Found a 127E ringer box in good working order. How best to safely use?

[Ryan Foster]

Found this 127E ringer box in the same bunch of stuff in Oklahoma. I was able to get it to ring by connecting it to the 302 network on the phone mentioned in another thread, but was not able to get the 302 ringer, and the 127E ringer to both ring at the same time. Is this box safe to use on modern networks? I have a WE 211 Space saver and a spare 302 network and was thinking of putting them all together somehow and mounting it all on a shelf.

[TelePlay]

It's an extension ringer and this one has a capacitor in it to keep out any DC once a phone on the same line is answered. Same use as any one of several after market ringers. If you plug this into a POTS line directly and put your 302 with its ringer in another POTS jack, they should both ring. This ringer does not need a network. Doesn't even need a phone. It will ring until the calling party hangs up. It is not a subset.

[Ryan Foster]

It's an extension ringer and this one has a capacitor in it to keep out any DC once a phone on the same line is answered. Same use as any one of several after market ringers. If you plug this into a POTS line directly and put your 302 with its ringer in another POTS jack, they should both ring. This ringer does not need a network. Doesn't even need a phone. It will ring until the calling party hangs up. It is not a subset.

Many thanks! I connected it directly and it rings like a champ! I will now try to figure out how to connect the WE 211 to the red/green/yellow line cord. Amazing to me that a 90+ year old unit works so well!

[poplar1]

As John said, you don't need a phone with this, since it is a complete ringer circuit (ringer + 2 uF condenser).

So, if you want to connect a 211, it will connect directly to the line, but won't connect to this bell. Instead, you will need a 101A induction coil and a 1 uF condenser. You can use the red and black wires (only) of a condenser from a 302.

You said you had to borrow the condenser from the non-dial 302 to fix the 1940 metal 302. Is that because the condenser in the 1940 302 with E1 handset was defective? If so, which part of that condenser didn't work -- the part for the ringer (yellow and gray wires) or the part for the talk path (red and black wires)?

The 211 is basically the same circuit as a 302. You will need 4 wires from the 211 to the 101A + 195A condenser.