OBiTALK Community

General Support => New to Using the OBi / VoIP => Topic started by: Agent88 on January 22, 2015, 01:53:17 PM

Title: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: Agent88 on January 22, 2015, 01:53:17 PM
I presently have my 110 set up to use GV on SP1 and I can make and receive calls using my GV account using an analog phone connected to the phone port, but when I connect an RJ11 cable from the line port to a wall jack (ATT is PSTN), all phones on the wall jack loop go off-hook.  The obvious result is that I cannot use my house phones because they then all indicate "extension in use".  To restore my PSTN phones, I must disconnect the RJ11 cable from the Obi110 to the wall jack.  Support can't figure out why, so I am giving up on this scenario and want to do this:

I wish to drop my PSTN (ATT) and want my Obi110 to connect all (GV/Voip) calls to my house phones on that disconnected line that my wall jacks are on.  (I assume ATT will disconnect the service at the NID).  Will the Obi110 provide dial tone/voice service or does the line port require an active PSTN connection?  If I don't need PSTN service, how do I set up the Obi110 to supply voice service to my house phones?
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: drgeoff on January 22, 2015, 02:43:59 PM
An OBi110 will provide VoIP service(s) without anything connected to its LINE port.

If you already have VoIP service(s) working to a phone plugged in to the 110's PHONE port you have no more configuration to do. Just connect that port to your house wiring after ensuring that the wiring is completely disconnected from the PSTN.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: 202Owner on January 22, 2015, 03:18:35 PM
Do not connect the OBi phone jack to your house telephone wiring/wall jacks while that circuit is energized by/connected to the outside landline.  Disconnect the house telephone wiring from the outside landline first at the demarcation point (NID).  Leave the earth ground protection connected to the outside landline, if possible.

For reference, here is the house telephone wiring standard:
4-conductor pair1 line1 ring, tip:  Red, Green (~48vdc, 0vdc/gnd)
4-conductor pair2 line2 ring, tip:  Yellow, Black
6-conductor RJ-11 plug (outside contacts 1 and 6 are not used):  |1|B|R|G|Y|6|---|1|Y|G|R|B|6| (reverses end-to-end)

With 4-conductor wiring and duplex wall jacks, I like to wire the top jack for L1/L1+L2 and the bottom jack for L2.  This gives good flexibility.  A single 4-conductor phone cord will connect a typical 2-line phone to the top jack.  Otherwise, the top jack connects line1 and the bottom jack connects line2.  The OBi202 is wired similarly... PHONE1 jack is L1/L1+L2; PHONE2 jack is L2 only... a single 4-conductor phone cord from the OBi PHONE1 jack to the top wall jack gets it done.

The OBi supplies the dial tone to your phones.

The OBi PHONE jack is rated REN5... each ringing phone presents a REN load... add these up to get the total ringer loading.  A modern phone is typically less than REN 1.  You can always turn some ringers OFF, if not needed.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: Agent88 on January 22, 2015, 04:59:14 PM
Thanks for the feedback, gents.  Interesting comments... I went through this a little over a year ago in a similar situation in my vacation home.  I was told that I needed an Obi100, that the Obi110 would not work.  I bought a 100 which worked for about a year before it quit.  I replaced it with a 200.

I also have an Obi202, which I use for my business phones, so together I have 4 Obi devices.  The 110 just doesn't seem to work as advertised, at least in my setting.

I recently decided to modify my home setup.  Since I kept the 110, I set it up with a GV account which has been working fine as a standalone without connection to my house wiring for some time. When I recently tried to connect my house wiring to the line port I discovered it places all extensions in an off-hook state.  I was frustrated at the feeble attempt Obi support made when I made a ticket request to find out why.  I had hoped someone here on the forum would venture a guess as to why this occurs.... oh well.

I gave up trying to get the line port to work and decided to drop the PSTN/POTS local voice service and thought I would do the next best thing, which I know works.  YES, I know not to hook the phone port to the house wiring prior to deactivation of the phone company connection.

I wired my house phones over 20 years ago when I used a 2-line key system similar to what 202Owner described. One thing I forgot about is my alarm system is wired to a RJ31 but has been disconnected ever since I terminated the alarm hookup.  It may be that I need to remove the wires from this jack even though it is not in use.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: SteveInWA on January 22, 2015, 05:13:41 PM
This sounds like a wiring error in your house wiring.  Don't use the LINE port on the OBi (it's only to connect a POTS line to the 110) -- As has been explained previously, don't rely on AT&T - they might just shut off service at their end.  For safety and for surge protection, physically disconnect the two wires on the NID (Network Interface Device or point of demarcation) coming in from the telco.  Then, plug a cord from the PHONE port on the OBi to the house wiring at any working RJ-11 jack.  You should get a dial tone on every phone plugged into the house wiring, if you have correctly wired the line 1 pair to the center 2 conductors.

Unplug any phone plug from the female RJ31X jack, or else it will open the circuit, thus cutting off all the downstream connections.  If you are no longer using it for alarm monitoring, then just get rid of the jack and correctly connect the inbound and outbound phone wires together.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: Rick on January 23, 2015, 05:26:54 AM
The confusion here is in what you're trying to accomplish and the ports you are using.  The 110 is designed to both power telephones in your home and use your existing PSTN line.

To use the PSTN line, you need to connect the LINE port directly to the PSTN feed where it comes into your home BEFORE it goes off to the rest of the outlets in the home.  That gives the OBi the outside line it wants.  In doing this, you will want to ensure that the phone line ends there - i.e. it does NOT go on to feed the rest of the phone outlets in your house, i.e. you need to break the connection.

You can then connect the PHONE port of the OBi 110 to any phone jack in the house, and this will power all the phone jacks and work fine.  

