Sage 930-A

[Ktownphoneco]

If you require the plugs for connecting a telephone to the 930-A for testing dial speed and make/break ratio, your looking for WECO-310 telecommunications plus.     I've inserted a web site listing for the plug, but if your not in a hurry, search eBay periodically, and you'll probably find a few of them listed at a very cheap price.    Also watch for telecommunications patch cables. as they quite often have a WECO-310 at each end.    Cut the plug off one end, strip back the outer insulation and retrieve the conductors and connect them to whatever your going to use as a interface between the telephone and the 930-A.       This is what your looking for :    http://www.testpath.com/Items/Bantam-Adapter-Bantam-Plug-to-WECO-310-Female-RED-142-405.htm
Hope this is of some assistance.

Jeff Lamb
 

[unbeldi]

Buying a set of standard cords and accessories may be tempting, but such accessories are invariably expensive.  It is much better to make your own cords based on your needs and usage patterns.  The connection options on the Sage units are standard plugs and jacks that are commonplace in the telecom sector.

I found the pictured modification of my 930A very useful.  It is a surface-mount modular jack box attached to the side of the 930A that is soldered onto the lugs of the TR cord jack on the front panel.  This only requires mechanical removal of the front panel to provide some space for access to the rear of the jacks for soldering, and drilling a small hole into the chassis side to bring out the wires.  The carrying handle on the right side of the chassis kind of protects the jack box.

Not only does it eliminate some additional cord clutter from using an intermediate adapter cord, it also makes it more convenient to monitor a circuit by bringing it in, say, from an FXS station port on a PBX to the cord jack on the front of the unit, and connecting terminating equipment, e.g., a telephone, to the modular jack.

The jack is wired as an FXS port as follows:

|
|=======+
||       |
||--Y    |  SLEEVE/Ground
||--G     | TIP
||--R     | RING
||--B    |  (n/c)
||       |
|=======+
|

If you buy a standard switchboard cord with a 310 plug and spade tips at the other end, the wires are coded as follows:
TIP     white
RING    blue
SLEEVE  red

It is very useful  at times to connect the 310 plug sleeve to the unit chassis which is grounded via the 930's power cord chassis ground, but ideally it would be connected to a separate real ground connection in your lab distribution frame or a water pipe.

For four-wire circuits it may useful to use a six-pin modular jack (6P6C) and wire the TR and T1R1 jacks, plus a ground.

[oldguy]

Thanks John but I'm thinking $400 for a set of leads for a $5.00 tester, seems a bit much. Jeff thanks for the link, I may use it. Unbeldi, I like your idea of not spending money. I take it a standard 3 pole 1/4" phone plug won't work. It would be easy to make a cable if a 1/4" phone plug would work.

[Ktownphoneco]

My first thought when I acquired my unit; "a standard 1/4" inch phono plug".     The diameter is right, and they will slide into the chassis jack, but the placement of the contact points along the shaft of the phono plug aren't in the correct location to make proper contact with the internal spring contacts of the chassis jack.   
I'm pretty sure I have some extra male WECO plugs.      If I can find them, I can send you a couple for the cost of postage.      The picture below shows the dial test board I made.     It's wall mounted so that it swings down and stops at a 90 degree angle off the wall.     The colored cloth covered conductors connect to "Y / BK / BB / R / W" on a Western / Northern dial.    The connection point "R" isn't connected when calibrating a W.E. type 2 dial that has no "R" terminal.     The modular baseboard female RJ-11 jack is used to test dial function with the dial still installed in the set.   The test board is basically a "302" minus the ringer assembly, and the operator's headset takes the place of a normal handset.     One toggle switch connect and dis-connect the telephone circuit from the Sage 930-A, and a second switch performs the function of a hook switch, plcing the circuit in the "on hook and off hook" position.

Enjoy the day.

Jeff
 

[TelePlay]

Thanks John but I'm thinking $400 for a set of leads for a $5.00 tester, seems a bit much.

Yes, I thought so also but posted that link and price for reference going forward.

Seems $12 for one plug is the going rate. Westek also makes completed cables, such as this WECO 310 to RJ45 for a mere $26 plus shipping. Found it after doing a search on the Westek site.

unbeldi probably has the easiest/cheapest solution with the adapter box on the side.

I also see that some Sage 930A's currently available on eBay have two rectangular blanked ports on the back which would seem to allow some sort of external aux port to be inserted with customer chosen connectors, which I don't know what they would be.

Also, I have yet to find an 930 on eBay that comes with anything more than a power cable.

Then there is this Westek cable kit which seems to have each and every one of the cables listed above in Reply #14 for $495 plus shipping. Nothing is cheap when it's limited use/sale new equipment.

[oldguy]

That's a great setup Jeff, being able to test dial after working on them & before installing them in the phone or just plugging the phone into the unit. Thank you for the offer of the WECO plugs. I will PM you my address.

[Ed Morris]

How do you actually test a dial on the Sage 930A with option 01?  I've read the manual and supplement, and the various threads on the forum, but I don't understand how you actually physically set up the dial for testing.

