AE 80 w/426A gas tube

[Greg G.]

Brinybay:

That is indeed the right part number for a straight line ringer. Do you want to sell it to me? 

All joking aside, it doesn't ring because it has a 426A gas tube inside. Kind of rare since it is the first one I have ever seen with a tube inside. May need to rewire it correctly (either with or without the tube) to get it to work again.

PS: I don't see a ringing capacitor inside. I haven't tried this before, but I think it is possible to use the tube as a capacitor because when the tube is off, the ringer is isolated from the line, which is the job of the capacitor in a normal phone.

PPS: Could you please take a picture from the right hand side of the phone so we all can see the tube bracket and connections? I think it will be a good learning experience for many of us.

If you are interested in seeing how the tube works, take a look at an album I put together a couple of years ago about this tube and how it is used in a telephone.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Amelyenator/WesternElectric501PhoneWithA426ATube#

Here are a couple of pics.  Preferably, I would like to get it to work with the tube, since that is the way it was intended.  Unless the tube itself is shot, in which case I can try to get another one or work around it.  If they're rare and/or expensive, I'll go the latter route.  I checked all my other AE 80s, none have a tube.

[Phonesrfun]

I doubt of the tube is shot.  It may be possible to get it to work, but I am not sure.  I see the number is a 426A.  I will look and see if I can find something.  I think it may be a Western Electric tube.

By the way, you do have an unusual configuration.  GTE and its predecessors mostly used frequency ringing to achieve party line ringing.  It was Bell that promoted the use of cold cathode tubes which used straight line ringers.  There were exceptions on both sides, but having an AE phone with the cold cathode tube is very unusual.

-Bill

[Greg G.]

If it's not the tube, what else would keep it from ringing?

[Phonesrfun]

The way it is wired determined which party would ring or not ring.  There is a chart that shows how to hook it up based on whether it is needing to ring as follows:

Tip party Plus
Tip party Minus
Ring party plus
Ring party minus
bridged plus
bridged minus

I can try to find that chart.

With the cold cathode tube, they could get 6 different combinations out of a straight-line ringer.

All ringing now days is done as bridged ringing.  We just need to determine how to connect it for that.

Can you describe which leads off the tube and the ringer are connected to the network card, and we can go from there?

By the way, the gas tube does not have a filament to "burn out".  However, they were designed to "fire-through" based on the polarity of the DC that is on the line that the ringing current is superimposed over.

-Bill Geurts

[JorgeAmely]

Brinybay:

Try the wiring method from this document under the section superimposed ringing.

The tube diagram from the Western Electric web page is also attached.

[Greg G.]

Can you describe which leads off the tube and the ringer are connected to the network card, and we can go from there?

-Bill Geurts

Ok, the tube has 3 wires coming off it, black, yellow, and red.  The network has 7 terminals in the front, but they're not numbered like that.  From left to right, they are numbered 9, 16, 15, 10, 6, 8, 7.

Black and Red go to 9.
Yellow to 16.

Ringer has two wires, red and green.

Green to 7.
Red to 16.

[Greg G.]

Brinybay:

Could you please take a picture from the right hand side of the phone so we all can see the tube bracket and connections? I think it will be a good learning experience for many of us.

Here's some better pictures as to how it's physically mounted.  Just one screw coming up through the bottom.

[JorgeAmely]

Brinybay:

When you use a tube, your ringer circuit becomes polarity sensitive. If it doesn't ring, try reversing tip and ring.

This is because the tube is like a transistor: the anode lead has to be more positive than the cathode lead.

[Greg G.]

Brinybay:

When you use a tube, your ringer circuit becomes polarity sensitive. If it doesn't ring, try reversing tip and ring.

This is because the tube is like a transistor: the anode lead has to be more positive than the cathode lead.

I'm an electronics-challenged person, I can't read schematics nor understand the lingo.  You have to break it down to which wire goes where.

[Phonesrfun]

Ok, the tube has 3 wires coming off it, black, yellow, and red.  The network has 7 terminals in the front, but they're not numbered like that.  From left to right, they are numbered 9, 16, 15, 10, 6, 8, 7.

Black and Red go to 9.
Yellow to 16.

Ringer has two wires, red and green.

Green to 7.
Red to 16.

I can work with this, but I need to do it tonight when I get off work.

Cheers,

-Bill

[JorgeAmely]

Brinybay:

When you use a tube, your ringer circuit becomes polarity sensitive. If it doesn't ring, try reversing tip and ring.

In the present configuration, connect the yellow lead to the green lead to see if it rings.

Now, swap the green and red leads.

Try connecting the yellow lead to the red lead to see if it rings.

Don't worry about it if it doesn't work initially. Remember when Dan had an AE80 that wouldn't ring? It took days but we all pulled together and it is now a working phone. 

[Phonesrfun]

I will start by saying that I got it to work at my end using the 426A tube and a standard straight line ringer from an AE80.  This will be a general disucussion of how I made it work, and I will follow up with my take on hooking it up to specific terminals in the AE80.

I have a 1950 500 that has the same cold cathode tube; a 426A with red, black, and yellow leads, just as Briny's is.  Yes, I took the 426A out of the 500 to do this test using the AE ringer.

I had only marginal success, not because of the tube, but because my Vonage service only has a DC voltage of 24 volts, and not the traditional Telco voltage of 48 volts, which the tube is designed for.  Therefore there was not sufficient voltage to cause the tube to "fire-through" all the way during ringing.  I only got a weak ring when it was properly connected.  This should work fine on a normal Telco line.

I think Briny has said that he is on an AT&T system, so I do not know whether he gets his dial tone from a router at 24 volts or from a central office at 48 volts.  I guess just hooking it up and trying it out will be the proof of the pudding.

Generally, the connections are that red and black should be connected together on the POSITIVE side of the line.  The yellow and one side of the ringer are tied to a tie point, and the other side of the ringer is connected to the NEGATIVE side of the line.  With the yellow and the ringer connected to this tie point, the cold cathode tube and the ringer are connected in series, but the tube is where the .47MF capacitor would normally go in a regular rining circuit.

Specific connection information to follow.

-Bill Geurts

[Phonesrfun]

Briny:

Specific connections for the 426A in the AE80:

Keep the following connections:

Ringer Green to 7
Ringer Red to 16
Tube yellow to 16

Move the tube red and black from 9 to 15.

The line cord should be connected so that Green goes to 8
and Red goes to 10

Now try it out.  If there NO ringing activity, switch the red and green line cord wires at the terminal "muffin" block.  Note that it is far easier to switch the red and green at the terminal block than it is to rewire the inside of the phone to get the proper polarity.

Try the ringing again.

If one or the other polarity will make the phone ring, you are in business.  If neither will do it, or if you get very weak ringing in either of the situations, at least you can say you tried!

-Bill Geurts

[JorgeAmely]

Bill:
I have a Panasonic PBX (model 616) that produces 24 volts of battery voltage and it fired decently. You can hear that some cycles of the 20 Hz waveform are skipped once in a while.

On a Teltone phone line simulator, with 48 volts of battery voltage, it sounds very nice also.

I think in one of Briny's photos, you can seem some missing tube paint. It will be possible to see the tube striking when the ringer rings.

[Phonesrfun]

Jorge:

I have a 48v battery feed that I made but it is in a box out in the garage and I did not want to try to get it.  I got the same results on both the Vonage and the Panasonic 616.  Maybe those tubes do go weak after a while, but I did not think they would.  Like I mentioned, mine is out of a 1951 early 500.

Did you also find that you needed the black and red hooked to positive and then feed the yellow in series with the ringer to the other side of the line for it to work?

-Bill