555 won't ring stations

[BruceP]

That's how I have it wired. I was wondering if in the field, they soldered to those posts, or if it ran through one of the 3 50 pin Amphenol connectors, like the stations do.

[BruceP]

BTW - When I have the trunk night-patched through to the station, the phone will ring even with the 30 Hz AC disconnected. So the trunk ring signal is ringing the phone, not the board's. So the board's 30 Hz is making it to the buzzer, nowhere else.

Boy it smells good in that old wood cabinet.

[G-Man]

If you connected one side of the test telephone directly to the G terminal on the ringing supply and then touched it to pin 14 of the 348A plug and did not receive ringing voltage then there is an open at some point.

If you reversed the procedure and reconnected your test wire at the ringing supply to the supply side and then tried pin 13 without receiving ringing current, it would indicate that something is very wrong since both sides of the circuit to pins 13 and 14 are open; as if they had been disconnected.

The reason for troubleshooting it this way is to determine if only one side is open or both. It also would help determine if the ringing supply terminals are connected to the proper terminals.

Normally it would be possible for one wire to have been bumped and snap off of a terminal, but in this case both wires seem to have been disconnected as if they were cut.

Next, you should look for any loose or cut wires, especially where the hand generator (magneto) would have been mounted.   

[BruceP]

Thanks a million G-Man! Found the 4 cut wires tucked back into the bundle near the crank location. Buzzed them out, hooked solid to solid & striped to striped, and now I can ring the station. Thanks to everyone else too, this is a great forum.

A trip to the state fairgrounds flea market Saturday is definitely in order. This thing has 30 stations and I'm going to drive my wife crazy.

[DavePEI]

Thanks a million G-Man! Found the 4 cut wires tucked back into the bundle near the crank location. Buzzed them out, hooked solid to solid & striped to striped, and now I can ring the station. Thanks to everyone else too, this is a great forum.

A trip to the state fairgrounds flea market Saturday is definitely in order. This thing has 30 stations and I'm going to drive my wife crazy.

Congratulations. I am sure G-Man will be glad to hear that, too. You did well!

I have a lot of fun in the museum with mine. I have ten phones hooked up to mine on a shelf beside the 555 - could have more, but I am too lazy to wire them up. When kids are there, more than once I have had fun with them by ringing one after the other of the phones, and they go chasing back and forth trying to figure out which one of the phones in the row is ringing! They love that game! Of course every ringer sounds a bit different, but they don't seem to notice the differing ring sound each individual phone tends to have!

Good luck finding more phones. If you can, try to find other period phones, such as 500s, etc. You may have to re-wire the 500s for grounded ringing - if they will ring on your own phone line, they should ring on your 555. You may have to move the ringer lines in them if they were set up for party line use.

What I do like about your 555 is it came with the Amphenol connectors. I had to add them to mine, so it can easily be disconnected from the wall. Mating Amphenols run to a 66 block on the wall, where lines are punched down. So half of the work is done for you!

I can't see how you have mounted your power supply - what I did for mine, is cut a piece of 3/4 inch plywood to match the base, and screwed the power and ring supply down to it. I also put a set of heavy rubber casters on its bottom, so it can be moved out from the wall easily to work on it and it won't scratch up your floor. If you decide to do that, though, don't flip it alone to install casters - these are very top heavy and could come down on you when you flip it back upright!  Once upright, they are very stable with casters.

The photo below shows my supply mounting arrangement taken as I was setting up my board. It doesn't show the later addition of Amphenol cables and the later 66 block which connects to it.

Dave

[marty]

Hi Bruce;
Congratulations on a Job well done, now to get a phone in every room.. Have FUN with it..
THANK YOU Marty