Hi,
I am seeking (once again) the collective wisdom of the PTSF (Phone Tech Support Forum). What sort of KSU set up would have been used in a rather large 1A2 setup with at least one call director and numerous six button keysets? What sort of other station instruments would have been used in such a setup. I know that I am not giving many specifics, and am not asking for any specific information, just generalities. This might be somewhere between a small PBX system and a six line 1A2 keysystem. I am interested in features such as "eye-hold" and direct connects (hotlines). Just curious...
Oh, I just thought of one other question before I hit the add new topic button... Would it have been possible or contemplatable to have a keysystem such as I am describing with one or more lines going to a manual PBX?
Thank you much!
Joe
Off the top of my head (Hmmmm, dusty up there) 501 or 512 ITT KSU with more power, Plant equipment 400 cards, other Plant equipment cards and some 'sweaty' wiring for the extra features.
Sure, the manual PBX line(s) would appear to be C.O. line(s).
Joe, believe it or not, those installations were quite typical. We have a fairly large law firm that is a customer with a similar arrangement.
Prior to about 1976, the norm was 23" racks with multiple 584 panels (13 line card slots each). The panels eventually were modified to permit a single interrupter to operate lamps in other panels, resulting in synchronized lamp flash/wink rates, along with ringing cadence.
At the bottom of these racks, the power supply and ring generator resided. In particularly large installations, there were multiple power supplies.
Around 1975, Western Electric developed the 620 series of modular wall-mounted panels. Each 620A panel had eight line card slots and a Burndy connector that plugged into modular power supplies. There were two power supplies available, one with four power output connectors and the other with ten. These power supplies were unique in the fact that they included the interrupter and ring generator.
These panels were designed to align with the Bell System standard for backboard layouts. They literally took the place of the red field of KSU blocks. The footprint is equivalent to that of a typical half backboard. In essence, with appropriate power supplies, these panels could be stacked side-by-side forever. The only limit was wall space. Since they weren't designed for vertical stacking, horizontally was the only way to grow. Still, with integrated 66 blocks in the unit, they were very space-efficient.
640- series panels were also a part of this family. They included an integral yellow 66 block field for optional services, such as intercoms, tie line circuits, paging interfaces, etc.
The system was quite impressive and offered amazing flexibility. The panels were all plastic, so installation was a breeze. They were lightweight and only required a few screws. Even the power supplies had a back plate that was mounted to the wall and then the actual unit itself would hang on keyhole slots. A single screw secured it to the mount.
Ed, you mean to tell me this customer has this system (and uses it) STILL? Wow!
Yes, Jeff. Let's just say that this lawyer is very "thrifty". He's sure gotten his money's worth.
It's amazing how long the stuff that was designed to work can stay in use!
stuff that was designed to be installed , left alone and collect a monthly rental /maintenance fee for that is
So would a group of 584 card cages mounted in a panel be a good basis for a large 1A2 system? Could one incorporate non-card based KTUs, and things like individual relays, amplifiers, lamp extenders, intercom and such into such a system? Believe it or not, I do have a 23 inch wide 2 legged steel telco rack in the garage, however, at the moment, I have enough to do with my little system and the phones and switchboard that I am restoring. This thought exercise might become reality in the future, but not now as I have too much to do. I would love to see some pictures of actual installations of such a system if any are around. I google image searched, and didn't find much.
The main reason that I am thinking about this is that it seems a bit strange to me to try to incorporate a call director with that huge 75 pair cord into a tiny little
shoebox(Italicized for Aruthur. I now know the difference between a shoebox and a lunchbox!
) KSU that I have. My wife thinks that I am screwy enough as it is with rotary keysets in every room of the house.
My "phonebarn" project has been put on hold as my father-in-law had a terrible fall and suffered really bad head trauma. He will be in the hospital for at least six more weeks, then several months in rehab. The doctors told my mother in law that they can no longer live by themselves, so we are fixing up the lower level of our house for them, including a chair lift so that they do not have to worry about the stairs. It is not a basement, we have a split level that is completely finished. We are having a contractor re-model the lower bathroom to be completely accessable, which means that there will still be a bathtub, but it will be a "walk-in" type of thing. No slipping or falling required. My wife and I are both adamant that they will NOT be shoveled off into a nursing home and forgotten. Hopefully, the phone barn will be built next year, but without a doubt, family must come before hobbies. That said, I am thinking (dreaming) ahead of that to figure out what I will put in it for a working display.
Best,
Joe
Joe, sorry to hear about your folks, but it seems like you have the right attitude concerning their care. You and your wife are to be commended for taking on this task.
The 75 pair (actually fewer pairs than that, but that's a subject for another thread) cables from Call Directors would definitely NOT be terminated in a shoebox, for several reasons. First, just from a practical matter, the 551 KSU only can supply up to 4 CO lines, and no dial selective intercom. Trying to jam a 75-pair cable into a 551 is trying to get 10 pounds of s**t into a 5 pound bag, as my Grandmother used to say.
