Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?

E wrote:
Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?
Depends which shelf. Needs about 50VAC IIRC.

On 21 Nov, 21:28, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Depends which shelf. Needs about 50VAC IIRC.

_Intended_ to use 75V AC. Actually _needs_ about 20V AC (personal
experience, but this will vary considerably).

It won't ring with a DC voltage, as the bells needs AC to ring - with
DC they'll just go "ting". Even if an electronic squawker might
respond to DC, as a "ringer" it's wired into a circuit with a series
capacitor. Phones naturally have 50V DC on the line, so a ringer needs
to be insensitive to this!

The old GPO way of arranging local ringing was a relay and mains
transformer to switch AC. You can find these sets on eBay. Another way
would be a hand-cranked generator 26, again easy enough to find on
eBay (tenner-ish, but watch postage as they're heavy).

In article
,
E wrote:
Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?

No. They work on AC. And not even the same frequency as mains.

--
*Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
E wrote:
Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?
Depends which shelf. Needs about 50VAC IIRC.

To be precise: a ringing signal of 40 to 100 volts (typically 70v) rms at
25 ±1 Hz

Peter

In article
,
Andy Dingley wrote:
The old GPO way of arranging local ringing was a relay and mains
transformer to switch AC. You can find these sets on eBay. Another way
would be a hand-cranked generator 26, again easy enough to find on
eBay (tenner-ish, but watch postage as they're heavy).

Maplin used to do a ringer kit. Not Vellerman - one of their own. Worked
well - used it for theatre stuff. I've still got the circuit if anyone
wants it. Did UK and US ring intervals. Used a mains to 6 volt transformer
the wrong way round to get the volts from the oscillator.

--
*A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:51:42 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


Maplin used to do a ringer kit. Not Vellerman - one of their own. Worked
well - used it for theatre stuff. I've still got the circuit if anyone
wants it.

I also built of of them - for a theatre too!

I modified it a bit to give a ring on cue rather than having to wait
up to 2 seconds for the (UK) ring cycle to come round. I arranged a
monostable to reset the counter when the 'ring' switch was operated.

Did UK and US ring intervals. Used a mains to 6 volt transformer
the wrong way round to get the volts from the oscillator.

Allegedly it didn't work with a traditional 1000 ohm bell, but it did
ring it OK. It was better however with the newer 4000 ohm ones (and of
course modern 'sounders').

--
Frank Erskine

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:37:58 -0000, "Peter Andrews"
wrote:


"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
E wrote:
Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?
Depends which shelf. Needs about 50VAC IIRC.

To be precise: a ringing signal of 40 to 100 volts (typically 70v) rms at
25 ±1 Hz

Some early ringing machines operated at 16 2/3 Hz (1/3 of mains
frequency).

--
Frank Erskine

In article ,
Frank Erskine wrote:
Did UK and US ring intervals. Used a mains to 6 volt transformer
the wrong way round to get the volts from the oscillator.

Allegedly it didn't work with a traditional 1000 ohm bell, but it did
ring it OK. It was better however with the newer 4000 ohm ones (and of
course modern 'sounders').

I changed the output transistors to handle more current.

--
*Ham and Eggs: Just a day's work for a chicken, but a lifetime commitment

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Nov 21, 9:26*pm, E wrote:
Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?

Yes. How depends whether youre using an old mechanical bell phone or a
modern electronic one, or need to cover both.

All phones respond well to 70v ac 16-25Hz.

Modern ones will respond fine to the output of a mains transformer at
20v, and sometimes a lot less.

Mechanical bell ringers are more demanding, but you can mess with
their 70v 16-25Hz supply a fair bit and still have them ring.

You can also fire phone ringers using a battery and a self oscillating
relay to produce voltage spikes.


NT

On Nov 21, 9:57*pm, NT wrote:
On Nov 21, 9:26*pm, E wrote:

Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?

Yes. How depends whether youre using an old mechanical bell phone or a
modern electronic one, or need to cover both.

All phones respond well to 70v ac 16-25Hz.

Modern ones will respond fine to the output of a mains transformer at
20v, and sometimes a lot less.

Mechanical bell ringers are more demanding, but you can mess with
their 70v 16-25Hz supply a fair bit and still have them ring.

You can also fire phone ringers using a battery and a self oscillating
relay to produce voltage spikes.

NT

Re; All phones respond to ......... 16 - 25 hertz.

That's generally true. But there were/are ringing systems around the
world where several different frequencies were used on multiparty
lines. It was system designed so that the phone bells of 'other'
parties on the same line would not ring!
So party A, for example might be 25 hertz, B 33.3 hertz, C 50 hertz
and D 66.6 hertz etc. In one system there were actually five different
ringing frequencies. And by arranging five phone ringers from each
side of the line to ground it was possible to have up to ten parties,
with secretive ringing, on one line! Mainly used on long rural lines.
Unlike manual ringing, where all the phones on the line would ring to
coded signals e.g. two shorts and along would be farmer Smith etc.
special arrangements then had to be made on secret ringing lines to
allow one party on the line to call another! Not likely any of those
secret ringing or so-called 'Harmonic Ringing' phones around now

On Nov 22, 6:13*am, terry wrote:
On Nov 21, 9:57*pm, NT wrote:



On Nov 21, 9:26*pm, E wrote:

Is it possible to activate a standard home telephone ringer with an
off the shelf battery/wires/switch?

Yes. How depends whether youre using an old mechanical bell phone or a
modern electronic one, or need to cover both.

All phones respond well to 70v ac 16-25Hz.

Modern ones will respond fine to the output of a mains transformer at
20v, and sometimes a lot less.

Mechanical bell ringers are more demanding, but you can mess with
their 70v 16-25Hz supply a fair bit and still have them ring.

You can also fire phone ringers using a battery and a self oscillating
relay to produce voltage spikes.

NT

Re; All phones respond to ......... 16 - 25 hertz.

That's generally true. But there were/are ringing systems around the
world where several different frequencies were used on multiparty
lines. It was system designed so that the phone bells of 'other'
parties on the same line would not ring!
So party A, for example might be 25 hertz, B 33.3 hertz, C 50 hertz
and D 66.6 hertz etc. In one system there were actually five different
ringing frequencies. And by arranging five phone ringers from each
side of the line to ground it was possible to have up to ten parties,
with secretive ringing, on one line! Mainly used on long rural lines.
Unlike manual ringing, where all the phones on the line would ring to
coded signals e.g. two shorts and along would be farmer Smith etc.
special arrangements then had to be made on secret ringing lines to
allow one party on the line to call another! Not likely any of those
secret ringing or so-called 'Harmonic Ringing' phones around now

Never knew that. Did the bells discriminate by mechanical resonance?
66Hz seems a very high frequency to operate a mechanical arm at


NT