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Intercoms--Suggestions Appreciated!

Started by stopthemachine, January 13, 2011, 09:40:30 PM

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bingster

Quote from: stopthemachine on February 20, 2011, 01:03:54 PM
Now, to begin, where does one find the suggested station cables for the Connecticut intercom phones? 

They came with plain solid core copper wire.  Two pieces (or three, depending on where you kept the batteries) would be run from one set to the other.  18 or 20 gauge would be appropriate with a normal setup.

I have the setup instructions if you need them.
= DARRIN =



stopthemachine

Thank you, Bingster,

Yes, I would greatly appreciate them.  They're really cool, those intercoms.  Besides the intercoms and "toaster" phones (which I just recently acquired after many years), it doesn't seem like they made too much in terms of telephony.

Slightly off topic, but what kind of dials were the "toaster" sets usually fitted with?  Mine seems like an AE dial, but I'm not quite sure...it ticks when the dial is wound up to the finger stop.

bingster

Here are the pages from the instruction booklet.  I don't have a scanner, but I photographed them a while back for another member who had a set of these.  There are four pages, and a couple pages are photographed in two sections.  Click the thumbnails for full-size images:

Cover


Page 2


Page 3


Page 4
= DARRIN =



stopthemachine

Awesome!  Thanks, Bingster.

Instead of the dry cells, I take it i use 9-volt batteries then?

bingster

#6 dry cells were 1.5 volts, so in a standard installation, you'd have a total of six volts (1.5V X  4 batteries) powering the phones.  I imagine a 6 volt lantern battery would work (you'd have to use the three-wire installation method with the battery at one end only), but I think that I'd avoid using C or D cells.  Even though C and D are the proper 1.5 volts, they probably wouldn't last very long. 
= DARRIN =



Jim Stettler

Quote from: stopthemachine on February 25, 2011, 11:11:01 PM
Awesome!  Thanks, Bingster.

Instead of the dry cells, I take it i use 9-volt batteries then?


#6 dry cells are 1.5 volt. I would get a Battery holder from radio shack and use 2 "D" cells.
JIm
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

stopthemachine

Jim, would the "D" cell batteries last a while?  I guess I don't want to keep buying batteries every day.  Haha.  Thanks.

Phonesrfun

Quote from: stopthemachine on February 26, 2011, 09:16:29 PM
Jim, would the "D" cell batteries last a while?  I guess I don't want to keep buying batteries every day.  Haha.  Thanks.

It is my experience that a couple of "D" cells in a phone will last many months, depending on the use.  When I was a teen-ager, my neighbor and I had a couple of 500's and a line between our houses, and a 6-volt lantern battery lasted us a couple years.  The normal telephone and intercom talk circuit only draws about 35mA, which is 35 thousandths of an amp, and that is only while the phones are off hook.  When on-hook, they should draw zero current.
-Bill G

stopthemachine

Great advice, thanks, Bill and Jim. 

Bill, Should I do as Jim suggested and just put them in a battery holder from Radio Shack then?  Seems to be the easiest thing.

Thank you all.  Your advice is always appreciated.

Phonesrfun

Quote from: stopthemachine on February 26, 2011, 10:13:06 PM
Bill, Should I do as Jim suggested and just put them in a battery holder from Radio Shack then?  Seems to be the easiest thing.


That's what I do, and it works great.
-Bill G

Jim Stettler

Quote from: stopthemachine on February 26, 2011, 09:16:29 PM
Jim, would the "D" cell batteries last a while?  I guess I don't want to keep buying batteries every day.  Haha.  Thanks.

I think they would, current only flows when they are in use. I don't think you will use them enough for battery life to be a concern.
JMO,
Jim

I just read Bill's post. Great minds think alike.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

GG



I'd suggest using rechargeable batteries and having a recharger.  Costs more to begin with, but less in the long run, and then you won't get stuck if the batteries run down and you don't have a spare set of batteries on hand: just stick 'em in the charger and save a trip to the store. 


bingster

That's a good idea.  I also wonder if it's possible to use a 6 volt wall charger.  Anybody know if that would work?
= DARRIN =



Phonesrfun

Yes, you can, but...

The ordinary wall wart charger probably does not have sufficient filtering to get rid of the hum left over from rectifying the AC into DC. 

Some switching power supplies have better filtering.  For more information on building such a battery eliminator, see the pdf booklet in the section describing the power supply in this thread:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4361.0

-Bill G

AE_Collector

Maybe DavePEI will see this and comment. Didn't someone determine that old cell phone chargers have very well filtered DC battery? I think Dave used some to power his magneto phones. Old cell phone chargers are usually easy to locate.

Terry