Wireless beige box - 05/20/02 09:34 PM
Well, I recieved a few emails today, and OMG, they have brains!@ hehe, ok, well this one is entitled "Wireless Beige Box" so I hope you all enjoy... I recieved 3, so I'll post another tomorrow. I will also be placing these on the main site when I get more time.
*** Wireless beige box*** By: Captain B
One thing I've come to realize is that many things in electronics use fairly low voltage on average, and tend to run on DC (Direct Current) power. Cordless phones are no exception. In case you didn't already know, batteries also run on DC. Can you tell where I'm going with this yet? Most cordless phones I've seen thus far use 9 volts to power the base. (You know, the unit you put your cordless phone on to charge it). So far, I seen one that used 12 volts to power it. But, I think those that use more than 9 volts to power the base mainly tend to have built in answering machines, speakerphones, or other extras you wouldn't need during wireless beige boxing, anyway. To be sure a given cordless phone's base uses 9VDC (9 volts DC) to power it, look either on the AC adapter plug for what It's voltage "rating" is (Displayed as 9VDC or whatever next to "output"). Disregard the input stats. That's the voltage/current coming into the AC adapter from the electrical outlet before the adapter lowers the voltage and current and converts it to DC. Or, you can also check on the back of cordless phone's base where the power cord connects to the back. Usually, you'll see something like "9V in", or simply "9V". Just as long as the phone's base uses 9 volts to power it, you can power it with a 9v battery. There's more than one way to go about this. With the 1st method, you'll sacrifice your AC adapter, since it involves modifying it for the purpose. So, you you may want to think twice, With the 2nd method, you can buy a rechargeable battery charger called Power Bank from Radio Shack that doubles as a DC power source to power electronics. The 3rd method, which is probably the most complex of the three involves an adaptaplug, an adaptacord attached to it leading to a 9v battery clip soldered on at the end where the AC adapter would be. (Which, is basically the same as the 1st method described, except you won't have to ruin the AC adapter that came with the cordless)!
. Anyway, I'll describe only the 1st method here. But, you can always do it another way, too. By the way, you're going to need a wire cutter, wire stripper, 9v battery clip (Sold in packs of 5 at Radio Shack), standard 60/40 solder, and a soldering iron (30 watts should be fine for the job), and possibly electrical tape. First, get AC adapter and cord for the cordless phone. (Remove it from the back of the cordless phone). What you'll need to do first is cut the AC adapter off of the power cord. Now, I've come to know more recently that sometimes AC adapters sometimes retain some electric current even after being unplugged for a bit. With 9v of power, I doubt It'd be a bad shock if there's leftover current. But, there's a way to remove leftover current if you happen to have an insulated alligator clips jumper cable (Also sold at Radio Shack). Just connect one of the alligator clips to one of the 2 prongs on the AC adapter, and touch the metal part of the other alligator clip on the other end of the jumper cable to the other prong on the AC adapter, thereby shorting it. If there was leftover current, there will be a little bit of a spark. Okay, with that said, let's move on. As stated before, you'll have to cut the AC adapter off of the power cord. Then, cut a fairly small notch vertically downward on the power cord right between the 2 wires. Now, slowly and carefully, seperate the power cord by pulling the 2 wires apart from each other a bit. Then, carefully strip about an half and inch of insulation off each of the wires. Now, you can attach it to the 9v battery clip to the bare wire leads of the power cord. There's 2 ways this can be done: With the 1st method, you can solder the bare wire leads from the power cord to bare wire leads from the 9v battery clips. In which case, you'll want to wrap the exposed section of soldered wire with electrical tape afterward. Or, you can use the 2nd method and solder the wire leads from the power cord directly to the 9v battery connector clip. If you go with that way, It may be better not to buy the heavy duty 9v battery clips as I think they can be a bit harder to solder the wire leads to. At any rate, once you have the 9v battery connector soldered up to the power cord, It's just a matter of connecting a 9v battery to the 9v battery connector to power the cordless phone's base. Optionally, you could also remove the circuit board from inside the casing of cordless phone's base. Afterall, you don't need the interior components and not the chasis casing to operate the cordless phone's base. If you've bought a cordless phone that has a particularly small base, it may even be the case that you could fit it all inside something. Like say inside a TNI, or inside the bottom base part of a fortress payphone. Use your imagination, have phun, and as always, be careful with everything phreaking related that you do.
