# Interesting Telco switches



## glorycloud (Jan 17, 2018)

I picked up some gear from a Telco and these two switches were in the lot.
The reeds themselves are not magnetic but there is a miniscule contact
point on some of the reeds that is magnetic. Way too small for me to get
a good picture of with my cell phone. 







Anyone familiar with switches like these? Are those tiny magnetic contact 
points PM of some sort?

T H A N K S ! ! !


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 17, 2018)

Yeah, I am. I took a ton of those apart once and one of the members here on the forum bought all those reeds from me. Turned out they were nothing. I don't know how you could search out the post, but it was on here.


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 17, 2018)

Found it for you.

http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=8538&p=79637&hilit=reeds#p79637


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## snoman701 (Jan 17, 2018)

They are tiny bits of silver. Most likely out of a phone exchange rack. I had some, ended up not being worth it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## glorycloud (Jan 17, 2018)

Now that saved me a lot of time with the electric screwdriver. :lol: 

Thanks!


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## Aristo (Jan 17, 2018)

Resembles the old step by step. Some may have silver contacts and some may have palladium contacts. I have seen gold contacts as well, but on older switches.


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## anachronism (Jan 17, 2018)

silversaddle1 said:


> Yeah, I am. I took a ton of those apart once and one of the members here on the forum bought all those reeds from me. Turned out they were nothing. I don't know how you could search out the post, but it was on here.



Well you were very trusting there. 

There's a visual way to identify the material on each contact without chemically testing them.


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## snoman701 (Jan 17, 2018)

anachronism said:


> silversaddle1 said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, I am. I took a ton of those apart once and one of the members here on the forum bought all those reeds from me. Turned out they were nothing. I don't know how you could search out the post, but it was on here.
> ...



You put that out there like the teaser at the end of the season finale.

So? What's the visual way?


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## anachronism (Jan 17, 2018)

Not a chance in hell. Let someone else throw that one out there with pleasure but for all the treatment and crap I get on here I think I already share more than enough. 

Anyone else wanna share that one? Feel free.


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## snoman701 (Jan 17, 2018)

anachronism said:


> Not a chance in hell. Let someone else throw that one out there with pleasure but for all the treatment and crap I get on here I think I already share more than enough.
> 
> Anyone else wanna share that one? Feel free.



Hey, I haven't given you crap in ages...or at least days.

Are there contacts like this that are an Ag/Pd alloy?


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## g_axelsson (Jan 17, 2018)

Am I missing something here? Are you calling the plug panels for reeds?

As far as I know, reed relays or reed switches are two thin metal blades enclosed in a glass tube and switched with a magnet or a magnetic field from a coil wound around the switch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_relay

Göran


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 17, 2018)

Well that's what ATT called them if I remember correctly. Reeds.


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## UncleBenBen (Jan 17, 2018)

anachronism said:


> Let someone else throw that one out there



I'll take a stab at it. I may or may not be right but...

I plucked an ounce worth of Pd contacts from older reed relays not long ago. I noticed that the Pd contacts weren't burned like the silver ones of similar construction. They were more worn down and there were many that had a blue tint to them from the heat.

Am I close?


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## scrappappy (Jan 20, 2018)

I'm very familiar with these. They're called DSX (or more specifically DSX-1) patch panels. They were used to connect two copper T1 circuits together. Basically the old voice switches would all be wired to these patch panels and they would be a copper cross-connect where you could connect it over to another piece of equipment and it would also be a test point in the middle.
Not much in the way of PM's to my knowledge. It was just for electrical connectivity between the incoming and outgoing copper lines.
Here's the patch cord that would make the cross-connect between two ports on the front.
http://www.telexpressinc.com/pcat_lvl3_0.aspx?index=00125973
Hope this helps.


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## scrappappy (Jan 20, 2018)

If you're looking for a spec sheet, the one you have was called an ABC panel in the industry because they had the removable modules on the front. The modules were labeled A, B and C by the manufacturer. Pretty sure the manufacturer was ADC Telecommunications.. they went under during the Fiber transition about a decade ago I think.


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