Phone extention bell

[seasickstevie]

I have an old telephone extension bell. The type that has two bells with a clapper between, that used to be often sited in hallways and the like.

What I want to know is, would it be compatible with a modern tone phone system?

And also of course, how do I connect it up?

It has numerous links between the various screw terminals.

Cheers

 

[breezer]

it might it might not.

it may also be from an old internal non bt phone network, so not directly compatable, bin it, and buy one of these

 

[seasickstevie]

Thanks breezer.

I'm pretty sure it is a BT (or British Telecom as they were at the time, or even GPO) bell unit.

But never the less I'll probably take your advice.

 

[plugwash]

If you can find a model number printed on it anywhere you might want to try googling that to see if you can find more info.

 

[SeanT]

Any extension bell will work, connect it between terminals 2 and 3 of your master socket faceplate or a socket with a capacitor in it.
You should be aware however that these play havoc with broadband and can render your broadband connection almost unusable - the solution to this is to fit a dedicated broadband master socket.

 

[TicklyT]

If the bell is an old 1000 ohm model (500 Ohm stamped on each bell coil) then it is worth trying it with a 3000 Ohm resistor in series with the coils.

Modern installations expect a higher impedance ringer than older installations. An unmodified bell or ringer would have a REN value of 4. A modified bell would have a REN value of about 1.

The total of all the REN numbers of all the devices connected to a line is not supposed to exceed 4.

 

[breezer]

loads of hassle and grief, (but fun) better to go with my suggestion

 

[seasickstevie]

Yeah, thanks for that Tickly. Might work, but for the sake of twenty quid, I'll get to Maplin and go with the breezer theory