Jim Thompson wrote:

On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:54:12 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:

On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:47:18 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

[snip]

On a similar note: Anyone familiar enough with modern telephone
circuitry to devise (or suggest) the following... re-wire phone so
that ringer is disconnected ONLY for the first ring?

Note that I said "ringer", I want the phone electronics, in particular
the CID sensing, to see the ring voltage, so that CID is displayed
BEFORE an audible "ring".


Knew it was a dumb question just as soon as I posted...

The telephone right here in front of me has a switch to turn off the
ringer :-)

So only a ring detect and relay AT the phone.

At telephone service entry, detect "800", etc, during this interval,
block further ringing voltage.


Connect the ringers to a spare wire, and let your interface turn on
all the ringers by connecting them to the proper side of the phone line.

This house isn't as nice as the old one out north in the desert...
there I had a telephone bundle the size of my thumb running throughout
the house :-)

But I do have a spare pair... I dumped the fax line and switched to an
Internet fax arrangement... 1/6th the cost.

I need to get rid of ab out 35 fax machines. I'll probably just
attack them with the cordless screwdriver and a hammer. People ask for
them, but want full ink or toner cartridiges and a case of paper when
you offer them for free.


And the V-Tech (portable) phones seem already to have this feature,
they seem to wake-up, read CID, then ring.


Sometimes newer isn't better. It was easy to modify old WE or S-C
phones for all kinds of options.

Since your V-Tech already has that part covered, all you need is to
read the CID, and disconnect them from the line while your custom
hardware either disconnects the line, or sends it to an answering
machine. A marketable product would either allow you to select which
way you want to connect the phone, or have to jacks to allow the use of
both types of phones at the same time. A lookup table would make quick
work of identifying blocked numbers, and flash memory is cheap, these
days. The hardware could either be stand alone, or run in the
background on a PC that runs 24/7.

I would take on the design if my shop was usable, but it's going to
cost over $10,000 to replace the 1600 square foot roof and finish the
other repairs. The other problem would be that I can't get caller ID on
my Lifeline phone service.

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.