Telephone Ring Circuit
Telephone Ring Circuit
Telephone Ring Circuit
In normal telephoen wiring (used in Finland, USA and very amny other countries)
the telephoen audio and sing signals share the same wire pair. Typical wiring for 6
pin modular connector:
1
2
3 a-wire
4 b-wire
5
6
A and B wires make the pair which telephone used. Typicslly the modular connectos
used in telephone have only 2 or 4 pins installed. Normally unused pins are used for
wiring more than one line to same connector or for some special applications.
There are also many other types of telephone line connectors in use, but nowadays
this modular connector is the most common in telephone terminal equipmens like
telephones with removable cord, modems and FAX machines.
Special cases in ring signal wiring
On some coutries the ring signal is fed to the customer telephoes using one extra
wire. The UK wiring tetails are available in separate UK wiring document.
Ringer circuits in telephones
Classical bell type ringer
The most classical telephone ringer circuit is a mechanical bell controlled by an
electronic coil. The circut consists of the bell coil and a capacitor (usually 470 nF to
2 uF rated for 250V or more) in series with it. This circuit is connected in parallel to
other telephone electronics. The capacitor in the circuit stops the DC in to pass
through the bell coil, but it lets the ring voltage through easily. Because of
mechanical nature of the ring circuit, it is very sensitive to the frequency of ring
voltage and other than the resonance frequency of the bell system (usually around
20-25 Hz) do not generate satisfactory ring.
The coil has usually so high impedance that it does not disturb the telephone audio
circuit operation when telephone is off-hook. Other possiblity is that the ring circuit
is disconnected when the telephone is picked off-hook.
Electronic ringers
The ringer circuits in the modern telephones have the same basic idea, but the coil
controlled bell is replaced by modern electronic ringing chip and small speaker. The
capacitor is still used in series with ring IC input to make only AC pass to the ring
chip. The electronic ringing circuits are not sensitive to the ringing voltage and they
easily ring with ring signal frequencies between 16 Hz and 60 Hz.
Ring detection circuits in modems
In computer modems the logical signal from ringing is needed instead of ringing
tone. The ring circuit must pass the ring signal information to modem electronics
and still provide electrical isolation between telephone line and modem electronics.
This ring detection is usually done using one optoisolator circuit, which replaces the
raditional ring circuit. The optoisolator output can be easily connected digital
electronics, but the optoisolator input side needs more electronics: one capacitor
for not letting DC to pass through optoisolator, one resistor to limit the cirrent
passing through optoisolator LED and one reverse conencted diode in parallel with
optoisolator LED to prevent negative voltages from damaging the LED. This is the
basic ring detection circuit.
Usually there is also two zener diodes (usually 10-20V models) to make sure that
the ring detection circuit does not detect too small AC signals in the line as ring
signal. In the picture below you see a very typical ring detector circuit for modems.
The circuit just gives the idea how modem ring detector circuit work. The actual
component component values selection must be so that the circuit meets the
national telephone regulations (this can be usually easily done by using suitable
zener diodes and maybe chancing the resistor value a little).
Component list:
C1
R1
D1,D2
D3
U1
470 nF 250V AC
10 kohm 1W
10-20V zener diode (any value in this range), 400 mW power rating
1N4148 diode or equivalent
4N27 optoisolator or similar
NOTE: You can get the circuit work by taking out D1 and D2 and replacing them
with a short circuit. The circuit works after then, but it is possible that in this case
some low voltage noise on the line can cause the circuit to ring. Different countries
have different specifications on how low voltages should not cause a telephone to
ring at all.
PS. If you are interrested in using theis cirucit as basis for controlling some high
power cirucitry take a look at http://www.epanorama.net/counter.php?
Component list:
C1
R1
D1
RECT1
U1
470 nF 250V AC
10 kohm 1W
10-20V zener diode (any value in this range), 400 mW power rating
Rectivifier bridge 200V voltage ratign, at least 0.1 current rating
4N27 or CNY17 optoisolator
the telephone transformer. In this way those ring signals can be detected as small
signal pulses in transformer secondary (and this circuit can be also used for Caller
ID signal detection). The capacitor was so small that the impedance seen from
telephone line stays high enough not to disturb other equipments in the same
telephone line when modem is no on-line.
