[asterisk-users] Asterisk SMS()

[A J Stiles]

On Tuesday 19 February 2013, Nicholas Johnson wrote:
> Thanks for the help.  Right now I'm running asterisk on a raspberry pi
> using a phone number from flowroute.  Is using a company like flowroute
> the same as connecting to the PSTN?  Also i've tried to install smsq but I
> couldn't find any good documentation to get it setup properly.  So no, I'm
> not using smsq.

The bad news:  You need a GSM modem to send SMS messages.

The good news:  Almost any old mobile phone which can accept a USB cable can 
be used as a GSM modem, even that old one you've had kicking around in a 
drawer for ages.  Buy a cheap SIM and the minimum amount of calling credit the 
carrier will let you have.  Plug the phone into the computer, check for TTY-
type devices, open one with minicom and see what happens.

If typing
AT
gets you an
OK
then you're probably good to go.

Note that not every mobile phone supports sending SMS messages in text mode, 
but they all support PDU mode.  Also, you'll probably have to make some 
separate arrangement for keeping track of how much credit you have; then use 
the last messageworth of it to text yourself to remind you to get more.


I swear I'll write this up as an Interesting Project, one of these days.

-- 
AJS

Answers come *after* questions.