F*ck yes. Awesome.

Fight the power!

sold out

hell mother farking yeah....

If you're stealing, you're really just stealing from yourself.

/not serious
//pretty cool actually

Better idea - cell phone charger. (don't know if it would actually work, but the irony is worth giving it a shot)

Link (new window)

This site has been around for several years, I think he sells a phone line powered cell phone charger.

The phone company will shut off your service if they catch you using one of these. And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

Hongcouver: Link (new window)

This site has been around for several years, I think he sells a phone line powered cell phone charger.

They also offer this:

h2ogate: The phone company will shut off your service if they catch you using one of these. And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

You could probably get away with it if you only use it during power outages.

h2ogate And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

/hmmm....
**blows off dusty old user guide from land-line phones circa 1992**

Yeah, line off-hook is no problem for anyone living in the current decade...

calculator13: h2ogate And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

/hmmm....
**blows off dusty old user guide from land-line phones circa 1992**

Yeah, line off-hook is no problem for anyone living in the current decade...

those 100 million plus land lines still out there...bah..who needs that?

/even folks with cell phones still keep a land line
//cell coverage isn't what it should be in all areas

Do I have to have phone service, or is the jack always hot?

This takes me back to the days of hacking a Radio Shack auto dialer to make the correct tone for inserting a quarter into the pay phone.

This was of course when you could get cool stuff at Radio Shack and the guy working behind the counter would help you with projects.

The technology behind Telco Powered Products™ is covered under US Patent No. 4773863, and other worldwide patents.

Anyone want to file a lawsuit?

Why not plug in this nifty lamp that steals power from the phone company?

Because it's stealing?

tricycleracer: Do I have to have phone service, or is the jack always hot?

I was told that any jack has to be able to dial 911. If that's true, I would guess that any phone jack will work regardless of whether it has paid-for service or not.

Tom_Slick: This takes me back to the days of hacking a Radio Shack auto dialer to make the correct tone for inserting a quarter into the pay phone.

This was of course when you could get cool stuff at Radio Shack and the guy working behind the counter would help you with projects.

Radio shack used to be the place to go for all your cool electronics project needs. When I was a teen I was fascinated with electronics and spent hundreds of hours dis-assembling things to build new things. You could go to the Shack and the guy behind the counter would tell you which IC you should use, etc. Nowadays, go in and ask for a resistor - the kid behind the counter will look at you like you have 3 heads.

\get off my lawn

Gather around kids, and learn what makes things work on a starship..

I mean...

The phone line provides enough power for this because of the popularity of the ancient Princess Phone! Which had *gasp* a light in it. Early models of the Princess required a separate transformer, but later... well, let me tell you, it was *re gasp* powered directly from the phone line. And they sold millions of them. And we liked it!

FiOS and other FTTP users, Vonage and most cable co telephone users are just stealing from themselves.

Only a traditional 2-wire pots line leading back to the central office is remotely powered.

If you have a plugged-in box from your telephone provider, the loop current is coming from your own electrical outlet.

I used to have an RCN phone line that was powered remotely but it would fail every time the power went out because they didn't maintain their batteries.

flaming99: Radio shack used to be the place to go for all your cool electronics project needs. When I was a teen I was fascinated with electronics and spent hundreds of hours dis-assembling things to build new things. You could go to the Shack and the guy behind the counter would tell you which IC you should use, etc. Nowadays, go in and ask for a resistor - the kid behind the counter will look at you like you have 3 heads.

They also had the parts and know how to help you build antennas for you shortwave radio, plus you could get crystals for your police and fire scanner to tune in other towns and counties.

/Yes lived in a small town in the middle of the Maine woods we had to get our entertainment somewhere.
//Plus you could bribe your brother when you heard his name over the police scanner.

I have a cell phone and no land line. Sounds like fun, ihatedumbpeople: calculator13: h2ogate And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

/hmmm....
**blows off dusty old user guide from land-line phones circa 1992**

Yeah, line off-hook is no problem for anyone living in the current decade...

those 100 million plus land lines still out there...bah..who needs that?

/even folks with cell phones still keep a land line
//cell coverage isn't what it should be in all areas

I don't have a land line.

Also, I was that guy behind the counter at Radio Shack.
If you were a halfway competent RS employee you were fully capable of moving on to much bigger and better things - or you just didn't care.

They made everyone sign a paper assigning all ideas and inventions to Tandy Corp when I worked there. I wonder if they still do.

tricycleracer:

I believe the jack is always hot, whether or not you pay for the phone line. The idea behind it is that a person should have a way to call essential emergency services (911), regardless of ability to pay for phone service.

GilRuiz1: Why not plug in this nifty lamp that steals power from the phone company?

