Automatic Electric 80 Won't ring

[Dan]

It already has a cord attached and works (dials, has dial tone, receives calls). Picture one shows the cord attached. Looking at pic one, you can make out the three GREY wires it uses

[Dan]

The wires are @ 9, 10, and the last one is two spots to the right of 10 (# obscured )

[JorgeAmely]

Dan:

The gray box stamped "500 VDC" is the capacitor your ringer is missing. It is the closest to you, to the left, in the attached photo.

[McHeath]

Does "500 V.D.C." mean what I think it means, 500 volts DC?

[dsk]

Yes, but it is not needed to have a 500V rated capacitor. A 200V will be good enough. The value of 0.4 microfarad is not very critical, You could very well use what you find , and try. I would try anything between 0.4 and 1.5

dsk

[JorgeAmely]

McHeath:

It means that the maximum voltage the capacitor should see is no more than 500 VDC.

In reality, the capacitor is exposed to -48 volts DC when the phone (on hook) is connected to the line. That is about 4 car batteries connected in series. When there is a lighting strike, these capacitors survive due to the high voltage rating they have. In the case I mentioned before, my Mom's modem (Made in China) did not survive, but her WE500 is still ticking.

The capacitor acts like a short when the phone rings, so most (if not all) of the ringing voltage is seen by the ringer. That is in the order of 90 volts AC at 20 Hz.

When you lift the handset, the hook switches remove the capacitor and ringer from the line (in most sets) and the combination of speaker, mike and network see about -5 to -9 volts DC, depending how far you are from the central office. In this case, the phone draws about 20 milliamps (nominally) from the central office, and then you hear the dial tone.

No DC current flows into the speaker of a phone, because there is another capacitor that blocks the DC from the central office.

[Dan]

Thanks guys, my AE 80 purchases are frustrating. One with no ringer, one with no capacitor.

[JorgeAmely]

Dan:

The phone we were discussing yesterday has a capacitor: it is mounted on the network board. Just connect it in series with the ringer and across L1 and L2 and it should ring.

[Dan]

Thanks Jorge. So you are saying the picture listed earlier  of the tube like thing with the two yellow wires is the capacitor? Then should one yellow  wire should  be on L1 and one on L2, then red wire from the bells should be on L1 and the green should be on L2.

Lastly, the numbers below the dial on the board from left to right are 9,21,15, 10, 16, obscured?, and 6.

Which ones represent L1 and L2?

[JorgeAmely]

Doctor Dan:

Yes, you are correct. The yellow component with yellow leads connected to the network is the ringing capacitor. Your connection strategy is almost correct: the capacitor and ringer go in series in between L1 and L2, not in parallel like you are suggesting. If you put them in parallel across L1 and L2, the central office will "see" that your phone is drawing current and may send you a dial tone while it is "on hook".

Take a look at these documents and use the one that matches the network model number you have:

http://www.telephonecollectors.org/library/aeco/ae80a.pdf
http://www.telephonecollectors.org/library/aeco/ae80b.pdf


Terminals 10 and 8 are L1 and L2. In between these two terminals, you need to insert the capacitor in series with the ringer. Terminals 10 and 15 are connected together by a copper trace on the back side of the network card. It facilitates making the connections to the ringer. You can remove the yellow wire from the mounting cord (you have it connected to Terminal 9). It is no longer used in modern phone wiring systems.

If it still doesn't work, take an aspirin and call me in the morning. We may have to dig deeper to get to the root of the problem.  



 

[Dan]

In summary correct wiring Mr  Jorge from left to right across the board removed yellow wire off terminal 9, now bare;then 21 blank, then 15 blank,  then it is L1 , terminal 10 red ringerwire and yellow capacitor wire. Then 16  second yellow capacitor wire . Then#8 (previously called obscured)  L2 green wire.

Is this right? I don't want to fry anything

[JorgeAmely]

Doctor Dan:

It won't ring because one end of the capacitor is left floating at terminal 16.

Let's go back to your second picture, where the capacitor is connected between terminals 15 and 16. All you need to do is connect the ringer wires (green and red) between terminals 16 and 8. That will complete the circuit.

In summary:

9   - blank
21 - blank
15 - one side of the yellow capacitor
10 - one of the leads from the mounting cord (gray in your case) plus a black hook switch lead
16 - the other lead from the yellow capacitor plus the red lead from the ringer
8   - white lead from the hook switch plus the green lead from the ringer plus the other lead from the mounting cord (gray in your case)
6   - orange lead from the hook switch (we never touched this one)

[Dan]

Thanks for "dumbing it down for me". I really appreciate it. Wiring in series and parallel should be easier for me, but the western electric design seems to make so much more sense than the Automatic electric...

[JorgeAmely]

Dan:

No problem, anytime.

Now the $64k question is: does it ring?

[Dan]

I gotta disconnect the pink mushroom in the wifeys room to not wake her up.

Nope, no ringing. So if you look at the very first picture, all we did was remove the "yellow" grey wire off terminal 9 and reverse the green and red wires, correct?