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- From: efrie@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu
- Newsgroups: sci.electronics
- Subject: Re: Phone in use light - help!?
- Summary: they complained about mine.
- Keywords: phone light use light
- Message-ID: <1992Aug21.212309.22093@serval.net.wsu.edu>
- Date: 21 Aug 92 21:23:09 GMT
- References: <1992Aug16.215545.8345@cs.wisc.edu> <tbp.714023837@fig> <17AUG92.09434858@wl.aecl.ca>
- Sender: news@serval.net.wsu.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: Washington State University!
- Lines: 35
-
- DO NOT BUILD THIS!
- I built one of these devices a couple years ago. It
- consisted of a voltage divider tap to the base of a
- 2n2222 whose collector tickled another 2n2222 buffer
- to an led. In the on hook mode it would always draw
- a few uA but in off hook mode it would steal a
- couple milliamps to run the led.
-
- Anyway I used it successfully for two years in one
- appartment, but after short time in my new appartment a
- GTE guy came to look for the current loss. They
- apparently sweep the voltage to measure the
- impedance of the line to check for faults.
- I guess that explains why I would see the light come
- on for no apparent reason during my night owl study
- times.
-
- The tech guy told me that they complain if there
- is more than 700kohm load on the line.
-
- I was trying to do this without batteries but I
- guess the only answer is to build a battery powered
- 1Meg input impedance comparator circuit to detect less
- than 12Volts. Just don't use the telco's power to run
- your circuit, and make sure you keep in mind the
- voltages of the ring and onhook.
-
- eddie < efrie@eecs.wsu.edu >
-
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