instructables

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring

by MolecularD

Several years ago, a scammer woke me up at 4 am. Some nonsense about me "owing to the IRS". A few months
later, some clueless telemarketer forgot about the existence of time zones and rang me up at 6 am. "It would be
awesome to have a device that turns phone off during the night hours, then turns it back on during the day, all
done automatically!" - was an obvious idea that popped into my mind. That was years before I have got myself
interested in electronics.

Yes, I am talking about the POTS (plain old telephone service, a.k.a. landline), since modern smartphones have
this useful function built in. Now that I know a bit more about electronics and POTS in particular, I figured that
turning the entire phone off is actually an overkill. I have built a circuit that achieves all of the following objectives:

1. It prevents ringing of all the phones in the house that are on the same line, simultaneously.
2. To the outside caller it just appears like nobody is picking the phone up.
3. Otherwise, the circuit does not interfere with normal phone operations and calls can be made at any
time.
4. It is powered from the phone line itself. There are no other power sources.
5. It is practically undetectable by the phone company, because it uses only a very small amount of
power during its 6-minute startup, after which it enters a very low power mode using only 4 uA of
current.

If you already know all the basics of POTS signaling, or don't care about the underlying principles, then you can
skip the next step.

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 1

Step 1: Phone Line Power and Ring Signaling

First, read this excellent page (from which I borrowed the ring detector idea) for all the gory details. In short, with all
phones on-hook the incoming phone line bears an open circuit DC voltage of ~50 V (it's 51 V at my house). This is
a pretty lousy, unregulated power source because of its relatively large output resistance. Thus, connecting any
practical load drops the voltage precipitously. For example, picking the phone off-hook drops the line voltage below
8 V (6.7 V in my case).

Jason Smith, who proposed to draw electricity from the phone line in this Instructable, measured the resistance of
POTS line at 628 ohm. Thus, drawing only 75 mA from his line drops voltage 10-fold. I don't recommend drawing
any sizable power from the phone line on permanent basis, since both current and voltage drop will be detected by
the phone company, who will send a tech to investigate. But because phone wire lengths and quality of their
insulation vary, the company will tolerate some voltage drop. Conservatively, I figured that a temporary line voltage
drop down to 47 V and a small current below 10 mA won't raise any alarms. Of course, in the long term the line
voltage should be above 48 V at all times with current being as small as possible. Read Hermon Labs report and
this blog for useful details.

An incoming call signal, which rings your phone, features the ~80 V (RMS) AC current! Yes, your eyes are not
deceiving you: that's ~ 250 V peak-to-peak sinusoid. And, it is usually overlayed on top of the regular 50 V DC.
The first figure above shows typical ringing signal on my line. Note that the voltage swings between -68 V and
+168 V. There are four 2-second rings separated by 4-seconds of silence. It is during these silence periods the
calling party receives progress signal (a.k.a. ring-back). The second figure zooms on the first ringing signal. When
I pick up my phone, the company computer detects impedance load on the line and stops the ringing signal. And
this exactly is the basic operational principle of my circuit:

1. Detect incoming ringing signal.

2. Quickly connect sufficient impedance so that the phone company drops the signal before any of my
phones ring.

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 2

Step 2: The Circuit

Parts (refer to the diagram above):

1. Ring detector
C1 = Capacitor 470 nF, 400 V, non-polarized
D1 and D2 = Zener diodes 1N4742A, 12V
D3 = plain vanilla diode 1N4148
R1 = Resistor 10 kOhm, 1/4 W
Optocoupler (I used 4N35)

2. Power management
R2 = Resistor 15 kOhm, 1/4 W
D5 = plain vanilla diode 1N4148
U1 = Voltage regulator LM2936, 5V
C2 = Supercapacitor, 0.1 F, 5.5 V, of EDLC type

