Boosting Ringer Power

[big john]

I'm continuing my battle with our phone systems, learning more each day, for example:

Apparently there's a thing called the Ringer Equivalence Number (RIN) which determines how many phones you can power from the loop.

I did not know this and attempted to power 10 plant phones from the loop. Needless to say, they don't quite work right.

Two questions:
1) How do I find out the maximum RIN our lines are capable of supplying?
2) Is there any way to boost the ringer current available to the loop...?

I removed an old PBX system that we had in place because much of it was obsolete or broken, but it did provide boosted loop power. I'd like to avoid re-installing the stupid thing if I can.

Any ideas? Thanks.

-John

 

[nakulak]

for a hundred bucks you can get a set of 5 cordless phones.

you can get remote phone ringers like one of these: (or try radio shack)
http://www.bizrate.com/telephone-accessories/oid71466128.html

you can build a phone ringer:
http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/rembell.asp

you could buy a mini pbx system

you could buy a new digital phone system

(I'm sure there are a bunch of other options also)

 

[hurk27]

you will have to look at the REN on the bottom of each phone, if it is high (.8-1.3) you might want to look for phones with a lower value, you need a .5 or lower, many newer self networking Southwestern bell multi line phones have digital ringers with a REN of.1 which would allow almost 50 of them, just remember most telephone company's only allow a 5.0 max REN total, which is equivalent to 5 old style analog phones, you can call the phone company or look in the front of the phone book for this info to see what their limit is, but using an experiment is the easiest way, by disconnecting one phone at a time to get to where they work again then add up all the RENS on the phones still hooked up, then find phones with a lower REN that will add up to that number or less.

learned this one the first time I scraped out an old Merlin PBX system, for a restaurant that only ever had 2 lines, and 4 phone stations, talk about an over kill, every time the thing went out it would cost the owner several hundred to have them come out and fix it, each phone cost over $400.00 so I installed the self networking Southwestern bell multi line phones, and they were so happy.

 

[hurk27]

I just a note to add that most cordless are about .1 to .3 so they are usually very low.

 

[EV607797]

How about one of these?

http://www.vikingelectronics.com/products/view_product.php?pid=219

 

[hbiss]

...learned this one the first time I scraped out an old Merlin PBX system, for a restaurant that only ever had 2 lines, and 4 phone stations, talk about an over kill, every time the thing went out it would cost the owner several hundred to have them come out and fix it, each phone cost over $400.00 so I installed the self networking Southwestern bell multi line phones, and they were so happy.

That's funny. It's been my experience that the old Merlin systems are the standard for food service businesses. So much so that even though it has long been discontinued, national franchises are still installing refurbed Merlin systems in brand new facilities. Why? Because it is bullet proof. How long do you think that Southwestern Bell consumer piece of crap that you bought at Staples is going to hold up? Then, in six months when a phone dies you'll wind up replacing all of them because it's no longer made.

Two lines and four extensions is not overkill for any business system especially when the phones are used heavily. I also have to say that there is NO Merlin phone worth $400. Your customer was being totally ripped off.

-Hal