*** Wireless beige box*** By: Captain B
One thing I've come to realize is that many things in electronics use fairly low voltage on average, and tend to run on DC (Direct Current) power. Cordless phones are no exception. In case you didn't already know, batteries also run on DC. Can you tell where I'm going with this yet? Most cordless phones I've seen thus far use 9 volts to power the base. (You know, the unit you put your cordless phone on to charge it). So far, I seen one that used 12 volts to power it. But, I think those that use more than 9 volts to power the base mainly tend to have built in answering machines, speakerphones, or other extras you wouldn't need during wireless beige boxing, anyway. To be sure a given cordless phone's base uses 9VDC (9 volts DC) to power it, look either on the AC adapter plug for what It's voltage "rating" is (Displayed as 9VDC or whatever next to "output"). Disregard the input stats. That's the voltage/current coming into the AC adapter from the electrical outlet before the adapter lowers the voltage and current and converts it to DC. Or, you can also check on the back of cordless phone's base where the power cord connects to the back. Usually, you'll see something like "9V in", or simply "9V". Just as long as the phone's base uses 9 volts to power it, you can power it with a 9v battery. There's more than one way to go about this. With the 1st method, you'll sacrifice your AC adapter, since it involves modifying it for the purpose. So, you you may want to think twice, With the 2nd method, you can buy a rechargeable battery charger called Power Bank from Radio Shack that doubles as a DC power source to power electronics. The 3rd method, which is probably the most complex of the three involves an adaptaplug, an adaptacord attached to it leading to a 9v battery clip soldered on at the end where the AC adapter would be. (Which, is basically the same as the 1st method described, except you won't have to ruin the AC adapter that came with the cordless)!
. Anyway, I'll describe only the 1st method here. But, you can always do it another way, too. By the way, you're going to need a wire cutter, wire stripper, 9v battery clip (Sold in packs of 5 at Radio Shack), standard 60/40 solder, and a soldering iron (30 watts should be fine for the job), and possibly electrical tape. First, get AC adapter and cord for the cordless phone. (Remove it from the back of the cordless phone). What you'll need to do first is cut the AC adapter off of the power cord. Now, I've come to know more recently that sometimes AC adapters sometimes retain some electric current even after being unplugged for a bit. With 9v of power, I doubt It'd be a bad shock if there's leftover current. But, there's a way to remove leftover current if you happen to have an insulated alligator clips jumper cable (Also sold at Radio Shack). Just connect one of the alligator clips to one of the 2 prongs on the AC adapter, and touch the metal part of the other alligator clip on the other end of the jumper cable to the other prong on the AC adapter, thereby shorting it. If there was leftover current, there will be a little bit of a spark. Okay, with that said, let's move on. As stated before, you'll have to cut the AC adapter off of the power cord. Then, cut a fairly small notch vertically downward on the power cord right between the 2 wires. Now, slowly and carefully, seperate the power cord by pulling the 2 wires apart from each other a bit. Then, carefully strip about an half and inch of insulation off each of the wires. Now, you can attach it to the 9v battery clip to the bare wire leads of the power cord. There's 2 ways this can be done: With the 1st method, you can solder the bare wire leads from the power cord to bare wire leads from the 9v battery clips. In which case, you'll want to wrap the exposed section of soldered wire with electrical tape afterward. Or, you can use the 2nd method and solder the wire leads from the power cord directly to the 9v battery connector clip. If you go with that way, It may be better not to buy the heavy duty 9v battery clips as I think they can be a bit harder to solder the wire leads to. At any rate, once you have the 9v battery connector soldered up to the power cord, It's just a matter of connecting a 9v battery to the 9v battery connector to power the cordless phone's base. Optionally, you could also remove the circuit board from inside the casing of cordless phone's base. Afterall, you don't need the interior components and not the chasis casing to operate the cordless phone's base. If you've bought a cordless phone that has a particularly small base, it may even be the case that you could fit it all inside something. Like say inside a TNI, or inside the bottom base part of a fortress payphone. Use your imagination, have phun, and as always, be careful with everything phreaking related that you do.
