Home voice mail and paging system using an answering machine and a wide variety of alarms

A method for the automatic paging of a paging service subscriber in response to alarm conditions at a remote location, said method comprising the steps of:

• recognizing and receiving an indication of a plurality of said alarm conditions;
• effecting an off hook condition in a standard telephone line circuit;
• encoding a stored binary coded decimal number, indicative of a telephone number for said paging service, into a first dual tone multi-frequency signal and transmitting said first dual tone multi-frequency signal to said paging service;
• detecting a connection acknowledgement signal from said paging service;
• encoding a stored binary coded decimal number into a second dual tone multi-frequency signal and transmitting said second dual tone multi-frequency signal to said paging service, with said stored binary coded decimal number as encoded into said second dual tone multi-frequency signal being recognizable to said paging service subscriber as being representative of a condition of a corresponding one of said plurality of said alarm conditions;
• and
• effecting an on hook condition in said telephone line circuit.

An automatic paging system for operation in conjunction with a telephone answering machine and a standard telephone line circuit for connection to a paging service, said automatic paging system comprising:

• a ringing and dual tone multi-frequency input circuit, said input circuit recognizing and receiving a standard ringing voltage and standard dual tone multi-frequency signals;
• a transceiver circuit decoding said dual tone multi-frequency signals into binary coded decimal and transmitting said binary coded decimal, and encoding said binary coded decimal into said dual tone multi-frequency signals and transmitting said dual tone multi-frequency signals to said telephone line circuit;
• a microcontroller circuit receiving and storing said binary coded decimal from said transceiver and transmitting said binary coded decimal to said transceiver, said microcontroller also detecting an open and a closed condition of a plurality of alarm inputs and transmitting one of a plurality of codes to said transceiver, with each code of said plurality of codes being representative of a condition of a corresponding one of said plurality of alarm inputs, said microcontroller also detecting an off hook condition in said telephone line circuit and effecting an off hook condition in said telephone line circuit, said microcontroller also detecting that a valid message is present on said answering machine and transmitting a unique microcontroller specified code representative of said valid message to said transceiver;
• and
• a programming circuit instructing said microcontroller to receive a binary coded decimal number signal from said transceiver, said binary coded decimal number being indicative of a telephone number for a remote receiver in said paging service.

An automatic paging system for operation in conjunction with a telephone answering machine and a standard telephone line circuit for connection to a paging service, said automatic paging system comprising:

• a ringing and dual tone multi-frequency input circuit, said input circuit recognizing and receiving a standard ringing voltage and standard dual tone multi-frequency signals;
• a transceiver circuit decoding said dual tone multi-frequency signals into binary coded decimal and transmitting said binary coded decimal, and encoding said binary coded decimal into said dual tone multi-frequency signals and transmitting said dual tone multi-frequency signals to said telephone line circuit;
• a microcontroller circuit receiving and storing said binary coded decimal from said transceiver and transmitting said binary coded decimal to said transceiver, said microcontroller also detecting an off hook condition in said telephone line circuit and effecting an off hook condition in said telephone line circuit, said microcontroller also detecting an open and a closed condition of a plurality of alarm inputs, said microcontroller also detecting that a valid message is present on said answering machine, said microcontroller also transmitting at least one of:
• one of a plurality of codes, with each code of said plurality of codes being representative of a condition of a corresponding one of said plurality of alarm inputs, and a unique microcontroller specified code representative of said valid message, to said transceiver;
• and
• a programming circuit instructing said microcontroller to receive a binary coded decimal number signal from said transceiver, said binary coded decimal number being indicative of a telephone number for a remote receiver in said paging service.