Landline hang-up integration

Wiki Projects & Stories
1

After the JOY of all the robocalls these past few months, I’d like to build something that could (on command) hang up on an incoming call on my landline. I don’t really have any experience with telephony, and I haven’t put a multimeter on a phone yet.

I presume that you’d just have to momentarily break or make a connection between two of the leads in the cable to accomplish the hang-up. Landline voltage is 52.1 vDC, so the appropriate relay module would be the first step, but I haven’t seen one that will take that much DC. they usually stop around 24v.

Thoughts anyone?

(The million dollar idea is an Echo connect with call blocker) “Alexa, block caller!”

2

Amazon used to sell a device for landlines called Echo Connect but it’s not currently available.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G9E8DTNS96NPPP58

Motorola still sells an Alexa enabled landline phone, but not all of the features are available by voice:

3

Thanks. I actually have an Amazon Connect. Unfortunately, when you say “Alexa reject”, all it will do is stop announcing the call on your Echos. What I want to accomplish is to actually be able to momentarily pick up and then hang up on the call.

1 Like
4

“Alexa, hang up” Always worked on our echo connect. “Alexa, ignore” was the command to stop announcing. But “hang up“ doesn’t do call blocking.

Also note that “Amazon connect” is a different product, one used for call centers. “Echo connect” is the box that connects to a residential landline.

5

Yes, I meant Echo Connect. I’ll give “Hang up” a go - thanks!

1 Like
6

IMHO, the better answer is to use Google Voice to screen your calls.

We’ve given out our Google Voice number (which you can get for free). GV is set to forward those calls to our landline.

We then additionally configured GV to answer incoming calls, ask the caller for their name, and then it rings our real phone and tells us who is calling. At that point we can hang up, listen in on the caller, send it to voicemail, or let the call through.

And it’s free.