How to use old mechanical outdoor ringer?

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helpful55:
I am wanting to use an old (70’s?) style mechanical outdoor phone ringer with my obi system. I know that most of the modern phones have a very low REN #. I have two of those on this line already. I don’t know for sure even if this outdoor ringer is working properly, but I think it probably is ok. When I connect it I get a short ring duration and the volume is pretty lame. That is what I have seen before when a line is overburdened with ringers. I know how loud these usually are. With an obi and no connection to a landline the obi has to supply the power for the ringers and I see that the AC adapter supplies a max of 1 Amp @ 12 volts to operate the obi and supply ringers. I don’t know what the obi has available for the ringers. Does anyone know and if it doesn’t have the proper power does anyone know how I can make this oldie ringer work? I don’t want to harm my obi so I am not using this for now. Thanks for any help.

drgeoff:
OBi device specs say the Maximum Ringer Load is 5 REN.

I think your next move should be to ascertain that the ringer is working properly. Do you have a relative or friend with a traditional telco line you can use to check the ringer?

ianobi:
You can also try altering the OBi ringer voltage / frequency / waveform at:
Physical Interfaces > PHONE Port > Ringer

Ring boosters are commercially available depending where you live. US version here:
http://www.sandman.com/longloop.html

There is also a UK version.

helpful55:
Great, thanks for all of the info drgeoff and ianobi.

Sure sounds like the obi can ring plenty of phones. I should try to see if I can find out the actual REN of this ringer. And yes I need to try it on a landline to make sure it is ok.

I’ll look into the obi ringer settings and if somehow I need a booster I’ll check that out.

Thanks again all.

sailing:
I played with an old Ma Bell phone from the 60's once. I found I had to increase the ringer voltage of the obi to its max setting otherwise I would just hear the ringer buzzing since the hammer never hit the bell.

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