Obi212 dead? No dial tone, factory reset doesn't seem to work, but lights green

[ktop]

I setup an Obi212 for a family member's vacation home. At some point in the past few months it went offline, as shown on the portal and in the router and the router (I have a VPN setup for remote access). I'm finally at the physical location and able to troubleshoot. 

I've tried doing a factory reset 2 ways based on what I've found online for this device: 

• With the Obi212 on, holding the reset button for 15 seconds (also tried longer). This seems to have no effect: the LEDs don't change.
• With the Obi212 off, holding the reset button, inserting the power plug, and waiting for a slow flashing green LED. If I do it this way, after 10 seconds the red LED turns to a slow flashing green, but then it doesn't change to a "rapid blinking green for 3 seconds" followed by a solid RED, indicating it's rebooting (according to the factory reset instructions). It just goes from the blinking green to solid green, and nothing further happens. Note that if I don't hold the reset button, during boot it goes from solid red straight to solid green, so the reset button is at least doing something.

There's no dial tone on the phone line whether booting normally or with the reset procedure, and even though the "Internet" green LED blinks suggesting some activity, the device doesn't show up in the router's list of devices. And if I'm not mistaken, there should be a dial tone even if there's no internet access?
 
I guess I'm hoping there's some other way of doing a factory reset, as something's definitely wrong here. What's strange is this device is plugged in to a UPS, so it seems impossible that it was damaged by a power outage/surge. 

Any help appreciated.

[drgeoff]

Yes an OBi should give dial tone irrespective of network connectivity.  And after a reset it should get an IP address by DHCP.  The only other way of doing a reset is by dialling **8 and following the audible prompts.  Clearly that is not currently an option for you.  But do try another phone and phone cable just to check the current ones are not part of the problem.

That it is a 212 perhaps indicates that it was required to connect to a POTS line. If it is, or can be, connected to a POTS line does calling the POTS number ring the phone?

[ktop]

Thanks for your reply. I tried a different phone cable with no luck. There's only the one phone, but it works fine on the POTS line, so I think the phone is fine. While the Obi212 has a 2nd phone jack for integrating a POTS line, it worked before without the POTS line plugged in, and either way, plugging the POTS line into the Obi212 didn't seem to change anything: still no dial tone and the phone display showed "line in use" because of that.

I guess I'm hoping that the device is still "alive" given that it seems to boot and respond to the reset button, and that perhaps it's accessible by manually setting an IP address on my laptop connected to the LAN port and attempting to open a specific IP address in a browser, and then be able to do a factory reset there or upload a new firmware image. Or perhaps it looks for a TFTP server, as some routers do in recovery mode. As these devices were declared EOL a couple months ago, is there any hope attempting to contact Polycom directly for support?

[drgeoff]

Thanks for your reply. I tried a different phone cable with no luck. There's only the one phone, but it works fine on the POTS line, so I think the phone is fine. While the Obi212 has a 2nd phone jack for integrating a POTS line, it worked before without the POTS line plugged in, and either way, plugging the POTS line into the Obi212 didn't seem to change anything: still no dial tone and the phone display showed "line in use" because of that.

I guess I'm hoping that the device is still "alive" given that it seems to boot and respond to the reset button, and that perhaps it's accessible by manually setting an IP address on my laptop connected to the LAN port and attempting to open a specific IP address in a browser, and then be able to do a factory reset there or upload a new firmware image. Or perhaps it looks for a TFTP server, as some routers do in recovery mode. As these devices were declared EOL a couple months ago, is there any hope attempting to contact Polycom directly for support?

1. There is no TFTP or other semi-auto recovery mode.  I have never experienced it myself but it seems that some web server can still offer a page to manually update the firmware after a failed firmware update attempt.  Of course that still requires that the OBi has an IP address that a browser can be pointed at.

The 212 (in common with the 202 for which more documentation is available) has two ethernet ports and defaults to enabling its router function between them.  Furthermore, the default is that there is no access to the management pages from the internet port.

