Rotary un-Smartphone - photo

[Jon]

Open source rotary dial cellular phone. Analog/digital combo with Arduino microcontroller and mechanical ringer bell.

https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html

• Better reception because the antennas aren't packed against the electronics.
• You don't have to navigate an operating system to get to the phone "application".
• You can assign two buttons to be hard-coded for quick dialing your favorite people. Your spouse, parent, or child can be a single button-press away.
• The point of the phone isn't to use the rotary dial every time you call someone, which would get tiresome fast. You can store your contacts list and then dial up your friends with just two spins of the dial. When the less frequent need to dial a new number arises, the novelty of the satisfying-to-use rotary dial is fun rather than annoying.
• Previously, phones with physical keys required a clamshell (flip) form-factor to prevent unintended dialing. Rotary dials are naturally resistant to butt dialing.
• Nearly instantaneous 10-segment display of signal strength or battery level. Compare to typical 4-bar signal meters.
• The rear ePaper display (for displaying contacts) is bistatic, meaning it doesn't take any energy to display a fixed message.
• The power switch is an actual slide switch. No holding down a stupid button to make it turn off and not being sure it really is turning off or what.
• Physical cut-off switch for the microphone. Thank you Edward Snowden.

[TheElderBrother]

I'm in. I want a red one.

[schuylergrace]

I love how they tell you the phone can be really annoying, but here's how we made it slightly less annoying, which is great! Now, that's marketing! It's like sellin' slop to a hog.

[Jon]

Video from earlier this month. Expected to ship in November for $390 pre-order. I like the physical microphone and power disconnects, and also how the antenna doubles as a stand.

[schuylergrace]

A while back, I saw a video (I think) where somebody showed how they made one of these with either an Arduino or an ESP32. It was less complicated to get it to work than I imagined, but still quite a feat.

[bruce.desertrat]

I think that was her; the prototype was built a while ago, but she recently redesigned it for production. More deets here: https://hackaday.com/2022/09/10/the-...o-years-later/

(note Hack-a-day is a must-read in my RSS feed. All sorts of cool stuff! Right up there with my daily Homemade Tools email
)

[dbat74]

Well maybe you need to do a patent search and apply for one.

[schuylergrace]

I think that was her; the prototype was built a while ago, but she recently redesigned it for production. More deets here: https://hackaday.com/2022/09/10/the-...o-years-later/
)

I'm pretty sure you are correct. I saw this at a much earlier stage, though, when the builder was still working out the kinks, but she had a working device. And I love Hack-a-Day and should subscribe to their feed since my email isn't completely full every day.

And I believe this is an open source project, dbat74, so no patents to abscond with, but anyone can make them and sell them, if that's the case.

[Frank S]

1 ringy-dingy, 2 ringy-dingy. 3 ringy- dingy Hello have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?
Am I the only one who sees the similarity in her face and the acclaimed Lilly Tomlin

[mr mikey]

Can you block spam calls ?