GE Answering Machine Makes Phone Ring Continuously
thosera...@yahoo.com
telephone answering machine. It picks up after three rings but then
causes the phone to ring continuously and does not record messages. --
It is called a, -GE Digital Message System--. The Model No.
29878GE1.B
Would really appreciate help,
Earl Williams, Surrey, British Columbia
Arfa Daily
<thosera...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1125367465....@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Is it a two wire system or three ? I think that most of mainland North
America is two wire which might make what I'm about to say irrelevant, but
it might give a clue.
In the uk, there are three wires once the incoming two wires have gotten
past the first or
' master ' socket. They are the 'A' leg, 'B' leg and ' Ring Return '. The
ring return goes back to the B leg via a capacitor in the master socket.
The trick is then if you get the A and B legs crossed over anywhere after
the master socket. The result is a continuous ring on every phone, similar
to what you describe, although it usually happens as soon as you plug
equipment into the ' crossed ' socket.
I take it the problem only occurs with the answer machine ? Could it be
faulty ? Have you tried it in a neighbor's house ? Have you tried it as the
only item on the line ?
Arfa
thosera...@yahoo.com
Arfa,
Thanks for your suggestions. I will look into them.
Thank you for trying to help out,
Arfa Daily
"Ross Herbert" <rher...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:iirah1p22g3of0r20...@4ax.com...
>
> The three wire system with the ring return common cap at the master
> phone does not usually apply to modern telephones which use an
> electronic ringer circuit. With older electromagnetic ringer phones
> you had to use the third wire to avoid all the paralleled 2uF caps in
> every phone bell circuit loading down the line and distorting audio
> frequencies and dial pulses. The third wire/common cap was vital to
> prevent bell tinkling during dialling for rotary dial phones in par'l.
>
> With electronic ringers and dtmf these problems don't apply and a
> simple 2 wire parallel connection for phones is the usual method of
> wiring (depending on REN you might connect 4 - 5 phones in par'l
> without problems).
>
> I also remember that around 1960 they brought out an "anti-tinkle"
> device (thermistor) which connected into the bell circuit for use when
> connecting BPO334 model(and similar) phones in parallel on a two wire
> circuit. It wasn't all that successful either.
>
> Ross
Ross
Whilst I would agree that modern phones with electronic ringers don't in
theory need the third wire, and indeed phones picked up in the US and
designed for 2 wire systems work fine in the UK, the UK system is
never-the-less still designed as a basic three wire system, with a master
socket having a ring return capacitor connected to pin 3. Slave sockets are
connected into the system via a three wire cable connected between pins 2, 3
and 5 on all sockets ie a parallel system.
This is in contrast to the old system to which you are referring, where a
dial up phone extension was connected as a ' plan 1A ' with the signal
circuit being a sort of parallel one, but the bell cicuit being a sort of
series one. I say "sort of " because of the way the ( complex ) cradle
switch wiring interacted with the overall scheme depending on whether a
phone was on or off hook.
You are correct that there was a ' simple ' variation of the plan 1A which
involved adding the anti tinkle thermistor, and as I recall, little if any
changes to the instruments' internal strapping.
However, coming back to the current system in the UK, it IS still a three
wire system, and equipment designed specifically for the system, and
carrying the BT approvals sticker is, as far as I am aware, still 3 wire
requiring. If you don't have the third wire, the equipment won't ring. If
you cross the A and B legs on the extension ie connect 2 to 5 and 5 to 2,
then the whole system will ring continuously, but as I said, usually as soon
as you plug equipment into the ' wrong ' socket, rather than when a call
comes in.
Arfa