What telephone regulations say about telephone ringers
European NET4 telephone line terminal equipment specs define the following specs
for the telephoen ringing detector circuit.
The current taken by the ringer must be equal or less than 5 mA at 35 V ring
voltage and equal or ledd than 10.7 mA at 75V ring voltage. The
measurments are made using 25 Hz ring current frequnecy.
Ring detector must work on ring signal which is 44-58V DC summed with
25+-3Hz AC ring signal in voltage range 35-75 V. The feeding resistance for
ring generator is 800-1710 Hz.
Ring detector must not detect ring signal which is 44-58V DC summed with
20-3400 Hz AC ring signal which is less than 10 V. The feeding resistance for
ring generator is 800-1710 Hz.
old this type of amplifier lying somewhere, you can connect the amplifier input to
fuction generator and output to telephone through 1 kohm 3W resistor. When you
set the function generator to generate sine wave at 20-25 Hz at suitable level for
amplifier, you have an adjustable level ring generator. Usually those amplifiers are
not good at playing back frequencies below 50 Hz, so you might have to try higher
frequencies if that does not work as expected.
Normal audio amplifier and transformer
Very nice variable amplitude ring generator can be built from audio amplifier
designed for driwing 4 or 8 ohm speakers and have output power of 3W or more,
10 ohm 10 W resistor, 220V to 12V transformer (few watts), 1000 ohm 3W resistor
and function generator.
___________
10 ohm
1000 ohm
|
|----/\/\/\--+ ||(---/\/\/\--|
|
| ||(
Sinewave----| Amplifier |
)||(
Ring voltage out
|
|
| ||(
|___________|------------+ ||(-----------Transformer
12V:220V
The circuit is easy to build. Connect 10 ohm resistor in series with transformer's
secondary winding and 1000 ohm resistor in series with primary winding. Connect
the primary winding side of the transformer to amplifier's speaker output. Connect
the telephone to the secondary side. The resistors are in the circuit to limit the
current and to keep the impedance high enough for the amplifier.
When you have done this, connect you function generator to amplifier's input and
set it to generate 20-25 Hz sine wave at suitable level for amplifier's input. Turn
down the volume of the amplifer. Turn the amplifier on. Turn the volume up until
you hear telephone ringing well. You can check the ringing voltage with multimeter
if you vat to make it to exactly right level.
Modified power inverter circuit
It is possible to make 17 - 25Hz a.c. from d.c. A simple multivibrator will do it. You
then need a power transistor or similar to give the high-current output. A suitable
circuit can be modified from typical power inverter circuit by changing the timing
components to make the frequency to 20-25 Hz range. Then the transformer needs
to be selected so that it matches this application (for 12V operation take a mains
centre-tapped 60V (30+30V) secondary and 230V primary).
Dedicated ringing generator circuit
There have been telephone ringer circuit in major electronics magazines and circuit
books. Those circuit are good idea when you want to build the circuit from base
components.
There are commercial units
device designed for ringing
Norcostco for little over 100
has been suggested in many
Maplin Electronics has a phone ringer electronics kit which can give out UK and USA
type ring styles. It has been reported to work uite well with any modern telephone,
though it has said to struggle slightly to drive old fashioned bell types which need
lots of ring current.
There are also telephone line simulators available from some tecom equipment
manufacturers. Those telephone line simulator boxes also usually include the ringer
circuit. Two examples are Viking Electronics Line Simulator/Ringdown Circuit and
Jech Tech Phone Helper. Usually complete line simulators are more expensive than
simple ringer circuit but they have more uses also (you can make two telephones
an intercom etc.).
Generating ring pattern
Normal telephone ringing signal the central office sends is not normally contirnuous
signal, but follows some pattern. The pattern could be for example ring 2 seconds
on, four seconds off and then again 2 seconds on, 4 second off etc.. The patterns
used can vary somewhat from country to country.
If you want to generate this kind of pattern you need a timer circuit that generates
2 seconds on and 4 secodns off type output signal. That signal is then used to
control a relay that switches the power from the power source going to telephone
and off. A 555 timer and one relay can nicely do this. Basicly you take 555 timer in
normal astable mode and then select the value fo two resistors and one capacitor.
Then connect relay to 555 output, and that should do it.
Tomi Engdahl <then@delta.hut.fi>