684A Won't Go 'On-Hook"

[zaphod01]

I bought a 684A with oddball wiring. The ringer wire that should have been connected to L1 was connected to E and the condenser wire to Y/L2 was connected to GND.

This essentially by-passed the induction coil. I attached my RJ11 test cable to E and GND and it would ring.

I attached the ringer and condenser wires back to the appropriate connections, reattached my RJ11 test cable to L1 and Y/L2 and it rang.

However, when I attach a phone (I tried several known, good phones) it gives a dial tone but then I get the 'off-hook' sound. 

Any ideas?

Robert

[southernphoneman]

I bought a 684A with oddball wiring. The ringer wire that should have been connected to L1 was connected to E and the condenser wire to Y/L2 was connected to GND.

This essentially by-passed the induction coil. I attached my RJ11 test cable to E and GND and it would ring.

I attached the ringer and condenser wires back to the appropriate connections, reattached my RJ11 test cable to L1 and Y/L2 and it rang.

However, when I attach a phone (I tried several known, good phones) it gives a dial tone but then I get the 'off-hook' sound. 

Any ideas?

Robert

Robert have you made sure the wiring in the phone is proper?what  model phone is it ? posting some photos might help us figure it out

[southernphoneman]

I bought a 684A with oddball wiring. The ringer wire that should have been connected to L1 was connected to E and the condenser wire to Y/L2 was connected to GND.

This essentially by-passed the induction coil. I attached my RJ11 test cable to E and GND and it would ring.

I attached the ringer and condenser wires back to the appropriate connections, reattached my RJ11 test cable to L1 and Y/L2 and it rang.

However, when I attach a phone (I tried several known, good phones) it gives a dial tone but then I get the 'off-hook' sound. 

Any ideas?

Robert

Robert have you made sure the wiring in the phone is proper?what  model phone is it ? posting some photos might help us figure it out

Robert,check the wiring in the subset and make sure that there are no wires touching that shouldn t be also.

[G-Man]

Perhaps this will be of assistance

[unbeldi]

I bought a 684A with oddball wiring. The ringer wire that should have been connected to L1 was connected to E and the condenser wire to Y/L2 was connected to GND.

This essentially by-passed the induction coil. I attached my RJ11 test cable to E and GND and it would ring.

I attached the ringer and condenser wires back to the appropriate connections, reattached my RJ11 test cable to L1 and Y/L2 and it rang.

However, when I attach a phone (I tried several known, good phones) it gives a dial tone but then I get the 'off-hook' sound. 

Any ideas?

Robert

A common practice is or was to connect the ringer circuit leads to the unused terminals on the connection plate when the ringer was to be silent. This is not wrong or even uncommon.  Of course the ringer bypasses the induction coil, it really has nothing to do with it.

A subset is a very simple device and nothing much can go wrong there that is fixable when it is wired correctly. You need to tell the forum what you are connecting to it and what exactly happens or not.   "684A won't go On-Hook" means what?  It really can't go on-hook because the hookswitch is in the telephone set. What do you mean by "off-hook sound" ?  Does the dial tone stop by itself?  The dial tone should stop when the circuit is interrupted very briefly once, because that is equivalent to dialing '1'. Does your telephone have a dial?

[G-Man]

There is nothing "weird" about one side of the ringing circuit being connected to the "E" terminal.
These subsets were configurable for different uses including with certain dial-shorting payphones which specified the use of the "E" terminal for one side of the ringing circuit.

And of course, as unbeldi has already stated, a complete description will help in the diagnoses of your problem. This includes properly describing symptoms such as lack of or the presents of dial-tone, reorder tones, etc.

The only things that I can think of off-hand is either the talking circuit condenser is either missing or is shorted, miswired or the wrong telephones are connected to it.

[zaphod01]

Victory! My usual 'phone time' is late at night after the wife falls asleep. I guess I was just a little bleary when I moved wires. This morning, I reversed the ringer wire connections, reattached a 202, and gave it another try. It works! 

Photo below...

Thanks, guys!

Robert

[unbeldi]

Victory! My usual 'phone time' is late at night after the wife falls asleep. I guess I was just a little bleary when I moved wires. This morning, I reversed the ringer wire connections, reattached a 202, and gave it another try. It works!  

Well, you must have changed something else in the process, because reversing the ringer connections has no effect on the rest of the telephone.

Nice cover...  is it a modern repro?  (I don't know if WE ever made any for shows)

[zaphod01]

Cover is a Ray Kotke. I suspect I had two contacts touching. I did not think the ringer wires mattered. Must have fixed my short when I reconnected the 202. Just glad it works!

[Jim Stettler]

I have heard of 1 original WE cover in clear ( transparent). This was years before Ray started creating them.
Jim S.

[southernphoneman]

Robert is that a typical 302 ringer in there? glad you got it working, Gregg

[unbeldi]

Robert is that a typical 302 ringer in there? glad you got it working, Gregg

It looks like an original 684 with a #78 ringer, but had its original coil replaced with a 101A.

[zaphod01]

Original ringer. 101A coil is undated, Base is marked II 37.

Nice sound but not as dramatic as my 534A. I think the internals are much more attractive than my NE 684BX which has a 302 ringer.

534A is connected to a 20AL
684BX is connected to a 51AL
684A is connected to a 202 (D1/E1)

Now I need a 295A and a 334A to round it all out.