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Two phones one won't ring ?

Started by Dan/Panther, November 19, 2008, 04:55:44 PM

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Dan/Panther

I have two identical W.E. 500 phones sitting on my desk, one is black, with a volume control on the handset, the other is a plain Yellow W.E. 500.
I have a splitter connected to the jack at my desk, when I connect both phones, only the yellow one rings, is there a reason for this, or is there a crossed wire someplace?
Both are wired the same.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dennis Markham

#1
Dan,
Did each phone ring when plugged in independently?  When connected are there more than 5 ringers on the line?  Take the cover off the black phone and watch it while the two are plugged in and ring the line.  Does the clapper move at all?  It could be that the power is drawn down by other phones and the bias tension spring is set too tightly.  Compare the bias tension spring, the thin wire between the gongs to see that they are both the same.  Usually the lightest setting, moving the wire to the right side gives the best ring.  (Right side as you're looking at the back of the phone).  A weak ringer sometimes allows the gong to move a bit, or maybe vibrate but won't move enough to strike the gongs.  I guess if the phone rings independent of the splitter we can eliminate the possibility of a bad splitter.

Attached is a "file" photo that I have of a ringer in motion....you can see the best position of the bias spring.

I don't think the modulated handset would be the cause (I think it's a G6).

Dan/Panther

Dennis;
Yes the handset is a G-6.
What I found was that the Black phone, where the jumper goes between green and yellow, the original yellow terminal is loose when I loosen the screw. I think, it may be a broken connection inside the network. What will come flying out when I lift the tabs on the network to check the connections. I think nothing but is there anything I shoud be extra careful about.

BTW, when the yellow phone rings, I can guarantee you , the Black phone is getting enough power. Trust, me on that one..... ;D

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dennis Markham

Dan,
I'm afraid you're venturing into territory that I have never been to.  I've never looked inside one of those networks.  I'm under the impression they're filled with some type of gel.  Often when a network screw is removed you can find some of the sticky stuff on the end of the threads.

The yellow wire is no longer needed.  The only wires, as you probably already know are red and green.  I'm not sure what you mean by a jumper between yellow and green???

McHeath

I pulled a 425B network apart to see what was in there, lots of cosmolinelike super sticky clear goo fills the pot.  The top cover holds all the brains, and it's just shoved down into the goo, which means it will probably last forever in normal situations, but I suppose a solder joint could fail or something.  I'll post some pics when I get a chance.  It was pretty hard to get the goo on my hands, like super tree sap only worse. 

Dan/Panther

#5
Quote from: Dennis Markham on November 19, 2008, 08:22:42 PM
Dan,
The yellow wire is no longer needed.  The only wires, as you probably already know are red and green.  I'm not sure what you mean by a jumper between yellow and green???

The phone company has combined the green and yellow wires at their end, but if the yellow and green terminals are not jumped inside the phone, the ringer will not work.
I had this same discussion at length with another collector, and just to be absolutely positive, I just opened my desk W.E. 500, disconnected the jumper I installed, between the green, and where the yellow used to connect. Then I used my cell phone to call my desk phone, NO RING, until I reconnected to jumper.
Otherwise, how does everyone make the 3 wire phone ringer work, or have I accidentally run across a simple solution? Just connecting the Red and Green wires at least at my phone service lines, will not allow the ringer to work.,

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dennis Markham

Interesting.  That's different.  I haven't heard of that before.  Is that a POTS line.....plain old telephone service?

Dan/Panther

Dennis;
Yes just your every day land line.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

benhutcherson

When you talk about the "yellow" terminal, do you mean the "G" terminal that's between L1 and L2?

If I'm understanding you correctly, you connect the black wire from the ringer to terminal G on the network. You then run a jumper from L1(green wire) to G.

If that's what you're doing, you can save a whole lot of headaches by just connecting the black wire from the ringer to L1. Terminal G is just a terminal strip-it's not connected to anything inside the network block.

I'd suggest that you try wiring this way first before pulling the network block apart.

Dan/Panther

#9
Ben;
Thanks for the heads up on the Black wire move.
I did the same thing but in a round about way. I didn't know for sure what was in the network that may be essential to the connections. Now that I know it's a blind contact your connection makes all the simplest sense.
It also tells me, my problem is somewhere else, as there is nothing at G that can go wrong.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

bingster

Is the ringer a C4A ringer?  It should be marked right by the date on the ringer bracket.
= DARRIN =



Dan/Panther

I retraced the wires found grey wire on wrong terminal.
There is a .5 Mfd cap between K-A, what is this for, hum reduction ?
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson