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GPO/BT "Jubilee" or "Compact" 776

Started by gpo706, April 04, 2011, 02:23:59 PM

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Owain

Quote from: GG on April 07, 2011, 05:14:14 AM

Anyone know where I can find a copyright-safe or permission-available photo of the 232 on its wall bracket (the curvey bakelite wall mounting bracket with bellset in the bracket)?  

There is a photo in Herbert & Proctor or Atkinson; not sure of that's copyright status. I only have a very low resolution scan to hand

gpo706

Got my flat grey straight cord for it, just waiting for the thing to arrive to rewire it.

These Compact cords sound quite unique, not a half straight / half curly like a Trimphone, but a square ended to square ended curly cord.

Must be like hen's teeth, so I will do with the flat grey at the moment.
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

GG



Owain - Thanks!  The ringer is in the curved part of the wall base.  OK, so does anyone else here see the similarity in the overall design, or am I barking loony? 

Owain

Quote from: GG on April 11, 2011, 07:50:13 AM


Owain - Thanks!  The ringer is in the curved part of the wall base.  OK, so does anyone else here see the similarity in the overall design, or am I barking loony? 

There is a similarity in design. Note the difference between a bell and a bellset though; the bellset also has the induction coil and other components.

There's a higher resolution image of a 232 on a 200 wall bracket here. " This phone did not come with bells and requires a bellset N0 1 or N0 26. Phone can be taken off the base and is not fixed. Four cups fit the four rubber feet on the base of the phone." It sounds like the bellset wasn't concealed in the plastic curved wall bracket but I could be wrong - there doesn't look like there's enough space.

GG, did you get my PM about the Compact images for the magazine?

GG


Hi Owain- Yep; just replied to message; still catching up.

Looks like you're right about the absence of bells in that wall mount for the 232.  Seen from an angle it appears to have more than enough space, but from the front it's obvious it doesn't.  Further complicating things, one version of the bracket appears to be designed to lock down the 232 so it can't be moved, and another was more of a casual mounting that allowed it to be taken off and moved. 

I think what may have thrown me off the trail here was the difference between the plain steel mounting bracket, and the one with the bakelite cover.  The latter would seem wholly unnecessary unless it accomplished some further purpose beyond the former, the logical purpose being to house a bell. 

So that weakens my hypothesis but not fatally: both 232 and 766 still have separate bells and optional wall mounting brackets, a combination of characteristics that is in any case rare, and not found at all in any GPO designs in the years between them. 

gpo706

Quote from: GG on April 12, 2011, 01:16:37 AM


So that weakens my hypothesis but not fatally: both 232 and 766 still have separate bells and optional wall mounting brackets, a combination of characteristics that is in any case rare, and not found at all in any GPO designs in the years between them. 

Well maybe a bit O/T but there was always these, even the dial is seperate!

http://www.britishtelephones.com/t713.htm
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Owain


gpo706

"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Owain

Quote from: gpo706 on April 17, 2011, 04:15:26 PM
GG - I'm gonna kill you!  :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250801234425&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT



I thought about it briefly but I've decided I only want ones with matching wall bellsets. Unless it's a Jubilee and not for silly money.


GG



Yo GPO-  Sorry to be promoting contagious memes here : - )   Did you score that one, or did you miss it?  I wasn't bidding for that one, I have a white one on its way from other sources.

The one in your pictures looks like it'll need the clean & buff treatment, and possibly retrobright at least for the bell unit.  Also note that the hookswitch plunger on the left (seen at the right, in the photo take from the rear) appears to be partially stuck.  Probably that will resolve when it's cleaned up and reassembled.

Taking these apart is a real bear (American slang for "difficult" and implied "wrestling match"), getting the housing up over the dial and hookswitch.  Probably taking the fingerwheel off first will help.  I have to believe there are or were BT instructions for disassembly, vaguely recall seeing them posted on britishtelephones.com. 

gpo706

#25
Yeah GG just took the brown apart, hellofajob,(or what we call a "scunner" in Scotland) -  I thnk thats why it has the two deep recesses under the front for your fingers to flex the body clear of the fingerstop, and tis very compact indeed!

