Got my car phone "working" (1 Viewer)

[CruiserHacker]

My LC came with an old, non working Motorola car phone. The LCD was shot, but after some tinkering it looked like the PCB was in quasi-functional condition. I couldn't fully reverse engineer it, so I re-wired it and hooked it up to a raspberry pi that then connects to my phone by Bluetooth. With this set up I can power it on, type in 10 digits which then get sent to my phone to place a call, and hang up all through the car phone keypad.



Question for the peanut gallery: I unfortunately have to sell my LC (happy wife, happy life), so I'm wondering if people would be willing to pay a premium for this novelty. I have an open market minimum price in mind which is roughly what I put into the car financially, but I was wondering if the "working" phone could bump that up if I (re)list it on BaT.

Shout-out to desluder13 over at instructables who did a lot of the heavy lifting. Bluetooth-Connected Rotary Payphone - https://www.instructables.com/Bluetooth-Connected-Rotary-Payphone/. I'm happy to pass it forward and share my learnings/code with anyone interested in taking on this project.

 

[COS80]

I wouldn't pay anything for it.

 

[CruiserHacker]

I wouldn't pay anything for it.

Thanks for the honest feedback. Maybe I'm a bit biased after spending a good number of late nights trying to figure this out

 

[logicbyondreaso]

Would you get pulled over for using it?

 

[Mag71k5]

Its like a party trick, people think its cool, but whenever everyone goes home they forget about it.

I think its super cool, but i wouldnt pay extra for it.

 

[COS80]

Its like a party trick, people think its cool, but whenever everyone goes home they forget about it.

I think its super cool, but i wouldnt pay extra for it.

Yes, exactly this.

 

[bhsdriller]

I'd take it out if it came with one I bought

 

[60 toy ota]

Way cool. I'm literally splitting the oem lx450 stereo in half and putting the cassette half below a single din bluetooth unit and combining them together. I'm also repurposing the steering wheel phone key pad as controls for the stereo. It's taken many lunch breaks and evenings. All that to say it's purely for me and I don't expect it to add any value to the truck (not that I'd sell, but I digress).
Love to see it

 

[12bit]

I'm literally splitting the oem lx450 stereo in half and putting the cassette half below a single din bluetooth unit and combining them together.

I'm gonna need to see pictures of this

 

[60 toy ota]

I'm gonna need to see pictures of this

View attachment 3998743

It's not done but I'll share some of the WIP

 

[60 toy ota]

I'm gonna need to see pictures of this

View attachment 3998743

The cd button is rewired as the power button, the fader knob is now the volume knob. Stereo output is soldered into the aux input Jack on the other head unit. The UI pcb is the only one that needs to be modified and it's basically just traces, otherwise I don't think it would be feasible. The wires are there to replace the needed traces that got cut out. All but one have a test pad you can solder to which is very convenient.
I don't want to hijack this thread but I can make my own when this is done for curious minds

 

[Marvelicious]

My LC came with an old, non working Motorola car phone. The LCD was shot, but after some tinkering it looked like the PCB was in quasi-functional condition. I couldn't fully reverse engineer it, so I re-wired it and hooked it up to a raspberry pi that then connects to my phone by Bluetooth. With this set up I can power it on, type in 10 digits which then get sent to my phone to place a call, and hang up all through the car phone keypad.



Question for the peanut gallery: I unfortunately have to sell my LC (happy wife, happy life), so I'm wondering if people would be willing to pay a premium for this novelty. I have an open market minimum price in mind which is roughly what I put into the car financially, but I was wondering if the "working" phone could bump that up if I (re)list it on BaT.

Shout-out to desluder13 over at instructables who did a lot of the heavy lifting. Bluetooth-Connected Rotary Payphone - https://www.instructables.com/Bluetooth-Connected-Rotary-Payphone/. I'm happy to pass it forward and share my learnings/code with anyone interested in taking on this project.

View attachment 3998612

I guess if you want to break out the flannel shirts and the grunge and cosplay that it's the 90s...

I'm with everyone else: 95% of the people are either not going to care much, or are going to remove it. That other 5% are going to love it, but I'm not sure how much they would actually PAY for it.

(Full disclosure, I'm still listening to grunge and wearing flannel shirts )

 

[Batameez]

The Radwood crowd would love this. You might not necessarily capture that market here, but I think it's out there. You're still talking about a niche market though.

 

[CruiserHacker]

View attachment 3998792View attachment 3998793
The cd button is rewired as the power button, the fader knob is now the volume knob. Stereo output is soldered into the aux input Jack on the other head unit. The UI pcb is the only one that needs to be modified and it's basically just traces, otherwise I don't think it would be feasible. The wires are there to replace the needed traces that got cut out. All but one have a test pad you can solder to which is very convenient.
I don't want to hijack this thread but I can make my own when this is done for curious minds

Impressive engineering here! Keep up the good work and eventually you'll get it all working!

 

[CruiserHacker]

The Radwood crowd would love this. You might not necessarily capture that market here, but I think it's out there. You're still talking about a niche market though.

I was completely unaware that this was a thing, but I live near Greenwich CT so will have to check it out next time they're at the Concours

 

[12bit]

If it were possible to make the car phone work as a normal car phone on a modern carrier, I would be all over that. I've already reverted to an OEM stereo and cassettes in an effort to reduce the screens in my life. Stowing my smartphone completely would be amazing.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

While my inner geek thinks this is wicked cool, it would get me a ticket here. SC went hands free this month. I've had to learn all kinds of new "tricks" with my phone.