Lynn Goodhue <LGOODHUE@smith.is.smith.edu> (06/11/91)
I've got a puzzle for all you Telecom experts out there. My mother-in-law lives in a house built in the 1950's and the telephone wiring is probably as old as the house is. She's bed-ridden now, and we wanted to rewire the phone in her bedroom so we could unplug it at night and it wouldn't ring in her room. I bought the modular converter for the wall jack, and a modular to four-wire cable to wire in to her phone. When I took apart the old jack, there were only three wires -- green, red and yellow -- no black. So I connected the green, red and yellow wires to the new surface-mount outlet, and screwed everything down tightly. I took apart the phone, and connected up the green, red and yellow wires where the corresponding old wires were on the phone itself, left the black wire dangling, buttoned everything back up, and plugged it in. The phone worked fine -- dial tone, could dial a call, everything. Except that the phone doesn't ring any more. The old wires were a heavier gauge than the new stuff. My trusty AT&T _The_Telephone_Book:_AT&T_Guide_To_Installing_Telephones_&_Accessories doesn't say anything about three-wire wiring, or about what could be wrong if the phone doesn't ring. It *does* say that if the red and green wires are swapped, you wouldn't be able to break dialtone. For the moment, this mystery has actually *solved* the original problem, which was to have the phone available for Mum, without it ringing in her room. (It's one of those old, reliable desk sets that will never die, and you couldn't turn the ringer off, just down a bit.) But some day we'd like to make the phone work again the right way, short of putting back the old heavy three-wire non-modular stuff. Any ideas, guys? Thanks! Lynn Goodhue Smith College BITNET: lgoodhue@smith Internet (maybe): lgoodhue@smith.smith.edu [Moderator's Note: In the box you mounted on the wall try connecting the yellow wire (to the phone) with the red wire. If that does not work then try the yellow wire connected with the green wire. PAT]
"Andrew M. Boardman" <amb@gnu.ai.mit.edu> (06/21/91)
[Lynn Goodhue speaks of telephone house wiring that runs red, green, and yellow, and the telephone not ringing on the "normal" red/green .] I was also raised as a believer in the "this is tip, this is ring, and that's all you'll ever need" philosophy, but the 1954 500 set that I use nowadays won't ring without that third yellow wire connected (to ring side I believe). Of course, omniscient NY Tel service says that the unit is broken. If there's an actual schematic that I could get for this phone without disassembly of the network, I'd appreciate a pointer.
wex@uunet.uu.net> (06/22/91)
> I bought the modular converter for the wall jack, and a modular to > four-wire cable to wire in to her phone. When I took apart the old > jack, there were only three wires -- green, red and yellow -- no black. > So I connected the green, red and yellow wires to the new surface-mount > outlet, and screwed everything down tightly. > [Moderator's Note: In the box you mounted on the wall try connecting the > yellow wire (to the phone) with the red wire. If that does not work > then try the yellow wire connected with the green wire. PAT] This is actually a followup to the Moderator's Note: appended to the original query. The Note is almost exactly what I would have said, In the stated case, the yellow was typically ground, ringing current was either between tip (green) and ground or ring (red) and ground. This was the usual case in olden days when there were many more party lines, in this way a two-party line could ring only in the desired place. {Asides; I'm surprised that you could make out the colors at all on wiring that old; and, if the wiring is really old, it is rubber insulated and most likely dried out, be careful if you decide to relocate it.} So much for folklore, the real reason I am posting this is to suggest that: once the correct placement of the yellow wire is determined, making the change at the service entrance will solve the problem for the whole house; may save a little trouble in the future. Wex
Jordan Hayes <jordan@tcs.com> (06/24/91)
Ok, so what do you do if "yellow" is half of your second line? :-) Don't say "use blue" becuase that's half of my *third* line :-) I have an old pay phone that has been reconditioned (not by me) that "doesn't ring" ... if I had a ground near any of my phone jacks, I could certainly try it -- but I don't. By the way, does anyone have a souce for keys to these old boxes? It's an Automatic Electric Co. model that looks like it's from the '50s or so. A plate on the top says "D-780707-A" and also "Code Number: LPB8655" Maybe "Code Number" is a serial number ... Jordan
Tony Harminc <TONY@mcgill1.bitnet> (06/25/91)
Lynn Goodhue <LGOODHUE@smith.is.smith.edu> writes: [description of problem with phone that won't ring] > For the moment, this mystery has actually *solved* the original > problem, which was to have the phone available for Mum, without it > ringing in her room. (It's one of those old, reliable desk sets that > will never die, and you couldn't turn the ringer off, just down a > bit.) If your mum's phone is an old 500-type set, there is a neat trick you can do with the ringer. This is very easy to understand if you are looking at the phone, but harder to describe. The ringer volume control rotates one of the two gongs so that it is closer to the clapper (low volume) or farther (high volume). There is a small, springy piece of metal that stops the gong being rotated beyond the lowest volume position. This piece of metal can be bent out of the way. Then the volume control has an "off" position. Note that this is not a happy accident -- it is a design feature. There is an extra piece of metal on the armature which is clamped tight when the volume control is moved to the "off" position, and this prevents any residual chatter of the armature or tinkling of the bells. In field documentation this was called something like "enabling customer usage of the ringing disablement feature". Tony H.