[mythtv-users] Please recommend hardware for caller id via MythTV

[Jim Shank]

This is great stuff. Thanks. I setup MythNotify but I spend quite a bit of
time in xine and in the menu's. I was looking for an unconditional caller-id
program like this. Only one thing, how can you run it all on your mythtv box
instead of involving your Windows Box in the mess?

 

From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Michael Rice
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:29 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Please recommend hardware for caller id via
MythTV

 

 
> Michael Rice wrote:
> > I'd really like to display caller id info on my Myth boxes but I lack
the 
> > necessary hardware. I don't think I've had a machine with a modem for 7 
> > years or so.
> > 
> > I've searched the web to try to find some recent info on this but
haven't 
> > had much luck. Info on modems seems very old and I have no idea what
modem 
> > I'd need to buy today that would work on Linux for this purpose.
> > 
> > Since I really don't need the modem for anything other than caller id
info 
> > maybe there is another solution besides a modem?
> > 
> > In any case I have just the standard US phone system (no VoIP or
anything 
> > special).
> > 
> > Can someone who has accomplished this recently give me the details on
your 
> > hardware (and a link to where I can buy it). I am pretty confident I can

> > figure out the software side if I can get the right hardware. I'll
update 
> > the wiki if I am successful.

Just to follow-up if anyone else is interested in doing this.  Here's what I
did.
 
I wasn't able to find any information on what modem I could buy today that
would have caller ID support and work with Linux.  That would have cost at
least $20 US with no confidence it would work.  So I abandoned that.
 
The next idea was to buy a "Net Caller ID" device which can be purchased
here: http://www.electronicdiscountsales.com for $11.99 + S/H which appears
to work with NCID (http://ncid.sourceforge.net/).  I didn't try this but I
expect this would be more successful than trying to find a Linux compatible
modem.
 
I almost bought one of these but first I thought I'd scrounge up any modems
I had around and see if I could get them working on Linux.  I had three PCI
modems in various systems that I didn't use so I pulled them out and plugged
each into one of my Linux boxes.  Luckily there is a script to help get
modems working on Linux (http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/#scanModem).  Run
the script and it will tell you where to download drivers.  
 
Modem 1 had a Conexant chipset and had drivers from Linuxant
(http://www.linuxant.com/drivers/).  I installed the drivers and the modem
seemed to work, could dial and connect... but I wasn't able to get caller ID
to work with the modem.  All types of AT#VCID=1/AT+VCID=1, etc. commands
were tried with no positive result.
 
Modem 2 wasn't recognized by scanModem so that one didn't get far at all.
 
Modem 3 was an Intel 537EP soft modem and scanModem pointed me to the latest
drivers.  Intel doesn't maintain these anymore but someone kindly had been
keeping them going.  Unfortunately they didn't compile with my 2.6.20
kernel.  I had a 2.6.18 kernel on the box so I tried that and all compiled
fine.  Unfortunately the modem didn't seem to work at all.  
 
Out of modems I went to my next option which was install the modem on my
Windows box and use YAC (http://sunflowerhead.com/software/yac) to provide
caller ID info to my mythboxes.  So I plugged the Intel modem into my
Windows XP box, turned it on and it detected it and installed the correct
driver.  The modem works in Windows 100% including caller ID.  Installed
YAC.  A call comes in and YAC pops up a box with the name/number.  Cool.
 
Now I need to install YAC clients on the linux boxes.  This is pretty easy
using xyac (http://bah.org/tivo/xyac) just compile it and run and it should
work.  It used xosd which can place text on the screen whether watching
something or when in the myth menus.  I already use xosd for some other
stuff so that was very nice for me.  
 
I have two FC6 frontends so I installed xyac on both.  I then found that
caller ID info was only popping up on one of the two boxes.  I looked at
network packets and tried to figure out why but couldn't.  The port used was
open as far as I could tell but I am no expert on network stuff so I gave up
on that.
 
Instead I just created a script that watches the YAC log.  When it changes I
grab the appropriate lines of the log and put them on the screen with a
simple xosd program.  That's a bit of a hack but I now have working caller
ID on all my mythboxes and didn't have to spend any money.

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