Battery back up for phone/answer combo?

BigEdMuustaffa

Golden Member
Jan 29, 2002
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It is very frustrating to have to reprogram everything into my phone/answering machine, caller Id etc., everytime there is a power outage which happens a lot in my area. The older phones used to have a batter like a single AAA for a back up to keep the programmed info in tact until the power came back on. Since my Panasonic (and most all others today) don't have this feature, doesn anyone know anything about making one for the transformer to plug into? Its like 9 volts DC at 300ma or something rediculously low voltage/amps, etc. What about using a capacitor? Something to hold a charge? Any ideas? I used to do the capicitor thing back in high school electronics but that's a long time ago, and I forgot most of that....
 

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Just get a really small UPS. You should be able to get one that will run it for at least a few hours for almost nothing on Ebay. I think I paid less than $20 shipped for a 300VA Conext (similar to APC) UPS on Ebay last year.
 

BigEdMuustaffa

Golden Member
Jan 29, 2002
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Thanks, for the replies, how long do you think a decent ups can keep the phone memory going? Mostly power is just interupted for less than an hour, other times (less frequently) it's out for several hours....
 

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I would get a very small UPS. Around 300VA should be plenty. It would probably last a few hours.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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alienbabeltech.com
My 350va UPS - free after MIR of course - will run my computer for about 10 minutes and the phone answering machine for days . . . consider that most battery back-ups in an answering machine only use 2-4 AAA batteries. The VCR's memory also draws very little power.