How to Make a Phone Ring Using Your Home Stereo
Figure out whether you have an analog phone., Disconnect the phone and turn it upside down., Unscrew the flathead screws., Locate the bells., Use the accompanying diagrams to see the starting and ending positions of the resistance setter...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Figure out whether you have an analog phone.
For old analog phones, you must set the ringing mechanism into low resistance mode.
This is done so that less power is needed to ring the phone.
The ring will still sound exactly the same.
You can skip this part if you're not using an old, analog phone. , Locate the two flat head screws on the top and bottom of the phone., Place the phone upright and pull off the plastic housing.
No excessive force should be necessary.
If you have to use force, the screws may still be caught on the housing., Between them, directly below the gong, you should see a small metal wire being held in place by a small plastic catch.
Gently pull the metal wire out of the catch, and lift it over into the vertical slot next to the catch., Before the change:
After the change: , You have successfully set your phone into low resistance mode! Western Electric model 302s can follow a similar procedure, but the catches are laid out differently.
If you are unsure about which setting the phone is on, you can ring the gong manually in each setting.
The gong will move easiest in the low resistance setting. ,, Use two different colored wires if you have them.
If you don't, mark two of the wires in some way., Leave the other end apart., Unscrew the screws at the end of these leads, and ignore the black and yellow leads., It does not particularly matter which side goes where.
That's it! You should now have an RJ-45 connector with four wires coming out of the back.
None of those wires should be connected to the yellow and black leads, unless you have a specific reason for doing so.
Most phones don't make use of these lines, but some two line phones may Notice that, in the accompanying diagram, the same color wire are used in both the red and green connections.
The wires on the green side are marked with a silver paint marker. , Remember to follow these instructions precisely to avoid damaging to your amplifier or telephone., With the amp off and unplugged, connect the leads we made into the stereo leads.
Most stereos have a secondary (B) set of speaker outputs, so you can use those without having to unplug any existing speaker setups.
Place same colored wires into the positive terminals for the left and right speaker.
Positive is generally red on amplifiers, so just match your same-type wires to both go into red.
Place the other color pair into the negative terminals.
Negative is generally black on amplifiers, so match your other same-type pair to go into black.
It does not matter which color goes to which, so long as you match positives and negatives.
If you do this part incorrectly, you may damage your amp! , This is generally a switch or button on the front of the amplifier.
If your amp does not have such a switch, you should find a different amplifier to use.
If the amp doesn't have mono, and it's an el-cheapo that you feel like taking chances with, you can simply channel all output to either the left or right speaker, and unhook the unused lead-in from the back of the amp.
Use electrical tape to cover the bare lead-ins that you won't be using, to ensure that they don't touch each other.
Note that this method will only give you half the power as if you used both leads.
This is probably still enough. , Note that your amp isn't on or plugged in yet., If you power on the amp before connecting the phone, it may cause a short circuit., You may need a headphone jack to RCA cable conversion wire to do this., Power it on with the volume down low, in mono-mode, and the correct set of speakers selected.
Keep in mind that most amps have safety mechanisms in place to prevent you from shorting or overloading them.
If you've overloaded the amp and it has a safety, it will simply shut off.
Some will try to power back on after a few seconds while others will require you to manually switch the power off and on.
While it can't be guaranteed that your particular amp has this safety, most amplifiers manufactured after the mid 80s are safe.
Always err on the side of caution. , Make sure input is set to whichever auxiliary your computer is hooked into., Make sure your computer's volume is all the way up (not your amplifier!), Hold it to your ear like you're taking a call., If you can hear your source through the phone's speaker, then congratulations! You have successfully hooked everything up! #* Using your phone as a speaker set can be quite useful in its own right, but the best part is coming up next.,, YouTube is an excellent place to look, but you can also download a tone generator for more advanced applications.
Be sure no other sound is playing!, Nothing should be happening yet., Once sufficient volume is reached, the phone should start to ring! Don't bring the volume up more than you need to! Congratulations, you did it! Play the tone for 4 seconds on, 2 seconds off to get that characteristic, old timey ring.
Have fun using this for good or evil purposes, just be sure to bring the volume back down and disconnect everything when you're finished! , Here's an abbreviated explanation.
Why should a loud 20hz tone make your phone ring? When phones were standardized in the US back around the turn of the 20th century, it was decided that a 20hz AC current would be used to activate the ringer of the phone.
Phones were early adopters of AC current because it traveled over longer distances than DC, and the sine-wave nature of the current could easily be used to move the gong's solenoid.
Unfortunately, it is hard to produce a 20hz AC current without special equipment.
When you play a 20hz tone, what you are actually doing is approximating 20hz AC current.
The higher the volume is set, the more power is sent to the phone.
With a powerful enough amplifier we can ring the bell.
Even at full volume, most unmodified older phones won't ring with the output of a consumer grade amplifier, which is why we set the gong into low resistance mode.
Your phone has this setting because of rural houses far away from the central telephone offices.
Lucky thing for us! -
Step 2: Disconnect the phone and turn it upside down.
-
Step 3: Unscrew the flathead screws.
-
Step 4: Locate the bells.
-
Step 5: Use the accompanying diagrams to see the starting and ending positions of the resistance setter.
-
Step 6: Re-assemble the phone by following steps 1 and 2 in reverse.
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Step 7: Understand that you need to build the RJ-45 input connector that will be hooked into the back of your amplifier.
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Step 8: Cut four lengths of wire to identical lengths
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Step 9: and strip the ends.
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Step 10: Twist one end of your two same-type wires together.
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Step 11: Find your RJ-45 female wall connector
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Step 12: and locate the red and green leads.
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Step 13: Connect one of the twisted-together wires to the red lead
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Step 14: and the other to the green.
