Landline phone that can be set to ring just once?

January 24, 2006 2:27 PM

Is there some model of landline phone available that can be set to ring just once?

My cellphone has an option that allows me to set it to ring just once, or even to beep just once. I've been looking (and looking, and looking) for a landline phone that will do the same.

I used to work nights, and was always a night person, so I got in the habit of leaving my ringer off and now I really can't stand to let the phone ring when I don't want to answer it. I don't want something that rings once and goes to voicemail or to an answering machine. I use my caller ID to track who's called, and anyone important has other ways to get in touch. I'd like to be able to hear the phone ring, look at the Caller ID if I'm not otherwise occupied, and decide whether to answer or let it go .

A friend says he has seen one or two like this, but I've never been able to find one. Boxes don't list it as a feature, and attempts to contact a couple of manufacturers got me responses that they didn't make anything like this, although you'd think there'd be some demand for this kind of feature.

All help greatly appreciated!

posted by dilettante to shopping (12 comments total)

In the past I have called my landline telephone provider -- and was able to have them set my phone to the number of rings I wanted before it 'flips-over' to voicemail.
posted by ericb at 2:29 PM on January 24, 2006

Unlike cell phones, the ring is a basic mechanical function of the phone -- electricity comes down the wire to make it happen. To find one that only rings once, you'll need to find a handset that has specific circuitry to only sound a ringer once. Which I'd expect to be rare.

However, a dedicated ringer could help. There are loads of devices for the hard of hearing. this one, for instance, will strobe a light when the phone rings. You could turn off all the ringers, and only get a visual indicator.
posted by bonaldi at 2:54 PM on January 24, 2006

You could get an answering machine that picks up after one ring (fancy digital answering machines let you select how many rings to pick up after). Then set your answering machine message to go like this:
"ring...ring...ring...ring...(click)Sorry, I'm not home, please leave a message (beep)".
posted by jewzilla at 4:22 PM on January 24, 2006

It is doable, depending on how much control you have over the phone system in your place.

I have a cheapo caller ID box with a filter function. It emits two beeps for most calls, four beeps for calls from a VIP list, and no beeps at all for calls from a reject list. I don't use it anymore, but I believe the phones work as normal in other respects - just pick up the handset to start talking. It may not be blocking the rings, so you might have to turn the phones ringer off.
posted by Chuckles at 4:27 PM on January 24, 2006

Vonage (and probably other VOIPs) let you customize how many times the land line rings before going to voicemail or forwarding to another line/mobile.
posted by meehawl at 5:48 PM on January 24, 2006

Seems like most of the commenters don't quite understand what the OP wants ... Going straight to VM after one ring (i.e. within a couple seconds) isn't really what he wants, I don't think ...

Bonaldi is right about the ring being driven by electricity. A 90 volt DC signal comes down the line to generate the ring in the handset. In the old days that's what it took to smack the phone's bell mechanism into ringing. On a related note, 90 VDC hurts bad and can even kill you, so don't screw around with phone wires that might "ring". DC shocks feel different from AC shocks: whereas the latter give you that tingling/vibrating feeling, the former is more of a gut-crunching "oomph" (held until shock is released).

Remember that all this last-mile phone stuff was invented a hundred years ago so it's all rather crude. Not until cell phones and VoIP has it really evolved much beyond Bell's original concepts.

Anyway, the electrical engineer in me says that what you need is a circuit on the phone line that detects the first ring and THEN latches in to "absorb" (electrically, e.g. via really big high pass filter) further rings for a minute or so.

No, wait, that would then suppress the answering machine's ability to answer, since it would never see the fourth ring. Hmmm. Looks like it does need a software solution; probably can be done with a VoIP/Asterisk setup but that's probably about 25 times as compicated as the OP was looking for ...

Longest non-answer ever!
posted by intermod at 7:22 PM on January 24, 2006

I think intermod is on the right track. Telephones are not that complicated and a lot of the DTMF (touch-tone) stuff is modularized. A "basic stamp" or other simple microprocessor and some simple hardware (possibly scavenged from an old phone) would probably be enough to do it. Someone with some decent electrical engineering skills could probably do it without the microprocessor. Sounds like a fun project actually (not that I'm volunteering!).

Alternately, jewzilla's suggestion should work - just pick up from the answering machine if you want to take the call.
posted by exogenous at 7:36 PM on January 24, 2006

Yes, the TS-200 corded telephone is documented in its manual as supporting ring once with flashing light thereafter (PDF from support link on www.talkswitch.com website). However, it's a business class telephone and not cheap, including a lot of features you probably don't need. Froogle shows cheapest at $130+. If you do decide to buy one, you may want to contact talkswitch and confirm it does what the manual indicates it does.

Just to throw out another idea, if it's the ringing you find objectionable, there are other ways to indicate incoming calls. You can buy a (much cheaper) strobe light or a relay which turns on a lamp or other electronic device when you receive an incoming call, such as the products featured here. Turn off the phone's ringer and check the caller ID when the dancing hula girl lights up.
posted by mdevore at 8:29 PM on January 24, 2006

Chuckles - do you have a manufacturer/model # for that caller ID box? The only ones I see in stores are very plain. Thanks
posted by dilettante at 3:59 PM on January 25, 2006

There is not model/brand information in the manual, and I don't know where the actual device is... I did a google image search and found the exact unit.

I don't really need the one I've got, but I also have no idea where it is, so...

If you can turn the offending ringers off - which I believe to be required for the caller ID box to do what you want - it is pretty easy to rig up an alternate indicator, ala bonaldi's suggestion.
posted by Chuckles at 5:30 PM on January 25, 2006

bonaldi's, and everyone else too, I guess...

If you have control over the phone line where it enters the building you could probably rig up something pretty special. Phone wire is normally installed with four wires, so that you can install an extra line. You could feed the line-1 signal to the line-2 wires, but line-2 would be switched off at night. All the phones with ringers could be hooked to line-2, the caller ID / silent ringer phone / answering machine would be connected to line-1. So the answering machine and the quiet phone would always work.

Okay, that might not be such a great idea. You probably don't want to disable phones like that for safety and convenience reasons. Of course your switch could be electronic, and it could sense incoming rings and only turn off for them.
posted by Chuckles at 5:41 PM on January 25, 2006

I'll try to order one of the caller ID boxes this weekend. Sounds like it will do exactly what I want. Thanks again!
posted by dilettante at 6:17 PM on January 25, 2006