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Looking for cheap, portable phone tone generator

Does anyone know where I could buy a cheap DTMF tone generator? I think that's what they are called. They used to be used to enter touch tone phone sounds into the receivers of dial pay phones so you could access your answering machine.

I know someone who only has rotary phones (she claims they are the only ones that work with her hearing aids) and is moving to a place where the main door can be remotely opened by pressing a key on her phone. Since she doesn't have a touch tone phone, I thought a portable tone generator might work. Radio Shack doesn't carry them and I don't know where else to look.

Yes, I could always hook up a small, touch tone phone next to her dial phone but then she couldn't easily move it between phones. Maybe a cheap cordless phone would work. Those I have.

Does anyone know where I could get a tiny wired phone? I had once once (Radio Shack) and it was 2 x 1.5 x .75 inches with a 2.5 mm plug for a mic/headset just like those used on cordless and wireless phones. It even had "to line" and "to telephone" jacks.

Thanks for any leads or even the right search keywords on ebay. I didn't find any with my searches.

And sorry if these aren't appropriate newsgroups. I thought people here would know about this stuff!

Thanks! Joy

Reply to
Joy
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I believe you're over-thinking this:

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It is kinda a misc.consumers question.

Reply to
JeffM

The first generation of electronic phones didn't play well with inductive-coupled hearing aids, but the newer ones do, especially if you buy one of the major brands. Your friend should go shopping for a new phone. With rotary phones practically extinct, I doubt that anyone still sells portable DTMF keypads.

Reply to
Stephen J. Rush

Try this:

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Reply to
Vey

Thank you for that information. I'm sure you are correct. But the dial phones she owns also has a built-in amplifier in the handset which is QUITE loud. I haven't seen normal phones that loud even with volume controls.

Thanks. Unless I find a cheap dialer, I'm thinking my idea of an old cordless phone may work.

Joy

Reply to
Joy 

--
I don't know about sci.electronics.repair being appropriate, but
alt.electronics is, and you might also try sci.electronics.basics
and sci.electronics.misc.

In any case, there are touch-tone phones available with receiver
volume controls that ought to be able to get the volume up to where
your friend would be comfortable with it.

Click on this link:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hearing-impaired+telephones
Reply to
John Fields

I don't know why you must "Acoustically couple" into this private network . Since this is a "Private Line" a "Y" connector could "Parallel" a "Touchtone phone" with the rotary dial phone and be picked up to input a TT tone onto the line. The acoustic coupling was a workaround to patch "TT" signals onto a "Public Dialup Line. These acoustically patched generators no longer make any sense when ALL phone lines will now accept "TT"tones Phones!

Yukio YANO

Reply to
Yukio YANO

Hi Try these links mate. A Streight forward answer for a change !! :-)

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also try this chap. He sometimes lists a DTMF board, but I cant see one at the moment, but if you e-mailed him he could give you the details. You would need to huck up your own switches with it though.

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Regards
Wombat

Find more info at:
http://www.wombatppc.dsl.pipex.com
http://www.youtube.com/wombatppc
Reply to
Wombat-Pipex-News

A touch-tome phone will work just fine as a dialer-only.

Whether or not a phone works with her hearing aid is nothing to do with it's dialling method. There are touch-tone phones available that have receiver sections specifically stated to be optimised for hearing aids - she should check with a local audiologist.

geoff

Reply to
Geoff

They are very common.

A cheap dialler IS any cheap touch-tone phone ! She can have that hanging off the phone she prefers to talk on. Or she could just get a touch-tone phone known to work well with hear-aids.

geoff

Reply to
Geoff

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I am guessing that your friend uses an analogue hearing aid. If this is so and it is a behind the ear type then it should have a switch on it with a 'T' position (Telephone). The switch should be in this position when she is making or receiving calls. The older rotary dial phones probably have a more powerful magnetic circuit in the receiver and that is why these work and the dtmf types which she has tried don't.

The problem can be quite easily be rectified by purchasing a dtmf phone which is hearing aid compatible. These types have an additional inductive loop coil inbuilt to provide a suitable signal level for pick up by the hearing aid when it is switched in the 'T' position.

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At $15 I doubt you could do it much cheaper and you won't have an extra piece of junk hanging around just to provide dtmf.

Reply to
Ross Herbert

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