improvised GSM autodialer

[Vegeta]

Does anyone know how I can alter a GSM mobile phone so it calls a (preset) number when it's turned on? Or are those phones with an "active flip" already designed to do so? (I must admit I'm not really up-to-date with these things, you can ask me almost anything about explosives and related subjects but I don't know what is already possible with those active flip voice activated WAPping things). But if not already built in, it mustn't be to hard to use such a function to get the phone to ring automatically a preset number.
Or otherwise just connecting some circuitry to do the job.
I need it for monitoring an object far away (with no powersupply, no phonelines) over a longer period of time, so a gsm alarmsystem would be perfect (as long as it doesn't use to much power and can be operated with a battery).
Somekind of datalogger would also be usefull.
Anyone any ideas? Would be much appreciated.

[mrloud]

If I understand you correctly you plan on hooking the phone up to a timer to switch it on at a specific time. I assume that the battery life would not be adequate if the phone were to be left on the whole time.

Is there any reason you want the phone to call you?
Why dont you call the phone when you know that it will be switched on at a particular time. Most Nokia phones have an option to automatically answer an incomming call after one or two rings.

We could probably be more help if you told us what it is you wanted to monitor.

[Vegeta]

Let's just say I have to monitor a place where some guys drop off loads of cash at certain times. And obviously I can't sit there for days, weeks or months waiting for it to happen and record the time and find out the routine. So I want to use a sensor that activates the GSM phone to call me. That way I can find out the easy way when they deliver and figure out when exactly the next load is coming (and then I will be waiting :) and tell them there's a slight change of plans, and ask them friendly to hand over the money :) ).

So all I have to know is how you get a GSM phone to call a preset number. Can I use a normal GSM phone and use the active flip for this purpose, or do I just have to connect some wires to the connector (details please). I figure it can't be that complicated, you just have to know which wire to put where.
Maybe someone can tell me or knows where I can find this information.
Much appreciated.

[0EZ0]

Umm that may not go down too well with the guys round here. :rolleyes:

[xoo1246]

If you want to learn pick up a book on electronics.

[Vegeta]

The forum is not a fuckin' chatbox is it? I'm not here to make friends or for stupid small talk. I want to share/get some information. So if you don't know the answer to my questions, shut the fuck up!.
And don't bother me with stupid remarks.

I hoped that situation of the Forum might have improved after the shutdown, but apparently not. Instead of a new start with only the people left who are seriously interested in explosives and have some practical and theoretical background, it seems that there are just more lonely 14 year old kids messing up the whole thing. Degrading the Forum to a stupid, useless chatbox.
And that really is a pity.

[Snipie]

You only want the time??
That’s easy, just buy a clock witch uses batteries, attach the sensor to the battery (convert it so it can uses a smaller battery (not the voltage, just the size), so less Amp/Hour), and when the sensor is triggered, it shortcuts the battery, then, after a certain time, you go over there and check the clock.
You can also trigger a audio recorder (memo recorder or something like it), on the sensor, so you can hear what they say. Or better, trigger a camera with the sensor, set a tiny clock in front of it, and the money deposit as the background.

If you want to use a gsm, you can also consider a second option, the sms function.
There was a article in a electronics magazine (Electuur) about sending sms messages with data to a certain telephone number.
But that will require a lot of electronic knowledge.

[Chris Shiherlis]

My friend Ray will be very pleased to hear that, he likes good ideas (you must be Dutch <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> ). He's a bit pissed off right now and doesn't want to bother to register again. But I'll tell him about the SMS option. Do you know which number of Electuur it was with the article? (or roughly which month/year).
And the idea with the clock is also very nice, the only drawback is that you can only use it once and not really find out a pattern (unless you keep resetting it).
Thanks.

<small>[ March 15, 2002, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Chris Shiherlis ]</small>

[FragmentedSanity]

Lo there.

OK - now by no power suppy Ill assume you meant no mains supply, That means you need a battery - get yourself a big car battery and id should run the phone for ages - how you say? buy a car charger and cut off the lighter plug and direct connect the wires. To prolong the life and save you phones battery youd need an electrical timer to charge the phone only every so often, rather than all the time.
A solar cell tricle charging the battery wouldnt hurt too.
Then you have the sensor which will need power but that would go on a seperate circut - the sensor would trigger a solenoid when activated, and the solenoid would need to be pressed to the send button of the phone.
Most phones Ive used have one button dialing (even if its just last number redial) the solenoid would press that button causing the phone to ring out.