I'm hoping someone can explain the steps to connect a dial and test it with the Sage 930A.  I have one with options 01 and 13, and a 310 patch cable I can modify as needed to connect the dial to the Sage.

[unbeldi]

How do you actually test a dial on the Sage 930A with option 01?  I've read the manual and supplement, and the various threads on the forum, but I don't understand how you actually physically set up the dial for testing.

I'm hoping someone can explain the steps to connect a dial and test it with the Sage 930A.  I have one with options 01 and 13, and a 310 patch cable I can modify as needed to connect the dial to the Sage.

How many possibilities are there ?
Connect your telephone set to tip and ring of the TR input.  Same with just a dial, use the pulsing contact pair.

Set up the trunk type for PBX or Central Office emulation:
NORMAL, LOOP, TERM, BATTERY, 2W 600
Set the parameters for the digit receiver, select menu option 4, press ENT
SET-UP RECEIVE ANALYZE EXIT
Press K1 for Set-Up:
SET RECEIVE: PARAMETERS SEQUENCE EXIT
Press K1 for Parameters:
RECORD: 1 18 DIGITS DP EXIT
Select the signaling type (MF, DTMF, DP)
Set the number of digits to be received (1-18)
Press K4 for EXIT
Setup the signaling sequence:
Press K3 to select SEQUENCE
WINK OFF-HK MORE
Press 1 to specify immediate mode and store into register 1
Press the Option Menu key to return to the main screen, or EXIT
Activate the receiver by pressing K2

When done receiving, select ANALYZE to read out the results.

[unbeldi]

The manual explains it pretty well; here is the manual extract for the digit receiver:

[Ed Morris]

Many thanks, I will give that a try this weekend.  I had read the manual, but my lack of familiarity with some of the telephony terms made it hard to follow.

If I understand, the dial test is stand alone-- no need to be connected to a real phone circuit.

[unbeldi]

Many thanks, I will give that a try this weekend.  I had read the manual, but my lack of familiarity with some of the telephony terms made it hard to follow.

If I understand, the dial test is stand alone-- no need to be connected to a real phone circuit.

Yes, in a standalone test, the 930A simulates a central office (or PBX) providing –48 V battery and supervision.

But you can set up a monitoring test with a live circuit as well, for example if you suspect some fault in existing setup.  In that case the 930 is set to monitoring mode, rather than "BATTERY" mode, and only listens on the test circuit without interfering or supervising.

Because of its versatility, the setup may seem more complex than necessary, for example for receiving digits.  The reception can be triggered in various ways, for example, it can first detect off-hook condition, and only then start listening for digits.   That's why in the standalone test, the mode is set to immediate.  Other options are Wink Start, Ground Start, etc.

[Ed Morris]

Your instructions were right on.  I tested six phones.  A TT phone worked fine on DTMF mode, and a WE 500DM worked on DP mode.  It tested at 10.5 and 63%.  However, none of the older phones worked.  I would see abort flash on the screen, and the Sage wouldn't record the digits.  Sometimes it showed an E for the digit.

Two WE 302's and a 5302 all work and dial calls successfully on the network, but I think the dials may be too slow for the Sage to measure?  One showed a 8.5 pps, but the digits showed as E.

[TelePlay]

Yes, the Sage 930A is a powerful analytical tool to diagnose phone problems. It can do a lot of stuff on all types of phones and circuits.

When it comes to measuring dial pulses, only one function of a rotary dial phone, I find the visual chart produced by Audacity much more helpful than just an "E" for a pulse error or an "average" PPS read out.

Audacity shows each pulse including the break/make ratio for each pulse before cleaning and oiling so as I clean the dial, I can re-scan the dial pulses to see how each cleaning/oiling step affects the dial speed, on each digit. I can't find the image right now but I had a dial that had a chunk of dirt in one gear and that showed up as a longer pulse for one digit. Checking the gears at that point revealed the dirty tooth easily cleaned with a dental pick.

This scan was from a dial with a rusty main spring. Took 3 cleanings to get the last few digits to come into spec. Yes, I only get break/make rations for each digit and over all dial speed, but the visual component is worth a 1,000 words.



It came into spec after cleaning and oiling.

An interesting test, which I can not do, is to take a rotary dial that tested bad on a Sage 930A and run a scan on Audacity to "see" why the dial was bad. Don't have a 930A so I can't do that test. In this subject phone, it would be interesting to see in Audacity why the Sage showed that digit as an "E."

[oldguy]

I know I'm dragging up an old topic but since I'm pretty much staying home (sheltering in place), I started playing with my Sage 930A for the 1st time. It seems to have option 1 for testing the dial. My cables seem to be wired correctly. I think I have it set up correctly. when I go to test a dial, nothing happens! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[oldguy]

I got back in my home office/phone room this morning & booted up my Sage 930A & it worked fine. I should have suspected rebooting older equipment would correct things, just like it does on today's computers. It's always nice to have a useful piece of equipment.