You know it’s going well if I’ve had to get the diagrams out…
#telephone #phone #vintageTelephone #vintagePhone #strowger #TelephoneExchange
#Strowger
Ok #vintageElectronics nerds! tell me about these things…
The “MR” designation denotes some kind of diode (it stands for Metal Rectifier, a notation hangover from before silicon/germanium diodes) and they’re obviously arranged as full bridge rectifiers
They’re in a PSU made for the British Post Office in 1972
The brown stripe seems to denote the + end, but what does the other stripe mean?
#Electronics #TelephoneExchange #Telephone #phone #phoneExchange #strowger #hamRadio #AmateurRadio
Those of you who grew up in #Britain - who can remember this from their childhood and youth? A #dialtone from a Ringing Machine 2A, from the days of analogue #Strowger #Telephone #Exchanges - it was replaced by the same tone as used in USA when #DTMF (tone dialling) replaced loop disconnect, as the harmonics in this tone upset the DTMF tone detectors in the registers..
@samson yay! That shot gives my #strowger #telephoneExchange just the right vibes for me!
It's taken me a month, but the final part of my "take a #strowger #telephoneExchange to #emfcamp"" video series is now live!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DikYIWUkSdU
Lessons learned:
- I suck at logistics
- When stuff is in 3 places, the thing I need is somewhere else
- heavy thing is heavy, awkward, but omg fun
- talking that much, next to a rave, drops my voice noticably
- SD cards are garbage
- Having fun means I forget to film stuff
- OMG BASS!
- It was 200% worth the effort!
The #strowger #telephoneExchange is home from #emf2024 and safely wrestled into the shed.
huge thanks to everyone who made that happen… marrold, callum(?), tommy, my husband James and my next door neighbour for logistics support, everyone at @CuTEL snd @phones for their assistance getting it connected to the rest of the network, Oliver at #NullSector for pointing me at the right things, @noc for the network connection… the whole org team who put the event on, and everyone who visited! #amazing!
Had another great evening in #NullSector last night enthusiastically talking to people about my #TelephoneExchange etc
A couple of people helped me to fill in some of the story about the exchanges life at Ffestiniog, and I've updated the website to be a-bit-less-wrong as a result!
Today is the last day I'll be running the exchange at #emfcamp - but I've got stuff to see and do today, so opening hours will be eratic... but...
if you want to play with a #strowger switch, come find me! #emf2024
Huge thankyou to all the enthusiastic and interesting people who huddled round my 70 year old #strowger #TelephoneExchange in #NullSector at #emfcamp last night... while I shouted myself hoarse about how it works!
I had some great conversations, and it was amazing to see that exchange routing so many #phone calls... It really got a workout last night!
I'll be working on it again this morning, hopefully I can fix some of the broken bits...
I’ve finally got the #strowger #telephoneExchange talking to the @phones / @CuTEL DECT / POTS system.
We can now call in both directions!
I’ve switched it all off while I get some food, but come and find me in Null Sector this evening (I’m opposite the night market) and have a play with telephony circa 1956
The #strowger #phoneExchange is in the van, and headed to #emfcamp #emf2024
“Graphic Design Is My Passion”
It’s taken me almost as long to do the interpretation signage as it did to fix that pesky fault a couple of weeks ago… but it’s printed and ready to go in its packing crate!
[x] signage done
My #strowger #PhoneExchange installation for #emf2024 is as fully working as it’s going to get… so out come the packing crates!
I’ve got 48hrs to pack it all up before the van arrives…
Packing Progress:
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 29%
I've got C*Net (https://ckts.info) access working from the #strowger #TelephoneExchange I'm taking to emfcamp
This was the last major hurdle to overcome before I can start packing. Everything else is cabling or signage related (easy!)
If you have a C*Net connection, you'll be able to dial in to the exchange from off-site, and people will be able to use the demo phones on the exchange (which will be in Null Sector) to call out onto C*Net.
OMG this thing is going to actually happen!!!
I'm still frantically pulling stuff together for taking the #strowger #TelephoneExchange to #emfcamp but rather than actually fix/pack/prepare anything - I've spent the last 3 hours slapping together a video updating the website:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOqGNUfohBc
Blog about the Cisco stuff I'm using:
https://emf.lpbk.net/blog/posts/2024-05-12/
Blog about the astersisk stuff I'm doing:
https://emf.lpbk.net/blog/posts/2024-05-20/
And of course a post about the video:https://emf.lpbk.net/blog/posts/2024-05-25/
The "how I'm getting a #strowger #telephoneExchange to #emfcamp" blog now has RSS:
* https://emf.lpbk.net/feed_rss_created.xml
* https://emf.lpbk.net/feed_json_created.json
Getting that working was totally not a distracted procrastination exercise last night when I should have been working on making the exchange power supply safe/portable....
I've made another video about getting the #strowger #TelephoneExchange ready for me to take it to #emf2024
In this episode, I try and get the tie lines working...
Oh, and what's that? There's now a website with more information about the #phoneExchange and a blog and everything?
https://emf.lpbk.net/blog/posts/2024-05-05/
The site is a work in progress, and will change a /lot/ in the run up to the event.
RSS feeds are on the todo list, but I've got a phone exchange to fix first!
A fault on my #Strowger #telephoneExchange has been kicking my arse all week.
One of the final selectors always sees the tie lines as busy.
I’ve sunk 10+hrs into it so far, cleaning, adjusting, tracing wires, checking coils… it’s doing my head in!
I’m too close to it, so I took today off to bash out a PCB for a silly thing, based on a circuit I haven’t breadboarded, using components I don’t have in stock, and footprints I can’t verify!
I’m sure that’ll work first time! Right?!
found an annoying fault on the #strowger #phoneExchange - see that little pin just hanging out there at a jaunty angle nestled amongst the contact springs?
It’s a lifting pin for the contacts at the top of the pile, it’s supposed to be straight, and attached to one of the contacts.
Instead, it’s not lifting anything and is wiggling around connecting things that shouldn’t be connected.
I guess now I get the fiddly job of replacing the stack of contacts without breaking any 70 year old wires!
One of the selectors in my #strowger #telephoneExchange is stubbornly returning NU tone when connecting out to a tie-line
The TL relay isn’t operating fully, so doesn’t hold in properly.
I dealt with a similar fault back in 2017, but stupidly didn’t make detailed notes - so I’ve got the diagrams out…
I’ve now done two of those RJ21s (terminated by hand with a screwdriver) then terminated on the 5 krone strips at the top of this boxconn, then the 4 x RJ45 sockets are terminated on the bottom 2 strips.
Two of the RJ45s will go to a Cisco 1760 fitted with 4-FXO/4-FXS ports, that will connect to the rest of the phones at #emf2024
The other two RJ45s will go to 8 demo #phones for people to play with!
One step closer to having the #strowger #phoneExchange ready to go camping!
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