3. Ring tripper
R3 = Resistor 15 kOhm, 1/4 W
R4 = Resistor 680 Ohm, 1/2 W
M1 = N-type MOSFET transistor, 2SK2545

Although most parts can be substituted by their equivalents, the last two parts in "power management" are critical
to the operation of this circuit and to its invisibility in particular. LM2936 is an awesome regulator with an ultra-low
quiescent current. 99.99% of time, when the circuit is in its dormant state, the LM2936 let's sip through only 4 uA
(yes, 4 microamperes, as I measured it empirically) of current! Thanks to that, the line voltage is back at its normal
51 V value. The circuit is totally invisible! Not to mention we are being nice to the phone company. ;) When I used
the vanilla LM317, as much as 2.8 mA was flowing in waste - not acceptable.

The supercapacitor acts like a battery storing the charge needed during the milliseconds of circuit operation. The
line voltage doesn't even budge at that time. 0.1 F seems like an overkill for this particular application, but the
circuit is designed with the future expansion in mind. For example, in testing my fully charged supercap could
supply power to a Trinket Pro microcontrollerand to the real time clock for full 10 seconds! Otherwise, in dormancy
the supercap holds the charge very well at the rock solid, regulated 5 V.

The only time power is drawn from the phone line is at the initial charge-up. My tests revealed that the supercap is
charged from 0 to 5 V in about 6 minutes. The line voltage drops at its lowest initial point to 47 V, but then it
steadily climbs up to 51 V. Quite reasonable, IMHO. Thanks to R2, the charging current is no larger than 3 mA at
its peak.

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 3


Step 3: How Does This All Work?
The incoming ringing AC signal, as shown in the first
image of Step 1, triggers the ring detector sub-circuit.
Details of its operation have been described
elsewhere. In short, the C1 allows only AC current to
pass through, while the role of two opposing Zener
diodes is to filter out AC signals with peak voltage
smaller than 12 V, such as dialtone and speech.
Ringing signal easily passes this barrier and induces
LED in the optocoupler. This turns the optocoupler's
transistor on and allows current to pass from C2
through optocoupler and R3 to the ground. Voltage
that builds up on R3 activates the MOSFET's gate,
the MOSFET turns on and allows the current pass
directly between phone line wires via the R4 resistor.
The net effect is that shortly right after the ringing
signal starts the phone line sees connected
impedance of 680 ohms. In other words, the phone
company computer "thinks" someone picked the
phone up (since going off-hook puts impedance on
the line) and cuts the ringing off. This is illustrated in
the first image above by the blue trace; compare it to
the first image in Step 1. (The yellow trace is the
MOSFET's gate voltage.) Instead of the regular 2
seconds, the ringing signal is cut short to about 0.1
second (second image). Moreover, peak-to-peak
Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 4
1
1. These two elements were eliminated from final design
voltage is squashed down to the (-36 V, 78 V) range.
Compare it to the unaffected regular signal in the third
image. Apparently, this is not enough to trigger
ringing recognizer in modern phones (at least in all
the phones I have at home), so they remain silent.
What's interesting is that the caller hears the normal
progress signal, like nothing happened, and thinks
that nobody is home. ;)
So far, I have described only the analog part of the
device mentioned in Introduction. Obviously, this
circuit knows nothing about the time of the day and
squashes rings regardless. In this form, it's ideal for
either heavenly patient people, who will always
remember to plug it in in the evening and out in the
morning, or as a toy for pranksters. :) For regular
users, it still needs a digital part where a real-time
clock (RTC) turns it on and off at preset times. See
the next step...
Ah, one more thing: To indulge StuartB44, let me
point out that connecting anything to phone lines may
be illegal in some countries. In other words, if you do
it, you are responsible.
1 1

1. The "ring killer" shortens and squashes incoming ring signals (blue 1. Ringing lasts only about 0.1 s (blue trace). MOSFET turns on and off
trace). The yellow trace illustrates the MOSFET's gate potential. during that time as shown by gate voltage (yellow trace).

