custom Skype phones

[asteroid]

this is a nice little hack I have been working on for over a year,

I use Skype to ring a few friends abroad,

the trouble is with the dedicated USB phones designed for using Skype and similar VOIP apps is they look plasticy and awful.

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn:vuABA6oVcC5m2M:www.telephones-online.co.uk/image473.jpg


I started off with this nice 1970s BT phone I got from a car boot and took most of the insides out, I bought a USB phone (a bit like NOV-IPFONE but no screen) and dismantled it and soldered the speaker and microphone wires to the telephone handset's curly cable and hid the USB phone itself inside the body of the BT phone.

Result, use Skype with something that looks really classy on my desk :)

Its not perfect, the dial doesnt work, neither does the bell, there is a slight problem that the microphone is too sensitive and talking loudly causes the line to go dead, I think this is something to do with ohms/impedence but I dont know enough about electronics to get round this.

I have converted a green one for my dad and a grey one for a friend of mine.



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