A Rotary Phone Recording Retrofit
Rotary phone modded as a recording device for use at a wedding, then as a computer interface.
A friend of hacker typhonmind was having a wedding, with something of a retro theme. They wanted a rotary phone that could play back a greeting to guests, then record a message from them. It’s a neat idea to preserve people’s thoughts on the occasion, and a fairly simple job, given how plentiful and simple these devices are.
To accomplish this task, typhonmind gutted the phone, adding a new mic to produce higher quality recordings than the “'80s Wendy’s mic” audio produced with the handset’s original unit. At some point, presumably after the successful wedding, the modded phone will morph from a simple audio playback/recording setup to a computer interface, which should provide a nice post-nuptials life for the device.
Plans are to detect the handset pickup/put down, and send them to a PC as keystrokes via an Arduino or ESP32. The device's ample housing includes space for the microcontroller board as well as a USB hub, which allows for only a single USB cable emanating from the unit. There’s also accommodations for an RGB underglow that, while perhaps not strictly necessary, is a nice effect, making it look in photos like it’s about to ascend into the clouds like a Falcon rocket.
Although the system is still a bit of a work-in-progress, the end goal is to run recording software on a PC, along with filtration and a custom program on the PC side. This will record audio input until the stop keypress is triggered. Great for a wedding, and sort of a retro audio macro pad after the fact. Looks like a lot of fun!