1. Here is the first 0.1 s of the unaffected

ringing signal for comparison.

Step 4: Adding the Real Time Component

One way to add time control is to pair a real-time clock (RTC) chip with a microcontroller unit (MCU) - along with
an independent power source, because MCU is likely to draw a sizable amount of current. My ambition is to power
everything from the phone line and still keep the circuit "invisible". Certainly, it is possible to put the MCU in a
dormant state, then wake it up with interrupts generated by RTC, etc. You are welcome to do so, if you wish. I
have got a simpler idea where the MCU is not needed at all for the regular circuit operation, only for its setup. Take
a look at the diagram in the first image.

What replaces a complicated MCU in making on/off decisions is a very simple T flip-flop chip. Read its Wikipedia
page if you are not familiar with this fundamental element of digital electronics. In short, its output, Q, toggles
between 0 and supply voltage upon receiving clock impulses. (I have actually built it from JK flip-flop, M74HC112,
by tying both the J and K inputs to the supply line.) Hence, it provides a nice "translator" between time pulses and
on/off states.

Now, how do we use the state of Q output to connect/disconnect impedance to/from the phone line? Simple. In the
analog part of our circuit the signal from ring detector activated MOSFET transistor acting as a switch. Thus, a

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 5

second MOSFET paired with the first one in a logical AND configuration should be the simplest solution. Indeed,
the 680 ohm resistor, R4, connects to the phone line only when: 1) ring is detected; AND 2) the flip-flop's Q output
is high.

It is the RTC chip that sets the Q output low or high. Initially, I experimented with Adafruit's PCF8523 breakout
board, but found it inadequate for my purposes: it features only one alarm. Ah, if you are not sure what I am talking
about: modern RTC chips can be set to store a particular date and/or time in their memory. When real time
reaches the stored value, RTC outputs an interrupt signal on one of its pins. This alarm can periodically repeat
itself, e.g., every day if hour/minute/second registers are set while day/month/year ones are ignored. But we need
to trigger the T flip-flop at two different times per day, thus we need two independent alarms. Another of Adafruit's
products, the precision DS3231 RTC has two alarms, but the problem here is that when either is triggered the
resulting interrupt signal is a permanent change from high to low voltage. Resetting it back to high requires
intervention from an MCU… Bummer.

PCF85263, a newer RTC chip from NXP Semiconductors, however, is perfect in this respect. It has two
independent alarms and its interrupt signals can be configured as pulses. In addition, it's SO8 package perfectly
matches that of PCF8523, so I simply desoldered PCF8523 from the breakout board and soldered PCF85263 in its
place. Works like charm!

In summary, the additional parts needed for time control are:

U4 = M74HC112, dual JK flip-flop triggered by the negative edge of clock pulse.

U2 = PCF85263, real time clock along with the required 32 kHz oscillator crystal, Y1, and
decoupling capacitor, and battery backup, and I2C pullup resistors… Ugh, just get PCF8523 from
Adafruit and swap the RTC chips.
Q1 and Q2 = two IRF630B, N-channel MOSFET transistors. (So, you ask, what happened to the
2SK2545? Well, I simply did not have two of these, so I used IRF630B.)
R5, R6, and R7 = Pullup resistors 10 kOhm, 1/4 W

There is a very important caveat you must be aware of (and of which I learned the hard way): the M74HC112 flip-
flop will draw a relatively large current unless all of its input pins are connected! The chip has actually two JK flip-
flops; I used only one leaving the other unconnected and was surprised by a huge power draw. But after securing
all the unused input pins to the ground the supply current dropped to a single digit uA range. Make sure you leave
the unused output pins, Q and ~Q, on both JKs unconnected!

