The Tape Loop Divert-A-Calls are finally working! - Telephone Tuesdays

[@philipneedham7486]

As part of the original design team I'm pleased the Divert-a-Calls still work

[@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE]

amazing! good to know! any schematics lying about perhaps ? where are you based. would love to hear about how it all worked, development and such

[@althejazzman]

This is such a brilliant working example of some well preserved technology. Incredible effort for making this work.

[@firenado4295]

The PCBs connect via little connectors like arduinos have. I have found alot of those units need to be taken apart and put together again and that sometimes fixes them as it makes a better connection. It could also be the paper cover falling off the EPROMs causing light to get in and erasing them over time. The memory is in the Motorola cpu chip. it has 32 bits of persistent ram built in that does work if there is no power but not for more than 6 months. The card reader is just a module that is completely backwards compatible with the tape versions, only connected to the rest of the unit via the motor power wire and the tap head audio output wire.

[@smudge0161]

You need to set up a Dial-a-Disc service. In Manchester in the 70s and 80s if you dialled 160 (the area code for Manchester but backwards) a record played from the charts. The record was changed each week, it was very popular when we were kids. God knows how it worked.

[@Nervejam]

We had that too, but I don't think it was 160. If you called it from a telephone box you got about 10 seconds before you needed to put money in, (016?) so it was like "name that tune"..

[@jackiechan8840]

I will make a pilgrimage to the museum at some point!

[@ArtisanASCII]

Diverters were the holy grail for phone phreaks. If you called a # and got diverted you could wait for the remote end to disconnect and you would get access to the remote end dial tone and could then make calls on it. In the US kids would do this and then start AT&T global conferences which would be charged to the remote line of a diverter. These conferences were prohibitively expensive. If a phone phreak found a company using banks of diverters like this they would have run up astronomical charges to that company! Often diverters were set up for after hours doctors offices calls would be diverted to a service that would answer calls for many different companies. You could tell the ones that had already been hit because the people answering the calls would be trained NOT to hang up and instead wait for the dialer to hang up. The trick then became how to convince / trick them into going against such training and hang up first. This is my first time seeing what they actually looked like. Thanks for posting!

[@tr606]

I bloody love Telephone Tuesdays ♥

[@jasongreene303]

This is a top 10 of the most motion sickness inducing videos on youtube. holy hell

[@MrMoon1ight]

какой же кайф видеть что вы ребята делаете со старым оборудованием :) надеюсь мы пройдем с вами путь от телефонов до интернет связи )

[@DetroitMicroSound]

Old Phone stuff is sooooo mad sciencey! Wow am I old. I remember when rotary phones were still everywhere, but finally becoming obsolete with more and more phones going push-button. 😄

[@Dwigt_Rortugal]

Set the little switch om the handset to "Pulse" or "Tone". The Fisher Price chatter phone was a rotary. The face on that little guy would fit right in in the museum.

[@earlfunkton2745]

Telephone and Rubber Band - Penguin Cafe Orchestra

[@gregaluise5727]

Yes!!!!!!! And "In the meantime" by Space hog! Throughout this whole video I'm singing Woo ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooooooooh (then the guitar part: 🎸 weahah eh ahyeeaaahh yeaaahh). "We love the all, the all of you.. Where lands are green and skies are blue.. When all in all, we're just like you...." Anybody else think of that one?

[@poofygoof]

we need some international (tunneled) trunks between connections museum in WA US and mum's exchange

[@KeritechElectronics]

"One moment, please.. Your reverse-engineering is being diverted."

[@Dwigt_Rortugal]

The DIVERT-A-CALL sounds like she's a kind soul. "This is Diverta Call. How may I be of assistance?"

[@dcallan812]

Interesting things I never thought about how the system worked when it was functional. Great to see the BT tower is going to get used as a hotel, I will be staying given the chance. Great video 2x👍

[@gonzo_the_great1675]

Of course you will set them up to divert to the next diverter. And get them to domino topple the call along!

