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Western Electric Preset dial telephone set

Started by paul-f, June 27, 2016, 11:16:30 PM

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paul-f

#15
Quote from: paul-f on July 01, 2016, 11:13:52 AM
Quote from: unbeldi on July 01, 2016, 10:29:44 AM
Why do you think it was a field trial ?

I may be going out on a limb here, but the article shown above ends with:

    "The phone is scheduled for customer testing by the Bell System."

...and the phone is dated 5-66, which is before the article appeared in 7-66. It also has a serial number.

I do agree that it is possible that the F- number was used after the trial(s) if the phone was made in limited quantities.  In that case, there should be a BSP, as there is for sets like the F-58554-type Card Dialers.
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paul-f

I had a few minutes today to look at the dial, and noticed that the assembly is held on by two screws, so was easily able to loosen it to get some other views.

As you can see, there are apparently coils for touch tone oscillators and there is a synchronous motor to handle the sequencing. It drives a wiper arm that contacts circular runs on a circuit board. It reminds me of some mechanical logic process control systems I worked on in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, the wires to the programming panel attach on the side of the circuit board that's hidden between two layers, so it will be difficult to determine the sequencing by inspection without disassembling a lot of stuff.

The next step will be to start working on a wiring diagram to see where the power and line should be connected.
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paul-f

Completed the first pass cosmetic work, including making a dial card (it's large), based on a photo received from the AT&T Archives.

  http://www.paul-f.com/weprotot.html#F56750
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TelePlay

Quote from: paul-f on July 05, 2016, 07:20:16 PM
Completed the first pass cosmetic work, . . .

Looks great and what's left to do? Looks finished to me.

Nice photo for your web site and that dial card is both unique eye catching. Great phone you snagged there.

paul-f

Quote from: TelePlay on July 05, 2016, 07:24:39 PM
Looks great and what's left to do? Looks finished to me.

Thanks, John.

It is ready to display, but I REALLY want to watch the motor turn and see it dial a number.

That is waiting until I either find some documentation that shows how to wire it, or have the time to sort through the maze of wires to take a guess at where power and the phone line connect.

Unfortunately, the mounting cord is color coded as five pairs, without the usual hint of red and green for the line, etc.

I must admit, I'm having fun with this and it will be all the more memorable with a few challenges to overcome.
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HarrySmith

Very Cool! There must be some documentation somewhere, keep searching. It would be interesting to see how it functions.
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

paul-f

Unfortunately, not much progress has been made -- still looking for documentation and not having lots of time to reverse-engineer the circuit. Let me know if you run across anything relevant.

I did write a short Singing Wires article (January 2020 issue) after noting some potential ties to the 43A and 53A one number dials. Found a 43A, so will compare the circuits as time permits.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=22008.msg223639#msg223639
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Babybearjs

Paul, isn't there an existing BSP for this phone? with all the documents the library has, you'd think it would be in there..??
John

paul-f

Quote from: Babybearjs on January 28, 2020, 03:40:31 AM
Paul, isn't there an existing BSP for this phone? with all the documents the library has, you'd think it would be in there..??

If there is, I don't know about it.

If my guess that it's a field trial set, not a limited production set is correct, there was probably no BSP developed.

While there are a lot of documents in the library, there are way more to be found and scanned that aren't in there yet.
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Jim Stettler

You may be able to find dial programming/repair info among info for repertory dialing.

This is the Bell system name for Speed-dialing. This includes Magicall dialers and touch-a-matic sets.

It may have a 43A dialing apparatus per
SECTION 500-124-180
Issue 5, September 1968
AT&TCo Standard
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

paul-f

Thanks Jim.

I'm already comparing the 43A, as noted above. There are physical differences, but they may have been designed by the same team, so may have some similarities.

There's good BSP info in the TCI Library.

https://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/search?q=43a+dialer
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