Recent posts

#1

Auction Talk / Re: RARE Antique 1901 Swedish ...

Last post by TelePlay - Today at 06:27:21 AM

Very nice set, 17 watchers within the first day and already 2 bidders. I hope you let it go to its natural end time. The last second snipe bids will be interesting.

#2

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / Re: ITT 500 #9 Dial not workin...

Last post by dsk - Today at 06:23:05 AM

If you connect the line terminals of the phone to the 2 microphone cords, and records a series of 0 dialed (3 times?) and save it as a MP3 file we may analyse it from that. Before you connect the wires, short the line terminals and press the hookswitch just to uncharge the capacitor.  The pinout on the microphone plug may wary depending on the make. 

#3

Auction Talk / RARE Antique 1901 Swedish Amer...

Last post by allnumbedup - Today at 03:49:27 AM

I am sharing the link to my latest ebay auction. I hope it will be a fun auction to watch.  I enjoyed working on this phone and looking forward to it finding a new home. There are some nice pictures in the listing of the internals and accessories to this phone you do not often see...

Swedish American Stick

#4

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / Re: ITT 500 #9 Dial not workin...

Last post by TelePlay - Yesterday at 03:14:17 PM

I could not determine the disk speed (no RS-232 adapter)

Don't need one. I've been using the mic in on my laptop and Audacity as the sound capture program. Very clean scans with data accurate to 2 places after the decimal.

https://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17011.msg259593#msg259593

#5

General Discussion / Re: Automatic Electric Company...

Last post by Electrophone - Yesterday at 10:53:25 AM

Well, I did try to capture those waveforms with my oscilloscope yesterday, but I was unsuccessful.  In any case, I believe that the dial is indeed defective,   In fact, it probably wasn't operating correctly to begin with. 

Actually, I would prefer to pick up a gold plated Automatic Electric dial to match the phone since I had to use spacers when mounting the Western Electric dial.  Even then, the WE dial would sort of stick out a tad from the bottom (which didn't make a very good fit with the bottom plate). 

#6

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / Re: ITT 500 #9 Dial not workin...

Last post by Gerd - Yesterday at 09:48:27 AM

Might just need more oil and time to penetrate the axle bearing points. What oil after you using?

I was asking about in that that is a dial with some plastic parts, which could distort when heating.

Did you determine the disk speed, it's PPS? Another thing that can happen with a dry or very dirty dial is not only the speed being out of spec but also any of the Break/Make periods for any of the number pulses could be off to the point when you unit would not recognize a pulse start/stop period causing an error message - an unknown pulse sequence/number.

I put a bit more oil on the recommended points. It seems to be a bit more better now.
I could not determine the disk speed (no RS-232 adapter)-
As a dial noob I could describe the way, dialing is mostly successful: If I dial a little bit "over" the fingerstop, (more than the digit) there are less errors. Anyway - I really love this phones but this dial is getting me nutz! Probably I found a #7 dial online. Hopefully I can get it.

#7

Technical "Stuff" / Re: Questions about DialGizmo,...

Last post by dsk - Yesterday at 09:43:33 AM

Give it a try!    If it fails, could you try to move the R cord from R to C in the phone, and keep the wiring in the handset as you made your drawing.

#8

Technical "Stuff" / Re: Questions about DialGizmo,...

Last post by DuinoSoar - Yesterday at 07:18:33 AM

I guess I would have used the 2 extra contacts as I have tried to modify your diagram. (Red lines)

Thank you, @dsk, for taking the time to draw that.

But the Contempra phone dial is in the handset, and the QNB18A network is in the base.  The helical cord between Contempra phone's base and handset only has the 5 wires shown (green, yellow, blue, black, and red).  So there is no extra wire available in the cord, to connect between the dial's off-normal contacts in the handset, and network terminal C in the base.  That is why I thought to connect that red line in your drawing to terminal R of the transmitter, inside the handset.  But I am not certain if it would work because of the coil and resistor between terminals C and B in the QNB18A network.

#9

Technical "Stuff" / Re: Questions about DialGizmo,...

Last post by dsk - Yesterday at 04:41:37 AM

I guess I would have used the 2 extra contacts as I have tried to modify your diagram. (Red lines)

On the 500 move the white wires to RR and C

#10

General Discussion / Re: Automatic Electric Company...

Last post by TelePlay - February 12, 2025, 10:18:31 PM

You recorded the audio of the dial. What is best is recording the pulses being sent from the phone on L1 and L2. That would show any noise being created by corroded contacts. The external audio just picks up the sound created by the dials mechanism, not the quality of the pulse contacts in operation.

I was able to see the pulses in your audio file but the audio was quite noisy and there is no way to see the exact Break and Make points. Using the 8 clear digits of one cycle, it seems the dial speed is 9.64 PPS.

Only 8 digits were useable because you dialed 9, not 0. The last digit is never usable due to the mechanics of the dial. Doesn't matter, 8 or 9 digits would still have shown the same dial speed.