Interesting side effects (Ericophone)

[Tonyrotary]

 As some of you might remember, my wife bought me an Ericofon. It is the one that has the mechanical buzzer, not the elecronic warbler. Made in Sweden. I have it plugged next to the modern cordless phone. Also plugged in is my wife's Princess in the bedroom and my WE302 on the computer desk.

Well if I dial the 302, it sounds like the buzzer in the Erico is reacting to the dialing. For example I dial a 9 on th 302, you can hear the Erico make 9 clicks in response. Also if I dial a number on the Erico, The cordless phone will ring and the caller id show an incoming call! But of course no one is there and no number will show up. So far no other rotary phones of mine do that. Why would the Ericphone? I still love the phone however and it will remain in use.

[LarryInMichigan]

Tony,

The buzzer is simply reacting to the change in voltage on your phone line when you pick up, hang up, or dial another phone, just like it does when the ringing voltage appears.  The problem is that the buzzer is too sensitive and is reacting to a very small voltage change.  Many or most mechanical ringers have a bias spring to hold the clapper still for small fluctuations.  Does your buzzer have any sort of mechanical sensitivity adjustment?  If not, adding resistors and/or diodes in series with it might solve the problem.  The first and simplest thing to try though is to reverse the polarity of the line (exchange L1 and L2).

Larry

[Tonyrotary]

Larry,

Yeah I figured that the buzzer is reacting the voltage chages while I dial another phone. I will have to look at the buzzer but am pretty sure there is no adjustment. That part does not really bother me. But why in the world would my cordless phone ring when I dial the Erico?

[LarryInMichigan]

Tony,

The cordless phone might be (over)reacting to the pulses in a way similar to the Ericofon.  It also tries to sense voltage changes on the line. 

Larry

[Jim Stettler]

I was corresponding with Richard Rose on another matter, so I asked about the dial clicking on this phone.
Here is his reply:
Hi Jim,

Thanks for the answer.
On the buzzer, there's two things to try, either of which should do it. The first would be to reverse the polarity on the Ericofon. The second would be to "beef up" the spring on the buzzer.  For more info on that, take a look at this page: http://www.ericofon.com/work/buzzrep.htm

Richard



Jim S.

[Tonyrotary]

Thanks guys for the help. Will try reversing polarity first.