Bakelite phone - making it ring!

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by Oldcodger

Alternatively ,possibly neatest suggestion is the generator used on an external plan 105/107 , sorry, i cant remember the numbers.

I assume you mean the Converter, Ringing 9A to which I referred in post no. 2.

[dagskarlsen]

When we look at the history, magneto generators on manual phones was depending on how fast you turned the handle. When I test it is usual well under 25. That may be the reason for some of the first used lower frequencies. The ringers usually rings well in a wide frequency area. The exception is party lines, best known from USA. Those ringers was decided to just accept one frequency, and the frequency was stamped on the ringer.
The most easy frequency transformers divide the frequency to 1/2 or 1/3 of 50 hz. The earlier exchanges did often use electro-mechanical devices to convert DC to ring frequency. There they could select their own standard if they wanted.

[LenC 54]

Originally Posted by Mark James

Why not link it to your mobile. No connection with these people but they say they link to rotary phones. https://www.myxlink.com/products.aspx

Thanks for posting this. I bought one the other day and have just connected it up with a 200 series and separate bell set. It picks up an iPhone Bluetooth automatically once paired during the set up and works fine for both incoming and outgoing calls.
All that’s missing is the old purring dialling tone - and dialling today’s long numbers is a labour of love!

[Station X]

But at least you don't get a long post dialling delay!

[dagskarlsen]

The purring dialtone makes problems with using touch tone dialing.

[Station X]

True. That's why dial tone was changed to allow the introduction of DTMF phones.

[Techman]

Originally Posted by LenC 54

Thanks for posting this. I bought one the other day and have just connected it up with a 200 series and separate bell set. It picks up an iPhone Bluetooth automatically once paired during the set up and works fine for both incoming and outgoing calls.
All that’s missing is the old purring dialling tone - and dialling today’s long numbers is a labour of love!

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these, probably the first one in the linked list. I was wondering what the REN was? It doesn't say, but says 3 REN on the second one listed. I ditched my land-line over a year ago (best thing I ever did), but still got my old black Bakelite phones (and others) doing nothing but being display items now. I was wondering how many of these I could get away with running at the same time? I had two, plus some other phones, all running together on my old wired phone line with no problem.

Are there any other members using these and how are they finding them and have they had any problems? I see there's another company doing similar devices, but unless advised otherwise for any reason, then I'll stick with the first company in the link shown above. Here's a link to the other company I found:-
https://www.cell2jack.com/

[Nickthedentist]

I've just bought an X Link and it's amazing! It's just like dialing from a BT line except the call goes through your mobile. It rings a 300-series phone with two 500 ohm bell coils impressively well.

[Techman]

Thanks Nick. Which one did you buy? I'm guessing it will be one of the first two, either the BT HD for single mobile phone connection, or the BT 2 for two mobile phones. I'll probably go for the BT HD if I decide to get one. I noticed that the last one in the link, the BTTN, has been out of stock for a while and was way more expensive than the first two anyway.

[Nickthedentist]

It was the BT HD.

Incredibly easy to set up too, no technical knowledge needed.

In fact, it seems to work so well that I'm considering ditching our landline contract and using this with a dedicated mobile and cheap SIM instead. Our mobile reception in much of the house is awful, but there are spots where it's fine; the mobile could permanently live in one if those.

[Downwind27]

If any one is interested I have built a telephone ringer (Dring Dring) using a simple Arduino circuit - designed for stage use. Drop me a message if interested

[Techman]

Originally Posted by John Earland

Hi everyone, I hope you can help. I no longer have a telephone landline but I would like to be able to make the bakelite phone ring by perhaps pressing a button. Is this possible if I connect it somehow to a battery? I have a 200 series and a 300 series so any advice would be most welcome. I’ve heard it may be possible using a 5v or 12v relay?
Best wishes
John

So in answer to this original question, yes, the X Link BT HD does all of this and more.

I've now bought one for myself and I fully agree with Nick that it's amazing!

Yes, it has a push button on it that you can press to make your old phones ring in the normal way without receiving an actual call and you can pick up the receiver and hear the old familiar dial tone, so you can test all your old phones, which I've been doing, testing a couple that I hadn't been able to test before.

It doesn't state in the info/instructions how many REN this device is capable of supplying, but I've had a couple of unmodified 300 series, plus another phone running at the same time and at the moment I've got one 300 and a 700 series, plus another more modern base unit with a couple of wireless hands free phones running all at once in different parts of the house from it without any problems.

