Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: doug@letni.uucp (Doug Davis) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Message-ID:Date: 28 Sep 89 16:59:02 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: doug@letni.lawnet.com Organization: Logic Process Dallas, Texas. Lines: 40 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 422, message 1 of 12 In article Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: >Several of us got tired of this and wired up a neon flasher. It's >quite easy to make: You get a standard neon bulb (NE-2?) and a 10K >resistor. Solder the resistor in line (not across) with the neon bulb. >Remove the eraser from a Jet Eraser (or use a pen casing) and mount >the bulb in the casing. Run the wiring to your phone tip and ring >lines. When the phone rings, the neon light flashes. It does not >interfere with the operation of the phone. Note that this only works >with traditional phone systems. It probably will not work with the new >electronic systems. >Now when the phone rings, we look and see who's phone is flashing. Not >a perfect solution, but better than before.... Good idea, but not exactly FCC spec ;-) I have a commercial product from Radio Shack called the "Phone Flasher" it's basically the same thing as what you described only it's a real live consumer product. Cost was 7.95 a year or so ago. I have also seen these little critters in Target so I suspect that they are pretty widespread. There are several variants of them as well one that has a Xenon lamp in it, instead of Neon, another with a "tunable pitch" noise-maker in it, and lastly one that provides you a 120VAC outlet that comes on when the phone rings and goes off a few seconds after it stops. I guess if the Neon or the Xenon version wasn't enough light you could always connect that one to your Bat-Signal(tm). Oh yeah, I have one of those in my garage connected to a 12vdc transformer attached to a car horn, never miss a call when making lots of racket out there anymore ;-) If its of interest I can dig up and post RS catalog numbers for all of them. Doug Davis/1030 Pleasant Valley Lane/Arlington/Texas/76015/817-467-3740 {sys1.tandy.com, motown!sys1, uiucuxc!sys1 lawnet, attctc, texbell} letni!doug "Everything in this article is a Jolt Cola hallucination and in no way exhibits any signs of being remotely connection to any reality."