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What UK phone (or cables) work on OBi110

Started by neil0, May 28, 2014, 08:01:06 AM

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neil0

I got an OBi 110 for Xmas, but have failed at the first hurdle since it needs a phone to set it up and it appears both my phones don't talk to the OBi. Of course it may be the various connectors I needed to convert BT plug into US style phone connector.   Any help appreciated, though I don't find much time to try things out (as you can tell from this taking 6 months to ask on here).

ianobi

This question comes up quite a lot. The adapter needed for the OBi Phone Port is often a problem due to some UK phones being 3-wire circuits rather than the more normal 2-wire. This adapter should work:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/telephone-to-rj11-adapter-with-capacitor-vd36p

A cheaper adapter or basic modem cable is ok to connect the OBi Line Port to the British Telecom socket assuming that the ADSL filter is not a problem.

There are many other settings which can be changed to make your OBi110 fully compatible with the UK telecoms systems and number formats, but maybe best to get the basics working first, then post back for more info, or search around on the forum. There's a number of us UK OBi owners here.

neil0

I have something similar to that, but I get no dial tone.  Obviously I do from the phone plugged directly into the BT socket.

neil0

I've just looked again and realised I am actually using a spare ADSL filter as the adapter. The phone connects to the normal phone input port of the filter and then a modem cable to connect from the filter (port that would normally go to the wall socket) to the OBi110. 

i.e. all the ports are correct. The phone is plugged in to the filter where it would normally be and I wasn't aware that the filtering could cause a problem. Is there something I missed?

ianobi

#4
Looks over complicated! To get dial tone an adapter or cable needs to convert rj11 pins 2 & 3 at the OBi Phone Port to BT style socket pins 2 & 5 to plug the phone into. That should get you dial tone and enable outgoing calls. To get the phone to ring you may need the adapter I recommended earlier.

neil0

@ianobi - yes it is a little messy, it was just what I could find to provide the right conversion from BT to modem connector (rj11).   The ADSL filter is used because it's output (line side) is a modem connection (rj11) and of course it has a standard BT socket for the input from the phone, so that meant I could use a standard modem cable that I had.

I'll see if I can test which pins are connected to where on my current mess of wires and otherwise try looking to see what else I have around the house.

@dircom - I've not setup a Ip phone service yet, no, but I don;t see that as relevant, I'm just trying to do the first step of connecting a phone to the Obi110 so I can register it etc. But currently the phone doesn't seem to be talking to the OBi, presumably as ianobi is suggesting, because the wrong pins are connected.    The phones can all make calls normally when plugged into the wall socket normally. Yes, ADSL. And yes, I am connecting the phone to the phone jack on the OBi. 

drgeoff

Some of the phones sold in the UK have a detachable cable and a US style socket at the back of or underneath the phone base. For those there is a good chance that a standard US cable, such as the one that comes with an OBi110, will work without needing an adaptor.

neil0

I thought I had tried that on the main phone, but perhaps I used my conversion cable. Worth a go again if I find some time when everyone is out.

It is very hard to use a meter on the tiny prongs in the socket (and impossible on the plug), but I think the ADSL filter is straight through. So I've ordered a converter which will probably turn up before I get a chance to search through any wires here.

Many thanks all for suggestions.