PocketDial - FAQ

What is PocketDial?

PocketDial is a portable, inexpensive, battery powered telephone auditing tool. It is designed to be programmed to dial a range of numbers, connected to a telephone line, and then left alone while it completes it's task.

It dials each number and listens for a modem/FAX carrier tone. When it detects one, it makes a note of the number and hangs up and continues. No attempt is made to communicate with the device on the other end of the telephone line. Since it does not have a modem it can only detect carrier tones, not talk to them.

PocketDial is powered by either a 9V battery or an external 9VDC power source. A single alkaline 9V battery provides hours of operation. The device is designed to be small and portable, and is about the size of a garage-door opener remote. It is completely self contained. It does not need a modem or PC connected to it.

The fully-functional prototype circuit board for PocketDial measures about 3.5" x 2". External to the circuit board are a DB9 RS232 connector, a push button (reset), a miniature speaker, and a 9V battery. I haven't selected a final enclosure yet, but I invision it being a little larger than a garage-door opener remote.

The prototype has an RJ11 jack for connection to a telephone line, and a DB9 (female) connector for connection to a standard serial port.

PocketDial stores the result (Carrier / No Carrier) of dialing up to 10,000 numbers. (One entire exchange.) It also stores the prefix, the start number, the stop number, and the last number it successfully dialed. All of this is stored in NON-VOLATILE EEPROM memory, so the results aren't lost if the battery dies or the power is disconnected.

PocketDial will remember the results of the numbers it has dialed until you erase it's memory. It will maintain the results over multiple attempts if you want it to, so that you can spread your auditing out over multiple days, etc.

PocketDial has an embedded serial user interface that is menu driven. Here is the actual menu from PocketDial:

Welcome to PocketDial v1.0
Copyright (C) 2000, PhreakMonkey Enterprises. - http://www.phreakmonkey.com/

Menu:

1 - Display Settings
2 - Change Settings
3 - Display Results in EEPROM
4 - Erase Results in EEPROM
9 - Restart (& return to dialer)

->

As you can see, it is very simple to use. It can be accessed with any terminal program. The serial port on PocketDial operates at 9600 Baud, No Parity, 8 Data bits and 1 stop bit.

Unfortunately, there was not enough interest in the device to warrant having a case and circuit board professionaly fabricated, and I don't want to build these things by hand. So, if you want one you have to build it. Click on the PLANS link at the top of this page and check out the schematics and parts list.

I am considering offering the Parallax BS2SX PIC processer pre-programmed so you don't have to buy a programming interface if you don't already own one. I'll post details under PLANS above if I do.