Western Electric 317

[pwruck]

I am trying to convert an old Western Electric phone to work with modern day phone lines. I intend to take the parts, speaker, mic, keypad and the ringer circuit from a modern day phone and mount them in the antique. I have a problem with the ringer, it works fine with the old magneto but I can't get it to work with other power sources.  I got two stepdown transformers from Amazon that are rated at 110VAC input and output at 24VAC 40VA.  Which means to me that max power is 24 v at 1.6A (40 divided by 24).  So I can hook them up in series or parallel.  In series I get 48 volts at 1.6 A, in parallel I get 24 V at 3.2A.  Neither will ring the bells in a good fashion, just barley a tingle.  I tried hooking it direct to 110VAC and even ran it through a light dimmer switch and nothing produces a good vigorous sounding bell like I get when I hook it to the generator.  When I find the power source that will ring the bells I intend to control it with a relay switch which is powered by the ringer circuit on the modern phone.  That part works fine, when I hook the relay switch to the ringer circuit it opens and closes as the phone rings.   Any suggestions on how I can power up the ringer?
Phil
 

[TelePlay]

This won't help you with your conversion except for basic ringer information. Straight line telephone ringers (not frequency ringers) work with ~90 VAC at 20 Hz.

There are several ways to get that ring voltage including this small generator that works off of 12 VDC. I used one of these to build a hand held portable ringer tester using an A23 12V battery.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/252566429110

Using 24 volt 60 Hz ring voltage may not be enough voltage and if it was, the ringer would ring 3 times faster than normal, 20 Hz.

If you can create or come up with a 90 VAC 60 Hz ring voltage, that would most likely ring the ringer but dangerously fast for the ringer hardware.

There are several ways to get 90 VAC at 20 Hz that simulate POTS ring voltage including buying a used Panasonic 308 or 616 PBX or any of several ATAs which others know more about than I do.

There is a lot of information about ringers on the forum that can be found with the forum search function.

[paul-f]

Some other options are presented in this topic.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=9833.msg104705#msg104705

[MMikeJBenN27]

You don't need to put a modern speaker or a modern microphone in it.  The "stock" ones are good enough.  What you are proposing is to build a modern phone with antique styling.  You should keep it as close to STOCK as possible.  There are not enough of those around to butcher.

Mike

[pwruck]

Thanks, I was not aware of the 20 Hz vs 60 Hz, I think that will fix my problem.

[FABphones]

I am also of the mindset of keeping these nice old vintage phones original where possible. Their value will also hold better.

The link posted by paul-f in reply #2 above is well worth a read.
Also:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8261

 

Images of similar WE 317 models (not the phone under discussion) attached for those of us not familiar with this model (image 2 shows receiver upside down on switch hook).

Please add photos of your phone including 'before' and 'after' images, and keep us updated on this project.

[dsk]

I can not understand why the ringer should not ring if you put it in series with a 1uF ringer capacitor and all that across the modern line.

[Babybearjs]

check the continuity of the coils... if the ringer is not working, that could be your problem. I've had phones with bad ringers in them, and most of the time it was the coils failing.

[TelePlay]

check the continuity of the coils... if the ringer is not working, that could be your problem.

As stated in the first post, the ringer works with the magneto so coil continuity must be fine.

I have a problem with the ringer, it works fine with the old magneto but I can't get it to work with other power sources.

Yes, continuity can be a problem with a broken wire in a coil or a cold solder joint. But this ringer works.