113 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
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The
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P A R T Y B O X
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---------------------
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Ever wanted three-way calling without having to pay for it? Wanted to
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connect two phone conversations at once, without any static or excess wiring,
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or even having two phone lines? Ever gone beige boxing and wanted to connect
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two operators (or anyone!) but didn't have the necessary stuff with you? The
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party box fixes them all!
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First off, go to your local Radio Shack and pick up the following
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parts:
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(1) DPDT slide switch (all you need is DPST, but DPDTs are easy to get)
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(2) Modular phone jacks
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(4) Alligator clips
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Some wire (doesn't matter what kind)
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For the modular jacks, if you get the kind that look like a box with
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the back open, it makes a nice looking party box when you stick them together.
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Assembly:
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Take four lengths of wire, and strip the ends about 1/4" on both ends
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of the wire. Connect two wires to the red and green terminals on one phone
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jack, and two wires to the red and green terminals on the other phone jack (so
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you've used all four pieces of wire). Connect to the other ends of each wire a
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red or green alligator clip (down at Radio Shack they sell some nice ones with
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color coded insulator sleeves. Get these, it's REAL important that you know
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the red ends from the green). If you do this right, you'll have a red and
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green aligator clip on each of the two phone jacks, connected to the wires. By
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this time, you should not have any wire end loose; they should all be connected
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to SOMETHING.
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Now, if you've been paying attention and you know your boxes, you'll
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recognize the two pieces of equipment you've just assembled as beige boxes.
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That's all they are, really, is beige boxes.
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Here's what makes those two beige boxes into a single party box. Take
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four more short (like 1.5") lengths of wire, and strip all the ends to about
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1/4". First connect one side of each wire to a contact on the DPDT or DPST
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switch. Just make sure it's the right switch. For DPST, you won't have a
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problem, but for DPDT, make sure the switch looks like this when the wires are
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connected:
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*-**-* -
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*-**-* -
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It's doesn't really matter which side you connect the wires to, just
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make sure that at least two of them are in the middle. The wires are connected
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to the terminals surrounded by asteriks (*). Solder each connection carefully
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to make sure it's a good one that won't fall off, and make sure none of the
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wires are touching each other!! If they do you've got a short circuit and the
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box won't work!
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Here's the tricky part. Take the bottom two wires (looking at the DPDT
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switch from the bottom, so it looks like the above picture) and connect each
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one to the red terminal on the phone jacks. One wire to each jack. Then, take
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the top two wires and connect one to the green terminal on each phone jack.
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Again, one wire to each jack. Screw down all the terminals good and tight. If
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you've done this correctly, there should be two wires leading to each red and
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green terminal on the two phone jacks. Set the switch so it's in the off
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position. It's off when only the middle terminals of the switch are covered,
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or so that the switch is on the side where there aren't any wires coming to the
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terminals there. Just make sure it's in the beige mode. Your box is now
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built.
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(This is if you used the jacks I suggested at the top of the file.) To
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make it look pretty, you can cut away a portion of the plastic surrounding one
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of the jacks so that the switch will fit nicely in the place you cut away.
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Also cut away a small half-circle on the bottom of the surrounding plastic to
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feed the wires out of (the ones with the alligator clips, not the ones leading
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to the switch). Once these two things are done, and the switch is screwed down
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securely, tape it all up, super-glue, who cares. It doesn't matter; just so it
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stays together.
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Once all this is done, here's a few things I like to do to make things
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easy. Put a small dot of white paint in the lower part of the switch, so that
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when it's on the paint shows. This is easy to do. Also you might want to know
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which line you're using for each box. Just put a glob of a different colored
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paint on each side of the party box, and put the same color paint on the wires
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leading out of that side of the box.
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Use:
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When used in beige box mode (so that the switch is off), the party box
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will operate just like two beige boxes. There are totally, 100% separate from
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each other, and the conversations don't get crossed.
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However, when used in the party box mode, the party box connects both
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lines to each other, essentially connecting all four people to the same line.
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Everyone can hear each other, and there is little or no static created by doing
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this. It's works great for connecting anyone together, and all that's needed
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is each beige box connected to an output device ("Bell Can"), and the switch in
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the party mode position. See a file on beige boxing for detained info on what
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to do while boxing, etc, or how to connect to a Bell Can.
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Schematic:
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This is a really easy box, but someone might want a schematic, so
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here's one:
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<--- to one phone jack to the other phone jack --->
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--------------------------- __/ -----------------------------
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(red [ring] wire) | __/! | (red [ring] wire)
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------------------------- O/ !_/ O ---------------------------
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(green [tip] wire) | __/ | (green [tip] wire)
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| O/ O |
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| | | |
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--- ---
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It's a really bad schematic, but the little things in the middle are
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supposed to represent the switch in the off posistion, and the exclamation
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points just mean it's a DPST switch that doesn't connect the top and the bottom
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termials. The (-) and the (|) are supposed to be the wire.
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