Adapting a telephone answering machine?

a bit of a crazy idea but I have this oldish (tapeless) telephone answering machine hanging around and what I want to try and do with it is try and utilise it as a 'door announcement system' I suppose would be the best way to describe it so that if someone calls to the front door of my house I want them to press a doorbell and for it to announce 'I am sorry I cannot get to answer the door at the moment please leave a message of who called and what was it in connection with?' and then they can leave a message and when I get home I can see if someone has called to front door and what they wanted - also useful if someone calls to the front door early in the morning and I am asleep in bed (happened a few times) and I don't know whose called.
Now the thing is what I really want to know is how to tap into the ringing mechanism of the answering machine or can I somehow emulate the ringing circuit so that when people press the doorbell it sets the answer machine in action if anyone knows? thanks

wow what a novel idea, it could probably be done. dont know exactly how though, would require a bit of research into what exactly activates the answering machine and how it works.off the top of my head it would probably require a plc (programmable logic controller) between the doorbell and the answering machine. this is basically like a small computer which you write a simple program for. this would control when the machine activates, like after so many rings of the bell or could act as a timer to start the machine after so many seconds

the programming for a plc is very simple, you could prob find info on the internet or any first year engineering student could do it for you

Nice idea.

However, whilst I can see that it is possible to make it playback a message and sound the bell when someone operates the doorpush, it would require that a microphone be fitted outside the door.

If you already have a door intercom, it seems quite possible, but someone is going to have to trace out the wiring and connect it up, and that is not so easy from a distance and without being able to see all the hardware!

Viking electronics and Wheellock chimes both have small devices that generate ringing current and provide conditioning for the line. Conveniently they both offer door-phones too because the Answering machine will not like rain. I have a tel labs 8101 Power supply I am using for a similar application at the office, but you can't have it its mine.

The easiest way would be to get a small phone system which has a doorphone and then route the call from the doorphone to the extension with the answering machine. Job done