Run wired telephone over home Cat5 - PART TWO (old 'phones)
Discussion
Guys,
Many thanks to everyone who gave helpful replies on my original "Run wired telephone over home Cat5" thread - particularly 964Cup who gave the right answer in seconds. This thread is Stage Two.
I have a Virgin Hub3 in my basement network cabinet and Cat5e cables around the house, running radially from this cabinet. I have successfully connected a Panasonic wireless 'phone to the TEL1 port on the back of this hub using the information posted on the last thread. Yay!
BUT I also have an old BT telephone - I believe it is a model GPO746 - which looks very like this:
Which I would also like to make work on my current setup. (FWIW, it worked fine in our old house when plugged directly into a regular BT 'phone socket; when someone dialed the home 'phone it rang with the proper 'ring ring' noise, and you could call out on it fine, despite it being pulse not tone dialling. What you couldn't do was navigate telephone menus at places like banks - "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for service" etc; you'd dial the number on the rotary dialler but nothing would happen.)
I have two immediate problems.
1. The Virgin Hub3 has two telephone ports on the back of it, labelled 'Tel1' and 'Tel2'. However only Tel1 works. It seems that Tel2 would work with a separate 'phone number if I paid for a second number, which I don't. Therefore I need to make both telephones connect to the Tel1 port. Presumably this is a job for a splitter, non? This will have to be at the network cabinet end of things as I want the two 'phones in different bits of the house, so I will need an RJ11 splitter or an RJ45 splitter, both of which are going to be hard to find. Looks like I'll be making one up myself, I suspect!
2. If I plug the old-styleee telephone directly into the Hub3 with an RJ11-to-BT Jack lead then it appears to work fine; you can receive calls on it. However it doesn't ring. (I've not tried making a call out from it but don't think this will work, given that it's an analogue device plugged into an entirely digital system). Having it ring is a major part of the appeal of it. How can I make this happen? I'm guessing that it's because the ring function on the 'phone requires more power than the router will supply, and could anticipate that a solution to this would be to make some kind of signal amplifier. This sounds faffy and probably not a project for now, but is there some kind of ready-made solution to make this work?
Many thanks to everyone who gave helpful replies on my original "Run wired telephone over home Cat5" thread - particularly 964Cup who gave the right answer in seconds. This thread is Stage Two.
I have a Virgin Hub3 in my basement network cabinet and Cat5e cables around the house, running radially from this cabinet. I have successfully connected a Panasonic wireless 'phone to the TEL1 port on the back of this hub using the information posted on the last thread. Yay!
BUT I also have an old BT telephone - I believe it is a model GPO746 - which looks very like this:
Which I would also like to make work on my current setup. (FWIW, it worked fine in our old house when plugged directly into a regular BT 'phone socket; when someone dialed the home 'phone it rang with the proper 'ring ring' noise, and you could call out on it fine, despite it being pulse not tone dialling. What you couldn't do was navigate telephone menus at places like banks - "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for service" etc; you'd dial the number on the rotary dialler but nothing would happen.)
I have two immediate problems.
1. The Virgin Hub3 has two telephone ports on the back of it, labelled 'Tel1' and 'Tel2'. However only Tel1 works. It seems that Tel2 would work with a separate 'phone number if I paid for a second number, which I don't. Therefore I need to make both telephones connect to the Tel1 port. Presumably this is a job for a splitter, non? This will have to be at the network cabinet end of things as I want the two 'phones in different bits of the house, so I will need an RJ11 splitter or an RJ45 splitter, both of which are going to be hard to find. Looks like I'll be making one up myself, I suspect!
2. If I plug the old-styleee telephone directly into the Hub3 with an RJ11-to-BT Jack lead then it appears to work fine; you can receive calls on it. However it doesn't ring. (I've not tried making a call out from it but don't think this will work, given that it's an analogue device plugged into an entirely digital system). Having it ring is a major part of the appeal of it. How can I make this happen? I'm guessing that it's because the ring function on the 'phone requires more power than the router will supply, and could anticipate that a solution to this would be to make some kind of signal amplifier. This sounds faffy and probably not a project for now, but is there some kind of ready-made solution to make this work?
With a POTs system, each instrument (handset) has an REN (ring equivalence number) - there is a limit to this figure (I forget what) but if exceeded, your phones won't ring.
This assumes that you are still on an old exchange, as many exchanges are being upgraded, and older phones will no longer work at all (for outbound calls at least).
Here's a bit of documentation on REN (it's a pdf which will download)
This assumes that you are still on an old exchange, as many exchanges are being upgraded, and older phones will no longer work at all (for outbound calls at least).
Here's a bit of documentation on REN (it's a pdf which will download)
The old phones had a 3rd wire connection for ringing - it is connected through a capacitor to one of the other 2 wires and ‘strips off’ the ringing voltage and sends it to the bell.
More modern phones do this internally with just the 2 line wires.
You can buy an external wired capacitor for a few pounds like this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393200143905
More modern phones do this internally with just the 2 line wires.
You can buy an external wired capacitor for a few pounds like this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393200143905
Try perusing this site, although it may take you a while:
https://www.britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.h...
You can even buy a VOIP-ready dial phone!
https://www.vintagetelephony.co.uk/products
https://www.britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.h...
You can even buy a VOIP-ready dial phone!
https://www.vintagetelephony.co.uk/products
Mr Pointy said:
Try perusing this site, although it may take you a while:
https://www.britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.h...
<snip>
That's a useful site, but it's crying out to be brought into the 21st century!!!https://www.britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.h...
<snip>
TonyRPH said:
Mr Pointy said:
Try perusing this site, although it may take you a while:
https://www.britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.h...
<snip>
That's a useful site, but it's crying out to be brought into the 21st century!!!https://www.britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.h...
<snip>
LordLoveLength said:
The old phones had a 3rd wire connection for ringing - it is connected through a capacitor to one of the other 2 wires and ‘strips off’ the ringing voltage and sends it to the bell.
More modern phones do this internally with just the 2 line wires.
You can buy an external wired capacitor for a few pounds like this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393200143905
Thanks LLL. That's really helpful and led me off on a bit of a Google rabbithole but the end result is that I do indeed need a ringing capacitor. And - even more helpful - ADSL microfilters have such a capacitor built in so if you run your 'phone through a microfilter then it means that it will ring! More modern phones do this internally with just the 2 line wires.
You can buy an external wired capacitor for a few pounds like this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393200143905
Thanks again. All I now need to do is solder up some leads to make it all work and Robert will be my mother's brother!
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