HOWTO: 1957 bell dial phone for call receive only OBI200

[darth458]

1) look inside the phone and make sure no wires are disconnected internally on the network box
2) tie the phone wire green to yellow when wiring the modular plug to the green wire
3) set the ringer to 85, 20 Hz
4) I set the RX/TX gain to 12,12  but after restart it was lowered to -4,-5  go figure
5) I opened the suggested TCP/UDP ports on router but do not know if it made a difference
6) when registering you will need to use a powered speaker to play the DMTF tones into the phone handset
    microphone, find a web DTMF that lets you press the keys so you can use 0.5-1 second long tones, you
    may need to try a few times, you can experiment using **9222222222
7) in google voice set the screen calls function to OFF so you dont have to produce a DTMF 1

good luck, this is what worked for me, I used the standard IP to set up the wireless, then I had to log
    into my router to see what IP was assigned in order to log into the OBI200 again

9) you cannot dial out without a pulse to DTMF converter box,  I wish OBI would do this internally

[azrobert]

You can use a Hotline to register your device to OBiTalk.  A Hotline is a number automatically dialed when the phone is taken off-hook.

Log into your OBi and go to:
Physical Interfaces -> Phone1 Port
Add the following to the DigitMap after the beginning parenthesis:
<S0:**51234>|

**51234 will be automatically dialed when the phone is taken off-hook.
You obviously don't know the 4 digits to use until trying to add a device.
Have everything coded except for the 4 digits.
Add a new device.
When you see the 4 digits add them to the DigitMap.
Click Submit and Reboot.
Take the phone off-hook.
You have 2 minutes to do this which should be plenty of time.

I have never registered a device with this procedure.
I tested this with an already registered device.
After taking the phone off-hook I heard "The number you dialed was sent to the server".
This won't hurt anything.

[darth458]

Thanks    I wouldn't have figured that out: too deep in the manual.

You wouldn't happen to know whether I should change the impedance settings for this old beast phone?

600 ohms is working OK but I wonder.

Also, any chance of getting OBI to convert pulse to DMTF?

cheers

[SteveInWA]

Thanks    I wouldn't have figured that out: too deep in the manual.

You wouldn't happen to know whether I should change the impedance settings for this old beast phone?

600 ohms is working OK but I wonder.

Also, any chance of getting OBI to convert pulse to DMTF?

cheers

600 Ohms is the correct (and USA default) impedance.  Don't change it.

No, don't hold your breath about converting pulse to DTMF within the OBi devices.

"I set the RX/TX gain to 12,12  but after restart it was lowered to -4,-5  go figure"  That's likely because you made the change on the device's local web page interface (e.g. 192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x).  Don't do that, because the OBiTALK system will overwrite values entered on the local interface on the next reboot of the device.  Instead, make all changes on the OBiTALK portal, in Expert mode.

I have a 1947 WE 302 phone connected to an OBi 200.  I didn't have to change anything to cause it to ring on inbound calls and be able to be answered.  I have Physical Interfaces-->PHONE 1-->ChannelTxGain set to -3 and ChannelRxGain set to -2.  Of course, your phone and your hearing may require different values.  Remember:  the values are unintuitively backwards:  TxGain is the gain of the OBi's amplifier, sending audio to the phone's earpiece.  RxGain is the gain of the amplifier receiving audio from the phone's microphone.  

If you are really dedicated to actual use of the phone to make calls, you can retrofit the phone (inside its case, directly wired) with a Rotatone module:  http://www.oldphoneworks.com/rotatone-pulse-to-tone-converter.html.  It is not a beginner project, as the internal wiring of old telephones can be a) different by design, and b) screwed up by some former owner or technician.

[azrobert]

Some Grandstream ATAs support pulse. A while back I bought a HT701 for about $5. I used it to route outbound calls from a pulse phone to my OBi200. I tested with a push button phone that has a pulse/tone switch. The deal for the HT701 is no longer available.