Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

How can we get our vintage 1970's 746 phone which is on pulse dial to work on our sky phone line which they say won't accept pulse dial, only tone dialing. Does anybody know?

Re: Pulse to tone adpaters.
 

First thing to try is plugging the phone in and dialling your mobile, if it dials and your mobile rings, it accepts Pulse dial, after all, sky's lines are actually BT lines in disguise, and BT lines generally always accept pulse dial... :)

Re: Pulse to tone adpaters.
 

We have a Sky line and can use my 746 without any problems. As twovcblock suggests, give it a go.

Re: Pulse to tone adpaters.
 

If, after trying it out, you really can't use LD on your Sky line, look at the Rotatone solution referred to in this recent thread:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=62730

Re: Pulse to tone adpaters.
 

Some small home PABXs will accept pulse and will convert it to tone for the exchange. My parents run a 706 and a 332 through their Southwestern Bell FS1515 and the numbers are converted to tone for the exchange.

Re: Pulse to tone adpaters.
 

I have also rediscovered the link to the external version of the rotatone - which you simply plug between your 'phone and the socket (with addition of appropriate adaptors for UK plugs and sockets).

As long as you don't require the extra functions such as "*" and "#", this saves messing around with the insides of your telephone. It should also support 'phones where you can't do in internal conversion, such as push-button LD instruments - which have been mentioned elsewhere on the forum. It is, however, rather more expensive than the internal unit.

I should say that I do not yet have any experience of this unit, but have just ordered one. I'll report further when it arrives (on a slow boat from the US!)

Re: Pulse to tone adpators.
 

An excellent 'Pulse to Tone converter' is the 'Dial Gizmo' producted in Australia - it was specifically designed to use with Analogue Terminal Adapters for VoIP.

This is from their website http://www.dialgizmo.com/

Dialgizmo is easy to install and use. Just connect it between your rotary phone and the phone line or VoIP box and you're ready to go.

•Easy setup, just plug in and use
•Supports all standard rotary phones
•Needs no batteries, no external power supply
•Converts 0-9 Pulse/Decadic dialing to DTMF tone dialing
•Allows you to dial * and #, a must have for dealing with phone banking systems
•Six speed dial locations plus last number redial feature
•Advanced microprocessor control for accurate dialing
•Suppresses dial pulses on the line to stop double dialing problems
•Not polarity sensitive. Dialgizmo will automatically adjust for incorrect phone and line wiring
•No modifications required to your old phone
•Configurable for non-standard dial layouts (Sweden, New Zealand)
•Does not interfere with ringer operation
•Supports a wide range of line voltages and currents
•Specially designed to tolerate the low line voltages on VoIP systems

It will also convert the New Zealand and Swedish dial pulses so that you can use telephones with the reverse order digits!

I've a couple of old New Zealand bakelite phones connected on CNet ( www.ckts.info/192/uk ) with New Zealand numbers.

Ian

Re: Pulse to tone adpators.
 

I have a dialgizmo on my old telephone at job, it works an everybody are just smiling over my way to act.

dsk

Re: Pulse to tone adpators.
 

I have just come across this thread. The Dialgizmo seems a better option than the Rotatone as it does not need any internal modifications to be made. Just to be clear, will it work on phones in this country?

Thanks

Paul

Re: Pulse to tone adpators.
 

It is supposed to, but having just taken delivery of one myself, I have not yet managed to get it to work (with the unit connected to my Silicon Arrays telecom tester).

Initially, apparently I had it connected the wrong way round (with the plug connected to the line and the socket connected to the 'phone). With this configuration I found that when dialling a digit, I heard the DTMF tone in the receiver, but nothing was being detected on the line.

Having then noticed that (somewhat counter-intuitively) the plug is labelled "phone" and the socket is labelled "line", I reconfigured the connections accordingly, but this results in no response to the dial whatsoever. I am tempted to suspect that I was right first time and the label has been reversed!

Incidentally, with both this and the external unit produced by the Rotatone people, it is necessary to position an ADSL microfilter (or master socket wired to a plug) between the converter output and the telephone to operate the ringer of a 'phone wired for three-wire operation.

Re: Pulse to tone adpators.
 

Hmm... Thanks Dave. I might stick to Rotatones then. At least I know they work well.

Re: Pulse to tone adpators.
 

Hi Dave. The label certainly is around the wrong way. It should be "Plug=Line, Socket=Phone" Can you email me at "info at dialgizmo dot com" so I work out the manufacture date and contact our other customers around the same time to check they do not have labels around the wrong way.

If the unit did not work for you did you return it for a refund ? Please feel free to do so if you have not.

I was surprised to read your story of it not working right since we have so many UK customers and very few problems with Dialgizmo not working in the UK. I would like to get to the bottom of it. Even sending a second unit for testing before you return your faulty one.

Cheers Justin.

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

Thanks for the confirmation. I came to that conclusion, peeled off and reattached the label after turning it through 180 degrees - having got it to work on my internal telephone network. I still don't know why the telecom tester doesn't recognise the output.

I'll be in touch shortly about identifying manufacture date.

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

I fitted a Rotatone to my 706L and it works a charm (apart from work's voicemail system not liking the length of time it takes to dial * and # ...). Luckily I administer that so I'll have a look and see how I bump up the maximum wait for digits :)

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

Just come across this thread and I own two rotary dial phones, one I believe is GPO 332 and the other a GPO 746 and I'd love to use them rather than just have them sitting there gathering dust as ornaments. My area is Virgin and they definitely do not support Pulse technology. Has any one found an external device which can be purchased here in the UK that would do the trick to make these old pulse phones work on a dial tone net-work?

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

I no longer have a land-line but am pleased to learn that these devices exist.

I'm surprised at Virgin not working with LD dialling in North Yorkshire as it works here, or certainly did a month ago.

- Joe

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

If you know anyone who has a BT line maybe you could try one of your phones there just to be sure? I'm on Virgin Cable in Leicester and pulse-dial works here if that's any help despite not seeing any mention of it being supported.


Brian

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

Sadly its true, Virgin in the Teesside area does not/will not support pulse dial technology. I've contacted both a rep via my phone and e-mail and they said sadly they no longer offer pulse dialing services in my area. As for my two phones if I plug them into my Virgin line they receive a dial tone and will receive incoming calls but obviously I can not dial out on them. Another chap I know in the next town has a BT line and his bakelite phone can make out going calls so I can only assume this is a local issue with Virgin.

This leaves me looking for some sort of pulse to tone converter, ideally an external device but there doesn't appear to be much available in the UK.

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

As far as I know, the two units mentioned in this thread (one from Australia and one from Canada) are the only units available. Having purchased one of each, I seem to remember that the postage was quite reasonable - according to the respective web sites it is now US$10 for the (Australian) Dialgizmo and US$1 (!) for the device from Oldphoneworks in Canada. In both cases the unit itself is priced at US$39.95.

Re: Pulse to tone adaptors.
 

Which one would you recommend?