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Step 15: Get ready to hook your telephone into the amplifier.
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Step 16: Connect the RJ-45 connector we just made into the stereo leads.
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Step 17: Set your amp into monaural mode.
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Step 18: Bring the volume all the way down.
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Step 19: Plug the phone into the female RJ-45 terminal.
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Step 20: Plug your computer's audio output into the auxiliary input on your amp.
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Step 21: Now plug in the amp.
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Step 22: Bring the volume up ever so slightly.
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Step 23: Find a song or video to use as test material.
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Step 24: Pick up the phone's receiver.
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Step 25: Play back the source material.
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Step 26: Hang up the phone from the previous test.
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Step 27: Find a clean 20hz tone to use as source.
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Step 28: Play the 20hz tone.
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Step 29: Slowly bring the volume up on your amplifier while the tone is playing.
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Step 30: Understand what's going on.
Detailed Guide
For old analog phones, you must set the ringing mechanism into low resistance mode.
This is done so that less power is needed to ring the phone.
The ring will still sound exactly the same.
You can skip this part if you're not using an old, analog phone. , Locate the two flat head screws on the top and bottom of the phone., Place the phone upright and pull off the plastic housing.
No excessive force should be necessary.
If you have to use force, the screws may still be caught on the housing., Between them, directly below the gong, you should see a small metal wire being held in place by a small plastic catch.
Gently pull the metal wire out of the catch, and lift it over into the vertical slot next to the catch., Before the change:
After the change: , You have successfully set your phone into low resistance mode! Western Electric model 302s can follow a similar procedure, but the catches are laid out differently.
If you are unsure about which setting the phone is on, you can ring the gong manually in each setting.
The gong will move easiest in the low resistance setting. ,, Use two different colored wires if you have them.
If you don't, mark two of the wires in some way., Leave the other end apart., Unscrew the screws at the end of these leads, and ignore the black and yellow leads., It does not particularly matter which side goes where.
That's it! You should now have an RJ-45 connector with four wires coming out of the back.
None of those wires should be connected to the yellow and black leads, unless you have a specific reason for doing so.
Most phones don't make use of these lines, but some two line phones may Notice that, in the accompanying diagram, the same color wire are used in both the red and green connections.
The wires on the green side are marked with a silver paint marker. , Remember to follow these instructions precisely to avoid damaging to your amplifier or telephone., With the amp off and unplugged, connect the leads we made into the stereo leads.
Most stereos have a secondary (B) set of speaker outputs, so you can use those without having to unplug any existing speaker setups.
Place same colored wires into the positive terminals for the left and right speaker.
Positive is generally red on amplifiers, so just match your same-type wires to both go into red.
Place the other color pair into the negative terminals.
Negative is generally black on amplifiers, so match your other same-type pair to go into black.
It does not matter which color goes to which, so long as you match positives and negatives.
If you do this part incorrectly, you may damage your amp! , This is generally a switch or button on the front of the amplifier.
If your amp does not have such a switch, you should find a different amplifier to use.
If the amp doesn't have mono, and it's an el-cheapo that you feel like taking chances with, you can simply channel all output to either the left or right speaker, and unhook the unused lead-in from the back of the amp.
Use electrical tape to cover the bare lead-ins that you won't be using, to ensure that they don't touch each other.
Note that this method will only give you half the power as if you used both leads.
This is probably still enough. , Note that your amp isn't on or plugged in yet., If you power on the amp before connecting the phone, it may cause a short circuit., You may need a headphone jack to RCA cable conversion wire to do this., Power it on with the volume down low, in mono-mode, and the correct set of speakers selected.
Keep in mind that most amps have safety mechanisms in place to prevent you from shorting or overloading them.
If you've overloaded the amp and it has a safety, it will simply shut off.
Some will try to power back on after a few seconds while others will require you to manually switch the power off and on.
While it can't be guaranteed that your particular amp has this safety, most amplifiers manufactured after the mid 80s are safe.
Always err on the side of caution. , Make sure input is set to whichever auxiliary your computer is hooked into., Make sure your computer's volume is all the way up (not your amplifier!), Hold it to your ear like you're taking a call., If you can hear your source through the phone's speaker, then congratulations! You have successfully hooked everything up! #* Using your phone as a speaker set can be quite useful in its own right, but the best part is coming up next.,, YouTube is an excellent place to look, but you can also download a tone generator for more advanced applications.
Be sure no other sound is playing!, Nothing should be happening yet., Once sufficient volume is reached, the phone should start to ring! Don't bring the volume up more than you need to! Congratulations, you did it! Play the tone for 4 seconds on, 2 seconds off to get that characteristic, old timey ring.
Have fun using this for good or evil purposes, just be sure to bring the volume back down and disconnect everything when you're finished! , Here's an abbreviated explanation.
Why should a loud 20hz tone make your phone ring? When phones were standardized in the US back around the turn of the 20th century, it was decided that a 20hz AC current would be used to activate the ringer of the phone.
Phones were early adopters of AC current because it traveled over longer distances than DC, and the sine-wave nature of the current could easily be used to move the gong's solenoid.
Unfortunately, it is hard to produce a 20hz AC current without special equipment.
When you play a 20hz tone, what you are actually doing is approximating 20hz AC current.
The higher the volume is set, the more power is sent to the phone.
With a powerful enough amplifier we can ring the bell.
Even at full volume, most unmodified older phones won't ring with the output of a consumer grade amplifier, which is why we set the gong into low resistance mode.
Your phone has this setting because of rural houses far away from the central telephone offices.
Lucky thing for us!
About the Author
Ann Anderson
Dedicated to helping readers learn new skills in organization and beyond.
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