[asterisk-users] Maybe a little OT---USB Handset

[John Millican]

Gordon Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Jan 2008, John Millican wrote:
> 
>> Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
>>> On Sun, Jan 27, 2008 at 11:27:16AM -0500, John Millican wrote:
>>>> Hello All,
>>>> This may be a little OT for the list but it seems to be to be the place
>>>> to get the best answer. I have looked at the many Skype/Yahoo phones out
>>>> there and none seem to be what I am looking for.
>>>> I have a need for a USB handset that I can use with an Asterisk server.
>>> A USB handset is basically a sound device (and not a great one, usually)
>>> along with a small keyboard. Linux will usually easily identify the
>>> sound device and you can use the phone as chan_{oss,alsa,console}.
>>>
>>> Using the keyboard in it may be trickier.
>>>
>>> Do any of the above support cancelling acustic echo? Is it actually
>>> needed in this case?
>>>
>>
>> Tzafrir,
>> Thanks for the reply. Acusitic echo cancel may not be needed as this
>> will not be used in a noisy work place, only in possibly quieter home
>> environments.  There will also be no need for speaker phone operation.
>> Enabling the keypad is definitely the tricky part. I am trying to avoid
>> loading a soft phone since I don't want to have to instruct the users on
>> how to use one (mostly NON-technical types).  If the set looks and feels
>> like a phone they will be OK on their own.  I guess I may have to go
>> with a decent, hopefully inexpensive, basic IP desk phone.
> 
> I had a little success with a cheap USB 'phone' (From Tesco in the UK) 
> which was a Yealink device. Linux has a driver for the keypad on it which 
> makes it work just like a regular keyboard (limited number of keys, 
> obviously!), but the issue is still that you'd need a program of some 
> sorts to take the keypad input and translate it to an asterisk console 
> command dial, if using it as a console phone.
> 
> I did use it successfully some time back with idefisk, although idefisk 
> didn't have a keyboard equivalent of 'hang up' at the time (zoiper might 
> have now though). The down-side was that you needed to put the mouse over 
> the idefisk application so it had keyboard input focus )-:
> 
> Oh for a command-line IAX client, but it's something I just don't have 
> time to put together myself.
> 
> Gordon
Thanks for the replies.
I wonder if I could use the Yealink phone and write a connector to 
Asterisk with the IAX client on Sourceforge and make the handset look 
like an iaxphone?  Or maybe there is some other easier solution?  All I 
need is to have the ability to go
off hook/on hook, pass DTMF, and voice obviously :-)
JohnM