Because it's stealing?

Why not kill Gilruiz1 for questioning subby?

jakedata: Also, I was that guy behind the counter at Radio Shack.
If you were a halfway competent RS employee you were fully capable of moving on to much bigger and better things - or you just didn't care.

They made everyone sign a paper assigning all ideas and inventions to Tandy Corp when I worked there. I wonder if they still do.

Of course they do. However, that agreement may not be binding if the person isn't hired to invent. For instance, they can't necessarily require assignment of an invention that a secretary makes on his own time, at home, using his own materials.

Andyxc: tricycleracer:

I believe the jack is always hot, whether or not you pay for the phone line. The idea behind it is that a person should have a way to call essential emergency services (911), regardless of ability to pay for phone service.

Yes that is what the 911 fee on the phone bill is for. Also you can always dial 911 from a cell phone.

I prefer to simply ignore telcos. A cell phone, a magic jack for home and my quiet revolution against tyranny lives on.

jakedata: If you were a halfway competent RS employee you were fully capable of moving on to much bigger and better things - or you just didn't care.

The ones who worked at the store in my hometown fell into the just don't care category. They were smart enough to move out of the mill town and be successful but they were afraid of the outside world.

I'm trying to think if any of my college physics-major friends DIDN'T come up with this idea.

Assuming optimal conditions (phone company doesn't notice/doesn't care, your phone line is actually the kind that works this way, in use 24/7) how long would you have to run this tiny little lamp before it saved you the $10.18 it would cost to get it shipped to you?

I drunk what: GilRuiz1: Why not plug in this nifty lamp that steals power from the phone company?

Because it's stealing?

Why not kill Gilruiz1 for questioning subby?


Whoa, if they're going to be that drastic about it, then steal away! They can have all my electricity!

A glow in the dark tampon?

Nickninja: A glow in the dark tampon?

Don't laugh. One saved my life in a caving accident.

calculator13: Yeah, line off-hook is no problem for anyone living in the current decade...

For the amount of power used, you'd might as well buy it direct. No use in paying a phone bill for a few cents of power.

tricycleracer: Do I have to have phone service, or is the jack always hot?

Only if the phone company left your line "dipped" into the phone network. Usually they don't. If you're working straight out the central office on a 5ESS, it will kill any power going out to you even if your line is still connected. If you're working off of a remote system you'll still get power, if connected.

Tom_Slick: Yes that is what the 911 fee on the phone bill is for. Also you can always dial 911 from a cell phone.

If you're not being billed for 911 access you won't have it. The ability to connect to 911 only goes as far as connected lines.

The knowledge of how to do all this goes back to the 70s when phone phreaking was a nice little underground culture. The phone system standards have been supporting this for a loooooong time.

Tom_Slick: This takes me back to the days of hacking a Radio Shack auto dialer to make the correct tone for inserting a quarter into the pay phone.

This was of course when you could get cool stuff at Radio Shack and the guy working behind the counter would help you with projects.

I may or may not have built and sold a few of those.

A Farker spelunking with a luminescent dildo. You magnificent bastard.

h2ogate: The phone company will shut off your service if they catch you using one of these. And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

I work for the phone company so i'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

A phone line has 48 volts of DC power. That's plenty to run this lamp. It would not cause the line to go off hook unless it shorts the two wires together (a basic home phone is a loop start line, that's how the central office switch knows you picked up the phone). The phone company doesn't monitor the amount of electrical usage per line, so odds are you'd never get caught.

Any old school phreakers out there will remember this as being the Aqua Box, very popular and utterly useless once ANI was invented. It never really worked to defeat the lock in trace much either, but it DID slow them down. We had a blast with them, and then ESS came and took away most (MOST!) of our fun.

What began with lamps became all many of ungodly ways to power small devices.

//missing blue boxing oh so bad

Lenin: Any old school phreakers out there will remember this as being the Aqua Box, very popular and utterly useless once ANI was invented. It never really worked to defeat the lock in trace much either, but it DID slow them down. We had a blast with them, and then ESS came and took away most (MOST!) of our fun.

Do you remember the really cheap phones sold at K-Mart in the mid to late 80s that you could hack into a linesmen handset?

Those were the days. I can't even remember the last time I saw a payphone.

I don't have land line phone service but I do have DSL. I assume that my phone jacks must be powered then?

I think I only have two jacks in my house though. Hmm, if I see one of these maybe I'll pick it up but I'm not going to go out of my way.

Tom_Slick: Lenin: Any old school phreakers out there will remember this as being the Aqua Box, very popular and utterly useless once ANI was invented. It never really worked to defeat the lock in trace much either, but it DID slow them down. We had a blast with them, and then ESS came and took away most (MOST!) of our fun.

