???
February 27th, 2007 at 8:30
I don’t get it. Why not just buy a chatcord? You can use any cordless or regular phone with skype for around $25 USD. Just plug it into your phone and usb, etc. and you are done in about a minute. Here’s where to buy:
http://www.chat-cord.com/buy.htm
I’m not with chat cord. I just can’t imagine risking ruining equipment wiring stuff like this, etc., when there is something so much easier that any phone can use. Is there something I’m missing?
February 27th, 2007 at 13:02
I_dont_get_it: Yes – there is something you’re missing.
Grynx! Why? Because you can;)
Cheers,
Chris
April 16th, 2007 at 8:40
Hi Chris,
Do you know if any one done it on a Panasonic KX-TC1597B model?
Thanks a lot.
May 11th, 2007 at 13:14
I have Skype on my laptop and I have acquired a model KU11208 hand phone with a USB connection to the laptop. Windows says the device is working properly. I used to use it with a subscription to Flyfone.Pla DVICW
July 19th, 2007 at 1:44
man please contact me on my email and tell me if it s possible
cheers!!!
to change a normal fixed phone , desk phone with this small jack
i think Rc 45 and connect on it a usb speaker and headphones ??
PLease man contact me soon before my neck stays forever bent on the
left side
July 30th, 2007 at 4:26
how do i use the cordless skype phone.i have a philips cordless phone but i do not no how to make calls to other people who are using the same phone without both of using the computer ?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:48
it works with a panasonic chicago 330 also its the same main bord
December 6th, 2007 at 10:43
Is this stupid or am I missing somehting? Who gives rats? You are still tied to the computer? HA HA and I though this may be a “REAL”
hack to use Skype with NO computer at all… just like the +$100 devices out there. Guess there is a reason why they are so expensive
December 24th, 2007 at 9:35
Hi Chris,
I’ve done the mod to an old antenna broken Panasonic KX-TX1401. Run flawlessly. With your guidelines I can find the audio OUT point easily, then I find several audio IN points, but none of them sounded with good quality. A friend suggested to add a capacitor before link to the IN point. So it was done.
I have a few pictures taken, if you like to publish them, just drop me a email.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:54
cool! thanks for your work.
February 20th, 2008 at 14:12
Today, I solder an Siemens Gigaset 3010 and I was surprised. When I listen, all is ok until I speak. Are those phones not full duplex or is the phone damaged? I tried it on my computer and on my hifi-system and it happend with both.
Is this normal?
Thanks.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:17
Wow, this is pretty cool. Not really for much reason except that you can actually do this. I would love to see your house – you must have boards and connectors lying all over the place. It must be a really interesting place to see, that’s for sure.
I know this isn’t a hack to be able to use Skype for free, but it’s certainly cool that you can actually do these things and who knows where it will actually lead?
July 17th, 2008 at 2:52
Interesting project! Did you know that small call centers or telemarketing businesses can make use of this. Not all call centers can afford brand new physical phones or calling hardware. That is why most of them are just using softphones. This project of yours can make them get physical phones without spending too much.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:39
any clues as to why my seimens/BT phone will not work with a usb voip adapter K-Mate KMU-30A
I suspect drivers for USB box but the website http://www.k-mate.com/voip/download.asp doesnt work…
A ‘normal’ wired phone works OK, (skype only, the landline doesn’t connect), but the Seimens DECT wont connect to Skype or to the landline.
:-((
January 2nd, 2009 at 15:10
Post number 85 – Bryan (August 16, 2006).
Re the FlyFone USB handset model number KU11208: I have one too. Did you ever get it to work?
September 13th, 2009 at 13:31
Do skype mobile phones work if there is no internet service in the area you are (can you make and recieve calls without internet)…like the 3 skypephone? also what is 3?
thanks