Telephone bell wire filter

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I have a BT i plate (bell wire filter) fitted to the master BT socket in my house.

If the filter develops a fault, could this prevent the phones from ringing on incoming calls?
 
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it could, depending on whether the phones take their ringing signal from pin 3 or not. Many modern phones are 2-wire and don't need the separate bell wire.
 
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That's what I've now done and so far its seems to have solved the problem.

Faulty bell wire filter capacitor? ......... A pity, its a BT branded plate!
 
I merely took advice from the retired BT engineer who sold me the plate, on which terminals to connect.

I'm not a telecom engineer so I had no idea whether the bell wire was required or not.


As the phones now ring without fault, with 2 and 5 only connected, I appreciate the posts above - many thanks.
 
If the bells could not ring with the bell wire connected then it is likely that the A and B wires ( terminals 2 and 5 ) were crossed between the NTE 5 and the other sockets and one or more of the bell capacitors in the phones was shorting out the AC ringing voltage.
 
All was wiring away from the master was done by me so I know it was correct and the problem of the phones not ringing was solved disconnecting wire 3 at the master.

I forgot to mention, while the fault of the phones not ringing existed, which was intermittent, when I picked the phone up, there was no dial tone either, total silence until I pressed the plunger to reconnect.


All is now well though thanks.
 
All was wiring away from the master was done by me so I know it was correct and the problem of the phones not ringing was solved disconnecting wire 3 at the master.

I forgot to mention, while the fault of the phones not ringing existed, which was intermittent, when I picked the phone up, there was no dial tone either, total silence until I pressed the plunger to reconnect.


All is now well though thanks.

You probably have a intermittent rectified loop fault,the incoming ringing voltage is going to earth and preventing the bells from ringing
 
Ref: intermittent rectified loop fault

How would I go about checking wiring / sockets for such a fault.
 
A good old 9083 multimeter, select 1000 ohm range keep bashing the the a b reversal button until you see a reading , no reading no rectified low ir.
All clear now? :D
I think you will find that will nearly always be an external fault on the line plant, but having said that if any of the sockets are on a bit of wall that is damp or suffers from condensation and moisture is getting into the socket this could cause a problem. Watch out for any blue salt like deposits on the connections front and back or the telephone cord plug, and any connector boxes you may have used.
 
Try using a different phone in the socket(it could be a faulty instrument or cord) and make sure the faceplate is very securely fitted.
 

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