can a princess rotary phone work on cable phone/ tv service

[princessphone]

Hi there. I gave a Princess rotary phone to a friend but she gets no dial tone. She has her phone service with her cable company (Cogeco, Ontario Canada). Is there a way to make it work? Perhaps a Touch Tone Princess might do the job? I hooked up a transformer for the light and that all works fine. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks, John DeJonge

[AE_Collector]

No dial tone tells me something happened to the phone or not properly plugged in. Depending on the exact scenario it might be possible that the second pair being connected to the light might be shorting something in the cable phone box killing the phone line.

Are other phones plugged in as well as the Princess and do they continue to work? Have you tried different jacks in the home if not plugging right into the cable box?

Terry

[princessphone]

Thanks for reply Terry.
Here's what I did. I first tested tested the phone at my home. I have a Bell land line and tested OK.  Took a regular jack and disconnected the yellow and black leads(wires) from the modular part or the jack. Therefor when an extension cable is plugged into this jack to wall jack, only the red and green (ring and tip) are live. Then I wired the two wires from the transformer (I used yellow and black) to the Y & B to the Y & B terminals inside the jack. Now this jack has R &G for the phone and Y & B for the light. Then I hard wired the line cord from the Princess phone (1964 I think) to this jack as follows.
Red wire to terminal R
Green and Yellow wire to terminal G
White wire to terminal Y
Black wire to Terminal B
This was the same arrangement as in the the 505A plug that was on the line cord before.
Then I tested the phone again and she worked fine.
Are rotary phones compatible with cable service?
Thanks, John       

[poplar1]

On a cable modem, you should have dial tone, the phone should ring, you should be able to answer (transmit and receive), and as you have it wired, the dial/night light should operate -- even if you can't dial out.

Many of these adapters will dial out only with Touch-tone dials. And even if they do recognize rotary dials, the dials have to be close to factory specs.

When connecting a spade-tipped cord to a modular jack as you describe, the modular cord going from that jack to the wall reverses polarity. So, if you are using a Touch-tone/Digitone  phone without a polarity guard, the phone won't dial out unless you connect red to GN and the green and yellow to R.

[princessphone]

Hi poplar1,
Thanks for comments, you are always here to help me.
My friend said that the phone lights up properly but no dial tone. I do understand that wiring between jacks specially with modular cords, often reverse the polarity, and that it is critical on the early versions of TT Princesses to work properly as you described. However this is a rotary Princess so the polarity should not be an issue.
My plan is to call the cable provider and inquire about rotary compatibility and also pay my friend a visit to check things out.
I'll keep you posted, thanks, John 

[HarrySmith]

Most VOIP services do not recognize pulse dialing. There are converters available to make it work. There are several topics here about them.

[AE_Collector]

But the modem should not be the cause of No Dial Tone on the phone. A visit may be in order. If the phone is being plugged directly into the cable modem this eliminates all possible problems with wiring in the house. Maybe the phone is being plugged into a jack in a room that "used to work"!

Terry

[princessphone]

Thank you Terry and all the others that offered help.
All is working well. The girl had plugged the Princess into a wall jack that is dead ("used to work" as Terry phrased it). I'll visit her someday and see if I can resurrect a couple of her jacks.
Best regards, John DeJonge
PS I learned from this exercise that at least in some cases that rotary can work an a coaxial cable system. 

[AE_Collector]

Lots of phone service installers these days do the "oh I see you have a cordless phone...just plug it into the modem here and you're all set to go" routine. Not attempting to connect the service to existing jacks saves them anywhere from a few minutes to considerably longer. I install alarm systems and have some monitored customers who have called saying that something is wrong with the alarm system. Very often a "Hit and Run" phone service installer failed to connect up the home wiring which also left the alarm system talking to itself.

Terry

[TelePlay]

When I switched to uVerse for internet and phone, the service guy put in a 3 jack wall plate. Top jack is date in/out, the middle jack is the VOIP connection from the modem to my all of my house jacks and the 3rd jack was my normal modular connection for the cordless phone I have in the kitchen. All jacks in the house are active through the modem. The only problem is I just can't dial out with a rotary dial on uVerse.