SparkFun Forums

[Volkemon]

Alright John!

I always monitor this thread just in case someone wanders by...

Any insight if your mods, especially the voice quality, will work on a non-bluetooth POR?

Thanks for posting!

[jquast]

I've been using port-o-rotary daily for nearly a year now, and the battery can no longer last a full day on a single charge. After 8 hours or so, even on the first call of the day, the person on the other end reports they can barely hear me, and the ringer barely or not at all rings when it should.

So looks like I need a new battery, and I see this: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8484 -- this would be pretty keen. Can I use this battery as-is, or do I need to make modifications, and if so, what kind?

On another note, missing DTMF is kindof a bummer, I built a nice bluebox which also does DTMF from http://www.projectmf.org/, but it is quite the task (sometimes 20+ tries) get it to go through as-is using just audio. Seems like typical cellphones do something with the carrier to get a clean DTMF tone through -- have you ever had your DTMF tones misunderstood by the remote end due to poor signal? No, they just seem delayed, like a negotiation with the cell carrier is going on. So it seems like I should need to change the firmware to do the DTMF tones for me.

There is also a report that you used to be able to buy the guts of the port-o-rotary separately, but I cannot find it. I wouldn't feel comfortable making any modifications at all unless I knew I could purchase a replacement logic board. If I screw up, I've got to dump $200 on another phone I don't need... Any chance of this coming back someday?? Hell I'd buy two now for just in case, I want this phone for life.

[Volkemon]

@jquast-

That battery pack works fine in the POR, and is the pack they ship in the bluetooth version. I am not sure if the charge circuit is properly calibrated for that ampHour rating however.

I am still waiting for someone to address the poor vocal quality on the POR, as it is a little beyond my tech ability at this time.

Good luck in your quest, and keep posting!

[jquast]

another thing, I made a custom dialcard. It is made after one I found online,





I was very happy with the style -- the font, the color, it gives it a very new york 1971 feel. But I wasn't happy with the quality and resolution, so I rebuilt it, trying to keep it close to the original:



and the high resolution tif (3mb!):
http://1984.ws/~dingo/e.tif

[jquast]

@Volkemon

Have you tried finding another handset on ebay or other and re-wiring? I can't say mine is terribly bad, people understand me fine, and the my receiver is so loud sometimes I have to plug it with a finger so my neighbors cannot hear the person on the other end!

The reason I bring it up, is because i found older (pre-Western Electric 500) schematics that indicate that the ear and mic shared ground ('-' on the board), it was jumped inside the phone. I tried this, and though it worked, it halved the audio levels. I found and purchased a nice cloth coiled cable, http://www.houseoftelephones.com/cord-h ... tched.html but unfortunately, though it says "4 conductor" it has only 3??? So I had to wire in another line, but it is uncoiled, and I no longer have the reach I want.

[Volkemon]

@jquast-

Yeah...tried a few different pieces. I got much better response from another mike piece that came with the original mis-shipped POR/bluetooth order. And another one from a 80's phone I have was no big difference. each time The other party has trouble hearing me, but yes indeed they come in loud and clear.

Thats why when I demo the POR to people I let them listen and I talk on another phone. That way they dont hear the shortcoming. Heck, the biggest thrill is when it rings with no cord attached. I hope for the day it can be a "yes, I am calling you from this phone on your cell" type of surprise.

It will happen. Sparkfun will MAKE it so..

[Volkemon]

And...FYI-

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... cts_id=286

is the original series of posts in the first few hours (!) of POR ownership- once again, BIG credit to SPARKFUN for not pulling them off the comments. Lesser, and more insecure companies would have.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/1 ... lectr.html

is the original post I saw on MAKE that made me NEED the POR. Neat blog, worth checking out. Wow...almost two years now...

Thanks for contributing, and here's to MAKEing the POR GREAT!!!!!!

I need to take it to work tomorrow.....

[Volkemon]

Hi Folks!

Just kicking up the ashes...see if there are any sparks..

[Frotz]

Hi Folks!

Just kicking up the ashes...see if there are any sparks..

I'm still interested in the POR. Specifically I'd like to get a Blue Rotary board so I can modify something myself. Hey, John Morley! I'd love to see that update you made.

[Frotz]

Has anyone thought of shoehorning in the ability to dial through a [blue] port-o-rotary using a tone dialer held to the microphone? Silly, yes, but the ability to do so shouldn't be too hard. With John's version, there should be plenty of room to do it.

[Volkemon]

Now, when you say a (blue) POR ...are you referring to bluetooth? I am somewhat (ok, almost totally) ignorant on the bluetooth operation.

Using a tone dialer on the 'regular' POR worked ok. I bought an old 80's radio shack model someone here on the forum turned me on to, and used it a few times to access voicemail.

Now that I am entering the world of Arduino, actually building my own POR is getting closer. Were it not for the (still) poor voice quality I wouldn't change a thing on my POR. I still hope for a 'cure' there.. The schematics released here seem to be incomplete, and not much help.

I would do a little more hands-on experimenting, but dont want to risk toasting the board. Hm. Maybe I ought to see if a replacement is available so I can 'peek and poke' at will.

[Frotz]

Now, when you say a (blue) POR ...are you referring to bluetooth? I am somewhat (ok, almost totally) ignorant on the bluetooth operation.

Yes, bluetooth. I'm hoping for John Morley to login since his tinkering seems to have yielded something really nice. I too tried to make sense of the schematics, but ran into the same problem you did.

[Volkemon]

I was pretty impressed by John's project also, and it got me inspired to start working with Arduino for another project I am working on.

I feel a little better about the schematics now...I was almost wondering if there was a 'new' schematic standard I missed out on.

[MyBuddy]

I've been using port-o-rotary daily for nearly a year now, and the battery can no longer last a full day on a single charge. After 8 hours or so, even on the first call of the day, the person on the other end reports they can barely hear me, and the ringer barely or not at all rings when it should.

So looks like I need a new battery, and I see this: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8484 -- this would be pretty keen. Can I use this battery as-is, or do I need to make modifications, and if so, what kind?

I'm only a year late, but here's my $0.02: According to the MCP charge controller spec sheet that is on my POR (V2.6), it is not designed for multi-cell batteries. Another thing to note is that the MCP is a fast-charger which decreases battery life as compared to a slow charger.

As for my POR, I have the same problem Jquast is having: phone doesn't work for more than a few minutes now after 8 hours of charging. Something strange is happening, though: after all that charging the voltage at battery is supposed to be 4.2v (according to the charge controller specs), but my battery voltage is only 3.7v, still plugged in, after charging 8 hours.

I think the MOSFET might be toasted because it is a little browned. When I originally got the phone I had to get a replacement because the charger smoked that chip. My replacement still got very hot and smoked a bit, but SparkFun told me that was okay, and it seemed to work at the time.

Any ideas?

[Volkemon]

Bump

Well, the charging circuit on the POR is toast. I accidently plugged in a 12v charger, and the blue LED never came on again. Battery doesnt charge (installed) either.

I am externally charging the battery, and looking into adding a charge circuit internally that will *finally* allow the phone to be on while charging. And to add a little more battery also, I picked up several of the 900mA LiPo packs. Gotta love all the room in there...

Moved the antenna to the top of the case- helped a lot with stopping missed calls!!!!

All-in-all, still happy with the purchase. Good value.