Dial seems fine, the set just needs a light cleaning, not rewired it yet - but it be a straight light grey repro cord, matches the handset so should look fine - later folks...

Yes scored this one, wasn't a lot less than 20 quid all in, hope it cleans up nice.

I usually take the finger wheel off anyway to prevent snagging.

Had to explain to my mother (who quite liked the look of it) it has no ringer... :(

LATER -

Rewired per Bob's Telephone Files - it works, dials out, but bad crackle on it, I reckon the RX needs replaced, but it has a single screw on the handset at the RX end, but won't come apart, and don't want to force it obviously.

Any suggestions GG?

"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

gpo706

#26
That lovely man Bob Freshwater sent me this:

"Scot

Short out the white and blue wires of the handset cord - inside the phone.  If the noise goes then it's the transmitter.

To replace the transmitter - remove the end screw - grab both halves of the handset and literally pull apart.  Start at the screw end and the handset will split.  It has locators at the transmitter end, so that's the last place it splits.

I have some electronic transmitters in stock at present.

Cheers

Bob"

What a great guy!

Bob was right, you just rip it in two, there is just two plastic latches in the middle of the handset clipping it together...

And I did short the TX and it did stop the crackle so its a TX replacement needed.

I have a jiffy bag full of carbon granule TX's so tried one, - still a duff one, then I found an electronic one from somewhere, (these have red caps on them) - works perfectly now, so looks like I'll be in touch with Bob for some electronic TX's soon.
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

GG



Bingo!  Excellent.

Most cases of crackling & frying sounds in a receiver are caused by a transmitter that has gotten electrically "burned" one way or or another over its lifespan, or was slightly out of spec and then just went noisy as it aged.   However, DON'T throw those away, you may never know when you need one, and a noisy one is better than nothing.  Just put a bit of masking tape on them marked "noisy" and keep 'em in the spares box.   "Bell System eco-industrial design philosophy: never waste anything!"

Interesting about disassembling the handsets.  I wouldn't try that too many times for any one handset, eventually it could cause the handset to develop stress marks where the plastic takes on a lighter color in the stressed areas and looks nasty.  And further, with enough flexing it might crack.  Yes we have that problem in the US, with our "K-type" handsets, some of which are designed to not be disassembled *at all,* on the basis that if some internal part fails, it's a goner.  IMHO that was part of our "decline & fall syndrome" after deregulation.   (Judge Green (the author of the deregulation policies) has since died and is probably sitting in a corner of H--- with nonworking telephones!)

Yes, buy another electronic transmitter to replace the one you used.

NOTE:  On Australian phones that have electronic transmitters (mostly the pressbutton/MF-signaling types, but may be found on rotary phones if the transmitters were replaced in service):   Those Australian electronic transmitters tend to pick up "hum" from the AC mains power sources nearby, such as your computer.  The cure for that is to swap out the electronic transmitter & replace it with a carbon transmitter. 

"Fight climate change: capture the carbon and bring back the carbon transmitter!"

Adam

#28
Quote from: GG on April 20, 2011, 10:29:49 AM
DON'T throw those away, you may never know when you need one, and a noisy one is better than nothing.

Good advice!  Over the last few years, I have had the anti-click varistor on two Western Electric U1 receiver elements go bad.  Since receivers for G-tyoe handsets are a dime a dozen, I've replaced the receiver element rather than replace the varistor.

However, I have kept the two bad ones in my parts box in a zip-lock baggie marked "clicky".  A clicky G-type receiver element is better than none at all...
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

gpo706

Funny you should say keep the TX's and mark with tape, I did just that with the two ones, I just stuck a strip of blue electrical tape over them, same with some jammed up dials I have!
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"