If it were me id invest in an old GSM handset with a data suit for connection to your laptop (pc if you dont mind being stationary) and when the call is recieved the lappy would log it and hang up withoout actually making the connection between phones - unless you needed to transmit background noise... but IMHO that would be impractical, besides all you want to know is that the sensor went off at time X on day Y - if the connection is never made you get no call charges between phones - and because youd be using pre paid sim cards to run the phones anon you dont want call charges or the credit would run out the first time someone was walking around the target area.

Other considerations would be - dsconnection the speaker from the phone - so no matter what it isnt going to make any noise and give the game away - and stashing the makeshift surveilance equipment somewhere where it wont get found /seen /disturbed - but that stuffs up to you

as far as I can see this is a simple and cheap way of doing what you want... and if you dont know electronics then you dont want to go poking around inside phone and trying to get it to work.
Always think Lo-Tek first - horse tracks and Zebras and all that stuff.
and you wouldnt need a flash phone or this at all - one touch dialing would be the only only thing needed
So whats the verdict - would this work for what you had in mind?
comments/questions?
But I gotta say Ray that if you throw a hissy fit every time you have to deal with some wannabe 14 year old pleb then the forum will continue to be an unpleasnt environment for you. Coz just as sure as the sun comes up in the morning, there is always going to be some pre-pubescent imbecile trying to make C4 out of flour and sump oil - or something of equal intelligence. The sad truth is that even armed with extraordinary GmOD powers not even NBK can delete the stupid fuckers as fast as they seem to be breeding!
Later all
FS

[nbk2000]

K3wls are like roaches, for every one you step on, there's a hundred in the walls waiting for the light to be turned off.

:D

[PYRO500]

Did someone call the exterminator?

[Chris Shiherlis]

Thanks very much Fragmented Sanity, that's the kind of thing I want to know, it's a very good idea. I like low-tech solutions very much (although I have some electronic skills, enough to construct devices usefull in the explosive field: timers, RC-detonation devices, etc., I'm a bit backward when all that modern high tech equipment like mobile phones, computers are concerned).

Now, your suggestion to connect a solenoid/relais to a switch on a phone with one touch dialing is very nice, but if I understand you correctly, the phone needs to be switched on the whole time.
Even if it needs only to be recharged after say every 2 days it needs a considerably battery back up to operate for weeks/months and I doubt that it will run for ages a car battery but you maybe right, I will just try that. But a car battery with charger is also a bit big for the purpose. (or maybe this is where the solar cells come in (very nice idea also, thanks, you must be Dutch <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> )).
So I would like to know if it's maybe possible to use a phone (which one?) that will ring a number after the POWER is turned on. Even if I need to develop a circuit for it that turns the power on AND then 'presses' one or more switches (I can do that). This way I smaller battery would be suficient.

And for monitoring the time those nice guys drop off the money I would use just a cheap phone that wouldn't even be turned on, so there will be messages in my "voicemail" telling me when the other phone tried to call me. This way I would only have to call the voicemail number after a month or so to get all the data (I don't even need the phone (evidence!) for that).
And this way they can't track me down/see where I've been in case they do find the autodialer/monitoring system and retrace the phonenumber it's supposed to call. (By the way, is it be illegal to just monitor this kind of activity? Or only if they can prove it's with the intent to rob the nice guys? It would be same when you sit in front of/observe a bank, can cops arrest you for just sitting there, looking at the bank?).

<small>[ March 17, 2002, 07:17 AM: Message edited by: Chris Shiherlis ]</small>

[FragmentedSanity]

All you want is a GSM version of an alarm sysytem set to dial into a data logging device.

Most alarm systems Ive dealt with (that being only a few and nothing too fancy) have had the capability of dialing a phone number and delivering a message that the alarm is going and someone should sent the swat team or whatever - have a nice day :)

so Im sure that they would have a GSM version - you could buy a ready made unit and adapt it - just tell them its for your Weekend getaway cabin and there is no phone line there, and even tho you mainly want it just to make bright lights and lots of noise to scare away the critters that are trying to nest in your shack, you would still like to know how often it was going off yada yada yada.
Then you would explain that your off the grid too and did they have any alternative power systems , preferably solar (or wind depending on what would suit best)
an alarm company could put at all together for you - or you could try and find it in a DIY kit,
or you could search for some schematics of alarm systems.
The point s that I know for a fact these units exist for use with land lines - and thanks to the fat naked guy we have a growing market in yuppy survivalists SO - there are more and more products availabe for remote application. so why not an alarm system.
even if you couldnt find a GSM version of the crcuit
you could rig a land line version with a mechanical dialer for oyur phone - but that all seems like a lot of work to me.
But that would only need power to the sensors and then whatever relays or soleniods or whatever was implemented for the dialing. but the dialing sequence woulld begin with power on - and then end with power off after it had rung a designagted number of tiimes you your phone would last for longer (im assuming there is only minimal traffic expected - otherwise the powering up process could cause problems) and need less charging.

