What I want to do is purchase a black case, and do all of the conventional mods to it, then, take the back off of a telephone, and mount it on there. This way, the digits will come out of the top of the case, and the hand piece can rest on top. I plan on then taking an old 56k modem card I have, and chopping it up, so that it still fits into the PCI slot, but i can hook it up to a telephone splitter while inside the computer, that comes up and connects to the phone's jack inside. Is it possible to do that work to the 56k card?

I have zero experience with modding, but in the past 48 hours I've become addicted to the site . For the case I also plan on adding a window, a blow hole, and a side fan. Not sure which case, but I don't want a premodded one. All of this work looks incredibly difficult.

Any comments or tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

i think that is a BRILLIANT idea! make it maybe a cordless telephone, one of those tiny ones that stand straight up in the charger, even if you cant use the 56k modem card as a switching junction for the phone cord, just slip the cord from the phone (along with the power cord) in a piece of split loom out the back of the case thru a small drilled hole!

wow, what a concept! a PHONE, built INTO a computer!

I didn't even think of the cordless idea. I thought i would just switch through the 56k card to a plain old phone, getting it's own power from the line. It isn't that revolutionary though, considering there's a Coffee-making PC on this very site . I'm sure it's been done before, I am just not sure where to start. I imagine I'd have to find the phone first, one that fits with whichever case I do purchase.

once your done painting and cutting any phone will match any case cause if your going to mod it so it fits the case youll need to give it legs and eyes so it looks like a big bug up there on top of your puter

No, been around for a while and I have never seen it done. Sounds good.

Also want to put on an ashtray built about 1" deep. This is some tall order. Luckily I can probably borrow tools for it, so the prices will mainly just be the case. Know any relatively cheap good looking ones?

Sorry to double post, but I've ran into my first snag. I took apart a phone I have in my garage that would work perfectly. I unscrewed all of the screws keeping it attatched to the bottom piece of plastic I don't want, and on the bottom there's 4 different wires, two connecting to each of two circles that are soldered onto the circles which were glued to the plastic...

I don't want to just pull them off of these circles (which I assume are electrodes or something, not sure). So what should I do? Cut the circles out of the plastic case?
Thanks.

OK, the idea how has arrived on the scene. everybody p[lease stand back and allow plenty of room for the show

let's start with the phone idea(s)

possible ideas would be to mount the phone on a vertical surface. if you have a smaller phone i would suggest moulding it into the front bezel. you may need to make a custom bezel out of lexan/pexi for that, but i think it would look badass for either a corded or cordless, but it depends on the computer location. do you sit it on the desk or on the floor?

as for the modem mod, are you planning on using the modem still for the internet or just as a relay for the phone?


the ashtray idea needs an answer to the location, but possible ideas may be:

if on floor, drill a hole in the top just like you were mounting another fan and lay the ashtray in the hole. you wouldn't want to permanently attach it or it would be a real bitch to empty

if you have it on the desk, cut a square hole in the side and go to a jumk yard or an autoparts store and get a "replacement" for the kind of ashtray that goes in the back of a seat. hell, for that matter, you can do that for the top too if you get the kind that ft inside the door ledges.

Quote: Originally posted by Amatsu ...I took apart a phone I have in my garage that would work perfectly. I unscrewed all of the screws keeping it attatched to the bottom piece of plastic I don't want, and on the bottom there's 4 different wires, two connecting to each of two circles that are soldered onto the circles which were glued to the plastic...

not sure what you are describing. draw a diagram or post a pic and let's see what you got going on.

For the telephone, I plan on not using the modem for, in actuality, it's true purpose. I just want a seemless way so that on the outside the wires arent seen and its not ugly.

I took a few pictures (badly, of course) with my webcam.

Here is the circuit board inside the phone...
http://www.ezshots.com/album.cgi?ama...splay/amatsu-1

And underneath it, these are the two metal circles the wires are soldered to. The circles are also glued down and deep, so I can't get them out...
http://www.ezshots.com/album.cgi?ama...splay/amatsu-2

The quality of the image isn't good, I know, but its better to have than a diagram drawn by my hand.

