Ive had this phone for about a year now, i was drawn to it bc it was red and reminded me of the Bat Phone in the old batman shows... It works as far as dialing out and and answering it, but doesnt ring. I'm familiar with the basics of older electronics and phones,but couldnt get this sucker to ring. I have tried to move a few wires around and move the 2 main wires L1 and L2 and it did have a 3rd wire for a party line, but i removed it. I currently have the time warner digital phone in my home. It does have a .18MF 300 volt AC wax cap across 1 side of the coil. Some time last year someone told me that if its a 20HZ ringer that it would never ring again. I used to have the schematic, but i misplaced it. The phone is out of its case, so i can access the wires and screws. I just want to hear it ring again... i imagine its possible, bc my uncles has older phones that ring.
Are you referring to a 554? Those phones were usually wired with one side of the ringer connected to the yellow line wire. Moving that ringer wire to the terminal with the green line wire is usually what is required.
There is a diagram here: link (http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=2080&Itemid=26)
Larry
Yes, the 554. I moved the red stripe wire to the L1 terminal and the grey wire to the G terminal which should be be ground, and then the grey wire to the L2 terminal and the red stripe wire to the G terminal. Still no ring. BTW, the junction box in it is a 425E
Ringer connections in a 500 type set (a 554 is just a 500 basically, same wiring) is really easy.
Try this:
Red/Slate - A on the network
Slate - K on the network
Red - to where ever the red wire from the telephone line is
Black - to where ever the green wire from the telephone line is
I'd recommend using this diagram to aid in the connections:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2767.0
Quote from: Adam on February 07, 2012, 04:48:03 PM
Ringer connections in a 500 type set (a 554 is just a 500 basically, same wiring) is really easy.
Try this:
Red/Slate - A on the network
Slate - K on the network
Red - to where ever the red wire from the telephone line is
Black - to where ever the green wire from the telephone line is
That tied the line up. AkA busy signal
That can only mean that the capacitor inside the network between terminals A and K is bad (shorted).
You'll need to connect the ringer using an external ringing capacitor (or replace the network, which is a pain). You can frequently find them on eBay, I see oldphoneworks also sells them cheap:
http://www.oldphoneworks.com/ringer-capacitor.html
Cant i replace the cap? its an .18MF 300 vac
I just read your first post more carefully. Your phone has a frequency ringer which is probably not 20Hz. Does the ringer have any indication on it of its frequency? You can easily replace the ringer, or if your ringer will work at 20Hz, you can rewire it a bit. The wiring instructions given here are wrong for your ringer.
Larry
Larry, There is a sticker on the coil. The sticker reads S-C 12NF 33 1/3. I'm guessing that is the ringer freq.
Quote from: twocvbloke on February 07, 2012, 04:48:50 PM
I'd recommend using this diagram to aid in the connections:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2767.0
I used that diagram, it was almost the same as what adam said, except the ringer wires were reversed. It still did not ring.. maybe the cap is bad, as its still wax.
Quote from: LarryInMichigan on February 07, 2012, 05:28:24 PM
I just read your first post more carefully. Your phone has a frequency ringer which is probably not 20Hz.
My bad. Larry is right, you have a frequency selective ringer and it just won't ring on modern lines. You need to replace the ringer with a straight line ringer, these are frequently available on eBay.
Ok, what do i search for on ebay? i tried strait line ringer but got nothing. Now, let me ask you this. My phone is from the 70's and it wont ring, but my uncle collects phones and he has much much older phones that ring w/o modifications, how is that possible? Also if i buy a phone that i want to ring w/o mods, what should i buy? I wouldnt want to spend more then 20-25.00 though.. I just want a nice rotary phone with a loud bell ringer.
You could use a Linksys VOIP adaptor which can be set to ring ad a specific frequency, saves discarding ringers because they don't work on regular phonelines... :)
Benkeys,
Your ringer is a 33 1/3 Hz frequency ringer. You may or may not be able to make it ring, but the wiring diagram for a SL ringer with the "A" and "K" terminals is wrong for this ringer. The easiest thing to do is to replace your ringer with a C4A ringer. There are millions of them around, so you shouldn't have to spend more than $5 or so, plus shipping. I may have a spare, and I know that many forums members do. If you want to try to salvage your ringer, you will need to bypass the capacitor on it.
The reason that your phone has a frequency ringer is because it was configured to be used on a party line where different ringer frequencies were used for each subscriber on the party line. The phone co would send ringing current of the appropriate frequency to ring only the subscriber being called.
Larry
Yeah, sometimes you have to be creative when searching on eBay as people frequently don't know the technical terms for things.
I searched for "telephone ringer" and found:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200710914902
http://www.ebay.com/itm/170673794369
I dont see spending 15.00 for a new ringer. I rather try to make the current one ring. On the schematic, it said refer to another diagram for superimposed ringing, so i found that schematic, but it only listed the 425-A not the 425-B whick is the junction block in my phone. It also stated to tie the slate wires to store... i have no clue what that means.. btw my ringer is riveted in.. it would be a royal pain to remove it.
You have a Stromberg-Carlson 554 wall phone with the ringer riveted in? Really? It should be held on with two screws. Can we see a picture of that? I've never heard of one like that before.
When you see "store" on a telephone schematic, that means to cover the spade end of the lead with tape so that it can't electrically touch anything, and position it somewhere so that it doesn't get in the way of any moving part.
my bad, its not riveted. I thought it was attached on the back of the phone, but that was the ringer level adjustment. So, if i unhook those wires will that get me anywhere? I just removed the whole ringer. I'd like to bench test it to see if works outside of a phone.
Disconnect the capacitor on the ringer and wire the ringer to the network as described earlier. You may be able to adjust the ringer by loosening screws or cutting the reed to which the clapper arm is connected.
Larry
So i remove the cap and then hook the red and black wires into the line terminals and the slate wires to a and k?
GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!! Shes ringing again!!! Sounds awsome.. At first it was a slight ring, but with a little adjusting it sounds like its supposed to.. Thanks for the info guys, and when i get another phone i will be back.