Wiring a second phone socket

jrochie

Hi all,

This may be a stupid question but I'll ask anyway!

I'm trying to hook a second phone socket as a favour but having trouble. Firstly there already is a cable coming out of the main socket, but it's cut short. It has 6 wires, red gren black yellow and a blue and White. I just picked up a piece of extension from the local hardware shop, it only has 4 wires, red black green and yellow. Anyway I joined up these, and connected them to the new socket. I don't get a dial tone, but strangely the broadband connection will work!?!

Where am I going wrong?

Cheers

stephendevlin

http://www.wire-your-phones.com/

might help

Diggerdunne

open up the main phone junction box and see what pair they are using. Check voltage as you shud get about 52v give or take. Once you have voltage there then check that pair on the short cable making sure they are connected to the working pair as they maybe damaged on the short cable. I would run a new cable personally and then connect into a phone point and then plug in a filter into the phone point and then plug in the phone and modem into the phone point... hope this helps.....

Solair

DSL signals will pass if one side of the line is connected i.e. they really only need one wire to function. This is how it is totally unaffected by whether your phone is on-hook/off-hook. However, for a dial tone and telephone service, you need both sides connected to make a complete loop back to the exchange.

It's relatively easy.

First things first: Telephone lines are carried on 2 wires. They almost always provide a lot of spare wires into your house to allow for adding second lines or other future services etc. This makes it look a lot more complicated than it really is. i.e. you'll see loads of colored wires when you open any Telecom/eircom socket.

If you've a modern Telecom Eireann / Eircom socket i.e. the white ones that look similar to a socket or a lightswitch in colour and shape, then you should not need to go near the line wiring at all.

Just open the socket by removing the screws at the front and a plate will come off. You will find two terminals on the back of the plate marked L1 and L2. In a slightly older model of socket these are inside the socket itself.

Your internal wiring should be decent quality solid core copper cable suitable for telephone / DSL e.g. CAT5.

Connect 2 wires only, usually you use the blue pair. All other pairs should be left unconnected. Just ensure that they're trimmed so that there is no exposed copper wire in the socket that could cause a short circuit should it touch across the terminals.

Then simply replace the front of the socket.
NB: Your extension wiring will be disconnected if the front plate of the socket is removed.

One model of socket has a test socket hidden behind the front plate, which plugs into it when you replace it.

The older model is even more confusing as the socket's cover has a magnet in it and there are microswitches in the socket. When you remove the plate, the microswitches disconnect the L1,L2 terminals i.e. your extension wiring.
When you put the plate back they reconnect.

The idea of these systems is that they allow you, or an eircom technician to isolate the internal wiring in the house by simply removing that plate. This means they can test the line, independent of the internal wiring.

......


If your socket is a beige coloured telecom eireann or P&T branded one then it's a little different as there is no demarkation between the internal and external wiring or test-socket arrangement.

You will see 2 identical sets of terminals at the top of the socket marked L1, R and L2.

Connect your extension wiring to the spare L1 and L2 (Ignore R). These are insulation displacement connectors i.e. they are not screw-down.
To connect your cable, you need to ensure that it's CAT5, they will not accept cheap cable / stranded cable..

Make a small loop of cable (do not strip it) i.e. just fold the top of the cable back on itself giving you a loop at the top of about 1cm or so.

Push the loop into the connector. Then using a screwdriver, against the edge of the conector, ensure it's firmly pushed back the whole way. DO NOT push the screwdriver between the blades of the terminals or you will damage them!.
If you like, you can very gently pinch the connector together with a pliers to ensure the cable has been cut into.

(If the terminals are damaged or for some reason don't make a connection, you might need to strip the cable a bit)

This connector has sharp blades which cut into the insulation on the cable and make contact with the copper cable inside. Thus, it HAS to be data cable and it has to be solid core copper and nothing else.

Hammer in a small cable clip into the wall near the socket to prevent anything pulling the cable out of the terminals. They aren't very good at resisting someone pulling the wire out.

Replace the cover of the socket and you're done!

The older sockets were not really designed with DIY in mind. They were designed to make Telecom's technicians life easier i.e. fast wiring, but with the right tools. Hence the lack of screw-down connectors etc which would be easier for DIY jobs.

Important notes:

1) Eircom wiring is 2-wire only. Do not follow online UK advice on phone wiring when using Irish lines. The systems are quite different. US wiring is similar to here.
Our system's actually far more straight forward than the UK.

2) Polarity doesn't matter. Irish telephone lines can be wired either way so it shouldn't make any difference to your equipment.

3) Telephone lines carry enough voltage to give you a bit of a nasty buzz when the phone rings. So, I always suggest that you do the following:

Pick up phone:
Dial *21*your mobile number# (this will divert calls to your mobile and the phone will not ring)
When you're finished working on the line, cancel by dialing #21#
Depending on your local exchange's software, you'll either get a voice announcement, a long dial tone or a ringing tone to confirm that the service has been setup / cancelled.


Ringing voltage in Ireland is 75V AC 25Hz.
Signal voltage used to carry your voice is -48V DC

jrochie

That could possibly the best guide I have come across for wiring a telephone cable! Fair play to you Solair I really appreciate that. I've had a chance to go at it yet, but will probably do it this evening or tomorrow.

I'm very confident of getting it right now that I've read that so thanks again. I'll let ye know how I get on with. I might also pass this guide on to the electrician who was supposed to wire it, because he obviously hadn't a clue what he was doing, he managed to wire the security cameras into it and blew all the cameras, then had the second socket wired up with wires that went no where!!

Thanks again!

Solair

Sounds like your electrician isn't too clues in about voice, data or video wiring!

There really isn't much to telephone wiring. It's just the complete lack of information about eircom's wiring devices that leads to problems.

If they expect people to wire their own sockets, they really should publish a handbook covering their wiring systems as they're not immediately obvious to most people!
I figured the above out by trial and error and digging out some obscure tech document and asking eircom techies I'm related to!

Just use cat 5 to avoid introducing noise to the line. Long runs of cheap, non twisted pair can act like a radio antenna and pick up noise that screws up dsl signals.

Other than that it's simple stuff!

Good luck.