UK PSTN Voice quality dreadful through OBI -0 Solved. Not OBI problem - cable

[ckdash]

UPDATE: Solved. Turned out to be a cable problem.

I installed this last week, and my family have complained constantly about the dreaful voice quality. Unfortunately even though I ordered from a UK site (Amazon) the device comes configured out of the box for US settings. I have made what changes I believe to be necessary, but still the quality is awful:
- my own voice echoed back after a second
- periods of silence
- buzzing on the line
I am beginning to think I may have a fault device - no-one would accept the quality I am getting from this.

Here are the changes I have made:
Phone port:
Impedance: 320+(1050||230nF)
CallerID FSK(V.23)
Ringback tone: 400-18,450-18;20;(.4+.2,.4+2)

Line Port:
Ring delay 200 (get callerid fine)
Dialdigitontime 70
Dialdigitofftime 70
ACImpedance 320+(1050||230nF)
onhook speed 3ms(ETSI)

Can anyone make any suggestions? I have tried various different impedance settings and it doesn't make any difference.

[ckdash]

I've just read my post and it sounds a little rude, and very grumpy!. So I think I should also point out that I think this has the potential to be a superb device, and there are lots of good things about it.
If anyone is abe to post up some UK settings, I'd happily correlate al the various things sent and work up into a guide.
If anyone wants any help, I have this set up to work with my Asterisk system, bringing my VOIP, and PSTN together into one system, and have all my voicemail handled by Asterisk for my work, mobile, and home usage.

[Stewart]

This may be relevant to your problems: http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=367.msg1932#msg1932

Please state whether you have hum and whether you have echo in each of these three cases:

1. Phone port to/from VoIP
2. Phone port to/from Line port
3. Line port to/from VoIP

[ckdash]

This may be relevant to your problems: http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=367.msg1932#msg1932

Please state whether you have hum and whether you have echo in each of these three cases:

1. Phone port to/from VoIP
2. Phone port to/from Line port
3. Line port to/from VoIP

Thanks.
1) has neither hum nor echo.
2) is a problem for both hum and echo
3) is a problem for both hum and echo

I have my system set up to co-exist with an Asterisk setup, so I can either directly dial out using # to get to the line port and then dial number, or I can just dial the number and it will route from the phone port to the asterisk server, and then out to PSTN via the OBI.
So if I have understood you correctly, option 2) is covered by # then dial number, option 3) is effectively covered by dialing through asterisk.
I suppose I could try a variant which is phone port through asterisk and out through Sipgate?

To be honest whereas the hum is annoying, it is the silences and the echo back of my voice with a second delay that is really annoying. Usually the echo back only happens for a few hundred milliseconds before it stops itself. To try and demonstrate what I mean, the sentence:
"Hi this is me talking on the phone"
would sound like, for example:
"Hi this is me talking ..m.. on the phone"
where the ..m.. is supposed to represent the quickly suppressed echo back of "me"

[Stewart]

Possibly, it's a wiring problem.  I assume that you have an adapter cable with a British plug on one end and RJ11 on the other.  Make sure that the RJ11 pins used by the OBi, pins 3 and 4, are connected to ring and tip of your BT line (not ring and earth, or ring and tip of another line).  Confirm that a phone connected via that cable does not have hum.

Is this a normal analogue line?  If not, please explain, e.g. VoIP from Orange Livebox, connection via ISDN adapter, etc.  Is there any other equipment between the OBi and the Line, e.g. an alarm system?

The device could be defective.  If you have electrical test gear, you might check that the currents (when off hook) in the tip and ring leads are equal.  Or, that the sum of ring-earth and tip-earth voltage is approximately the same (about -48 V) in both on-hook and off-hook states.

Do you have another power adapter to try?

