Caller ID Tester: Dumpster or Sell? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: SeoulBigChris
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2021, 11:08:56 pm
content: I have this old caller ID box from an old project. It's been sitting on a shelf taking up space. I was told by my Korean engineer friend who obtained this for me back then that these were a tad expensive, but this was say 2005 or so. I was about to throw it away (in the proper recycling bin), but decided to get opinions. Is this something that can be useful to any developers in 2021? Or is just an obsolete boat anchor with of no utility?By the way, I don't think that's James Bond's real phone number....-Chris "The Stumbler"

author: kcbrown
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2021, 11:54:14 pm
content: If you don't sell it, then why not take it apart and salvage the useful bits and pieces? At a minimum it looks like it's got a rotary encoder, a potentiometer, a couple of banana jacks, a 40x2 LCD, a power switch, a BNC connector, and a phone jack. I'd expect there to be stuff inside that's probably useful too, like a transformer, voltage regulators, maybe a SMPS controller, and who knows what else.And if you do take it apart to salvage parts, then you should take teardown photos while you do it and then post an article on here about the teardown, because it might be quite interesting to see what it's got inside of it.

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2021, 11:06:15 am
content: Quote from: SeoulBigChris on May 15, 2021, 11:08:56 pmMakes no difference. I've thrown $500,000 stuff in the dumpster becasue is was obsolete and its job can be done by a $25 modern device.Quote from: SeoulBigChris on May 15, 2021, 11:08:56 pmDoubtful. As a device it's probably just a door stop now.Is there anything useful inside it? Also doubtful but to get a proper answer you'll have to open it up and post pictures of the insides.

author: SeoulBigChris
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2021, 07:52:28 pm
content: Thanks. I tend to agree that it’s a door stop now, but I really don’t know. I haven’t followed the caller ID technology for a really long time. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this is something you could build for $25 today. But otoh, something that meets precise phone company standards might still be expensive and hence this box could be useful.BTW I’m not interested in making a profit, it’s more the case that I wonder whether this thing is even worth the price of shipping should I find someone who needs it. I’d guess it would be pushing $200 to ship.Noted about tearing it down and making photos. I’ll definitely do that before tossing it. Here in South Korea they have a fairly rigorous recycling system - you have to pay for throwing away big things like a desk or washing machine. But for some reason electronics are free. Problem is, I dread taking my old electronics to the local center, because I am so tempted to bring other people’s junk back home with me. 8-) Usually I’ll ask my wife to take it there for me.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2021, 07:55:41 pm
content: I doubt it will fetch any money nowadays. I hate to admit that analog telephony is dead as a Dodo. I have had a lot of fun designing analog telephone circuits at a former employer but it is a craft of the past.

author: SeoulBigChris
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2021, 08:06:35 pm
content: Thanks for the info. The caller ID functionality still exists, but in a digital implementation I presume.For the curious, this was a strange (to me) project at the time. My client had a protect which sold caller ID boxes primarily to pizza restaurants. When the clerk answered the phone to take an order, the caller’s CID was fed into the order-taking computer to automatically populate the delivery address fields of the order. I don’t think it knew the address automatically, this worked only for repeat customers. Thinking back, this client sold four and sixteen line boxes. Those must have been some really busy pizzerias to have needed 16 phone lines just to take orders!