atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Looking to get in to 1a2 key

Another really good line card is the ITT 400E. I have a number of them and they work very well. Some of the later 400 cards from Western Electric, most notably the 400H, are complete crap. As I recall, the 400G's were ok, but the H cards were just sucky. I have a couple I bought years ago, not knowing and I tore them out 10 minutes after I put them in. I like the ITT 400E cards. They have jumpers to configure the kind of ringing, and have provisions for music on hold. We could start another complete thread about MOH, but suffice it to say, do not connect a music source to more than one 400E card without the proper isolation card, a 403. Otherwise you end up with really bad crosstalk. Most people would just connect MOH to the primary line and call it a day.

The main issue I had with Western's 400H card was putting a call on hold. The microprocessor on the board requires the hold button to be depressed for something like 2 seconds in order for it to work. It sounds dumb, but 2 seconds is forever when you are used to just pressing a button momentarily like any normal human would press a button. As such, you would end up with a lot of dropped calls, and what good is that?

I don't see many of the ITT 400E cards on Ebay, but every time I've acquired some kind of 1A2 panel it usually had a pile of them installed. I've only had one fail on me and it was just a bad diode. I replaced the single diode and the card worked fine again. Might be something to consider if finding Western cards that ring up on bridged ringing is getting difficult.

I refuse to pay $20 and up for a line card, and the few Iss. 15's I've seen on ebay recently are in that price range. The 5 I have I got at the TCI show in Lancaster, PA back in June. If you're into old phones and stuff, you should look into joining TCI. They have a fall show in September in Springfield, IL and you may be able to pick up a bunch of parts for very little coin. The people are awesome and very friendly. They can help you with ANYTHING phone related, trust me on that. Telephone Collectors International website.

To all that have PM'd me asking about equipment, please see my post in Buy and Sell. Thanks

I'm going to revive this thread a little bit. After Arthur sent me the 501 I kinda went mute, that in part had to do with school and a little bit of me just wanting to fool around with the thing. The ktu works perfectly, had a little snag at the biginning where i wired it so the lamp voltage was going where the battery voltage was sopposed to, but after that it was smooth sailing. So one of the things i'm getting for the ktu is a 400h. After what chris said I hesitated to get one, but after reading that you have to WAIT 2 seconds before pushing hold, I just thought I'd give it a try. ( the pdf I read: the pdf , look at page 7 at the bold text.). So when I get those in I plan on getting a video posted on the ksu. My desk at the moment with my phones and all my desk . Currently the ksu is connected to my Panasonic easa phone 308, my xlink, and a tda 50 pbx that's slightly broken (it crashes when it gas more than 4 phones connected, hey it was free!). so ill keep this updated.

Quite the desk!


Sam

That is quite the rig. I dig the old timey AT style keyboard. Do the keys make the loud clacking like the originals? Everyone knows how much I hate those 400H cards. I just sold a whole bunch of 1A2 stuff on craigslist. I made sure I threw in the two H cards I had just so I'd be rid of them. I did forewarn the new owner that they suck. I also sold him a pile of 400D cards with the metallic ringing mod, and some other cards I had laying around. I still have a lifetime supply of line cards. It is nice to have my closet back, though. I filled the back seat of his car with 1A2 gear that I would never have used unless I decided to own my own central office.

Chris, I think I'm using 400H's without a problem. When I switched to FIOS my 4000Fs stopped working. I tried 400E's - no good. The 400Hs worked fine and have been in and working for ..... 7 years? 10 years? I really don't remember.

I used to love the old IBM keyboards with the trackpoint mouse built in. Loved that positive CLICK!

I had 3 lifetimes supply of 400 cards until Uncle Arthur came up with a need for a load of WECO 400Ds and I sent them out.

Now I've only got 2 lifetimes worth

Sam

I suppose once you get used to them and their quirks, they work just fine. I just really disliked having to hold the hold button, it seemed counterintuitive. My guess as to why the others stopped working is the dismally low loop current often supplied by fios equipment. I've been doing a lot of testing every chance I get to test loop current with different sources of dial tone. (I scored an older Fluke meter than can read DC mA.) I've found that most sources of "artificial" dial tone hover around 20mA. It's just too low for the mechanical relays on the older line cards. I've seen some older TT pads that really don't like low loop current as well. I really don't know why they do that. How hard would it have been to design it to 27-30 mA? Then it would be almost guaranteed to work with even the most crusty old piece of CPE. I know raising it too high can cause issues, and especially with Voip it can cause echo in an awful hurry, but... I have 2 OBI 200 Voip adapters where the user can CHANGE the loop current to anything between 15 and like 90 mA. I would NEVER set it to anything above 30, but I put mine at 28, and my equipment works like its attached to a real pots line. As much as we see Voip as the enemy sometimes, the fact is it isn't going away, and truth be told, a pots line isn't hard to emulate. You just have to know what the values should be. (The problem is the third world engineers that design this crap have no idea what the numbers should be.) -Sigh-

"Now I've only got 2 lifetimes worth."

When I die, they will be in the will for you. I plan to go first.

"When I die, they will be in the will for you. I plan to go first."

I'm going to hold you to that, Arthur.

Sam

If there is no adjustment you could always get some loop current regulators from sandman, get the automatic ones than you don't have to mess with them. I've only used them for high loop current, but he has boosters too.