I bought a cheap phone for $2 at the second hand store.  Amazingly it worked great when I got it home, and I started putting phase two of my plan in place.

I bought a pair of headphone jacks for $2.99 at Radio Shack, and found an old computer network cable that I cut up to get some small cables for making the connections.

I found the cabling layout for the phone handset cord, and cracked the old phone open by removing thee screws:

(Click on the picture for a larger view -thanks to Pedro Rebello de Andrade for the original picture)

Tracing the cables back from the handset jack on the phone, I could see where the jack connected to the circuit board of the phone.  I got lucky that my phone used the colors referenced above – you may have to use the numbered sequence of pins on the jack soldered to the circuit board.

I made two small holes in the case of the phone (using a kitchen knife, much to my wife’s chagrin) where there was empty space so I could close it up again with no problems, and screwed the two jacks into them.

Then, I soldered the Black and Yellow (#1 and #4) two one of the jacks and labeled it “Mic” and made it pink with a red Sharpie I had to match the color on the plug.  Red and Green (#2 and #3) were connected to the other jack with a 470 Ohm resistor in-line.  I used a 470 resistor as that’s all Radio Shack had in stock – I figured it was close enough and at $0.09 for five, I could afford to make a mistake. The jack was then labeled “Phones” and colored Green (also with a Sharpie) to match the color on the plug of the headphones.

The phone was put back together, and the headphones/mic were plugged onto the jack.  I had sound in the headphones, and my test caller said my voice was coming through nice and clear.

My total cost: $5.98 – not bad, considering the cheapest phone at Wal Mart was $9.99, and it didn’t even have a handset jack at all being an all-in one phone.  If you need a headset for this, WalMart has one for under $5, so your total outlay would be $7.96 if you can find an old/used phone for the same price.

You do have to be a comfortable with a soldering iron, but if you’ve got any kind of basic soldering skills, this should be a breeze for you.

2) Register the phone by pressing the menu button (just under the screen, on the left hand side) and selecting ‘register’.

3) Next the phone will ask for the registration code. The default code is ’0000′, which should work unless you have changed it. That’s it! Your phone should now be reconnected to your base station and you should be back to making calls

This weekend, however I was at Radio Shack to pick up some cable & a cordless phone to add an extension to my office. As they were having a store closing sale, I thought I’d checkto see if they had Hummer games cheap (they have a C64 on a chip in them, which I want to mod into a working C64 laptop/handheld). Right next to them, they had the Linksys cordless Skype phone. Coincidentilly, the sale price on the Linksys was the same as the spool of cable and the cordless I had in my hands. So I picked up the Linksys, took it home, and gave it whirl. That is, I gave it a whirl after letting it charge…
While letting it charge, I installed the accompanying software. It was a very straightforward install, and I didn’t run into any issues.

After letting it charge for about 1/2 an hour I broke down and tried to make a couple of calls with it – however I kept getting a busy signal – even to numbers I knew were not in use. After 15-20 calls, I finally noticed the Skype software reminding me to dial the + before a SkypeOut call. I’m not sure if it’s the phone or Skype that picked the busy signal as notification for a bad call, but it didn’t give me what I would consider as effective feedback. I do have to say that I get it up and running without even touching the documentation or quick start card, so I probably should have known better.

Call quality was decent – It was easy to forget that I was making VoIP calls. The handset was lighter than a conventional handset and have the feel of an inexpensive cell phone. I made a couple of calls to my voicemail, and listening to them with a landline I was neither impressed nor disappointed with the voice quality.

I’m not aware of any way to get it working under Linux or other Windows telephony software, but hope someone will come up with those hacks soon. I bought it spur of the moment assuming it was Windows and Skype only, so nothing is lost.

Overall, I’m happy with the phone and the service – but I only spent a small fraction of the list price for the phone. In hindsight, I could have saved some dough by spending $35 on a corded USB handset or $20 for a bluetooth adapter so I could have used an existing cell headset with my computer. The wireless functionality and ability to dial from the phone pretty much makes up for the price difference, and I had planned on selling it on Ebay if I didn’t like it. For now, the Linksys has earned a space on my desk – until the next best gadget comes along.

From the press release: Cisco Systems today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Sipura Technology, Inc. This represents Cisco’s first acquisition for its Linksys division, the leading provider of wireless and networking hardware for home, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and small business environments. Sipura is a leader in consumer voice over (VoIP) technology and is a key technology provider for Linksys’ current line of VoIP networking devices. In addition to Sipura’s valuable technology and customer relationships, their experienced team with extensive VoIP expertise will help build a foundation for Linksys’ internal research and development capabilities in voice, video and other markets.

Quick & Easy to connect: Simply plug into any PCs w/ USB port for Wireless LAN connection or slide in your cell phone’s removable SIM card
- Features Wireless Network connection, allowing networking where other 802.11b devices may be present
- for use on your wireless cellular carrier’s network.
- Provides users w/seamless wireless Internet connection.