View Full Version : I need "Telephone Wiring for Dummies"
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 5:06pm
My house was built in 1976. The only telephone that doesn't have a modular jack is at the workshop. It has an old 4-prong receptacle, into which is plugged an adaptor with a modular plug. The connection has gotten very noisy and static-y, so I picked up a modular jack to install. This jack has 4 wires, black, red, green, and yellow. I know that you need only 2 wires for a phone.
But which 2? There must be 20 wires in the outlet box, none of which is red, black, etc. They're all striped wires, blue with white stripe, white with blue stripe, etc.--maybe some solid colors, I don't remember. Which wires do I connect to which wires on the modular jack? BTW, I did search this but am still confused.
Try the red and green and if that don't work try the black and yellow.
Yerf Dog
02-01-2011, 5:09pm
<nohelphere>I have one of those phone line testers</nohelphere>
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 5:09pm
Try the red and green and if that don't work try the black and yellow.
:toetap:
My house was built in 1976. The only telephone that doesn't have a modular jack is at the workshop. It has an old 4-prong receptacle, into which is plugged an adaptor with a modular plug. The connection has gotten very noisy and static-y, so I picked up a modular jack to install. This jack has 4 wires, black, red, green, and yellow. I know that you need only 2 wires for a phone.
But which 2? There must be 20 wires in the outlet box, none of which is red, black, etc. They're all striped wires, blue with white stripe, white with blue stripe, etc.--maybe some solid colors, I don't remember. Which wires do I connect to which wires on the modular jack? BTW, I did search this but am still confused.
Could you narrow it down to the wires that were actually connected to the 4 prong jack? Wouldn't 4 prongs=two wire pairs? My phone lines have 4 wires, so I can have option of two seperate telephone lines in the house.
If you have wires that were not hooked up to the jack, you could at least eliminate those. I'd try combinations of the wires actually hooked up, two at a time, until I got a dial tone, then make that wiring permanent.
Edit: the other, easier approach might be to buy a phone set that includes a base answering machine with a few remote handsets that only require an electric outlet for the base charger to operate. You can hard wire the base unit into a jack that does not have background noise, and the other phones will be cordless to that base. I got my Mom a set of those, and she likes them.
:toetap:
Had to re read your post. If you only have blue and blue with white then that is your pair. If there are many lines then I am guessing they are all tied together and feeding out of that location. Blue is red and blue with white is green but either way will work unless you have an alarm which can be fussy about the polarity.
Check this site it might help.
How to Wire a Phone Jack (Voice or Telephone RJ-11 thru RJ-14) (http://www.lanshack.com/wire_phone_jack.aspx)
This site explains the Red is for ring and Green is the tip lead.
How to Wire a Telephone Outlet | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_5552705_wire-telephone-outlet.html)
Looking at the first site I think the Red would go to the Blue/White and Green to the White/Blue wires.
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 6:02pm
Could you narrow it down to the wires that were actually connected to the 4 prong jack? Wouldn't 4 prongs=two wire pairs? My phone lines have 4 wires, so I can have option of two seperate telephone lines in the house.
If you have wires that were not hooked up to the jack, you could at least eliminate those. I'd try combinations of the wires actually hooked up, two at a time, until I got a dial tone, then make that wiring permanent.
Edit: the other, easier approach might be to buy a phone set that includes a base answering machine with a few remote handsets that only require an electric outlet for the base charger to operate. You can hard wire the base unit into a jack that does not have background noise, and the other phones will be cordless to that base. I got my Mom a set of those, and she likes them.
I should have looked at the existing wiring before I posted. I figured out which wires go where, but now it doesn't work by duplicating the existing connections. Shit....
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 6:04pm
Had to re read your post. If you only have blue and blue with white then that is your pair. If there are many lines then I am guessing they are all tied together and feeding out of that location. Blue is red and blue with white is green but either way will work unless you have an alarm which can be fussy about the polarity.
Yes, do have an alarm. Figured out blue is red and blue/white is green, but now no dial tone.
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 6:05pm
Check this site it might help.
How to Wire a Phone Jack (Voice or Telephone RJ-11 thru RJ-14) (http://www.lanshack.com/wire_phone_jack.aspx)
This site explains the Red is for ring and Green is the tip lead.
How to Wire a Telephone Outlet | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_5552705_wire-telephone-outlet.html)
Looking at the first site I think the Red would go to the Blue/White and Green to the White/Blue wires.
Thanks!
Yes, do have an alarm. Figured out blue is red and blue/white is green, but now no dial tone.
Do you still have dial tone in the rest of the house?
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 7:02pm
Do you still have dial tone in the rest of the house?
Yes, but I now remember that several of the phones failed a few months ago and AT&T came out to do something with the wiring. Guess someone needs to look at the wiring at the workshop too.
Why not look at how it's wired now. I'm sure there are only 2 of the 20 wires attached to the socket. Same for the plug.
mrvette
02-01-2011, 8:34pm
Red and green have about 48 volts talk DC voltage on them, and the ring voltage is a superimposed 78? VAC signal at 20 hz.....
USED TO BE, anyway...but that olde tyme crap is so far outta date now, hard for me to say what the new standards are....
but know one thing, your phone will NOT WORK of the red/green are wired backwards.....
it is a balanced circuit.....there is no grounding....except back at the input to the house....
I can explain it to you, but if you have more troubles, email me, and I can ask my ATT worker in the EE dept who is a neighbor across the street, we drink beer together.....so no sweat.....
I am quoting from the olde tyme pushbutton 2500 desk set daze yet....
only been 40 years, they well could have updated to something else by now, but I BET what I said is still correct....
:o_o::cheers:
OH, later houses were wired with maybe 6? line capability....so you had the pairs as blue-blu/wh, red-red/wh, green-gn/wh.......the indicator colors were the equivalent of RED the white trace as green..... on your hookup.....should be anyway...
so then you could run olde tyme office phone with a bunch of lines on it,
the really old shit was as you see in your modular plugs RG/BKWH....
sometimes used as line one or line 2 back when....
lspencer534
02-01-2011, 8:47pm
Red and green have about 48 volts talk DC voltage on them, and the ring voltage is a superimposed 78? VAC signal at 20 hz.....
USED TO BE, anyway...but that olde tyme crap is so far outta date now, hard for me to say what the new standards are....
but know one thing, your phone will NOT WORK of the red/green are wired backwards.....
it is a balanced circuit.....there is no grounding....except back at the input to the house....
I can explain it to you, but if you have more troubles, email me, and I can ask my ATT worker in the EE dept who is a neighbor across the street, we drink beer together.....so no sweat.....
I am quoting from the olde tyme pushbutton 2500 desk set daze yet....
only been 40 years, they well could have updated to something else by now, but I BET what I said is still correct....
:o_o::cheers:
OH, later houses were wired with maybe 6? line capability....so you had the pairs as blue-blu/wh, red-red/wh, green-gn/wh.......the indicator colors were the equivalent of RED the white trace as green..... on your hookup.....should be anyway...
so then you could run olde tyme office phone with a bunch of lines on it,
the really old shit was as you see in your modular plugs RG/BKWH....
sometimes used as line one or line 2 back when....
:rep:
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