OBiTALK Community

General Support => Installation and Set-Up (Devices) => Topic started by: wakko on February 14, 2011, 07:47:50 AM

Title: Line - not working?
Post by: wakko on February 14, 2011, 07:47:50 AM
I'm not exactly sure what i'm doing wrong, but when i plug the line to an RJ 11 jack in my house, the Line light doesn't turn on and in the advanced settings there is no current/power on it either.  I checked the box to enable and it still does nothing. Can someone let me know how to resolve this problem so i can use the existing telephone line in my house?

I've also updated to the latest firmware.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: Northern.Bob on February 14, 2011, 08:38:46 AM
Hmm, I've not heard of this problem before on this forum. If you unplug the telephone line from OBi unit and into a working telephone base, does the phone work? If not you have either a dead wall socket or a bad telephone cord. Switch both. If the phone does work, you probably have a defective OBi unit to send back.

Good Luck.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: wakko on February 14, 2011, 08:53:07 AM
by default is the Line suppose to power on (green light showing that its on)?
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: LeftRight on February 14, 2011, 09:16:13 AM
Besides the LED light, you may as well check the line status through browser:

Status -> PHONE & LINE status -> LINE port status,

and check "TipRingVoltage". It should be around -45V when it is ON-HOOK...

Anyway, you may check the connection using a regular phone, as Northern.Bob suggested, and lift phone off-hook and see if you can get dial tone first...
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: OBi-Guru on February 14, 2011, 11:39:27 AM
Have you tried to press # from your phone?  And if you hear another dial tone, then the connection to the wall jack (PSTN) might work, and try to dial a local number to see whether it works or not.

Additionally, make a call into that landline (PSTN) and see if your OBi rings or not?

Last to check, unplug the power to the OBi, and pick up the phone, if you hear dial tone, that means your connection to the landline is correct.  There is a relay on the OBi that would force a direct connection from the phone to the landline when the power is not applied.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: wakko on February 14, 2011, 07:04:57 PM
Parameter Name   Phone Port Status
State   On Hook
LoopCurrent   0 mA
VBAT   57 V
TipRingVoltage   45 V
LastCallerInfo   --


Line Port Status   
On Hook   
0 mA   

0 V   
--   

That's what it shows...  when it reboots the light on the line flicks on than quickly flicks off. I've tried plugging a phone into the line port and it's dead no dial tone.  is their a setting i need to fix in the config to get the line up and running or by default is it supposed to be on?

There is no telephone service to the hoouse.  So i plugged in the phone into the wall jack and there is no dial tone whatsoever....

Line settings are at default.
   Value   Default   
ACImpedance         
OnHookSpeed         
TipRingVoltageAdjust         
MinOperationalLoopCurrent         
CurrentLimitingEnable         
ChannelTxGain         
ChannelRxGain         
LineInUseVoltageThreshold         
LineInUseCurrentThreshold         
CallerIDDetectMethod         
DTMFPlaybackLevel         

just an fyi, the telephone jack on the device does work. I'm able to make calls out and receive calls. the line does not work. Anymore suggestions?  I'm really hoping this works as they are currently sold out.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: Northern.Bob on February 15, 2011, 01:36:58 AM
"In the U.S., FCC rules require every telephone that can access the network to be able to dial 9-1-1, regardless of any reason that normal service may have been disconnected (including non-payment) (This only applies to states with a Do Not Disconnect policy in place. Those states must provide a "soft" dial tone service. On wired (land line) phones, this usually is accomplished by a "soft" dial tone, which sounds normal but will allow only emergency calls."

You should have line voltage even without service.

If you're in a house where you can reach the demarcation point (where outside Telco wires enter the house) you should check to see if the house has been physically disconnected from the phone system. That would drop line voltage to zero. Otherwise you might have to call your Telco to come and trace the problem.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: srhuston on February 15, 2011, 04:29:05 AM
Quote from: Northern.Bob on February 15, 2011, 01:36:58 AM
"In the U.S., FCC rules require every telephone that can access the network to be able to dial 9-1-1, regardless of any reason that normal service may have been disconnected (including non-payment) (This only applies to states with a Do Not Disconnect policy in place. Those states must provide a "soft" dial tone service. On wired (land line) phones, this usually is accomplished by a "soft" dial tone, which sounds normal but will allow only emergency calls."

