I am addicted to my telephone headset, and I like using a corded phone
> for the sound quality and privacy. Caller ID is a must, and phones
> that have all these features (headsets, wired, and Caller ID) tend to
> be more expensive business models.
> This is the hack I thought of to let me use a cheap Wal*Mart wired
> phone with a headset. Simply wire a connection between the coiled
> handset cord and my headset. There are 4 connectors on the coiled
> handset cord, one for talking, one for listening, and a ground each.
> My headset has a 1/8" male stereo jack at the end. The part furtherst
> from the tip would take both the ground wires, and then I just have to
> find which is the mike, and which is the earpiece.
> Then I have to find out what the 4 wires in the coiled handset cord
> are and connect them correctly. Is there any reason this won't work?
> Any good ideas on how to best make the connection? Thanks.
I tried lots of different combinations connections, but I couldn't get the headset to work. I know phone wiring is pretty funky, so maybe the whole concept is flawed. Radio Shack has a $22 device that lets you add a headset to any phone. It takes batteries, so maybe I am missing a power source when I just hook it up directly, or maybe some modification to the circuit needs to be done.
After cutting the coiled cord that goes to the handset, I have a red, yellow, black and green wire. I think the red and green go to the handset speaker and the black and yellow go to the mouthpiece. I think green is ground, and I am guessing black is ground, but I don't have any good reason for that. Googling the subject led me to a lot of information on the wiring between the phone and the central switch, but nothing specific to the wiring between the phone and handset. This is an example of what I found:
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It seems to contradict what I found yesterday, so I'll try a different combination.