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OBI 100 going to "sleep"

Started by Mainer, September 03, 2015, 03:05:43 PM

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Mainer

I'm using google voice.  The majority of the time, when I go off hook with a phone, I get no dialtone.  I have to go onhook/offhook several times before I finally get dialtone and am able to make a call. 

It does this after not using for a while.  I've not timed it as to how long it needs to be though.  Overnight definitely, could be less.

SteveInWA

Never a dull moment here at the OBiTALK forum, with weird bugs.  I can't think of any Googley-related reason that would happen.  It's likely that your OBi box or its power supply are failing.

Are you using more than one OBi device?  If so, which model number(s)?

drgeoff

If you have not already done so,  try another phone before looking for a more complex cause. I've come across at least one case of a sticking hook switch which did not always activate. Just a 'mechanical' problem which was fixed by a good clean of the moving parts. Switch internals were fine. 

Mainer

Yeah, it's happening across a range of wireless phones connected to a base station so it's not a physical problem.

It's a brand new OBI-100, I just replaced a 110 that was dead (three years old) and this was happening on the old one too.

I did just try disabling the SIP ALG in my firewall (edgerouter lite), it may have been killing SIP sessions after a period of time.  We'll see.

drgeoff

#4
Quote from: Mainer on September 04, 2015, 06:16:20 AM
Yeah, it's happening across a range of wireless phones connected to a base station so it's not a physical problem.

It's a brand new OBI-100, I just replaced a 110 that was dead (three years old) and this was happening on the old one too.

I did just try disabling the SIP ALG in my firewall (edgerouter lite), it may have been killing SIP sessions after a period of time.  We'll see.
ALG and SIP sessions are totally irrelevant to the problem you describe. A powered up  OBi should always give dial tone when a plugged-in phone is taken off-hook.  Even without any providers registered,  even without an ethernet cable plugged in never mind having a working connection to anything on your LAN or on the WAN.

That it was happening on the old 110 and now on a new 100 is a very strong hint that the cause is not the OBis.

If it isn't the OBis and you have tried more than one phone base-station,  there isn't much left except the wiring between the two. Is it a short direct cable or for example via the house's phone wiring?

Mainer

It's a short ethernet cable to my switch, and a short phone cable to my homes phone wiring - a 110 block.

It doesn't seem like it could be wiring, once it's up my wife can talk for hours on end with her sister with nary an issue and no voice quality issues.  It's only once it's been idle for a while that there's an issue.  I'll need to be a bit more methodical about how long, and checking the ObiHai status first.

OzarkEdge

Quote from: Mainer on September 04, 2015, 11:00:17 AM
It's a short ethernet cable to my switch, and a short phone cable to my homes phone wiring - a 110 block.

It doesn't seem like it could be wiring, ...

Given you've swapped the OBi, that leaves the cabling and phone(s).  I would remove the house telephone wiring and wire the OBi directly to a good/simple phone.  Or if you can, disconnect ~half of the house wiring to possibly remove the problem wiring.

OE

drgeoff

Quote from: Mainer on September 04, 2015, 11:00:17 AM
It's a short ethernet cable to my switch, and a short phone cable to my homes phone wiring - a 110 block.

It doesn't seem like it could be wiring, once it's up my wife can talk for hours on end with her sister with nary an issue and no voice quality issues.  It's only once it's been idle for a while that there's an issue.  I'll need to be a bit more methodical about how long, and checking the ObiHai status first.
It is entirely possible you have an intermittent high resistance fault on your house wiring which causes off-hook current to fall below the threshold that an OBi recognises as being off-hook.

Temporarily wire a base station or an ordinary phone directly to the OBi and see if the fault still occurs.

SteveInWA

#8
Quote from: drgeoff on September 04, 2015, 04:04:48 PM
Quote from: Mainer on September 04, 2015, 11:00:17 AM
It's a short ethernet cable to my switch, and a short phone cable to my homes phone wiring - a 110 block.

It doesn't seem like it could be wiring, once it's up my wife can talk for hours on end with her sister with nary an issue and no voice quality issues.  It's only once it's been idle for a while that there's an issue.  I'll need to be a bit more methodical about how long, and checking the ObiHai status first.
It is entirely possible you have an intermittent high resistance fault on your house wiring which causes off-hook current to fall below the threshold that an OBi recognises as being off-hook.

Temporarily wire a base station or an ordinary phone directly to the OBi and see if the fault still occurs.

I agree with Geoff, but to put it more accurately, it would be a low impedance condition, likely caused by two of the house wires shorting together somewhere, possibly in a wall.  This is pretty common, caused by things like a contractor who shot a nail or staple through the house wiring, or a rodent that chewed on the insulation, and it could take years to show up.

You may be able to see this for yourself:  don't pick up the phone.  Instead, log onto the OBi (either via the portal or its local web page), and go to Expert mode, Status --> PHONE status.  Look at the voltage and current.

If the wiring is good, it should say "On Hook, the current should be 0ma or at worst, 1 or 2ma, and the TipRing voltage should be around 45V.  If the wiring is defective, the status will show "Off Hook", the current will be higher (perhaps as much as 20ma), and the voltage much lower, around 6V.

Of course, you can also look at the phone LED on the OBi.  When it's on-hook, it is lit steadily, and when it's off-hook, it blinks slowly.

Note:  these values were taken from an OBi 200 and a 202, so your 100 model may have slightly different numbers.

Like he said, disconnect your OBi from the house wiring completely, and instead, plug the cordless base station into the OBi with a known-good RJ-11 phone jumper cord.

Mainer

#9
Thanks Steve, that's some damn good info.  I'll do some experimenting.  Loop is 0ma and Voltage is 45v.  I'm going to move the obi upstairs right next to the phone and see what I get.   I should know better as a network engineer to eliminate layer 1 first.  Been bitten by that too many times.