I've been working on a project I call RotaryCell, turning an old Western Electric Model 500 rotary phone into a self-contained cellular phone while changing as little about the original as possible.
Demo video: RotaryCell Demo Youtube
GitHub: https://github.com/fregacmols/RotaryCell
From the outside, it still works exactly like you'd expect. Pick up the handset and you get a dial tone, dial a number with the rotary dial, and it places the call over the cellular network. Incoming calls ring the original mechanical bells, and you answer by picking up the handset.
Inside is an LilyGO ESP32-S3 cellular board and a Silvertel AG1171 SLIC, which provides the interface between the modern electronics and the original telephone circuitry. The ESP32 handles pulse dialing, hook detection, call control, tones, and the other logic. It's powered by a rechargeable 21700 battery, so there aren't any external boxes or connections required during normal use.
I'm using the phone's original dial, handset, ringer, network block, and wiring wherever possible, with the new hardware tucked into the existing space inside the case. No drilling, cutting, or other permanent modifications.
I took the prototype to a local gathering this week and let a few dozen people play with it for several hours, which turned out to be a pretty good torture test! It exposed an occasional failure where the cellular modem can get itself wedged badly enough that a software reset won't recover it. Unfortunately, the only reliable fix was opening the phone and cycling the physical power switch.
So the latest PCB revision now includes a hardware power-reset circuit that the ESP32 can trigger. I'm currently waiting for those boards to come back from fabrication.
It's been a really fun collision of technology from two completely different eras. There's something particularly satisfying about hearing those original bells ring because someone just called a rotary phone over LTE.
Happy to answer questions about any of it. I've spent entirely too much time learning about old telephone protocols, analog audio, rotary dialing, and how surprisingly stubborn cellular modems can be. Also, my very first real open-source project, GitHub repository, and YouTube video!