Comment on Question about analog voltmeters and antique telephones
despoticruin@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
It’s looking like you are going to want to hook the volt meter up to your talk lines. I would test just probing the wires going to the handset, if I understand the schematic correctly the talk circuit is separate from the ringer. That being said, you can get a voltmeter that is tolerant of the voltage.
As far as blinking on ringing, that one is super simple since the ringer is AC, just use an induction type detector to flash an LED on. Think along the lines of those screwdriver looking line voltage testers that light up when you put them next to a live outlet.
JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net 5 weeks ago
That’s a really clever answer to the ringer light! I should definitely be able to piece something together from there.
It also hadn’t occurred to me to just tap the phone itself for the voltmeter (though it feels a little less authentic than doing the line between them, somehow). It’s very good to know about the voltage tolerance - I’ll see what I can find!
Thank you very much for your help, I really appreciate it!
despoticruin@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
It would be how the voltmeter would have been wired back then, you can damage the needle or it’s spring by pegging it for too long. Even then though, the only real issue I would forsee would just be the voltmeter spiking all the way to the right while it’s ringing, the chance of any real damage is pretty minimal. You can also check the datasheet on the meter, it should tell you what it can safely handle.