Operation
So now you've everything built, and you want to make your first call. Well, it's easy. Power on the PiPhone, and wait until you're presented with the numeric keypad.
Insert your "Hands-free" Headphones with Microphone into the 3.5mm jack connector on the FONA.
Dial your number and press the green 'dial' icon, and pretty soon you should be able to talk to your friends using a cellphone you built yourself!
Debugging
If you have problems making calls, here are a few things to check.
First, make sure that the red LED on the FONA near the SIM800 module is blinking once every two seconds. This means the FONA is correctly associated to the cellular network. If it's blinking faster, then it's not associated, and will not be able to make calls.
The next thing to check is that the Raspberry Pi is talking correctly to the FONA.
This can be checked by logging into the Raspberry Pi and attempting to send a few commands to the FONA using a serial communications application. The easiest app to check this is minicom. So log into the Raspberry Pi and type:
sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyAMA0 -b 115200
You should then be presented with the following:
Welcome to minicom 2.6.1 OPTIONS: I18n Compiled on Apr 28 2012, 19:24:31. Port /dev/ttyAMA0 Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys
All you need to do to confirm that the serial communications to the FONA are OK is to issue a few 'AT' commands. Type 'AT' followed by the return key, and you should see 'OK' coming back from the FONA.
AT OK AT OK
If you don't see the OK (or zero) coming back, then check you'r wiring. Swapping the Tx and Rx wires on on side is a very common issue.
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