Telephone Rotary Dial relay control

This type of thing could be implemented with logic gates, but perhaps a quick way is to obtain an Arduino and connect it to the contacts on the rear of the rotary dialer, and count pulses (which begin to occur after you release the dial at a position). Use interrupts, possibly. Also you'll need to do a debounce, which is explained on the arduino.cc pages.

There is a nice video about three-quarters of the way down the wikipedia page on rotary dialers which shows the electrical connection.

If you wanted the action to occur once you've reached a position, then there are some other methods but would require some sensor or potentiometer or other method of interfacing to the dial, i.e. some mechanical work.

All this assumes the telephone is not connected to the phone network. If it is connected, then the pulses could be detected from the phone line but is likely prohibited in most countries.

You could check out this one.

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/51

I think there was a kit at one stage

Mark

Good link, very nice clear photos. I actually have some very old telephones but I don't have the heart to touch the insides, I think they were designed with such care to last a long time that I'd rather not do any modifications.. But sadly a bit unusable these days with such long phone numbers it can take a minute to dial someone ; )

Shabaz

You might be able to find the touch tone versions.

Here in NZ they removed the rotary and fitted a keypad ...they were modern (well back in the day)

With some careful planning, I'm sure there is room for an arduino and a GSM and maybe a small cell battery and not destroy anything.

I was really tempted to build one.

Back in the days when I worked for NZ Post (now Telecom) we had a radio unit that replaced phone lines.

With the base unit up on the local hills, it made a great mobile phone, long before they were here in NZ.

The funniest look was one of the guys in a Humber Super Snipe having the full size phone on the dash ring and him talking on it while at the traffic lights.

This was even before a paging service in the late 70's.

Mark

That must have looked very "James Bond"! :-) . Yes some electronics could be squeezed in without destruction.. just thinking, a bluetooth conversion would be quite neat too - there are some very nice-looking touch-tone phones.

That must have looked very "James Bond"! :-)

more 'Get Smart'

If you want to see a really big dial, check out this one.

http://www.thecoralsnake.com/History22

This one is in NZ now (less the dial).

Had it at home to do some electronics repair .... it can go.

just thinking, a bluetooth conversion would be quite neat too

That kind of misses the point about using the large old fashioned handset, and having people look reaaalllllyyy strangely at you.

Mark

Hehe interesting dial : ) I never saw the series. What a fine restoration. It looks amazing!

Wow, thanks for all your replies

I have some dials laying around because I restore these old telephones and wanted to make something cool with the remaining dials.  I have restored a few of them to factory standards.  I already understand how the dials work, lol.

I was wanting to use one as "let's say" a keypad or something.  Making it to where it can toggle the respective relay for the number dialed makes this a universal device I can impliment into any project I need.

Wow, that is pretty cool.  I've never seen that series either, but it looks awsome lol.

I have restored a few of them to factory standards.

Nice.

If you had a device to count the pulses, then you would know what 'number' has been dialled.

Then use that to control the appropriate relay.

If you use a litle hardware, you can reduce the outputs required, and drive the relays at the same time.

Interesting concept ... dial a number to rurn on a relay.

Cheers

Mark