dictograph info needed

[Babybearjs]

I got a dictgraph master station, a sunstation and a power pack off of ebay. interesting stuff... pretty much scrap but worth playing with. having to tear it completely apart to put it back together... does anyone have any surviving schematics or related material anout the units... the master unit actually has a tube based amplifier! the whole unit is so shot, its pretty much a piece of junk... for parts only... lots of #49 bulbs! I'm going to rewire the whole thing so the lights and buzzers work for kids to fool with... does anyone know what these things actually cost way back when??   John

[Owain]

NOT SCRAP NOT SCRAP NOT SCRAP !!!

Circuit diagrams are linked from here

http://www.bobsoldphones.net/Pages/Dictograph/Dictograph_FurtherInfo.htm

also

http://www.bobsoldphones.net/Pages/Dictograph/Dictograph.htm

[gpo706]

Babybearjs, I'm a Dictograph junkie, try a search for it here and see how much junk I have acquired, although I explain how you can rewire them for POTS lines.

[Babybearjs]

well, the one I have is not shown in any of the info. its a wood unit that sits on the desk, has a speaker and microphone in the case, a small 3 tube amp and 18 station keys. no model number on it and no readable schematic online. I have already started to "reverse engineer" the unit, so now its worthless. the US version of these unit were so poorly made that its impossible to repair.... thus it winds up on ebay... the power supply that came with it was unusable because the power cord was damaged. when opened up, it looked like the P/S was fried and I will try to rewire it and test it. if it is working, well... at least that part works... as for the switchboard... to be rewired for a stage prop... that about all I can do with it... it will be some time before its even tested. I got a WE 2702BMG princess in the mail today and wound up shelving it because the unit did'nt work as wired and when wired as a 702, ot worked fine... wound up getting mad and shelving that project... the wires on the dial were bad.... so now I just wasted my time trying to fix something that I don't have the replacement parts for. now, I need a new #72 dial, and a 616 reciever jack... Uhg! I have telephones sometime... and to think that all I wanted to do was to convert the phone to 1A1 service...     anyway, I'll try to get some pics posted of the dictograph unit so you can see what I have....   the unit is dated about 10940's-50's thats about all I can tell you.   John

[GG]

This illustrates an interesting point: one person's un-usable "junk" is another's treasure waiting to be properly restored.

We all have stuff we can't use, but someone else may be able to.  In which case maybe the thing to do is post it in the classified section and see what happens.  Just put the "junk" on the shelf and sooner or later someone will come along and offer to take it off your hands for maybe what you paid for it plus shipping.

[Babybearjs]

I paid 11.50 USD for one and so I seemed to have gotten my money out of it... I'll take a picture of it and post it... so you can see what I have. its sad though, to know that all of the documentation on these units are pretty much gone.  without know which wire does what, its impossible to revive the unit... rather rebuild it to work with newer parts and use it that way... the switches arent even made anymore.... the technology has moved on to newer styles... once I desolder all the connections, then I can wire it up to work... I'm probibly going to take it and replace the amp with a 101A inductor coil so it can be used like a phone...    john