How it works? To set it up, I connect an MCU (Arduino Mega in my case) to the P1 connector: ground pin to the
ground, the SCL and SDA pins to their counterparts, and two digital pins to CLR and PR, respectively. What are
these, you ask? When a JK flip-flop is first powered up, its Q and ~Q outputs are in a random state. Hence, the
M74HC112 chip has preset, PR, and clear, CLR, pins that let the MCU initialize Q and ~Q to a state appropriate
for the time of the day. Read the data sheet for more details. Next, the MCU transmits instructions setting the
alarms, interrupt type, etc., to the RTC through SCL/SDA pins using I2C protocol. After this setup the MCU is
disconnected and the circuit flies on its own solely from the phone line. For example, during the daytime MCU
would set the Q output to a low state, then set the first alarm sometime in the evening hours range and the second
in the morning range. When the first alarm is triggered, the RTC sends a short rectangular impulse, as illustrated in
one of the images above, whose falling edge would flip the Q state from low to high activating the Q2 MOSFET.
The circuit would the kill incoming phone rings during the night when the Q1 is activated. In the morning the
second alarm pulse would deactivate Q2 and all phone rings would be allowed during the day since the state of
Q1 wouldn't matter.

This cycle repeats indefinitely until the MCU is connected again to change the alarm(s), or until something breaks,
Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 6
or the phone company comes knocking. ;) In the embedded video, I connected an LED to the unused ~Q pin in a
way that lists it up when ~Q is low => it indicates the high state of the Q pin. Next, I instructed the RTC to send an
interrupt pulse every second to test the system.

Lastly, was it all worth the effort? Take a look at the last two images: under normal operation the circuit (without
the LED) draws only 10 uA of current and the line voltage remains at a very healthy 51 V! In spite of more
connected components the "killer" still remains "invisible". :)

3
1
2

1. Two N-MOSFETs in logical AND configuration

2. JK flip-flop
3. An LED temporarily connected to the ~Q output for
illustration purposes

1. Adafruit's RTC breakout board where the original PCF8523 has been 1. The PFC85263 produces 12 ms high-to-low interrupt pulse
replaced by PCF85263

https://youtu.be/LFp3SlkYix8

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 7

 1
1

1. Only 10 microamperes is consumed from the phone line during the 1. The phone line maintains very healthy 51 V during normal circuit
normal operation operation

You should also point out that it is illegal to mess around with the phone companies equipment.
Adding anything to their line could cause you problems if they do find out.

Done, in Step 3.

Thanks MolecularD. :)

You can complement your design with a RJ11 switch box adapter!:
http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/jaq7qVJ (http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/jaq7qVJ)

I believe the MCU delay is caused indeed by the boot process which waits for 2 seconds in case
you want to upload a program to it via USB, not just start the sketch. This is fine for most sketches,
but if you need immediate reaction, there are other options: 1). you could burn your code into the
MCU via AVR programmer kit (available from Adafruit), thus eliminating the bootloader and the
delay, or 2). use a different MCU, like esp8266 which does not have this issue (they use pin states
to set the chip to upload mode). The NodeMCU I used for my instructable starts sketch execurion
immediately.

Thank you for excellent tips!

I see you've investigated this in depth. However, even though you designed a cleaver circuit to
mimic an answered phone (680 ohm across the line when the FET turns on) and therefore stopping
the ring signal, wouldn't a timer that switches off the phones work equally well/ Since you would
never receive an emergency call, both ideas would accomplish the exact results. Nice project
though and I like to see others design things with their thinking and elctronic knowledge.

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 8

Thank you. Yes, timed switch would also work (although you wouldn't be able to make calls).
There are many ways to skin a cat. ;)
In fact, Amazon sells an ordinary switch + RJ11 jack combo for $15!
https://www.amazon.com/Telephone-connected-Interru... (https://www.amazon.com/Telephone-
connected-Interrupt-TRICK-Exclusive/dp/B003VKRE6Y/ref=sr_1_2?
ie=UTF8&qid=1488388692&sr=8-2&keywords=phone+switch)
Amazing what nowadays people make money on. :)

Invisible Killer of the Phone Ring: Page 9