Can't hear my cell phone in the shop - wife is frustrated

[Bill Jobe]

Aaah .I see.
Well there's always a satellite uplink. Were you a fan of SCTV? They had one skit where Rick Moranis shot live TV news reports through a very heavy satellite backpack and large dish. He had to struggle to keep it pointed at the satellite.

It's too bad we can't see live Google Earth. She could send you a hand signal when she called.

[Matthew Hills]

Maybe some sort of smart-home accessory hooked up to your wife's phone? (I'd suggest some sort of party lights turning on)

[Mike Heidrick]

Search for ifttt app. Stands for "if this, then that". Should give you the triggers and responses you need.

[Wayne Cannon]

I found this product by Serene Innovations that sounds like it does what you want.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IJYM4OE..._P.WGzbNGJ2EH9

They have a similar product with more features that includes a switch intended for a bed vibrator that could probably also be used for an external device like a klaxon.

[Curt Harms]

This isn't elegant but it works for us. SWMBO won't hear of getting rid of the landline and there's no financial reason to do so for us. We have a Vtech cordless phone system that includes blue tooth. There are two lines, the second is the cell phone. I don't have to carry my cell phone around the house, just set it down with the keys and other claptrap, it connects with the cordless phone. We have enough hand sets that one is always close by. There are numerous "the phone rings, the light flashes" devices out there.

[John K Jordan]

How far is the house? If not too far a "low tech" option might be to bury a low-voltage 2-conductor cable to the shop with a button on one end and a loud audible alert and strobe light on the other.

This is the dust collector control box in my shop. The red thing is a self-contained fire alarm module with a loud warbling alarm plus a bright strobe. All it needs to operate is low-voltage DC. The strobe will get your attention even if wearing hearing protectors while running loud equipment. Then you could call on the cell.

electrical_shop_s.jpg

In one shop I put an intercom between house and shop so my Lovely Bride could easily reach me. This was back in 20 BCP - Before Cell Phones.

JKJ

[Andy Giddings]

Plenty of ways of including hearing protection with Bluetooth - just type in Blue tooth hearing protection into Amazon search (for example) brings up 64 products $64 and up. 3M's worktunes gives FM radio, Bluetooth and 24NR for that price

[Bill Dufour]

When we first ditched the landline I bought a simple tabletop device that has bluetooth to the cell phone. I never hooked it up but it plugs into the landline and when the cell phone rings all the plug in phones on that disconnected wire will ring. pick up any phone and it is just like using a landline.
Simple then to use your loud warehouse bell.
Bill D
My explanation is not super clear but it uses the old house wiring that is no longer connected at the pole. No ideas how it works with DSL.

[Roger Feeley]

Thanks to all,

I'm hooking up the warehouse bell to a couple of remote fobs. I have hopes that I can increase the fob range to include the other house by soldering on a 315mHz hi gain antenna. At the very least, this will solve for when the wife is in our house and doesn't want to stomp on the floor.

The Incipio Prompt looks like the best bet for Bluetooth alerts. I will simply tap into the voltage that drives the LED and upconvert that to 120vac using a relay.
As posted, another possibility would be to buy a XLink to go from Bluetooth to land-line tech and then use any one of the many alerts available.

I agree that the best solution for incoming calls would be the ear muffs. Regarding the Peltor Worktunes and such, what I found was that they stream music but not the ringtone. They do pause the music. The point is that just because the product carries the Bluetooth logo doesn't mean it supports the profiles you would want. As near as I can tell without buying the Peltor, it would do my no good since I don't stream music. Reading the reviews about these products, people seem to think that they aren't very loud which doesn't make sense to me.

All of the solutions I found online come up just short of a complete solution. I call it 95% awesome.

This sort of 95% awesome isn't uncommon. When my mother got to the point where she couldn't handle an email client anymore, I got her an HP printer with e-print which basically means that it's a printer with an email address. We could write her letters using email and send them to the printer and they would print. The grandkids loved it and my mom loved it. She would pass by the printer on the way to the bathroom and there would be a letter or two in the hopper. There was no spam because I could manage the addresses that could print to that printer. I only allowed family so my mom never got confused.

But it was only 95% awesome in that HP thought of it as a printer rather than an email client. If the printer was offline they would only queue the emails for 45 minutes and then just delete them. We found that the printer would sort of lose its way a few times a year and would need a reboot. Sometimes she would lose a couple of letters when the printer was out of synch. The other thing it couldn't do is up-size the font. The grand kids had to remember to use a bigger font for her older eyes. Like I said: 95% awesome. But it is close enough that I would enthusiastically recommend the e-print for the elderly.

[Roger Feeley]

Search for ifttt app. Stands for "if this, then that". Should give you the triggers and responses you need.

I went to the ifttt site and they appear to want $199 to get started.
Another place I haven't gone is to Verizon to learn more about streaming and see what their speakers can do.

[Brian K Jones]

I went to the ifttt site and they appear to want $199 to get started.
Another place I haven't gone is to Verizon to learn more about streaming and see what their speakers can do.

IFTTT is completely free, maybe you got a bad link. Try https://ifttt.com and you could have any number of options. One of the most popular would be to control a pair of Philips Hue Lights ($65 for a starter kit on Amazon). I see options to do a rainbow pattern when someone calls, flash the lights on and off, change the color to red when you missed a call.

Also, I do have a pair of the Peltors and you're right it doesn't ring when someone calls, the music just stops. Though I have a Bluetooth smart watch that vibrates when someone calls and that's my first clue when I'm woodworking.

[Mike Kreinhop]

Also, I do have a pair of the Peltors and you're right it doesn't ring when someone calls, the music just stops.

Maybe I'm missing something, but if the music stops anytime there is an incoming call, then that would be an indication for me that the phone might be ringing.

My iPhone is connected to my BT car stereo and doesn't ring for an incoming call, but the podcast or song stops and the display on the stereo changes to "PHONE". That is my cue to press the button on the stereo to take the call.

[Dustin Bullard]

What kind of phone do you have? I know on an iPhone you can have it flash the camera flash at you whenever a text or call comes in. (On an iPhone its under Settings>General>Accesibility>LED Flash for Alerts). I'm pretty sure that any Android should have a similar feature. The flash on mine is BRIGHT and as long as my phone is face down it generally pretty hard to miss...

*Edit* thought I was replying to the whole thread here, at least I replied to the OP....

[Brian Henderson]

While I don't have that problem, I came up with a unique solution. Way back when we had landline service, we had a phone system that did wireless intercom as well. I don't have the phone service, but I still have the phones. I put one out in the shop, I put one in the kitchen and one in the living room, so my wife can call me in the shop without having to go out there. The ringer is loud, I never have a problem hearing it, but it also lights up when it rings. I don't know if that's a solution, but I can't imagine it would be too hard to find phones like that on eBay.

[Martin Wasner]

I wear a smart watch at work now. Keeps me from having to carry my phone in the shop and I can see when I get an email or text. I know whether I need to respond or not quickly.