Crybicki

Okay, okay, so no, it won't work because it's analog.

Also, to my knowledge these were not put in the 1993 LS400's, which is what I have.

BUT.

The 1992 LS400 @ the junkyard that is my donor car, who I conveniently named Alexis, has had the car phone since I first started taking parts from her. Today, I finally looked at what it would take to install this bad boy, even if it was just for show. Turns out, it is completely possible to install it into the passenger foot-well just like it comes stock. As far as the wiring goes, So far all I got for the components was the actual phone, the harness, and the two wires that come out of it, one is a microphone, the other is a land line (LAN line?) the "phone line".

I have also found a couple places where people did digital conversions but those looks super, super complicated.

I am going to call around just to humor myself and see if any phone company knows of a way to get service to these even with them being analog. It is highly likely that it isn't possible, but it isn't going to cost me anything to find out.

Regardless, I will post pictures of my super cool looking car phone after I get it installed this evening.

I'm. Excited.

Dranom

iTrader: (7)

lol! goodluck!
hope it works

LScowboyLS

you should take the electronics from a modern flip phone and integrate it in to the old casing, so that it works on today's digital systems

Gene01

I used to work with a group of people that had extensive experience in the cellular phone business.
I think that you will certainly not find your answer with a phone company, unless you happen to find a hobbyist.
This will be a "MacGyver" project.

Crybicki

Thanks @Dranom! Me too!

Thanks @Gene01. I guess I will curve my research and look into some custom car shops and go from there.

@Cowboy....Not a clue how to do that. Is it easy? Or rather, is it not incredibly complicated?

LScowboyLS

I wouldn't say incredibly complicated, but it will take a little engineering - every cell phone just needs an antenna, power, a mic, a speaker, and the circuitry from a modem phone for the radio portion of cell service

Crybicki

Okay...Sounds easy enough. I am pretty sure Alexis (donor car) has the rest of the components I need. If not there is a couple other junkyards around that I can probably find them at. Happen to know of a write up off the top of your head on how to integrate cell phone innards into analog innards?

I can Bing it later after I am done installing mine, if not.

SpencerT

http://forums.hackaday.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=358

hope that helps

Kansas

What? Dealer installed Lexus branded phones were never installed "into the passenger foot-well". Dealer installed Lexus branded phone systems were available in the LS in all model years from 1990 through 2003. 1993 was the first model year where the buyer had a choice between a dealer installed portable phone and a fixed phone.

It is certainly easy enough to integrate a modern digital 4G LTE phone (e.g. iPhone 5, Galaxy S4) into an old LS400 to the extent that you can stream audio (Pandora, etc.) from your phone into the OEM audio system and have hands-free operation of the phone features with voice control.

I don't understand your point. There are still plenty of these junky old dealer installed Lexus phone systems in LS400's and they are all useless and just taking up space.

Crybicki

That's ok! You don't have to understand the point! This is just something that I like, and I wanted to do. I already have the hookups for my Iphone in my car.

And as far as it being stock, the donor car that I got the phone from had it installed in the passenger footwell. I guess it is possible that it was something the owner had professionally installed later, but it is definitely dated with the car, which was a 92.

IMO, I think the dealer installed phone systems are one of the cooler features ever used in cars.

Crybicki

It will probably help my friend who is an engineer for Bright House cable company. That's all blabber to me just because I don't understand any of it.

But thankyou!!

Crybicki

The first pics are of the phone installed in my car.

The third is a pic of the donor car where it was installed. I assumed this is where it was installed stock, but I could be wrong. The black wire I am holding was for my reference, it's the microphone wire.

deanshark

That isn't even a Lexus phone. It's aftermarket from some phone service. My boss had that same phone installed in my company Dodge pick-up and was installed with the same bracket in the same position. The Lexus factory phones came in the center console under the armrest.

Dranom

iTrader: (7)

lol! yeah those are not OEM

LScowboyLS

it would be quite doable to take the guts of a Samsung flip phone such as the Gusto and put that circuitry and mic inside of the shell of the stock Lexus phone, and it would make a cool built-in phone! - you would need to install a a different antenna, however - and make some slight adjustments for the power supply, but those two parts would be no problem!