This one has me scratching my head: cellphone & modem to BBS?

[Omega-TI]

I know an older retired gentleman who's a little down on his luck, who has an antiquated PC with no Internet or landline phone. He does have a cheap cellphone and an old-style modem though. Once I told him about Heatwave BBS, he asked if he could use his modem with his cellphone. <GROAN> The thing is, even IF you could connect the two together, I doubt the modems Touchtone^TM dialing would work over the cell network. I've also never heard of anyone hacking their cellphone like this. Anyway I told him, "I have no bloody idea, but I doubt it". I promised him I'd ask around and get back to him, so here I am asking.

 

As I type this message with very little hope, I begin to wonder on the very slim chance it may be possible , it would be the same for a TI, so....

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

If he has a data plan he can just telnet through it

[Omega-TI]

If he has a data plan he can just telnet through it

 

I somehow doubt he has a data plan. When I say down on his luck, was being kind. It's a 'freebie' phone, I think he referred to as an "Obama Phone". I took a photo of when I was talking to him about it.

 

As you can see, that phone has seen better days.

[+jedimatt42]

How do this this depends quite a bit on how antiquated the computer is and how modern the phone is, and how restrictive the carrier is.

 

Most carriers try real hard to block this sort of thing.

 

Most cell phones have some sort of way to connect to a PC as a COM port. It will be highly model specific. A lot of models require a driver on a windows machine, since they only have a usb-port. And then accessing the data sharing over the COM port is often specific to the phone.

 

I have used dumb cell phone to just be the modem. But again that depends on the phone. And that was more than 10 years ago too. If I remember correctly, I had to actually send some AT commands to put the phone in the correct state, and then ATDT commands to dial a 'dial-up' internet provider. Direct to a BBS would have worked. That phone actually dialed out and made all the classic 14.4k modem sounds.

 

If the guy's phone is modern enough for wifi-hotspot, and his computer is old enough, you might gift him a UDS and wifi bridge. Or if the computer is new enough, just a wifi-usb-nub.

 

So many variables.

[+jedimatt42]

You might pull on this string: http://modem-techno.blogspot.com/2011/01/kyocera-cdma-download-usb-cable-driver.html

 

It'll take some research. You might have to find a similar but different string to pull.

 

-M@

[ckoba]

This one we actually had to do once.

 

What we did was:

 

* duct-tape the earphones of the ear/mike dongle to a microphone part of a telephone handset

* the microphone part of the dongle to the earpiece part

* connect the handset to the line jack on the modem

* have the terminal program already opened and ready to go,

* do the dialing on the cell phone itself,

* while the call is being negotiated with the exchange, type "ATH1" on the terminal to take the modem off-hook.

 

It worked, but not well, and I don't recommend doing it except in emergencies because of that. If you could wire directly into the mike/earpiece dongle, you'd have a better signal, but you'd be dealing with the modem expecting telco-level voltage and impedance levels.

Edited February 29, 2016 by ckoba

[+Vorticon]

This one we actually had to do once.

 

What we did was:

 

* duct-tape the earphones of the ear/mike dongle to a microphone part of a telephone handset

* the microphone part of the dongle to the earpiece part

* connect the handset to the line jack on the modem

* have the terminal program already opened and ready to go,

* do the dialing on the cell phone itself,

* while the call is being negotiated with the exchange, type "ATH1" on the terminal to take the modem off-hook.

 

It worked, but not well, and I don't recommend doing it except in emergencies because of that. If you could wire directly into the mike/earpiece dongle, you'd have a better signal, but you'd be dealing with the modem expecting telco-level voltage and impedance levels.

 

 

You essentially converted the cell phone to a classic phone handset Neat! Perhaps with a 3D printer to create a cradle for the phone and a set of miniature speaker and microphone embedded in it at the appropriate location, the signal should be good enough to work with a modem. This would be a cool experiment, although of little practical value except maybe for the gentleman mentioned by Omega. I might play with this idea sometime...

[Omega-TI]

I bet guys with old acoustical 300 baud modems are digging them out about now. That seems like the first practical use for those things in at least 25 years! Finding an old telephone handset to wire the earpiece dongle onto seems like the hardest part. While not exactly practical, it would appear to be functional!

[+Schmitzi]

.

what you need is something like this here (and the old handy and the TI-accoustic coupler)

 

 

 

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Telefonhorer-fur-Mobiltelefon-und-Funkgerate-rot-2-5-mm-Klinkenstecker-/171830819336?hash=item2801ea3a08:g:PmQAAOSwT6pVg-w8

 

 

(maybe another color)

[Omega-TI]

Yeah, something like that should work, or a couple of 3D printed discs to insert into an acoustical modem. 300 baud is not the fastest, but it would be the easiest to implement.

[+Schmitzi]

Or just a normal (faster) modem, and somehow a 3.5mm-OFC -to- RJ11- cable/adapter to connect the handy.

 

 

A little bit like this:

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Telephone-Adapter-with-Dual-RJ11-plugs-to-3-5mm-Mini-Phone-jack-for-Recorder-Pen-/221252592820?hash=item3383aea4b4:g:FF4AAOxy6~BR3hPa

 

 

 

or this:

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Record-Tape-Rj11-Landline-phone-Telephone-Call-T-3-5MM-Jack-Computer-laptop-PC-/200884847655?hash=item2ec5ab8427:g:SroAAOxyOlhSqIOF

 

 

 

But I am not sure if the handies acccept AT-Commands, and the provider allows this as all.

At least, I think you must have a "contract with data", as we call it here.