WE 2500 Won't Ring on My Work PBX

[Kevin Lane]

Hello Everyone,

This is probably an easy one for some of you, but I want to know why my newly acquired WE 2500 won't ring when used at my workplace (an elementary school.)  I specifically bought this telephone to use at work to replace the cheap, chirping unit we were all issued (Rauland.)  My 2500 works perfectly at home, but it will not ring at work.  It will call out and answer calls, too.  I just have to mystically know a call is coming in, and I am not that mystic. 

Does this have something to do with the particular PBX that is installed at the school where I work?

Thanks in advance for any advice you folks have.

Kevin Lane

[Adam]

It is the week for ringer problems!

First of all, that's a 500, not a 2500, no?  The 2500 is the touch-tone version of the rotary 500 which you've pictured.

Inside the phone, make sure the BLACK wire from the ringer goes to where the GREEN wire from the line jack is.

Make sure the RED wire from the ringer goes to where the RED wire from the line jack is.

The RED/SLATE wire from the ringer goes to A on the network and the SLATE wire from the ringer goes to K on the network (or vice versa).

If it is wired that way, next try changing the position of the little bias spring.  Which ever way it is, try changing it to the other way and ringing the phone again.

[Phonesrfun]

The PBX may be designed for the type of phones that are normally connected to it.  If it works at home and if the PBX is designed to work with legacy phones then is should not be a wiring problem.  My money is on it being a PBX that is not designed to ring the older ringers.  I would check with your telecommunications department or the service company that installed the PBX.  More and more, office phone systems are moving away from being compatible with legacy phones.

[AE_Collector]

More and more, office phone systems are moving away from being compatible with legacy phones.

But that usually means the proprietary pbx phones are digital and absolutely nothing would work if you plugged in a 500/2500 phone. Kevin says he can call out and answer incoming calls if he can devise a way of knowing when there IS an incoming call.

To get started I'd use a double jack / splitter and have both phones plugged in at the same time which will probably solve the incoming ringer problem as the original phone will ring to announce incoming calls and the 500 can  be used to actually answer the call. If the rotary dial works it must be an analog pbx line.

Terry

[Phonesrfun]

I don't know diddly about digital PBX's, but what I found with the one at my office is that the talk path is still on pair 1 and it will "talk".  It seems that on the one at my office that the default is for the power and the digital multiplexed lamp, hold and all the speed dial buttons and the ringer are tied to pair 2, and that digitally it sends a signal to the phone that tells the phone to ring, as opposed to sending 20Hz ringing down pair #1.  The guy who runs the phone system at my work says that the line has to be programmed to be purely analog, like for a fax or a modem to work on it.  Apparently he can program any phone extension at will, but that it needs to be programmed none the less.

That, in a nutshell is what I think I know about the system at my office.  I do also know that there are dozens of PBX systems out there that often are all proprietary, and don/t march to the drummer of the old standards.

After going back and re-reading how I answered Kevin, I seem to come off as being a little short.  Sorry about that, Kevin.

Terry has a good solution, and in addition, perhaps you could go to the comm. person at your school and see if he or she needs to program it as a fax or modem line to ring if that person is willing to do so.

Another guy on this forum (GG) is in the PBX business.  Perhaps he knows your specific system.

[AE_Collector]

After going back and re-reading how I answered Kevin, I seem to come off as being a little short. 

Time to face the music Bill, you aren't that tall! But neither am I 

Terry

[Owain]

A quick google of Rauland (Telecentre 21 is your system???) suggests the ringer/speaker might be wired separately from the phone pair so it can be used for intercom/paging when the phone is on-hook.

I.e. the phone is proprietary to the system. If the system doesn't supply AC ringing current then a traditional telephone bell won't work.

[Kevin Lane]

Folks,

First of all, thanks for the replies.  I really appreciate your help.

Second of all, I'm an idiot.  I uploaded the wrong photo.  It really is a 2500 that I was trying to use at work.  The 500 you  saw is on my desk at home, and it works fine there as well.

Third, Owain, I think you may have nailed the problem.  I will check that out when I get to work today.

It's funny.  I consider myself fairly tech literate, but I never really learned out to use that Rauland telephone for intercom/paging or most of the other things it does.  That's partly why I wanted to put the 2500 there - a telephone I understand . . .

Lastly, I will check the wiring anyway, mainly so I can learn about such things.

Thanks again everybody.  I am really enjoying this forum.

Kevin Lane

[dsk]

One other reason may be as simple as wrong ringer frequency.
E.g. some Ericksson pabx's uses the mains frequency for ringing, at only 45 Volts.

This may nor ring the 2500.

dsk

[Kevin Lane]

The 2500, next to the phone I wanted to replace it with.

[Kevin Lane]

Yep.  It's a Rauland Telecenter 21.  So there's no way it will work, right?

[Owain]

A further google shows:

The Rauland-Borg TC4333 Single Line Telephone is a utility grade
telephone that includes a 12V DC ringer circuit
specifically designed for the Telecenter System 21.

http://customerconnection.rauland.com/downloadFile.asp?docname=TC4333_7-00

On the other hand, their slimline telephone has a 'standard ringer' so there might be AC ringing somewhere, just not where the phone expects it.

The 'easy' way is going to be to open the phone socket and stick a voltmeter across the pairs and see what you get. If there is a 12Vdc ringing signal that's not impossible to use to switch a relay with an AC ringing generator. Whether the school will let you play with their (probably quite expensive) system is another matter ...

[Kevin Lane]

Owain,

So, it looks like I can't use the 2500, as it needs AC for the ringer, am I right?

Oh well.  Too bad.  I wanted to see the looks on my students' faces the next time I got a call and the telephone actually "rang."  I guess they will have to get that education elsewhere.

[Owain]

Nothing's impossible.

My guess is that Rauland isn't big enough to have engineered proprietary phones - it appears they use standard 'hotel' phones, rebranded with a new fascia, and probably a little internal rewiring.


If it's a 3-pair line cord I'd further guess that 1 pair is for phone, 1 pair is for speaker/paging and 1 pair is 12Vdc for ringing. Or something like that. Maybe there's a relay to turn the phone on in handsfree mode for intercom.

But you won't know until you get in there with a screwdriver and voltmeter.

[Kevin Lane]

The line cord is just one pair of wires:  white and red.  I don't own a voltmeter (same thing as a multitester?)  Probably a good thing to have if I am going to collect telephones, right?  I'll look for one this weekend.