Old extension bell on digital phone service

[99scouser]

Have an elderly friend who is hard of hearing, he has a good old fashioned extension bell on his line, he moved to Digital phone service, he was told the bell will no longer work.

Any one had this issue and have a work around?

Thx

Scouser

[WSH]

I’m not sure if it helps but sometimes very old phones won’t ring on DV (Digital Voice) because it lacks the old ring wire.

While a microfilter is not needed for DV, some of the old filters simulate the ring wire and connecting through one has fixed the problem with those phones not ringing.  I say some as not all filters simulate the ring wire.

[chrisjp]

Yes, microfilters will often make older phones ring on DV. But this question seems to be about whether a standalone extension bell can be made to ring. Presumably these were connected in parallel with the telephone using the ring wire and one of the other wires, and relied on the ~50volts from the exchange to ring. So I do have my doubts on whether they can be made to ring on a digital voice connection.

[WSH]

Yes, I did say I didn't know whether it would help or not.  Extension bells is not something I have experience with, if I'm honest.

[licquorice]

Is the bell hard wired or does it plug into an extension socket? If the latter, it might work with a DV adapter and filter. Only one way to find out.

[WSH]

Yes, I've just seen something similar on Amazon.  Forum rules prevent me posting a link to a commercial product but search for CEA-40 on Amazon.

[99scouser]

Yes chrisjp 

This is about a standalone bell and you are correct in your connectivity assumption.  I have installed loads of these back in the day!

(off topic) the weirdest phone I ever installed weighed about 10Kgs, made of steel, spark/fire-proof for an oil terminal.

I was hoping maybe someone has used the Phone jack on the rear of the Hub to extend an electronic buzzer or ?

See pic.

Thx

ScouserHub Phone Jack

[99scouser]

The bell is currently not connected to anything as BT disconnected it from the landline when switching to DV.

WSH the CEA-40 = telephone call alert & ringer amplifier with flashing light looks really interesting, wonder if it will go into the analogue phone port on the back of the router. The unit is line powered so that is a big bonus!

Many thanks everyone.

Scouser

[99scouser · Accepted solution]

Thanks everyone for your input.

I came across this video on youtube, it explains everything in detail, basically you can connect the old internal wiring to the RJ11 on the back of router ( but you MUST remove the old income wiring from the street first) at the main jack. He even tries an old  fashioned bell on the old wiring and it works fine. There is a limit to the number of bells/ringers on the router output so beware.

Add this suffix to the youtube url

watch?v=Id_KGXMcJHk

Thx

Scouser

[licquorice]

It's actually a BT 431 socket not RJ11 at the rear of the hub.

Be aware you obviously can't disconnect the incoming wires if on FTTC rather than full fibre.