As for the legalities - yeah I think they would have to prove you were casing the place (which would be dicy I wouldnt bet my ass on the outcome) - but if they were intelligent they would just keep the place under surveillance till you made your move - then it dosent matter how well you covered your tracks with the device coz they caught oyu in the act and have opened your ass to the threat of anal rape for more time than youll want to think about.

later
FS

<small>[ March 17, 2002, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: FragmentedSanity ]</small>

[Snipie]

The elektuur number is: nr. 459, januari 2002.
or check <a href="http://www.elektuur.nl" target="_blank">Elektuur</a>.

[Chris Shiherlis]

Yeah, I know those commercial GSM autodialers exist. But overhere they are a bit more difficult to find. It's a relative new development/device and most of the information I found about it were devices sold in America. But from the pictures it seems quite simple, they just use a normal GSM phone which is attached to some electronic circuit and sometimes there's just two wires connected to socket of the phone, so I figured that it couldn't be to hard to improvise/imitate such a device. But the low tech solenoid solution is also very nice.
So thanks for all your ideas and effort. Finally some usefull information, that goes for Snipie also :) .
I just have to make up my mind for which option to go: a commercial device, the low tech solution or maybe I will use/alter an electronic devive which allows to store some data (like some scales that allow you record your progress and stores date and weight at that time).

And about the consequences: it's a big gamble I know, all or nothing; rich and famous or down and out. But if you end up in jail just must be carefull in the shower and don't bent over if you loose the soap :) .
I don't know if I will take the risk. Maybe I will just use the device to guard my stash. But we'll find out.

<small>[ March 18, 2002, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: Chris Shiherlis ]</small>

[Leon]

This device could be quite simple really you start off with a GSM phone and the impute from your surveillance device which goes to a relay and 2 555 timers, the relay turns the phone on then after a ten second delay set by the first 555 it presses the number u have selected for your 1 number dialling and after another 30 seconds the other 555 turns off the relay and the phone.

If you are using this for a long time days, weeks ect u will need a decent power source for the surveillance device and if it was me I wouldn’t trust a solar cell to power something that has to be accurate. I mean if for some reason the sun hadn’t come one day all your research is inaccurate.

Questions/Comments ??

--Leon

<small>[ April 20, 2002, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Leon ]</small>

[Tyler_Durden]

Two possibilities come to mind, unfortunately both would be quite expensive...

The first is to use a laptop with attached netcam. There is software available to turn the netcam on whenever movement is detected, and of course record when and so on. This probably would only work if you could hook it up to sustained power source. If you are running on batteries along, you can probably count on 8 hours at best, running two batteries and so on. Of course, if you had none of the supplies listed you would be out about $1500 before it's over.

The other possibility would be to do something similar, but with some kind of mini-pc or PDA, and this would be less expensive, and better if size is an issue.

I don't know anything about the situation, so I don't know if either of these are at all viable, but with the laptop idea you can tuck the laptop away somewhere and have only the camera showing.

This is high-tech, but equally simple.

[Chris Shiherlis]

The electronics is no problem, I can do that. The only bottleneck/problem is the connection to the mobile phone. Which pins to use of the socket/connector of a mobile phone to switch it on and use the one touch dialing function. I know it differs with every phone but those commercial autodialers are all connected to the socket of the phone, so one of the pins is used as a input for the electronics. And most probably this pin is acting as a substitue for the key pad. An electronic signal has the same effect as pressing the ON-switch and the pressing of the one touch dialing number.
I know this is very specialist information and very unlikely someone knows it , or knows where to find it but there is a small chance.

<small>[ April 26, 2002, 06:26 AM: Message edited by: Chris Shiherlis ]</small>

[zaibatsu]

I'm unsure about what you could do with this, but for putting logos etc onto mobiles you can get a cable which connects the mobile to a PC through the serial socket. Maybe that will be of some use?