How to connect an old rotary phone through your smartphone

Eric Chilton managed to get an old rotary phone to work through his smartphone. He shares a tutorial on how he did it.


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[ronaldphelps]

Quick to the point without ant B.S. Very simple and easy setup. Thank you for sharing

[franmoser]

So fast, so efficient, and I just noticed you uploaded this on my birthday. This is hands down the best tutorial ever.

[Hobbies]

This is FANTASTIC! I had no idea. It would be nice to actually have my "prop phones" be able to ring and receive a call when shooting a film. Otherwise, we have to put in the phone sound effect in editing. But if the phone in the shot can actually ring, it will have the exact correct sound to match the room. I had no idea there was such a device. Thank you.

[standupp]

I've been wanting a way to use my collection of old rotary phones for so long. I have 3 princess phones and one black desk phone with a metal dial. It will be great to put them back into operation.

[Weebledude]

I hooked one up to two of my rotary phones and now I don't know how I lived without it. I practical use is I keep my cell on silent all day when I'm working and I forget often to turn my ringer back on. Now I hear the bells from my rotary so I never have to worry about missing important calls again.

[johncanetta]

Those 4 prong phone connectors were used in the US as well, to allow you to move your phone from room to room. I have one with the Bell System logo on it.

[Danceswithwolves]

U just made my life so easy my dude holycow

[junecahill]

The connector you got with the 4 holes is for an 'overseas' phone. My husband's family had a business in Rio & had a bunch of the old green phones with the four prong connectors. I LOVE THIS. I have an old orange rotary and a turquoise princess phone from when i was little - both work. I KNEW I was keeping them for some reason! Ordering today! <3

[lovelyamerah]

OMG... Yes!! I actually miss the landline phone but I have no outlets for an old school phone. I've always wanted a rotary phone and now I can have one!!

[artheriacrittenden-muldrow]

My father in law gave me a very old rotary phone with that type of outlet plug that I'd NEVER seen. I grew up using a rotary phone but had never seen that type of outlet. I use it when my students learn about old technology.

[msdawn]

OhDude you don’t know what a life saver you are here if I can actually do this. 🤗

[DK-blnu]

Cool! I would've loved to also have seen the rotary phone receiving calls as well...as in hearing it ring.

[bennyloppo]

wow, this is amazing. I should hurry up and go over to my grandparent's house and dig up those treasures to have it work with. Thanks so

[hootiebubbabuddhabelly]

Whoa! I can use my Batphone?!?! How cool is THAT? SOLD!!

[averykateleetch]

Hey! Can you provide the link for the xlink bluetooth gateway for those prices? Thanks!

[madameversiera]

Omg I Miss so much old phones, I need to have this…😂

[lrueff]

I have Spectrum internet and phone service in Tampa Floridia. I plugged my old rotary dial phone into their connection device and it works like or like OLD just like when it was new... 30Hz ringer as well as the rotary dial.

[GaryCameron]

I have a pre-dial crank phone, I would love to get that actually working. A fake operator to say "Number Please" when I pick up the receiver, use the crank/generator to charge up a capacitor and run the electronics and voice recognition to understand the spoken number just like an old time operator would.

[nasigoreng]

Cool and easy but a more complete demo would have been better like calling the vintage phone and have it ring and some audio snippets

[sarachavez]

This really helped, thanks for the information