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How do I adjust ring volume?

Started by MaxChampagne, July 16, 2017, 06:28:35 PM

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MaxChampagne

I got my landline and the OBi202 connected to GV a few days ago and all is working well, except that the OBi appears to be over-riding the ring-volume setting on the phone.

Since I connected my landline phone to the OBi, it rings too loud, no matter how I set the volume on the phone itself.

Is there a way in the OBi config web page (or anywhere / any way else) to set the OBi-connected landline's ring volume?

SteveInWA

Sorry, but that is not what is happening.  There is no "ring volume" setting in an OBi device.

When a call comes in, the OBi sends a ring signal to the phone.  It's up to the phone itself to do the ringing.  If the phone has a setting to control the ring volume, (e.g high, low, off), you can use that switch. 

If you have a very old telephone with an electromagnetic bell ringer inside, then the ring signal from the OBi is powering the bell.  If you have a typical, newer phone, then there is a circuit inside the phone that powers an internal speaker or beeper to make a ring sound.

What kind of phone is it?  You can easily apply the low-tech solution:  put something over the speaker/beeper, like a cotton ball, small wad of tissue, or tape.

MaxChampagne

My phone is a 1998 Nortel Meridian 9417CW:

http://www.telephonemagic.com/nortel_meridian_9417.htm

It rings electronically, not with the old bell ringer.  As I said in my first post, the phone's setting that controls its ring volume has no effect on the loudness of the ring -- when the phone is used with the OBi, that is. 

This loud ring began immediately after I plugged the phone into the new OBi202.  I've already applied the low-tech option of scotch-taping a pad of yellow post-it notes over the phone's speaker, which fits it nicely, but the ring is still too loud.

At the moment it's difficult for me to believe that there isn't a better solution. I glanced through the OBi's advanced configurations briefly last night and noticed there were dozens of settings, which is why I thought there might be some sort of setting for the volume on the ring-signal sent from the OBi to the phone.

It strikes me as quite odd that my volume setting suddenly has no effect.  It's clearly caused by the phone's conection to the OBi box.

SteveInWA

#3
It is impossible for the OBi to change the ring volume on that phone.  I have a newer version of that same phone, plugged into an OBi 202.  The OBi has no impact whatsoever on the ring volume.  It is simply sending a ~90VAC, 20Hz signal to the phone to tell it to ring.  There is no such thing as a command that would say "ring at low volume".

The phone has two, independent ring settings; one for each of its two lines.  The volume rocker switch at the bottom of the phone's face, to the right of the handset's microphone, controls the ring volume.  You need to select which line to adjust, when using that rocker switch.  If the switch doesn't work, then the phone is defective.

Consider that your phone is 19 years old, and that Nortel went bankrupt in 2009, so I would not be surprised if the volume buttons are defective.

MaxChampagne

After hooking up the OBi, I think I was using the phone's line 2, with a loud volume that I hadn't previously set to my liking. 

Line 1 had always been set lower and that's the line I've always used.

In hooking up the OBi, I experimented with both lines, and I must have left it on line 2. 

In any event, I've made sure both lines are set lower with the (non-defective) rocker switch, which has solved the problem.