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Telephone Guy · 19th Aug 2020, 2:46 pm

Progress report: re-checked phone A - strapping & resistor exactly as described in Dave's post above. All other conditions as described in post #92; in brief, resistors in all three other phones as previously. Using slave socket as kindly supplied by Dave: phone A doesn't ring at all, phones B, C & D ring normally. Keeping everything else the same but swapping socket A back to the original master, spurious or otherwise ( using only blue and blue / white wires to T2 and T5 respectively): phone A rings healthily, phones B, C and D ring but sound like they're struggling.

I don't know whether the fact of there being a capacitor in master socket A is the only thing that's making the difference between whether phone A rings or doesn't, or whether there are any other components that differ between a slave and master socket that might also account for it; from what I've gleaned so far, my impression is that the capacitor is the thing that matters. If it is the case that the phone's internal capacitor has gone down ( which seems likely ), I don't know whether simply swapping the socket from a slave back to a master is the solution - although as far as that one phone either ringing or not ringing is concerned, it does seem to be. At any rate, from what I can see, trying to replace the phone's internal capacitor would be a job and a half - for me, certainly.

If it is the case that leaving phone A connected to a master socket is an acceptable solution to the 'how-to-get-phone-A-ringing-normally' problem, that seems to leave us back at square one, more or less, which is how to get the other three phones ringing normally ( or as near normal as possible ). By my reckoning - and I have to say, even I've lost track to some extent - the only difference between the scenario now and the way it was to begin with is that all four phones now have 3.3k resistors in them ( all correctly strapped - I've double-checked ). To recap: in order to make it ring, phone A is now plugged once again into it's original master socket; socket B is inaccessible and unknown; socket C is the main master socket for the property ( other than anything in the loft I don't know about ); socket D is inaccessible and unknown.

That, as they say, is the story so far. For anyone who hasn't lost the will to live ( not sure whether I should be included in that category or not ), any inspiration as to how to get phones B, C & D ringing normally would be appreciated.

19th Aug 2020, 2:46 pm	#97
Telephone Guy Tetrode Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Canterbury, Kent, UK. Posts: 71	Re: A phone too far ...? Progress report: re-checked phone A - strapping & resistor exactly as described in Dave's post above. All other conditions as described in post #92; in brief, resistors in all three other phones as previously. Using slave socket as kindly supplied by Dave: phone A doesn't ring at all, phones B, C & D ring normally. Keeping everything else the same but swapping socket A back to the original master, spurious or otherwise ( using only blue and blue / white wires to T2 and T5 respectively): phone A rings healthily, phones B, C and D ring but sound like they're struggling. I don't know whether the fact of there being a capacitor in master socket A is the only thing that's making the difference between whether phone A rings or doesn't, or whether there are any other components that differ between a slave and master socket that might also account for it; from what I've gleaned so far, my impression is that the capacitor is the thing that matters. If it is the case that the phone's internal capacitor has gone down ( which seems likely ), I don't know whether simply swapping the socket from a slave back to a master is the solution - although as far as that one phone either ringing or not ringing is concerned, it does seem to be. At any rate, from what I can see, trying to replace the phone's internal capacitor would be a job and a half - for me, certainly. If it is the case that leaving phone A connected to a master socket is an acceptable solution to the 'how-to-get-phone-A-ringing-normally' problem, that seems to leave us back at square one, more or less, which is how to get the other three phones ringing normally ( or as near normal as possible ). By my reckoning - and I have to say, even I've lost track to some extent - the only difference between the scenario now and the way it was to begin with is that all four phones now have 3.3k resistors in them ( all correctly strapped - I've double-checked ). To recap: in order to make it ring, phone A is now plugged once again into it's original master socket; socket B is inaccessible and unknown; socket C is the main master socket for the property ( other than anything in the loft I don't know about ); socket D is inaccessible and unknown. That, as they say, is the story so far. For anyone who hasn't lost the will to live ( not sure whether I should be included in that category or not ), any inspiration as to how to get phones B, C & D ringing normally would be appreciated.