Any thought on detecting phone ringing on:
- an IP-phone adapter with POTS
- an Android mobile?
Need to help my hearing impaired mother notice a phone is ringing.
please be more specific:
do you need a indicator for a landline or for a mobile?
landline:
- either use a telefone system, which provides some kind of API (e.g. Fritz!Box)
- there’s hardware you can connect either in between your telephone outlet and telephone or directly as DECT, which triggers some blinking device (not OH2-related at all)
mobile:
- Android mobile could use tasker (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm), which could trigger some OH2 item, which in turn triggers some visual
Thank for chiming in 
The IP-phone adapter is the landline since it has a POTS output connected to a Siemens DECT base-station.
I’m stuck with this device supplied from the provider. I was thinking maybe a Fibaro Universal Binary Sensor Z-Wave to detect the ring signal. Will need to condition the signal to fit.
Tasker is a good idea. Is it able to detect phone ringing without being rooted?
I intend to use OH2 for visuals. Ikea Tradfri bulbs to be exact.
You lost me at POTS Output. I understand your mum has a landline and a DECT basis.
Is the IP-Phone adapter used to connect a mobile device with the landline? Then Tasker would be your choice - it runs without root and can trigger some action for e.g. an event like incoming call.
=> of course you have multiple Points of failure then:
landline -> IP-Phone Adapter -> Android Tasker -> OH2 -> tradfri binding -> Ikea bulb
If it’s vital for your mother, I would go with something like this:
https://bellman.com/en/for-professionals/manuals/be1390-manual/
Sorry. POTS=PlainOldTelephonyService aka good old 2-wire landline.
This connects to the DECT base.
In addition she has an Android GSM mobile.Tasker is the way to go with that one. Just hope I don’t have to root it.
ok! never heard of POTS before! 
but yeah, you won’t need to root it.
I guess for this to work properly, you need access to the adapter because with inbound VoIP and outbound POTS (to DECT basis) there is no signal wire you can simply tap to.
If you can obtain the VoIP account data from your provider, you can connect another VoIP adapter via Ethernet such as a Fritz!box (popular in Germany, ~100€) and migrate the VoIP endpoint there.
For Fritz!boxes there’s an OH binding, you simply need to trigger on an item to change. They can replace the DECT basis, too.
Once triggered, there’s many ways to “copy” or “forward” the ring signal. I’m using a zwave plug socket and a Hue lamp and make both blink.
Fritzboxes also come with a softphone to install on an Android mobile, so she wouldn’t need the DECT mobile any more, and she could take advantage of the vibration function of the smartphone.
I’m not sure she can bring here own device instead of the adapter, but I will look into it.
Since I started thinking about this this morning, I just remembered I have an old black hook-phone with a ringer motor hitting a bell. Maybe attaching an Aeotec Multisensor 6 and check if it will set off the tamper alarm?
It isn’t clear to me which side is POTS and which side is VOIP. But in either case you should be able to split on the POTS side and send one side to the phone or the VOIP adapter and the other side to something you set up DIY yourself or something like
Exactly!
A 12V power supply and these two items take care of the POTS/DECT phones:
https://manuals.fibaro.com/binary-sensor/
Now, for the Android mobile; how to interface Tasker-phone-ringing event and OH2 over the LAN?
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Seems like a MQTT Tasker plugin, a local LAN MQTT broker and the OH2 MQTT plugin will work without my.openhab.
Call me old fashioned, but I like it cloudless
Will report back…
Edit: started reading up on OH2 REST API. No MQTT needed.
No my.openhab needed on local LAN
Well, the REST API was an eyeopener 
Will describe it here for new users to see. I have used OH2 almost a year now without being aware of this possibility.
In paperUI there is even an interactive add-on documentation module:
Accessed from WEB top-level:
I have a virtual Switch item called vLEDblink
From the REST API documentation you can take the item control for a test drive:
With this new insight, setting up Tasker was a breeze:
I wanted my virtual switch to be ON while the phone was ringing, and OFF when it either went off-hook or ringing stopped. Ended up with these 3 profiles:
Tell OH2 On Task is like this:
Tell OH2 Off is similar except for OFF in the Data/File entry.
Works like a charm.
My next task is to interface the existing door-bell as well. Posting that in a new thread.
Thank you all for contributing.
Cheers
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