If you're not going to use a PSTN line, then as others have said simply disconnect it in the phone box and plug the PHONE port of the OBi 110 into any phone jack in the house.

If you are going to keep the PSTN and want to hook to the PSTN somewhere near a phone outlet instead of where the PSTN comes into the home (likely your basement), you can verify that only the RED/GREEN wires are hot at each outlet and that YELLOW/BLACK are dead.  If so, then go down where the PSTN line connects to your house wiring and switch it to connect to YELLOW/BLACK.  Then, where you want to plug the OBi LINE port in, change that outlet to YELLOW/BLACK (or by putting a two outlet receptacle in, one is RED/GREEN and the other is YELLOW/BLACK and labeling them PSTN and PHONES).  Plug the LINE port into YELLOW/BLACK and plug the PHONE port into RED/GREEN.  This will power all the phones in your home AND hook the PSTN to the OBi 110.

I ended up putting my OBi 110 in the basement, on a wall by the PSTN feed, and it then feeds the rest of the house.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: 202Owner on January 23, 2015, 05:55:00 AM
Quote from: Agent88 on January 22, 2015, 04:59:14 PM
When I recently tried to connect my house wiring to the line port I discovered it places all extensions in an off-hook state.

The OBi LINE jack is an FXO port for connecting to an outside PSTN landline.

The OBi PHONE jack is an FXS port for connecting a phone or multiple phones via your house telephone wiring.

If a single connected phone works, then confirm that your house wiring is correct.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: Agent88 on January 23, 2015, 08:01:07 AM
I agree with you guys that my phone wiring may be the issue, it's just that all wall jacks work for a standard telephone.  However, the Obi products must not like the Yellow/Black lines wired to provide a second line, even if it is not active.  I used to have a key system that used this scheme to provide two lines over one jack.  I have not used this key system in many years and never went back and re-wired the punch-down block where the NID connected to my house wiring.

Since my house phones have worked fine for several years, I didn't think this would be an issue.  It wasn't until I attempted to plug my 110 line port into the house wiring that I discovered that it may be the source of my problem.  I will check it out.

edit: Rick... you sound like you know of what you speak.  However, why would there be a requirement for the line from the Obi110 to connect to the Telco feed prior to the house wiring?  No mention of this is made in the Obi literature.  If you are correct, then Obihai needs to make this prominent on their instructions.

further edit:  Let me describe my wiring:  I have a home-run with low-pass filter from my NID to my Uverse Gateway.  I have a separate feed from the NID to a punchdown block that all wall jacks are connected to.  (My home alarm system is disconnected)  ATT provides local voice service and Uverse provides HSI.

Steve in WA:  This is exactly what I intended to do because I couldn't use the line port at this point.  This is how I wired my vacation home in a distant state using an Obi200.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: SteveInWA on January 23, 2015, 03:34:56 PM
Quote from: Agent88 on January 23, 2015, 08:01:07 AM
I agree with you guys that my phone wiring may be the issue, it's just that all wall jacks work for a standard telephone.  However, the Obi products must not like the Yellow/Black lines wired to provide a second line, even if it is not active.  I used to have a key system that used this scheme to provide two lines over one jack.  I have not used this key system in many years and never went back and re-wired the punch-down block where the NID connected to my house wiring.

Since my house phones have worked fine for several years, I didn't think this would be an issue.  It wasn't until I attempted to plug my 110 line port into the house wiring that I discovered that it may be the source of my problem.  I will check it out.

edit: Rick... you sound like you know of what you speak.  However, why would there be a requirement for the line from the Obi110 to connect to the Telco feed prior to the house wiring?  No mention of this is made in the Obi literature.  If you are correct, then Obihai needs to make this prominent on their instructions.

further edit:  Let me describe my wiring:  I have a home-run with low-pass filter from my NID to my Uverse Gateway.  I have a separate feed from the NID to a punchdown block that all wall jacks are connected to.  (My home alarm system is disconnected)  ATT provides local voice service and Uverse provides HSI.

Steve in WA:  This is exactly what I intended to do because I couldn't use the line port at this point.  This is how I wired my vacation home in a distant state using an Obi200.

You said:

Quote
I wish to drop my PSTN (ATT) and want my Obi110 to connect all (GV/Voip) calls to my house phones on that disconnected line that my wall jacks are on.  (I assume ATT will disconnect the service at the NID).  Will the Obi110 provide dial tone/voice service or does the line port require an active PSTN connection?  If I don't need PSTN service, how do I set up the Obi110 to supply voice service to my house phones?

Therefore, I assume you will not be using a traditional PSTN telephone service, and thus, Rick must have misunderstood your issue.  In your desired configuration, there is no reason to connect the LINE port on the OBi to anything, since it's only used to connect an external phone service into the OBi.
Title: Re: Help needed for 110 setup
Post by: Agent88 on January 23, 2015, 05:56:56 PM
Yes, I have given up trying to get the line port to work, so I might as well drop the PSTN service and its cost. I had originally kept the copper line for two reasons: phone service during power outage and fax.  With cell phones, the first issue is minimal, and with the success of the OBi202 and T.38, the fax issue is gone.

In the meantime, I had this 110 not being used so I kept messing around trying to find out how it was supposed to work because it did not seem to work as advertised.  So little is explained by Obihai, and the forum surfing takes so long, I decided to ask questions.  (I had time to kill while waiting on my PSTN number to port and I just couldn't leave it be....  ;D ) I need to port my home number that I have had for over 30 years because everyone in the family has this number.

I did discover, thanks to all of you, that I need to update/re-wire my home phone system.  Might as well use this opportunity to get it done.