Telephone testor !

[electric al]

  I am looking for an equivalent to a B&K 1045B Testor . I believe this item is obsolete !

  Or , does anyone have an idea on how to make a ring generator ? Or , buy one at a reasonable price !

  How do most of you guys test the ringer in phones ?

  Other than having someone call you !

  I have a variac , can this be used ?

Lots of questions from a newbie phone collector  (fanatic) !

 

[G-Man]

I am looking for an equivalent to a B&K 1045B Testor . I believe this item is obsolete !
Test sets (or testers) manufactured by B&K and others for checking telephone instruments are occasionally available on eBay and other auction sites.
Or , does anyone have an idea on how to make a ring generator ? Or , buy one at a reasonable price !
Check with Dave Hunter... at one time he was selling solid-state ringing modules for a very low price.

How do most of you guys test the ringer in phones ?
Other than having someone call you !

I have a variac , can this be used ?
In most cases no. It would be best to invest in a ringing generator capable of outputting 20-cycles instead of the 60-cycles from your Variac.

Lots of questions from a newbie phone collector (fanatic) !

[TelePlay]

Or , does anyone have an idea on how to make a ring generator ? Or , buy one at a reasonable price !

This is a really simple device to create a ring generator. DavePEI has this in detail on the forum. He has the schematic, etc. It's really quite simple to make work.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121058890727



This is the easiest and cheapest way I know of to make one or get a ring generator, and I have about 5 ways to ring a phone, but that is all this does, ring a phone.



For use on stage, never knowing what I would need to ring a phone, I built the over engineered black box below. Has 2 batteries in paralled as the primary power source and two more that can be switch in if the first two fail during use. Four different ways to hook up a phone. It works well and easy to use to just test a ringer, either in or out of a phone.

[.....]

I use this one. Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, my camera wasn't on auto focus.



https://www.vikingelectronics.biz/products/pdf/dle-200b.pdf

Doug / Autonut

[paul-f]

  Or , does anyone have an idea on how to make a ring generator ? Or , buy one at a reasonable price !

  How do most of you guys test the ringer in phones ?

Try on-line and ebay searches for western electric ring generator.  There'a one currently on ebay, but it's pricey.  I would expect to find one for under $30.  You might get lucky at a phone show and get one for less.

Another alternative is to get a small PBX or Telephone Line Simulator, which will let you call from line to line.  They're good for demos and for testing.  Searching the forum will get you a lot of info on both approaches.

[Greg G.]

  How do most of you guys test the ringer in phones ?

  Other than having someone call you ! 

Do you only want to test the ringer, or the entire functionality of the phone, including the handset and dial?

I use a Panasonic 308 PBX I bought from another forum member to test for the entire functionality of a phone.  They can be had for not a whole lot.  It has 3 ports for incoming lines, and 8 ports for extensions.  I have one phone that I use for a daily driver and testing on extension port #1.  When I want to test a phone, I plug it into any of the other remaining extension ports then dial the 2-digit extension from the working phone, then vice-versa to test for outgoing calls.  It is entirely possible to not have an incoming line (no land line) and still be able to dial the extensions for testing purposes.  The only requirement is that the PBX is powered by the house or building's electricity, so it needs to be located near an outlet.  Dimensions are 13" wide, 17" tall, 4.5" thick.  Can be easily mounted on a wall.

Prior to the PBX, I used to test phones by plugging them into a phone jack and calling it with my cell phone.