Support rotary pulse dialing.
M105:
No business case? I have two neighbors who still keep a pots line because their alarm systems are pulse dial only. Across the country there are no doubt millions. Yes, there are kludge devices that can be added on to phones and other telecom equipment but people don't want to spend the money or time having it installed or replacing expensive control panels.
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As far as the firmware is concerned, I am a programmer who has written my share of hardware support routines. These chips all monitor the line voltage and can be programmed to respond to voltage pulses in exactly the same way they read a hook flash. They don't have to generate them, just recognize them. It isn't rocket science no matter how fancy you want to make it sound or what block diagrams you post. The phone companies have been doing it with electronics for decades. If there truly is a reason why the Obi can't do what the GS units do then it would be great if an Obi engineer would come on here and say so. That would "put it to bed" as you say.
I have a Dial Gizmo and also a couple of Grandstream HT-502 ATA adapters which read pulses and have programmed my Obi to work with them but ... I put a lot of effort into working out the timing and interfacing to make it all work right and that is something the average consumer is not willing or capable of doing. If it can be done with firmware inside the quite powerful little Obi then all that stuff can be dispensed with.
I find it somewhat interesting that there appears to be opposition to this feature being added. What difference does it make to users who don't have pulse dial equipment? It isn't like it will add 10 cents to the cost of the unit or cause any downside in performance. Heck, Obi could provide an option to just completely turn it off or on.
SteveInWA:
Now, you have moved into the "I reject your reality and substitute my own" realm. OBi devices use DTMF SLIC chips. The SLIC used here does not support pulse dialing. It's not a software issue. It's not a device driver issue. It is a hunk of silicon that performs a bunch of very specific tasks autonomously, and you communicate with it via a high-level API.
Alarm systems with POTS interfaces do NOT use pulse dialing. They use the SIA or Ademco standards, and have done so for at least thirty years. SIA uses frequency-shift keying (FSK) and Ademco uses DTMF. POTS lines are becoming extinct. The alarm industry is converting over to 3G/4G mobile and direct IP connections. NOBODY is thinking, "gee, we really need to build some new pulse-dialing products." You are just mangling the facts to suit your reality, in the same manner as "fake news".
If you think developing/engineering/manufacturing/certifying a pulse-dial ATA is that easy, then you have no concept whatsoever of the cost of doing business, and how business people with actual business education make business decisions.
Here you go: https://youtu.be/LlRVxzHUSNc
M105:
Quote from: SteveInWA on January 27, 2017, 05:40:22 pm
Now, you have moved into the "I reject your reality and substitute my own" realm. OBi devices use DTMF SLIC chips. The SLIC used here does not support pulse dialing. It's not a software issue. It's not a device driver issue. It is a hunk of silicon that performs a bunch of very specific tasks autonomously, and you communicate with it via a high-level API.
It isn't an autonomous hunk of silicon as you imagine but indeed an interface between the analog phone line and a microprocessor. The chip actually provides nice interrupts when the line goes on/off hook (all pulse dialing or a hook flash really is). Yes, it does a lot of other nice things like read/generate tones and voltages with simple commands but the registers must be read, written, and the interrupts handled by the CPU. Not much different than any other interface chip I wrote code for over the years. So yes, not only can it be done in software but the SLIC makes it easy. The truth is Steve you got me interested enough in SLIC chips that I have now read quite a few data sheets on them from different manufacturers and have yet to find one that natively supports pulse signaling and only anecdotal evidence that any ever did. Those that mention pulse dialing all say that pulse dial decoding is accomplished by reading the state of the hook register and processing the timing in the MPU. There is even an app note discussing how to handle dial pulse delay through a SLIC. So that IS the way it is done. I also discovered that several of the RGs provided by ISPs also support pulse dialing which was interesting and one of the main reasons they do is for customers with old alarm systems. In my area AT&T's RGs unfortunately don't.
I guess in your alternate reality all pulse dialing equipment is gone despite the fact that I can probably find you a dozen old alarms in my local neighborhood that will ONLY dial that way. Granted that in my alternate reality I live in an area with a lot of nice old homes with alarms since I am a retired engineer who sold my own business a few years back.
In any event, I never expected such an uproar over a feature suggestion. I admit that even I am surprised by the obvious interest in the feature as evidenced by views to this thread as it sat idle for months. Hey, it may not be worth it to Obi and it is no big deal to me, but I still think it could be done without much downside.
Lavarock7:
Views of a thread do not constitute excitement over the possibility of rotary dialed Obis.
As said here before, if you think there is a growing need for rotary dialed calls start your own company and corner the market.
People enjoy reading about trips to Mars but do not line up to actually go.
In my opinion, you are beating a dead horse and the ASPCA will soon step in.
M105:
Quote from: Lavarock7 on January 28, 2017, 08:08:38 am
In my opinion, you are beating a dead horse and the ASPCA will soon step in.
Opinion noted. Thanks.
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