Emphasis mine.  The only information I could find on the states with such a policy was written 11 years ago, and there were only 18.  It also appears that the phone company's decision to disconnect can be based on whether or not the customer pays the local charges (ie, everything needed to present you a dial tone and allow incoming calls) so not having service at all doesn't necessarily mean you can still get a soft dial tone.  See here (http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/IAD/pntris99.pdf) (page 4 mostly).
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: wakko on February 15, 2011, 05:25:20 AM
Quote from: Northern.Bob on February 15, 2011, 01:36:58 AM
"In the U.S., FCC rules require every telephone that can access the network to be able to dial 9-1-1, regardless of any reason that normal service may have been disconnected (including non-payment) (This only applies to states with a Do Not Disconnect policy in place. Those states must provide a "soft" dial tone service. On wired (land line) phones, this usually is accomplished by a "soft" dial tone, which sounds normal but will allow only emergency calls."

You should have line voltage even without service.

If you're in a house where you can reach the demarcation point (where outside Telco wires enter the house) you should check to see if the house has been physically disconnected from the phone system. That would drop line voltage to zero. Otherwise you might have to call your Telco to come and trace the problem.

I did disconnect the lines outside as i didn't want to damage the obi device.  However, this does not seem to have any bearing if the Obi device is not showing a voltage in the first place? Is that a correct assumption?
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: MichiganTelephone on February 15, 2011, 07:38:05 AM
Quote from: wakko on February 15, 2011, 05:25:20 AMI did disconnect the lines outside as i didn't want to damage the obi device.  However, this does not seem to have any bearing if the Obi device is not showing a voltage in the first place? Is that a correct assumption?

::) You're kidding, right? ::)

To clarify — if you want to connect your inside wiring to your PHONE port (so that you can run all your inside jacks off the OBi) then yes, you must disconnect the PSTN line outside (http://mi-telecom.org/distribute.html).

BUT if you want to feed soft dial tone from the phone company to the LINE port of your OBi device (assuming you even have such a thing), then there has to be some way to bring that dial tone from the Network Interface to your OBi.

If you want to do both, then what you need to do is dedicate a spare pair in your wiring to bringing in the dial tone from your Network Interface.  If you are looking at these instructions (http://mi-telecom.org/distribute.html) then it would be very similar to hooking up a DSL modem on a separate pair that's connected to the phone company's line, while using a different pair to distribute dial tone from your OBi to the jacks inside your home.  But remember, you must never under any circumstances connect your OBi's PHONE port to a line with voltage from another source (such as the phone company) — only the LINE port is designed to be connected to a PSTN line.

Also keep in mind that your local telco may not even provide "soft" dial tone so before you do anything, you might want to plug a regular phone into the test jack on the Network Interface and see if you get dial tone there. If you don't, then you don't have anything to connect the LINE port to (unless you perhaps resort to something like using an old cell phone and a CellSocket or Dock-N-Talk (http://michigantelephone.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/review-of-the-obihai-obi110-voip-device-part-3-911-on-the-cheap/)).
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: wakko on February 15, 2011, 02:11:11 PM
I think I may need to clarify some of what i'm trying to accomplish and maybe someone can clarify if i'm in fact doing this right.

First, I do not have any telephone service currently.  I am trying to use the existing rj-11 jacks in the house with the Obi110 device.  To my understanding, all I needed to do to get this working was to use the LINE port from the obi110 and plug it into any wall jack (assuming all the rj-11 jacks are connected together somehow), and all the other RJ-11 jacks would be connected to the Obi110 device.  Am I supposed to use the PHONE port instead?

If I am wrong about this, please let me know.

Now i'm just wanting to find out if my Line port actually works? without a multi-meter type device how can I go about achieving this? 
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: biomesh on February 15, 2011, 02:13:48 PM
Yes, you need to use the Phone port for what you are trying to accomplish.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: MichiganTelephone on February 15, 2011, 02:16:55 PM
The LINE port is for connecting to a working phone line where you have service from a telephone company.  If you have totally disconnected your inside wiring from the phone company, as explained in the link I sent you in my previous post, then you can connect the PHONE port to one of your phone jacks to give dial tone from the OBi to all the other jacks in the house.  BUT DON'T DO THAT UNLESS YOU'RE 100% SURE YOU HAVE DISCONNECTED YOUR INSIDE WIRING FROM THE PHONE COMPANY, as explained in the link I sent you in my previous post.
Title: Re: Line - not working?
Post by: tomj on September 09, 2011, 06:49:23 PM
A thousand thank yous to Biomesh and Michtel for their answer to this problem.  I just switched from MJ and I could not get the jacks to work again, thanks a bunch !!    ;D