Also I did a Triple Zero speed dial. Zero is Ten, and the longest number to rotary dial.

That is because the "zero" isn't really zero, it's the letter O, standing for operator. It gets called zero by some, probably to avoid confusion with the letters assigned to each number on the dial.

That's maybe why they chose O as the number, or letter,
to dial for that Silicon Chip kit that let you connect two real
phones and use them as intercoms.
Not anymore anyway, with DTMF.

I suppose with no way to dial any other numbers those chips
they put in phones like "Rototone" can't do star or hash keys,
unless you want to bash the hangup button 11 or 12 times.

That is because the "zero" isn't really zero, it's the letter O, standing for operator.

Never heard that one during my time as a telecoms trainee (was trained on Strowger and Crossbar equipment by PMG trainers).

Actually it is '10' without the '1'. Dial 0 and you get 10 pulses.

I'll go get a DTMF encoder chip.
The software DTMF can dial the phone,
but isn't very pleasant to the ear, it's just cheaper.

It occurs to me now, it would be easy if you get to
modify the rotary dial phone.
To interface to the dial, you would get to cut any other
connection, and use it solely as input to the chip.

I take it, that if a Telstra friendly way to connect to a
phone network were devised, it would be preferred that
my stuff stays outside the rotary phone, so that it didn't have to be modified.

It occurs to me now, it would be easy if you get to
modify the rotary dial phone.
To interface to the dial, you would get to cut any other
connection, and use it solely as input to the chip.

All you need to use are the actual pulsing contacts on the dial, but note that they are normally-closed contacts so you may need to reverse your trigger pulse logic or introduce a relay.

800 series plastic phones are not too hard to come by. I've seen them on eBay, in pawn shops, even on the footpath in council cleanups.

Is it just a matter of isolating the tone input then?
Or were you just not allowed to modify the phone at all?

Any extra circuit also has to get power from somewhere
(inside a phone)

The guts of a cordless could be in a box somewhere.

Or were you just not allowed to modify the phone at all?

I'm not sure what you are asking in what context, but the simple rule is that, under Commonwealth Law, you are not allowed to connect any device or equipment to the telephone network unless it has been approved by ACMA or any of its predecessors.

The Rotatone is a step on the way to something more committed.

I will reproduce the Rotatone with optional LCD, and
optional DTMF chip (otherwise it's software DTMF).
So to produce one, minimum $7 - maximum, $35 AU.
Then distribute the schematic and pic chip code for free,
with warnings about using it on a phone network.

The objective of that distribution is to damage commercial
potential for the Rotatone.
If it can be done in a couple of hours, it should have been
a hobbyist hack, rather than commercial product.

I'm not sure you'd appreciate that exchange of information here Brad,
but I have my own channels,
and there are (if the site is to be believed), legal networks
to connect it to, and people buy it.
That would be fun to break.

Furthering that project properly,
I think would take some involvement from members here,
but I do think there is more than one way,
and I think people tend to stop thinking when something works.

I could call it RotaClone if it wasn't better
That's almost worth dropping the LCD for.

I have a DTMF dialler box that you pushed over the mouthpiece of your old decadic dial phone, during the period when all sorts of DTMF-controlled services were being offered but a high proportion of home phones were still decadic rotary diallers. A keypad on the front, mouthpiece-sized speaker on the back. Late 1980s or early '90s I think? Mine was marketed by Westpac, made by Interact Technology, approved by Telecom Australia. Westpac customers needed DTMF to use phone banking services.

The first generation of Telecom keypad phones had a switch to select between pulse and tone dial-out, depending whether your local exchange had switched over or not.

Maven

That is essentially what I'm doing in the video,
I just didn't use a keypad to enter the digits,
but just as easy. A keypad could be another option for the chip.
That does legitimise it somewhat.

I didn't think people would be keen to do that for every phone call though.