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CLEAR Telephone projects and such...continued

Started by kleenax, October 12, 2011, 11:22:57 PM

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kleenax

Terry Biddlecombe and I were talking about a Clear AE 183 Spacemaker project on another thread, so I decided to start a new thread here...........

Terry, I got about 2 dozen Dial turrets from Paul V. before he scrapped them; they were plain-ole Beige.

I have posted some photos below (I think) of some more projects that I'm presently working on for the telephone collector community.
Ray Kotke
Recumbent Casting, LLC

AE_Collector

Wow Ray, you have a lot of different projects on the go and the pictures are probably just a sampling. Even an AE 31 base! What is a GPO314 as compared to a 332? The extra buttons up by the cradle?

Maybe edit your thread title by putting "Clear" in front of Telephone Projects. That will get a lot of members attention!

Terry


GG



Oh Holy Cow again. 

Visions of AE 31s in a rainbow of colors too... a highly practical set in addition to its aesthetic qualities.   The only suggestion I would make would be to have the Hold keys in the intuitively correct order of Hold 1 and Hold 2, rather than in reverse as they appear on the original set.   

And a rainbow of 332s likewise.   Here's me wishing I was wealthy:-)

Though, the sheer beauty of industrial engineering as an art form comes out in clear in a way that's invisible any other way.  (One could also bend the rules slightly and install a single little neon bulb in the middle of the phone, to light up in the dark when it rings.  A very small incandescent bulb powered by DC on the 2nd pair of a 2-pair line cord could make the whole phone visible at night.)


GG



Ray, I have a wild idea for you (or feel free to tell me if you think I'm nuts:-)

Glow-in-the-dark plastic.  Seriously. 

The ultimate bedside telephone.  Ivory by day, glowing soft blue in the dark.

I just picked up a British Telecom "Statesman" phone that was made in glow-in-the-dark plastic, nearly NOS, barely used.  By day the whole thing appears basically ivory, uniformly so including the touchtone keys.  However after exposure to room lighting (compact fluorescents work much better for this than incandescents), when you turn off the lights the whole thing glows, a color that can vary from bright greenish-yellow to a kind of blueish-green to a soft white, depending on how bright was the light it was exposed to.  The night-glow "charge" lasts for a couple of hours. 

Needless to say that makes for a perfect bed table phone.  And it is highly sensitive to white LEDs, probably even more so to blue LEDs.  A moment's exposure to a white LED flashlight is equivalent to longer exposure to compact fluorescents.

The plastic is slightly translucent, so it can be "charged" from an interior LED.  I'm going to install a couple of white or blue LEDs inside the housing (invisibly, removably, and non-destructively): one or more that light when the phone rings, and one or more that light during conversation (I know how to set up the circuits for each of these).  Thus when the phone rings, the night-glow material will be slightly "charged" by the ringing LED to make the phone visible.  And during conversation, the same thing will occur. 

OK, now imagine doing that with any one-piece phone: WE 302, AE 40, GPO 332, etc.  It wouldn't work as well for a phone with a separate cradle casting such as WE D1, GPO 232, AE 1A. 

I think it would be maximum cool to have, for example, a phone that "looked" ivory, but at night glowed pale blue after turning the lights out, and then after the "charge" wore off, to immediately glow again the moment it rang, and during & after a conversation. 

If this interests you, I'm up for collaborating: I could design the circuit and so on if you like, and provide part numbers for the LEDs & other components, and see about having a small PC board developed for the purpose. 

What do you think? 

kleenax

Quote from: GG on October 13, 2011, 02:59:02 AM

Ray, I have a wild idea for you (or feel free to tell me if you think I'm nuts:-)

Glow-in-the-dark plastic.  Seriously. 
What do you think? 

Already ahead of you on that one.  I have been experimenting with luminous additives for awhile now. Have a customer that wants a glow-in-the-dark AE40.
Ray Kotke
Recumbent Casting, LLC

AE_Collector

Quote from: kleenax on October 13, 2011, 08:48:57 PM
Have a customer that wants a glow-in-the-dark AE40.

Hopefully he isn't envisioning a 40 with a Mushroom light or maybe a 40 Starlite....