Any installation requiring even one 18-button CD would need a much larger KSU driving it.
Secondly, all station cables are supposed to be terminated (we call it "headed up") on 66M-50 blocks so that cross connections carrying the features (line dial tones, lamps, A-leads, intercom pairs, etc) can easily be assigned to the keys on the sets.
In the case of CD's, you would use three 66M-50 blocks for every two CD's. The blue binder goes on the first block, the orange binder on the second block, and the green binder on the third block, with the blocks arranged vertically in a column.
I have worked on many shoeboxes, and I always used one or more 25-pair cable from the KSU to a 66B-25 block(s), outboard of the KSU, to derive the features and allow a convenient spot on a backboard for cross connections to be assigned. This method allows up to 25 stations (5 short feed cables, times 5 stations per remote block) to be cross-connected without ever needing to open the KSU door, which is always inviting trouble.
Even 4 or 5 station cables (the max is 5) in a 551 can start to cause congestion and maintenance problems. It's always a good idea to spread out and take as much real estate on a backboard as possible.
I did something similar with my shoebox. Ran 1 25 pair cable out of it to a block and did my cross connecting from there. I only have two stations so I just used a 66-M50. Perhaps I will change it to a 66-M25 so I have 3 pins across.
Not to be off-topic, Joe, but you mentioned the walk-in tub. Is that the kind with the door on the side? If so, I met someone who has one and she doesn't like it. The handle is too difficult to pull when trying to seal/unseal the door. She doesn't mind sitting there waiting for it to fill up around her, but she doesn't like waiting for it to drain almost completely before she can get out--says it gets cold sitting there wet and naked. Just FYI...
Staying off topic - put a heat lamp in the bathroom, she won't get cold.
Sam
@ SwedaGuy and Silversam;
I was concerned about this as well, but this is the tub that she wants. I will make sure that the contractors stuff insulation in the hollows of the tub itself, and we have specified an auxilary wall heater with forced air. I didn't think of the heat lamp, but I will change and upgrade the exhaust fan before they install it to one with a heat lamp. They are in the process today of ripping out the old bathroom. The toilet will even have a lift assist! (I am sure that the cats will discover that and invistigate it to the max...)
Joe
Put the whole bathroom on GFIs. Put the switch for the heat lamp where it's accessible by someone sitting in the tub. They get cold they put the heat on. It's warm enough they shut it off.
Sam
Use a timed switch (downstream of the GFI) for the I/R lamp. That way, if they forget to turn it off, the bath mat and cat will not catch fire.
Absolutely, everything is GFI. I didn't think of the timer though. That will have to definately be installed.
Slightly off color, the big old Buffy cat that we have has been using the toilet since he was a six month old kitten. I guess that he dosen't like the feel of kitty litter. I only wish that he would figure out how to flush. I know that there have been times that I needed to use the facilities, only to find a cat sitting on the pot!
I guess that is all par for the course for cat people...
Joe
I had a friend who went into the bathroom in the dark one night, and the cat was already there, doing his duty. My friend's name was Claude Balz, by the way.
Sorta reminds me of the difference between a cat and a comma.
With a comma, the clause comes before the pause,
and with a cat, the paws comes before the claws.
Sorry about that...
Joe
Joe,
Here is a photo (sorry taken with a cell phone so not that good) to give you an idea of a typical installation using type 584 panels in a floor mounted rack:
https://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/...SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
Hi Godfather,
Thank you so much for that photo. I hope you don't mind, but I snagged it and put in my my phone photo pholder, for future referrence.
Someday, I hope to put together a system like that, as I have had to scale back the switch plans for a while until we get my wife's folks situated in our house. I suspect that I will be back at it by late next summer or early fall. I am still working on my 555 board, which is coming along nicely.
Thanks again!
Best,
Joe
godfather, What a NEAT boat anchor
!
Originally posted by SwedaGuy:
Not to be off-topic, Joe, but you mentioned the walk-in tub. Is that the kind with the door on the side? If so, I met someone who has one and she doesn't like it. The handle is too difficult to pull when trying to seal/unseal the door. She doesn't mind sitting there waiting for it to fill up around her, but she doesn't like waiting for it to drain almost completely before she can get out--says it gets cold sitting there wet and naked. Just FYI...
My mum has one - the handle jammed and she was stuck inside. I think she'd have tasered the installer's nuts if she could.
Wow! Talk about a huge side track of a legitimate topic. Perhaps the private message feature of this forum might have been more appropriate?
No problem Joe. I can PM you some better ones if you are interested.
Certainly heavy enough to be a boat anchor! Although that telco closet is really dirty, there are type 66 blocks with red, blue, and green backboards mounted above the KSU rack (not visible from the photo.)