Evening Bob,
>> 06:30 PM 9/13/2006, you wrote:
I would be very leery and careful of using phone company voltage to
make CS. The US 'ringing current' voltage is around 110 volts
alternating DC with almost unlimited current carrying capability.
It may in fact be pulsating DC but it reads nicely on an AC meter.
I disagree on the "Unlimited Current". I have worked with many
leased lines over the years, even the old relay type circuits,
including many alarm monitoring circuits.
Often the phone company would reroute circuits and the added 22 or 24
ga wire would cause my circuits to fail completely. In some cases, I
had to call the phone company and try to get these circuits back into
operation, as they had worked for many years. Often these were Fire
Alarm monitoring circuits which must be maintained with little down time.
Also if you load down the phone company lines they may shut you off
permanently.
I agree that is a true statement, with a few if's and conditions involved.
Typically, other devices we add to our phone systems use more
current than the CS generator. That is, unless someone leaves the
project unattended and the current runs away in value.
Since these very simple generators are totally manual, one should
know how long the batch needs to run and the current draw, relative to time.
In reality, all one does is make his phone line inoperative for a time.
I believe the phone line goes into the "Off Hook" mode when using the
CS generator. If you get a phone call or make one, ....... this time
must be subtracted from the batch time. On second thought, it does
not go into the "Off Hook" mode or the 52 Volts would change to a
much lower value, maybe 5 to 7 VDC. So, the CS generator does not
load the line as much as you picking up the phone to make a call.
This makes me wonder if all the ideas about a CS generator doing
things to a phone line, or even attracting the phone company is justified.
I have been using this type generator for a few years with zero problems.
Wayne
