BT master socket connection problems

[jimjiminyjimjim]

I have just moved into a new flat. The builder was in plastering recently and removed the telephone socket. I thought I would be able to connect my own socket and bought one from B&Q. I got the line connected by BT and the number now rings but I can't get the socket to work.

This is the set up - above the flat is a grey wire with four colour wires inside blue, orange, brown and green. There is a junction box outside the front door. Inside this the orange and blue wires are then joined directly (there are no other components in the box just connections and the brown and green don't seem to be used) to a new wire that has another blue and orange wire and also a White/blue and White/orange wires that are curently unused. This line then runs into the flat and I presume that this connectedto the master socket that I now missing.

I have bought both a master socket and a secondary socket in order to get this to work but with no sucess. From my understanding all that should be required is to connect the blue and orange wires to pins 2 and 5? I just don't seem to be able to get a dialtone.

Could anyone offer any advice on this or some methods for diagnosing the problem as I really don't want to call out a BT engineer at a high price. Any helpuch appreciated thank you!!

 

[bigzed]

If I read your post correctly, then the actual wires you want to be connecting to pins 2 and 5 of the master socket you have provided are as follows :-
The actual blue and orange wires you speak of are actually blue with white rings and orange with white rings.
As long as there are no other sockets between your new master socket and the incoming wires you speak of, the colours you need to connect are Blue with white rings to pin 2 and white with blue rings to 5.

If this works ok but the phone doesn't actually ring, then there will be another socket somewhere in between and this will be the master.

In this case, you also need to connect the orange wire with white rings to pin 3 in the socket and you will also not need the new master socket as a normal extension socket will suffice.

Just re-read your post and realised I didn't read it correctly If you have correctly identified the junction box wiring then the Blue with white rings and the orange with white rings that currently enter your flat should indeed connect to pins 2 and 5. If the phone still doesn't work, then unless you are willing to do a little detective work to see if you can locate the faulty section of wiring, your only recourse will be to call out BT, or we can try to talk you through finding out where the problem will lie.

First thing to try is to connect a Multimeter across the connected pairs in the junction box above the door to see if you get 50V DC, this will at least prove that there are conditions present from the exchange.

You have to remember that just because the phone line can be heard ringing when you call it from another line, doesn't mean that the actual equipment is connected and working OK. ( this is called ringing to a disconnection )

 

[jimjiminyjimjim]

wow thanks for the quick reply. I don't think I made myself particularly clear - sorry!

The blue and orange wires of the four entering the junction box are the only wires connected (the green and brown are folded back out of the way and unused) and coming out of the junction they are also the only wires connected of the wire containing the orange/White and blue/White wires - these have been folded back out of the way.

So from what I can see the only wires in play are the solid blue
and solid orange wires directly connected through a junction box. Do you think I need to connect any other wires? Do I check the voltage across each and see if I get 50v dc?

Thanks for your help.

 

[bigzed]

What I understood from your original post was that you had mistakenly identified the wiring colours as a solid blue,solid orange, white with orange and white with blue. This would make a four-core cable but with that colour range has never been used. Are you sure that there is only one cable entering the JB and only one cable leaving ? It could also be that it is a very cheap, tacky cable where the white rings are hardly visible on the cores where the blue and orange are the main colour.

The newer colours present in standard 'phone cable are :-

blue/white rings
orange/white rings
green/white rings
white/blue rings
white/orange rings
white/green rings

That is for the three-pair cable, the two-pair cable only uses the blue and orange colours but follows the same standard of construction.

The older cable ( orange/blue/green/brown ) sounds correct. The orange/blue pair was used for the a and b leg of the incoming line, the green wire was the bell feed in extensions such as the old plan1A & the brown wire was used as a bell shunt wire to avoid bell tinkle from the other extensions when using the old rotary dial. ( amongst other options with other plan sets )

As you can see from the above list, what you have quoted appears to be a mix of the two colour codes, which has never happened, hence me asking if there are more than two cables in the JB.

On the older cable, there should be 50V DC across the orange and blue cores if the line is live from the exchange. If you then connect these up to whatever colour you wish in the old junction box you speak of, this 50V should also be present at the end of this cable, where you want to fit the master socket. If it isn't there, the cable is probably damaged. You can then try the other cores, to see if you can get the 50V at the socket end. If you can get the 50V, your phone should then be OK once connected to the socket.

Pics would be nice if possible.

 

[JOHNBOY42]

Can you ring out?? was the line working fine until the builder came in ?has the socket from b+q got a capacitor in ?........if the line was working fine before it will be the new socket that will not ring as no capacitor,or maybe the wiring has been damaged...try these options first as openreach will charge you about £120 just for a callout and then a hourly rate,and if wiring is damaged charge you for the new wire also

 

[JOHNBOY42]

Also forgot to mention,you have the old coloured wiring the orange and blue wires are you live pair and the other two wires are spare

 

[Atilla]

check how you terminated the cable in the master socket - cheap plastic push tool ?

 

[jimjiminyjimjim]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I'm really impressed with the response to the post in these forums.

I have included a diagram because I am not at the flat at the moment - but I do have an image of the master socket oddly enough.

I have labeled the points in the diagram with letters (to avoid confusion with the number convention already in use) because I'm going to get hold of a multimeter and test the line voltage tomorrow. Which points should I test the voltage across?

In answer to the other questions - the master socket does have a capictor and it also has screw points rather than the push type tools.

Untitled

• jimjiminyjimjim
• 8 Apr 2008
• 2

Untitled

• jimjiminyjimjim
• 8 Apr 2008
• 1

One other thing that has been suggested to me is that when I connect the wires to the socket it might not necessarily just work. I should also try ringing the number because it can kick the line into life? Is this true?

 

[plugwash]

set your multimeter to DC voltage and stick it accross the two wires that come in from outside. Connect the negative side to 2 and the postive side to 5.

there should be a voltage of just under 50V, if there isn't then the line is dead or you have the wrong pair of wires (I would try all combinations in the outside cable if the two that are already wired inside don't work).