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Check the last vid we chat about that idea and the actual issues with it :)

[@Dwigt_Rortugal]

I was immediately thinking of the same thing! It would be the Diversion Grapevine. I wonder if you could make a loop and get it started with a single call? It would be like the call center where no one knows how to accomplish something, and they keep forwarding the call until it's ping pong.

[@gcewing]

I don't think you could make it loop, because the first one would be busy when the last one tried to call it. But the last one could play what sounds like someone's answering machine message. "Hi, this is Sam, I'm busy in the museum right now, please call back in 6 months."

[@thomasamsterdam]

There were lubricated cassette tapes?

[@phillbrown3823]

Deep joy, well done chaps….

[@FrankJohnson-ye8lt]

Love the videos, it brings back lots of memories of my time as an exchange maintenance TO in the 60's. A question though. In your 'Tape Loop' video, I saw some grey boxes with a round window on a shelf. I recognise them but can't remember what they were. Perhaps you could enlighten me. Thanks.

[@hackmodular]

Cheers! They’re print check meters for monitoring the equipment if a customer thinks they’ve been charged too much

[@padders1068]

Great work Guys! 🤣🙂😎🤓❤

[@curtishoffmann6956]

"0:20 - I'm sorry, but they on hanging up!"

[@TurboTimsWorld]

Mitch, I've just watched another channel and they said that BT could "in the event of a nuclear attack BT could turn off 90% off customers from dialling out so the phone lines could be used by more official calls" is there a big red button on the museum's exchange to switch this priority system on just in case?

[@hackmodular]

Once we get that teleprinter wired into the pub to order drinks it should definitely be given priority ;)

[@hackmodular]

There isn’t a big red button but wire cutters would get the job done pretty quick!

[@john_smith1471]

Government Telephone Preference Scheme (GTPS). In a national or local emergency this is a facility that prevents exchange congestion by allowing predetermined customers only to make outgoing landline calls.

[@KIRBZVIDS]

Mentel i have seen a few of thease now mad seeing one work like that

[@chrismarquardt]

Much fun!

[@devttyUSB0]

Awesome stuff. The bloody thing wont even tell you it's not programmed a number in. Hahahah. Technology.

[@ingenfestbrems]

Non lubricated tape?? 😁

[@Andrew-rc3vh]

That's just what you need for a complaints department.

[@trex70]

The Telephon at the beginning sounds like the Telephon Pink Floyd used (forgot the Song. In 'The Wall'?) ((it is from the Wall))

[@stephencampbell9384]

Dudes, before you go mental, add a defeat switch for the mic on the monitor box :D Great vid

[@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE]

issue is, there is no mic, its the mic on the phone :D. its a loop. doh. we could have used a phone without a mic, but that takes far too much forward planning haha.

[@igfoobar]

Diverters were a great find during the peak of phone pheeaking in the 1980s. If you finessed it just right you could get an open line and make long distance calls at the diverter owner's expense.

[@hi-tech-guy-1823]

May be Magnetoresistive MRAM - ferroelectric RAM, or F-RAM (sometimes referred to as FeRAM). and need no battery These do degrade but takes a few years but a strong magnet (DC & AC motor) can wipe them instantly

[@gooneybird808]

holy shit this is cool!

[@sparkyprojects]

If they lose memory when turned off, whaat about a rechargeable battery pack just for those units Find out what they draw when not in use, might be a solution if you can't just back up the memory.

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

There is a permanent line for The master clock we will just wire them into that. Unless makes more sense to add small memory batteries directly to the chips storing the numbers

[@sparkyprojects]

@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Ah, i didn't realise you had a supply that you left on ;)

[@AMPProf]

BEST loops I heard in usa were Horoscope and Weather

[@timothyverbist5795]

Can you try to make a Telephone synthesizer?

