AE 90 will dial in one house, but not an older house. Wont ring in either.

[coffeeguy]

Hello everyone. Noob here, I am good with tools and wires, etc....As my name might suggest, I fixed vending machines for many years when a brewed coffee cost 10 cents and a pack of smokes was 35 cents.

I have a project for a customer. They have an AE 90 wall phone.

Here is what I know.

I wired a RJ11 jack (4pin) and used the green and red (tip and ring) to the 10 and 8 respectively. The diagram calls for a ground, but I am not certain which wire to use. I tested in a newer home and the following >>>>>

The dial works, (this home waqs bulit in the early 90's) no ring.  I found a hint on the forum about moving the 9 black ringer wire to 6 or 8. NO luck.

The house where the dial and ring wont work was built in the 20s.
I have a picture of the wall jack wiring in the 20's house where a touch tone phone works fine.
However, it has a Pulse switch on it and when place on that setting it too will not dial. Just a continuous dial tone.

The jack in the older house is wired as follows
Green supply is terminated
Yellow supply goes to red
Black supply goes to green
Red supply is terminated

Black and yellow at the female connector are not used

Here are some pics of the circuit board and wall jack in the old house.

After the dial is solved, the ringer is next. I suspect its the Ground, but I am not old enough to be an old telephone guy.

Thank you for any and all help

There is a PS here. I also have a pic of the back side of a 6 pin connector in the old house (only four used). I am not certain they are in the right order.

[andre_janew]

What sort of service has he got??  Some Voip services won't allow rotary.  I'm asking because it sounds like that may be the issue with the dialing.

[coffeeguy]

It is not voip. However, there was once a DSL connection in the house at the jack pictured. Should have included that in original message. There is a wireless portable phone hookup in the house.

[dsk]

Hi, and welcome!

The ground are usually a historical thing, and not used any more. The diagram may show ringer circuit between ring and ground. (like the circuit enclosed) Then the ground terminal just are connected to tip or something connected to tip in on hook position.
The yellow in the diagram could have been made to tip, but number 6 was just unused, and did the job. (the ringer works)

Tip and ring are not important and could be changed if convenient. 

If you not are sure witch wires actually are the line, just connect the receiver between 2 wires, and listen for dial tone.

dsk

[jsowers]

Your AE90 could have a party line ringer in it. Many of them did. Please post a picture of the ringer. It can be replaced with a straight line ringer if need be.

The 1920s house sounds like it has tone-only service, for whatever reason, so you may be out of luck on that. Do you have another rotary phone you know works OK with the dial and the ringer? If so, take that one to the houses and test to be 100% sure. I think your house wiring is OK or none of the phones in the house would work. As was said before, you no longer need ground. Just tip and ring (red and green). Older phones may need ringer wires moved off a ground connection, though, and that could still be your problem. A picture of the ringer and its connections would help a lot.

I remember cigarette vending machines, but 35 cents is even before my time. I think they were 50 cents when I was in college in Winston-Salem, NC in 1976-77. That city even smelled of tobacco in the mornings. I wasn't a coffee drinker yet, but I do remember the Coke machines that dropped cups and ice, followed by the soda/syrup mixture. They were in the local theatres, I think. And welcome to the Forum. Be sure to read our "what kind of coffee" poll that just ended.

[coffeeguy]

I am pretty sure its a straight line ringer. It looks similar to the one below, but I don't have access to the phone right now. The grey rectangular thing that I call a capacitor (correctly or incorrectly - please advise) is present.

I worked on those soda machines also....the syrup always made them a messy job.

[G-Man]

The description is rather convoluted but it doesn't matter since you should be concerned with only the red and green wires on the line side. The ringer (through the capacitor) should be connected to those red and green wires.

There are several vintages of circuit variations including 3/4-wire handsets, SATT dials, cold-cathode tubes, etc., but let's assume yours has a self-compensating network as shown in the attached diagram.

Also, you have not specified who the telephone service provider is, i.e. AT&T, Verizon, Charter or Comcast Cable, etc. Also, if AT&T/Verizon, whether it is delivered via traditional copper or uverse,fios.

From your description, it seems that rotary dialing is not enabled by the provider.

[coffeeguy]

  Thank you everyone. Its been helpful. I'll go through your hints soon and let you know what happens.

[coffeeguy]

This is what  I learned today and it may be the end of the thread.

Customer felt certain at one time was able to use a rotary phone to dial. Not certain about ring. Telephone service was provided by cable service (Knology - now called WOW), which is same service used in the newer house where I did have dial.

Customer now uses Magic Jack. I think this may answer the no dial question and no ring. Its VoIP. I stated earlier that it was not VoIP, however I was incorrect.

Any thoughts, other than the obvious (which question to ask first)?

[poplar1]

Magic Jack doesn't recognize dial pulses (rotary dial). The newer versions (like Magic Jack +) should ring at least 2 or 3 phones simultaneously.