I think your best (and probably only) hope is to connect the OBi's LAN port directly to a computer.  (See update below: I don't know if that needs a normal ethernet cable or a crossover one.)  A running 202/212/312 defaults to having its DHCP server running so that any devices on that side of its router will be given an address if they request one by DHCP.  Or you can set a static IP address such as 192.168.10.2.  The OBi's LAN port defaults to 192.168.10.1.

Try that and report back if browsing to 192.168.10.1 elicits any response. Username and password both default to admin after a reset.

2.  Does plugging the POTS line into the OBi's LINE jack cause the LINE LED to illuminate?  (Never be tempted to plug a POTS line into an OBi's PHONE jack as that can cause fatal damage to that port.)

3.  Does taking a phone (plugged in to the PHONE port) off hook cause the PHONE LED to change from off to flashing?

Update:  Since writing the above I have been able to confirm by trying it with a 202 that an ordinary ethernet cable works to connect its LAN jack to a PC's ethernet jack.

[ktop]

1. There is no TFTP or other semi-auto recovery mode.  I have never experienced it myself but it seems that some web server can still offer a page to manually update the firmware after a failed firmware update attempt.  Of course that still requires that the OBi has an IP address that a browser can be pointed at.

The 212 (in common with the 202 for which more documentation is available) has two ethernet ports and defaults to enabling its router function between them.  Furthermore, the default is that there is no access to the management pages from the internet port.

I think your best (and probably only) hope is to connect the OBi's LAN port directly to a computer.  (See update below: I don't know if that needs a normal ethernet cable or a crossover one.)  A running 202/212/312 defaults to having its DHCP server running so that any devices on that side of its router will be given an address if they request one by DHCP.  Or you can set a static IP address such as 192.168.10.2.  The OBi's LAN port defaults to 192.168.10.1.

Try that and report back if browsing to 192.168.10.1 elicits any response. Username and password both default to admin after a reset.

2.  Does plugging the POTS line into the OBi's LINE jack cause the LINE LED to illuminate?  (Never be tempted to plug a POTS line into an OBi's PHONE jack as that can cause fatal damage to that port.)

3.  Does taking a phone (plugged in to the PHONE port) off hook cause the PHONE LED to change from off to flashing?

Update:  Since writing the above I have been able to confirm by trying it with a 202 that an ordinary ethernet cable works to connect its LAN jack to a PC's ethernet jack.

• I found a reference to the 192.168.10.1 IP address last night and tried then to connect by Ethernet from my laptop, both with an auto-assigned IP and manually setting an IP to 192.168.10.x. I tried again this morning (with your suggestion of the IP ending in .2) for good measure, and also tried connecting after booting up while holding the reset button. No luck with any of them.
• Plugging the POTS line into the Obi's line jack does not cause the line or any other LED to change.
• Similarly, taking the phone off the hook does not cause any change in LED status

Having some experience tinkering with routers and alternative firmwares like OpenWRT, at this point my sense is that it's functionally bricked, and the next step would be cracking open in the case, getting a soldering iron and USB-serial cable and connecting via serial, but unless this has been documented somewhere it may not even be possible and I wouldn't know where to begin exploring this on my own.

I did see if I could contact Polycom/HP directly for any help, but they don't recognize the Obi212 serial number, and if I choose the option to proceed without it, that leads me to this page which tries to open some external app, and with that failing I just get a spinning circle. I'm on Linux, so if you're on Windows, maybe you can see if you get anywhere on that URL. Not that I have high hopes of HP actually supporting this.

Thanks again for your help.

[drgeoff]

Nothing for OBi2xx but I got to this is for OBi1xx:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact/product/obihai-ata-series/2101907374/model/2101907380?source=polydropdown

BTW if the device was being used for Google Voice, any reset that worked has killed that option permanently.

I've never seen any pictures of 212 internals.  202 photo at https://www.badcaps.net/forum/general-topics/general-capacitor-questions-issues/103873-polycom-formerly-obihai-obi202-voip-adapter-capacitor-replacement-recommendations

The unpopulated 4 pin header could well be a serial port.  The unpopulated 2x10 header is likely to be an ARM standard JTAG port.

The 212 was released several years after the 202 so might have more differences than just the change of one phone port to a line port.