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Best way to wire up a collection? (PBX)

Started by AL_as_needed, May 03, 2016, 02:46:39 PM

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AL_as_needed

It seems that my phones a breeding!

I started with a black 500, then picked up a wall set, turn around a few days later and there is a red 500, butt-set, 2500, and the stepchild, a PTT type 51....(every family has a black sheep ;)). What is the best way to wire them all up for use? So far I have a few splitters running into my XLink, but that is starting to become a tangled mess.

Any suggestions?
TWinbrook7

andre_janew

Don't try to hook up all your phones all at once.  You can always change your phones every week or every day if you want.  There are forum members who have more phones than you.  I doubt that they have all their phones hooked up at any one time.

Jack Ryan

Try a Panasonic (or other) PBX that works with pulse dialling. With your phones connected as extensions you can ring between your phones. Connect the XLink to a CO line and you can dial out.

While you use that you can contemplate the next step. Perhaps an asterisk solution, CNET, an electro-mechanical exchange...

There are a few options...

Jack

TelePlay

Quote from: AL_as_needed on May 03, 2016, 02:46:39 PM
What is the best way to wire them all up for use? So far I have a few splitters running into my XLink, but that is starting to become a tangled mess.

Any suggestions?

More than a few ways and it depends on what you want to do. The most popular (and easy to install and use) is the Panasonic 616. The forum has a board with many topic discussing that PBX, it use, installation, type of phones, programming and other stuff. That board is at

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=62.0

They can be found for under $100 on eBay and I think most members who have a lot of phones have one, some using it only for testing phones, others for wiring a house full of phones.

Look through those topics and post questions here so others who have done what you want to do can help you.



oldguy

#4
Is this the model number I want for a panasonic 616 panasonic kx-t61610?
Gary

TelePlay

Quote from: oldguy on May 05, 2016, 12:42:15 AM
Is this the modle number I want for a panasonic 616 panasonic kx-t61610?

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=13613.0

They also made the -2 and -3 versions which had improvements and slightly different programming codes, IIRC.

oldguy

#6
I haven't seen any -2 or -3 units on eBay yet. people seem to want around $125 + $25-$30 shipping for a 616. I take it I don't want a hybrid or digital unit for dial phone? You can tell I've been looking on eBay. What about a 308? It sounded silly when I said it to my self (I would only be able to hook up 8 of my phones at a time) How many can I use at once? I missed out on a working 616 yesterday for $20 BIN + $30 shipping but I didn't know what I was looking for then. Now I kind of understand. Maybe I will just keep looking until I find another deal. Any other brands that would be good & easy to hook up?
Gary

unbeldi

#7
Quote from: oldguy on May 05, 2016, 07:32:24 PM
I haven't seen any -2 or -3 units on eBay yet. people seem to want around $125 + $25-$30 shipping for a 616. I take it I don't want a hybrid or digital unit for dial phone? You can tell I've been looking on eBay. What about a 308? It sounded silly when I said it to my self (I would only be able to hook up 8 of my phones at a time) How many can I use at once? I missed out on a working 616 yesterday for $20 BIN + $30 shipping but I didn't know what I was looking for then. Now I kind of understand. Maybe I will just keep looking until I find another deal. Any other brands that would be good & easy to hook up?

Most of the KX-T61610 units on eBay are in fact version 2 and version 3 units, by my observations.  They are designated with the 2 or 3 in a circle on the product designation label.

unbeldi

Quote from: oldguy on May 05, 2016, 07:32:24 PM
I haven't seen any -2 or -3 units on eBay yet. people seem to want around $125 + $25-$30 shipping for a 616. I take it I don't want a hybrid or digital unit for dial phone? You can tell I've been looking on eBay. What about a 308? It sounded silly when I said it to my self (I would only be able to hook up 8 of my phones at a time) How many can I use at once? I missed out on a working 616 yesterday for $20 BIN + $30 shipping but I didn't know what I was looking for then. Now I kind of understand. Maybe I will just keep looking until I find another deal. Any other brands that would be good & easy to hook up?

You can find any of the KX-T61610 or KX-T30810s  for around $20 ea, if you're a little patient.  I have four units total (2 x 308, 2 x 616, of version 2 and 3 ea.) and I am averaging just over $50 for each, including shipping.

oldguy

Thanks Teleplay & unbeldi. are you able to connect the units together or do you have groups of phone connected to the different units?
Gary

unbeldi

Quote from: oldguy on May 06, 2016, 04:33:56 PM
Thanks Teleplay & unbeldi. are you able to connect the units together or do you have groups of phone connected to the different units?
They just make nice and cheap source of dial tone for a group of phones. This way you don't have to run a dozen pairs to some location, just a single one, if an interconnect is needed at all.

And one of them  I fitted with a variable frequency ring generator, to ring phones with frequency ringers.


AL_as_needed

Sounds like part of the beauty of the hobby, buy lots of phones and fill every wall Jack. Buy a PBX to take the extra load, thus enabling you to buy more phones.... :)
TWinbrook7

oldguy

This way your phones aren't just sitting on the shelf, you can play with them :-) Most of the rooms in my house are wired with separate cabling for each room for phone & cat 5 for internet. So the way I figure it I should be able to drive my wife nuts if I can ring her from my office / phone room in whatever room she is in, because there is some type of vintage or antique phone in almost every room in the house. If I hook the unit up to the phone line to the unit & the phone rings, do I need a Panasonic switchboard type phone to deal with routing the call? or will just one phone ring? or will all the phones Ring? or is it programmable to do what you want? I would hate to waste my play time by not using a new toy to it's full potential :-)
Gary

oldguy

Al as needed, I hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread but this sounds like so much fun & a useful phone tester too.
Gary

unbeldi

The default settings in these boxes is that incoming calls ring on all extensions simultaneously.
You need a special proprietary Panasonic telephone to configure the unit for other settings.  For example, you can have each incoming line ring on a designated extension, or on groups of extensions.

They don't actually ring all with the same synchronized cadence, they are staggered in time by ring groups to distribute the power load of the ringers better over time. This creates quite an inferno with real bells, and can be one hell of an alarm system when a dozen phones go off on the same shelf at the same time, it is probably not the most desirable outcome, lol.