[gilford]

I've just spent the last 2 weeks decorating my dining room and thought that all the switches now look old so I decided to replace them all

After a trip to the sparky wholesaler and my wallet being a whole lot lighter I set to changing them last night

All had gone well until I came to the telephone point......

We never use this telephone point so after unscrewing it and seeing a shed load of wires I thought "stuff it" and just pulled them out and replaced the faceplate

My sister had a baby yesterday and come 11pm I thought it weird that no one had rang so I picked up the phone only to find it no longer works

Various other sockets around the house work, just the ones in the lounge and dining room are out thank god but I was wondering if anyone knew how to wire one of the sockets to save me paying yet another tradesman to come and sort it

Cheers

Marcus

[Crocodile]

http://www.britishtelephones.com/wir...cketwiring.htm

You can pick up a Krone tool from Maplin or large DIY store.

[gilford]

Originally Posted by crocodile

http://www.britishtelephones.com/wir...cketwiring.htm

You can pick up a Krone tool from Maplin or large DIY store.

Yeah, tried that one but the socket I have doesn't work like that one, plus the wires I have a different

[Crocodile]

If you have a non standard cable then all I can suggest is removing the cover from another socket & copying that.

[gilford]

Its not the cable thats really the issue, the socket has a different layout

[gilford]

These are the wires that were in the old one. The blue ones were on their own as was the green, and the 2 whites and the orange were all together

This is what the new socket looks like. As you can see it has no numbers on it and only has 4 places for the wires to go I have spoken to the sparky wholesaler and he has assured me that this is a standard socket, allbeit with "rounded" edges

[Crocodile]

Not obvious from your photo if the wires have colour bands on them?

If they do, separate everything & then temporarily twist the following into 3 pairs:

2 x white with blue bands.
2 x orange with white bands.
2 x blue with white bands.

Then check one of the other sockets is now working. If it is then I would guess that the wiring needs to be (from the top connector in your photo):

White with blue bands.
White with orange bands (not actually used).
Orange with white bands.
Blue with white bands.

This ASSUMES that the tracks from the pins of the connector go straight to the pins of the socket & don't switch under the PCB. Pins 1 & 6 of the socket aren't used. If you have a multimeter or continuity tester, check that out first.

[gilford]

No bands on the wires bud, just solid colours

[Crocodile]

Try peeling the sheath back a little in case the bands have somehow been "lost" on the exposed cable. No real issue with the blue, green & orange but there must be some way of differentiating the whites.

[gilford]

Solid colours all the way mate

I'm not really bothered about getting this socket working to be honest, it was just an aesthetic thing that was annoying me I would just love to get the one in the lounge working again. Is there certain wires I can just twist together to do this?

Cheers

Marcus

[shodan]

Maybe thats not a BT Telephone socket wiring? Maybe its for... ADSL or something? OK Bad example, ADSL is the same as standard but you get my drift, wired like that for a different application, other than telephone. NTL/Cable maybe?

[gilford]

I seriously doubt it bud. I live on Anglesey remember

Where I live has only had broadband for a year and the house is late 70's

[Crocodile]

Difficult to know with it being non standard. It should be possible by trial & error. The two blues should be paired & then pair the whites from each cable (as in the highly technical diagram attahed!).

If that doesn't work then switch the whites.

If that doesn't work then I guess your only options are to work in out from another socket or make that phone call....

[njp]

Originally Posted by gilford

I'm not really bothered about getting this socket working to be honest, it was just an aesthetic thing that was annoying me I would just love to get the one in the lounge working again. Is there certain wires I can just twist together to do this?

If the installer was consistent in his use of colours, the other socket should work if you simply link all the same colours together...

On a technical point, you only need 2 wires to get most modern phones working, or 3 at most if they need ringling current. Worst case, you ought to be able to trace back to the master socket (perhaps with a meter) to work out which is which.

[gilford]

Cheers lads, I'll go and give it a go

[njp]

If you do decide to join the wires, small terminal blocks are probably better than just twisting them together. There aren't really any safety issues, but it should make a more reliable connection.

[gilford]

Connected the wires together and still nothing

What have I started.........................

[Crocodile]

Only other thing I can suggest is picking up one of these to identify which wires have been used by trial & error.

I really can't comprehend a cable with 3 conductors the same colour with no means of identification.

[andykn]

Modern telephone wiring uses a six contact plug and socket. However only the inner 4 of these are connected domestically in houses and only 3 are used. So the socket you show has marked pin 1 at the bottom to 6 at the top. But the Insulation Displacement Connection (IDC) block on the left in the picture will be pin 2 at the bottom to 5 at the top.

The wire coming in to your house still only uses two wires (a Single Twisted Pair (STP) sometimes known as A and B wires), although often four core cable is used to give a couple of spare connecors.

This Pair coming in to your house should be connected to pins 2 and 5 of a Master Socket. The Master socket has a couple of components and a lighting suppressor.

Then each other (Slave or Secondary) socket is connected in parallel to the Master, pin 2 to 2, 3 to 3 and so on. Pin 3 is what's called the "anti-tinkle" connection and is primarily to stop the bells of older stlye phones tinkling when another old stlye "Pulse dialling" phone dials out. Pin 4 is not used but usually connected because all the cables contain pairs of wires.

The link earlier shows the colours normally used but it looks like you have older cabling. Try and find where the phone company cable comes in to the house or Master Socket and you should be able to see what is what.

Use a proper IDC tool to put the wires into the socket, I've tried to bodge it before and it's trouble.

It doesn't really matter which of the A and B wires coming in are connected to pins 2 and 5.