A pal came round last night and I was demonstrating it to him and he suggested that it could be used in the car and that what strange looks you would get being seen using an antique telephone handset while driving. He was of course joking, so obviously don't try this unless you're parked somewhere and not driving. This brings me to the other advantage in that it does actually run off 12 volts, so could be used in a static vehicle, or as in my case in my classic mid 60s caravan, where I can have vintage phones as part of a display, all working, ringing and even taking real calls!

The unit comes with a 12 volt wall-wart power supply rated at 800mA, which brings me to the other previously linked to unit in a previous post. This unit apparently runs from a 5 volt supply. I noticed that in the accompanying video to that unit, that the phones being demonstrated were more modern wireless to base type units, so I'm struggling to really see how the required ringing voltage and current for much older type telephones can easily be generated from just a 5 volt input, whereas this would seem to me to be much more doable with a 12 volt designed unit such as the X link. It would be interesting to know if anyone has tried this other unit, which seems to lack the the addition of the push button, useful for testing the ringing capability of your phones for demonstration, display or stage purposes.

[bobhowe]

Originally Posted by Mark James

Why not link it to your mobile. No connection with these people but they say they link to rotary phones. https://www.myxlink.com/products.aspx

Hi just ordered the XLink BT2 kind regards Bob

[Techman]

It might be worth being aware that rotary pulse dialling doesn't seem to work down a long extension cable. It does mention the limit on length of extensions in the info/instructions, but doesn't say why - probably due to the self capacitance in a long length of cable. Of course it could be down to a (my) dodgy phone!

I also found that I had to re-initialise it after a power drop out. I did this straight away, so I don't know whether it would have eventually found itself again if I'd just left it alone. I'll have to interrupt the power again and see what it does.

[Techman]

Well I interrupted the mains power to the unit, ie, unplugging the wall-wart for a few seconds and then plugging it back in again and within a few seconds the unit had 'found' itself again and all was back to normal. I then unplugged the wall-wart again, but for a bit longer this time, noting that the two green and blue LED lights had definitely extinguished, ie, any capacitors within either unit had discharged and on plugging back in the unit took slightly longer to initialise, but still only a few extra seconds. Perhaps it takes longer if the power is interrupted for a much longer period, but basically I don't think there's any need for concern regarding this. I'll report back on any other anomalies if and when they show up, but basically nothing to worry about as far as I can tell at this stage and all is working well. A couple of people I know are now thinking about getting one since seeing how mine operates. These are like the 'Aurora' of the vintage telephone - in fact the little black box reminds me of the Aurora.

[Oldcodger]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

I assume you mean the Converter, Ringing 9A to which I referred in post no. 2.

Just found this one ,Dave. Most possibly as its 50 years since I was on subs app(fitting and faults). Apologies, just trying to help.
There might be an extra. Some of the BT systems used a mains converter to supply ring current on (digital ) systems for external bells. There was also a socket faceplate that used a 50v supply to supply ringing to a bell etc.
i often came on these in my days as a private ,where someone had moved the socket resulting in one large resistor getting warm as circuit was polarity sensitive.

[linescan87]

On the strength of this thread I too bought an X-link, wonderful device!

[Steve_Bell]

Dialling to my mobile number connected to an X Link, works fine.

Dialling out to a land-line number, it seems to only work some of the time. I would say only about 1 in 2 or 3 attempts are successful. The symptoms are no ringing on land-line or if it does ring, picking up gives dialling tone and cuts off call according to mobile display.

Anyone had anything similar?

[julie_m]

It's not impossible that it could be routing different calls differently, and it's using a good connection to the mobile network and a lousy one to the POTS.

[Oldcodger]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

Telephones (such as your 200 and 300 series) require a low-frequency AC signal to ring, so all you'd get from any sort of battery is a "ping". There are, however, such things as a ring converter (e.g. GPO Converter Ringing 9A) that output this signal, powered by a battery, and they do come up for sale occasionally.

Others may have a circuit which can do this on a self-build basis.

Dave, as I remember , part of the kit for a plan 105/107 with external extensions.
There was also a socket ( line jack?) destined for use on some older BT switches
to allow an external bell to be used. If memory serves, it needed a 50v DC supply.
There was also mains units of convertor ringing , used on digital switches to provide for an external bell.

Again if memory serves, exchange ringing was 17hz , pulsed at 25 times a ? and circa 90v AC.