For the ashtray, I think you have an awesome idea there Miststlkr. I can put it on the side, attatched maybe with hinges, and it will fold out, and I can remove the metal tray for emptying. (Yeah, I didn't have that foresight before you told me. I would've ended up building it then walking once a week with fistfulls of ash to my trash can

Quote: Originally posted by Amatsu For the telephone, I plan on not using the modem for, in actuality, it's true purpose. I just want a seemless way so that on the outside the wires arent seen and its not ugly.

i that case your project just got a million times easier. go to radioshack or home depot and geteither an inline extender (which is basically a small plastic box with a phone jack on both sides) and mount that in the case and just plug the phone to the inside part and the outside one to the wall. alternative is to get what they sell at home depot as a "modular phone jack" and that is a wall plate phone jack, but without the actual plate. mount that on the case and hardwire the phone to that on the inside.

Quote: I took a few pictures (badly, of course) with my webcam.

dead links

Quote: For the ashtray, I think you have an awesome idea there Miststlkr.

stick around man, you aint seen nothin yet ideas are all i'm good for so i kinda have to be damned good at them

Quote: I can put it on the side, attatched maybe with hinges, and it will fold out, and I can remove the metal tray for emptying.

if you hget the car ash trays then tyou can mount them with their own bezels and they come removable cuz it's hard to turn the car upside down over the garbage can

Quote: **Insert** The links don't work hosted by geocities... I guess I'll eather find another host or throw them into html.

go to Tripod.ca and get a free site there, they will let you post from there.

Fixed the picture links.... I'm also considering which case now. I don't want to totally screw up on my existing PC's case so I'm gonna purchase one. Customcases.tv has a very nice one called 'Alto'.

https://www.customcases.tv/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=48

I like the look, but it doesn't look paint friendly. Would there be any way to mount the system on the side? I plan on cutting out wholes in the case for the digits, then just poking them out, but if I do it on the removable side of the case is the only way I can see.

I plan to cut out those electrode things with a dremel and (heh) duct tape them to the board maybe, or just tie them up real tight.

The wire itself from the phone jack I would have come down the side and up and into the system behind the side panel.

Here's my designs for it, so far.
http://www.ezshots.com/album.cgi?ama...splay/amatsu-3

Ashtray I plan to just drop in uptop. By the way, I plan to make the whole system yellow, and spray the digits on the phone too (I can write the numbers and letters in afterwards myself If I decide to go with the yellow I'd have to find a different case, because the Alto doesn't look too paint friendly

Quote: Originally posted by Amatsu And underneath it, these are the two metal circles the wires are soldered to. The circles are also glued down and deep, so I can't get them out... http://www.ezshots.com/album.cgi?ama...splay/amatsu-2

If you haven't worked it out yet Ama', those are almost certainly the bits that make the noise when the phone rings (can't think of the technical term, I just got woken up by the UPS guy after 3 hours sleep) - you could try connecting the wires to a regular speaker & see what happens (impedance may be wrong though).

as for mounting it on the side of the case, that is perfectly reasonable. you will have to figure out some way to hang the phone handel and make it depress the "hang up" button though, which may or may not be a problem. I have a possible idea or two and i'm sure i can drudge up a few more if you want help with that part too.

as for what those things are, the pic is too fuzzy to tell. from looking at them i would say there's a good chance that they are the piezo buzzers that Jon mentioned, but you just can't tell. are there any markings or writing on them at all?

do you have a multimeter, or access to one?

No writing on them all, but now that I think of it, you two are probably right, cause there's nothing else on there that could make noise. I'll hook it into my phone line and have someone call me to test it out.
As for a multimeter, I don't know My dad owns a sound equiptment company and he has about anything hardware, but I know nada about anything tools and hardware wise, I'm more of a software person...