Odd Request

Hello community of my peers :) I have a question that hopefully somebody can answer. Yesterday after visiting my dad's house and installing a printer made in 1993 on his computer, he showed me several interesting and unusual electronic items and told me I could have something from the pile. Out of all the stuff there, the most useful thing I found was a video intercom thing, so that is what I took. It appears to have been made also in the early 90's.

My goal is to put it in my office area in the basement of my house, so that when I am down here, the other people living here can call me from upstairs instead of having to climb up and down them just to tell me something, or scream at the top of their lungs just to even alert me they need/want something.

The problem I'm encountering is that I can not find any documentation for the video phone anywhere on the internet, not even the company who made it or a picture or video or anything at all. I need schematics and detailed requirements to figure out how to wire it correctly so the call button works when it is pressed. I have the RJ-11 phone wire hooked up correctly between the call button and microphone/camera and the base phone with the monitor. The device shows video and transmits sound, but only when I initiate the call from the base station/monitor. If the call button is pressed, nothing happens at all and no call is started. The product was made in Malaysia and it appears that it was to be sold and used there as well. The box is only in Malaysian language, as well as the small 20 page manual that came with it, and even after using multiple online translators, I still have not gained any headway.

My question I guess I am asking is....how can I find information and specs on such an uncommon device? I figured computer people would know best, which is why I asked here. If it helps at all or if anybody wants to try to help me find technical information, it is made by a company called MEC (I'm assuming it means Malaysia(n) Electronic(s) Company) and the model is SDV-8000 series. The title of the device is a "Door Video Phone". I currently don't have a way to upload any pictures of the device, but the Base Station/Monitor looks identical to an office desk phone, but with only 2 buttons instead of numbers and it has a 3.5 inch CRT screen in the top right corner. It is an off-white color. The camera/call button part is black and has a small solid state black and white camera with IR sensors to see at night. It is about 5 inches wide and about 6 inches tall and maybe 3 inches deep.

I hope somebody can help me with my issue, as getting it to work fully functionally would be a really nice addition to my office to assist me in being even lazier lol. Please let me know if anybody is interested in helping. Thanks for reading this entirely too long post.

Steele

PS I hope that this isn't upsetting to anybody because it doesn't concern Windows, or even computers really....I just trust this site when I can't find answers on the internet myself. People are smart and knowledgeable and friendly here. Thanks

I do not have a camera handy at the moment, but I will do my best to explain....

There are no fuses. I think the problem has something to do with a ground wire on the talk/camera part. There is a screw that is in the bottom of it for something, and I think it needs a ground wire attached to it and a ground, and I don't know where to ground something out inside a house.

As far as the interface and wires, it uses simple phone line (RJ-11) and connectors very similar to the ones on the backs of really old analog CRT TV's to hook up the antenna. Its a screw that you back out a few turns, put a wire underneath the head of the screw, then tighten the screw on top of it. There are 4 wires and terminals on the back of the base station/monitor part, and upstairs on the camera/talk part, there are also 4 terminals to connect your RJ-11 to, in the same order as on the back of the base station. I have those connected and verified correct. I need to find out for sure if the little screw that I haven't figured out what it's for yet, is actually for a ground, and where to ground something out in a house.

Well, the problem I'm running into is this....the house I live in was built in 1919 and it has never been rewired....so this house doesn't have 3 wire plugs, or wires with 3 wires in them....just a black (gound) and white (hot) wires through out the whole house. I'll figure something out though eventually I guess. If it doesn't work, then oh well, no big deal I suppose.

I took the speaker/camera device apart to see if there was a ground inside of it, as it turns out, the screw is an adjustment for the angle of the camera lens. There are only 4 wire connections to be made on the back of that part. They are all hooked up correctly. It has to do something with the other 4 wires that come out of the base station itself, and also the DIP switch on the back of the base station. It's got 5 tiny on/off switches, and I dont know where they are supposed to be set, and I dont know what the other 4 wires do. I need to get a diagram, which brings us back to the original problem, there's no place to find it. I guess I'll toss it in the dumpster, its nothing more than a paper weight without proper functions.

I will try to borrow my buddy's camera here in a little bit and take pictures of everything I can. Hopefully pics can help somehow, but for some reason, I doubt it....anyways, will post them.