Terry

Dave F

Hi Ray,

Boy, you sure do beautiful work.  Do you think it might be feasible to make a transparent housing and faceplate for a Card Dialer?

Dave F.

kleenax

Quote from: Dave F on October 13, 2011, 09:57:35 PM
Hi Ray,

Boy, you sure do beautiful work.  Do you think it might be feasible to make a transparent housing and faceplate for a Card Dialer?

Dave F.

Hey Dave;

I can create a transparent housing for just about anything, including the kitchen sink, but it will cost $$$.
Ray Kotke
Recumbent Casting, LLC

GG



Ray-   You're already working on night-glow?, that's majorly cool.  A long-distance tip of the hat to you for that one!  In which case when the time comes, I'd like to ask for that as well. 

After a closer look at my BT Statesman, I'm reluctant to try to modify it (the housing is held together with catches, and I'm reluctant to risk cracking it if that plastic is more brittle than standard ABS).  But I think the internal blue LED as a "recharger" is worth pursuing when there's adequate room inside the housing. 

I wonder if it would be worthwhile trying to ask Cortelco to do a run of 2500s in night-glow.  Those could get popular fast and bring back interest in basic telephones that always work.   

Owain

Quote from: GG on October 14, 2011, 01:14:24 AM

I wonder if it would be worthwhile trying to ask Cortelco to do a run of 2500s in night-glow.  Those could get popular fast and bring back interest in basic telephones that always work.   

In the UK night-glow safety signs are quite widely used as they're visible even when emergency lighting fails, so there could be a commercial opportunity for night-glow phones for safety reasons.

GG



Owain- Interesting, and very smart to have emergency signs set up that way, I had not heard of anything like that in the US (yet; maybe we're behind the curve?).

I hadn't thought about emergency phones as a marketing angle, but it might sell enough night-glow 2500s to make it worthwhile to do a production run.  Hmm!  In that case I might just contact Cortelco about that.  The GEC Statesman has the keypad in night-glow but I suspect that would be too costly to do now, especially with the way dials are made in the US.  So we might have to live with dark buttons but it's not as if people don't know how a keypad is laid out.   

US phones can be made to work in the UK by unbiasing the ringer and making a couple of wiring changes, so it's conceivable to approach the UK market also. 

Thanks for the ideas!

Owain

Quote from: GG on October 14, 2011, 07:33:26 AM


Owain- Interesting, and very smart to have emergency signs set up that way, I had not heard of anything like that in the US (yet; maybe we're behind the curve?).

They are available:
http://www.nb-usa.net/
http://www.globritesystem.com/

A British supplier is here
http://www.jalite.com/photoluminescent_safety_signs_1.html


Quote from: GG on October 14, 2011, 07:33:26 AM
US phones can be made to work in the UK by unbiasing the ringer and making a couple of wiring changes, so it's conceivable to approach the UK market also. 

You'd also need CE certification to sell in Europe, but that would give you pan-European approval. European states are harmonising technical requiremenst, whereas US states seem to pride themselves on having local codes. For emergency use, wall phones would probably be preferred. European phones are commonly changeable between wall and desk by reversing a bracket underneath. Offshore and military or marine certification would be other marketing options.

And fun phones for Hallowe'en of course!

Dave F

Quote from: kleenax on October 13, 2011, 11:12:15 PM
Quote from: Dave F on October 13, 2011, 09:57:35 PM
Hi Ray,

Boy, you sure do beautiful work.  Do you think it might be feasible to make a transparent housing and faceplate for a Card Dialer?

Dave F.

Hey Dave;

I can create a transparent housing for just about anything, including the kitchen sink, but it will cost $$$.
Well, I'll actually keep that in mind.  I was wondering how tough it would be to reproduce the flat faceplate.  I suspect that machining a piece of thin clear plastic (maybe Lexan) would be better than trying to do it by casting.  Any thoughts on that?

Dave

rtp129495

MAN I wish I could get a clear 500 or trimline! they are hard to find though like you say!! this site is going to have me with a museam in my garage in 5 years LOL!!!

Nice job though on that phone i like it!!!