[@TheBiggerburger]

When are you open again? I feel the need for another look!

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

been open every sunday :) except a couple end of march check site for open times

[@mickcoleman5396]

Check if the BT Archive have the diagram, I am going to visit thems for something else.I can ask?

[@VSteam81]

the beeping sounds in the intro remind me of being in a hospital

[@TheDavidPoole]

HEY SAM! I'd love a sample pack of all the electro-mechanical sounds that these machines make. Do you have one, or have you any plans for making one? Even the ambience in the room sounds great.

[@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE]

Here you go pal: this-museum-is-not-obsolete.com/store-1/p/telephone-exchange-sample-pack-osl002

[@TheDavidPoole]

@@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Fantastic! Im having that! Cheers ✌️

[@bnaivar]

Take the microphone element out of your telephone to get rid of the audio feedback when you call the system.

[@akshonclip]

That ringnote always reminds me of Pink Floyd Brick in the Wall

[@neonorange]

No cassette in the bottom right, wonder if that is an issue

[@HenryLoenwind]

If there was a cassette in the flash drive socket, now that would be a problem... ;) Bottom right is the one unit that's flash, not tape drive.

[@neonorange]

Definitely not an issue then, hahaha!

[@graemedavidson499]

How about an announcement by the speaking organ…

[@hackmodular]

ooh i like that idea

[@MrKrezol]

Put all the diverters on a diverter loop

[@meatpockets]

Hello, this is the United States calling, are we reaching? 0:04

[@Jimbaloidatron]

So can one divert to another to another to another.....? :-)

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

you can but as mentionned in the previous video it ends up using nearly all of the switches of the telephone exchange

[@abobymous]

In practical terms, what does it mean to have a call diverted? And why would the telco want the customer to know it is at no additional charge? :)

[@davidyates748]

One use case was when a business relocated but wanted to retain their original number for a period. These things pre- date number portability. The other was national sales businesses who wanted to appear to be local - rent a ddi and a divert-a-call, job done.

[@buidseach]

You could put in a eprom chip to store the memory so you don't need to keep it powered :)

[@rupe53]

well, considering these were probably powered by the office's batteries 24/7 they never needed anything else when in service.

[@Simple_But_Expensive]

Speaking of voltage sensitivity, I once had to deal with an opto isolator board that would shut down if voltage varied +/- .2 volts DC. Design engineers who do stuff like that deserve a special spot in hell.

[@spokehedz]

I found the number, but I don't know any of the codes to do anything. Dangit.

[@ProtoHadron]

the tones sound a bit like EAS signin and signout tones

[@SilvaD702]

Are you connected to cnet or anything similar?

[@wmrg1057]

When all else fails read the bloody manual 😅

[@davionwilliamson1524]

"We're idiots" Is Sam okay? Other dude saves the day and Sammy lumps him in as a "fellow idiot." Other dude even did a better job, communicating AND documenting the process. HOW MANY RELATIONSHIPS HAVE YOU DESTROYED from your need to be more hurtful than helpful, Mr. Bits and Bobs?

[@hackmodular]

Hey, other dude here 👋 no need to worry about me! Sam’s one of the most generous and supportive people I know. We just like to emphasize that we’re not formally trained engineers but it’s still ok to have a go at these things and have fun 👍

[@chrisprobert6]

Nice one... My landline is still BT. Haha It's a effin nite mare... Lol

[@Sir-Dexter]

sorry the number you just dialed .........sorry wrong tape .....

[@AdeDerby]

If all else fails - RTFM!!

[@andrewkepert923]

RT fudging M

[@ChromosomeSyndicate]

Complete kukuk 😂

[@swebigmac100]

Nice vid. To bad it was filmed with a potato

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

the best camera is always the one you have with you

[@NyghtsApocolypse]

FIRST

[@chupathingy5862]

Nice loop with the intro.

[@paulusthegrey]

Definitely RT*M :)