Do you remember the really cheap phones sold at K-Mart in the mid to late 80s that you could hack into a linesmen handset?

Those were the days. I can't even remember the last time I saw a payphone.

Sigh...I spent a good deal of my childhood with a beige box, red box, and my trust 7/16" socket. Never a dull moment.

/actually, it was quite dull, but fun nonetheless

The comments at the article assert that this is somehow illegal, yet nobody provides a source for that. You walk into a house or apartment, never having had a landline there, and so certainly not having a contract, and these people have put a jack into your wall thats sitting there, and its illegal for you to plug something into it that they don't want you to plug in?


I find it hard to believe that this is illegal.

semiotix: Assuming optimal conditions (phone company doesn't notice/doesn't care, your phone line is actually the kind that works this way, in use 24/7) how long would you have to run this tiny little lamp before it saved you the $10.18 it would cost to get it shipped to you?

If you assume the LEDs draw around 50 mA with a 1V drop, and the phone line is 5V, that would be 8 bulbs * 50 mA/bulb * 5V = 2W.

If you figure 10 cents / kilowatt hour, we would need around 100 kilowatt hours.

At 2 Watts, that would be 50,000 hours, or 2083 days, or 5.7 years.

Why not just tie the phone line directly into your home electricity so that you draw a little less from your power company?

tricycleracer: Do I have to have phone service, or is the jack always hot?

I'd say you need service. Everyone says even a "dead" line needs to be able to dial 911, and that may have been the case, but I think (I am not an expert) if that was the case, you'd still get a dialtone but an unpaid phone would never get connected to any number other than 911. Because to dial any number (such as 911), the connections need to be there. That's not the case; a dead line won't get a dialtone; ergo, no 911, no power.

As Mrbogey says, you can thank the phone phreaking fad for that change, not to mention it's obsolete anyway now that cell phones are ubiquitous.

h2ogate: The phone company will shut off your service if they catch you using one of these. And if it draws as much current as I suspect it does, it will take the line off-hook, giving any callers a busy signal.

It wouldn't draw any more current than the rated current, which I'm sure some modern landline models do. It's a leaf in a forest.

mark--fark: A phone line has 48 volts of DC power. That's plenty to run this lamp. It would not cause the line to go off hook unless it shorts the two wires together (a basic home phone is a loop start line, that's how the central office switch knows you picked up the phone). The phone company doesn't monitor the amount of electrical usage per line, so odds are you'd never get caught.

Clarification: 48V is a fair amount of voltage, so even with a pathetically small current it's decent power (power = volts x amps). I'd guess the rated current is (WILD guess) 500mA or so, so the rated current could be about 24 watts. So, if you get too cute with the phone jack, you might trip a fuse/breaker on their box and THEN you will get the phone company asking what the hell you're doing.

This thing has been tested to NOT exceed the rated current of the phone jack, but just because they don't monitor power consumption doesn't mean you can't get caught. They don't monitor the power consumption because they don't supply a lot of power to begin with.

I doubt KarmicDisaster's Princess Phone was the only reason why this idea works. It's also because these lines are designed to handle the oldest (rotary dial) phones that used these jacks. Efficiency has gone WAY up during that time. Modern phones need wall warts because of all the doodads they add onto them, but the jack itself probably operates way under capacity.

plywoodjungle: Better idea - cell phone charger. (don't know if it would actually work, but the irony is worth giving it a shot)

Hongcouver covered this, but I have to mention: Don't think of cobbling together an adapter to hook your charger to the phone line. The voltage is too different.

Do RJ11's really have a 48 volt output?

Typically, the power on Pins 2 and 5 comes from a transformer plugged into a wall near one jack, supplying power to all of the jacks in the house. Trimline and Princess phone dial lights are rated at 6.3 volts and the transformer output is typically around 5 volts, providing a long service life for the incandescent lamps.

Link (new window)

Mrbogey: Only if the phone company left your line "dipped" into the phone network. Usually they don't. If you're working straight out the central office on a 5ESS, it will kill any power going out to you even if your line is still connected. If you're working off of a remote system you'll still get power, if connected.


I've never run across a line that *wasn't* hot. Apartments, houses, anywhere. Every line that I've plugged a handset into had a dial tone and would allow either 911 or patch directly into the telco sales sign-up system. Granted, I've only tested this at just over a dozen locations around this state, so my experience is far from extensive.

Where are you located that your local telco kills a line dead once subscription is up?

/My lines have been re-routed into my cable modem, so I'm an exception

So...uhhh...can I get one of these doohickies to hook up my air conditioner with?

Dammit, I had this idea ten years ago and everybody told me I was an idiot.

/well, they were mostly right