[ckdash]

Possibly there is a problem with the cable. Here is what I did.
My DECT phone had RJ11 at one end and a BT connector at the other  - let's call it cable a; the obi110 came with a cable with RJ11 connector at each end - I'll call this cable b. So I used the cable a to connect the obi110 line port to my BT master socket, and I used cable b to connect my DECT phone to the obi110 phone port.
It is standard analogue line, which had no problems with that phone and cable for many years.
I can't find another power supply at the moment - goodness knows why as I have loads. They may have been tidied away by my better half.
I'll get the meter out tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

[ckdash]

Possibly there is a problem with the cable. Here is what I did.
My DECT phone had RJ11 at one end and a BT connector at the other  - let's call it cable a; the obi110 came with a cable with RJ11 connector at each end - I'll call this cable b. So I used the cable a to connect the obi110 line port to my BT master socket, and I used cable b to connect my DECT phone to the obi110 phone port.
It is standard analogue line, which had no problems with that phone and cable for many years.
I can't find another power supply at the moment - goodness knows why as I have loads. They may have been tidied away by my better half.
I'll get the meter out tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

OK. Rather than get themeter out, I thought I'd report what Obi itself thinks.
With both phone and line port off hook, I get:
Phone port:
Loop current 20mA
VBAT 17V
TipRing Voltage 7V

Line port:
Loop currenmt 23mA
TipRing voltage 6V

With them both on hook, I get
Phone port:
Loop current 0mA
VBAT 57V
TipRing Voltage 46V

Line port:
Loop currenmt 0mA
TipRing voltage 52V

I tried swapping the cables around and putting the necessary RJ11 to BT and BT to RJ11 adapters that I just bought in place, and that sent the system into a hissy fit, repeatedly ringing. I swapped those adapters for a couple I already had, and the repeated ringing stopped, but the buzz is back.
I haven't tried making any calls this evening to see what the voice quality is like.
It irks me somewhat that Obi sell the device in the UK, and it is clearly a consumer device not a business one but they sell it with a cable that does not have the necessary BT plug.

I'll report back further tomorrow.

[ckdash]

Sorry it has been so long since I updated this. In the course of messing around with cables, I damaged the phone. I have bought a new one - Panasonic DECT KX TG8521E. There is now no noise or interference.

The annoying thing is that it worked at all when I had the wrong cables in place. Yes, I should have checked more carefully, but because I plugged them in and they worked after a fashion, I assumed they were OK.

So the moral of the tale is to be wary about the cables that you use.

I now have my Obi acting as the glue between my PSTN, my internal Asterisk server, and my external SIP provider, and doing it very nicely indeed.

[Pawnbroker]

Glad to see that the problem is solved. It would be handy if you delete this thread to save others reading through only to find that there never was an issue with the obi.

On my posts, I see remove as an option (top right hand side). If that does not remove the thread, can you modify the top of the first post to state that the issue is fixed and not caused by the obi.


Thanks

[kknb0800]

Sorry it has been so long since I updated this. In the course of messing around with cables, I damaged the phone. I have bought a new one - Panasonic DECT KX TG8521E. There is now no noise or interference.

The annoying thing is that it worked at all when I had the wrong cables in place. Yes, I should have checked more carefully, but because I plugged them in and they worked after a fashion, I assumed they were OK.

So the moral of the tale is to be wary about the cables that you use.

I now have my Obi acting as the glue between my PSTN, my internal Asterisk server, and my external SIP provider, and doing it very nicely indeed.

I know this has been a while but which cables did you use as I'm having the same issues as you were? The BT to RJ11 cable is only 2 pin so I'm wondering if this is is the issue. Thanks

[drgeoff]

A properly* wired adaptor lead with only 2 wires will work perfectly with most modern phones. In the cases where it does not,  the only problem is that the phone does not ring on incoming calls.

* centre two pins of US type plug connected to the two contacts which are neither the centre two nor the outer two of the UK type plug or socket.

[gsmlnx]

In the UK, you need to use a RJ11 to BTS Adapter which has a Ring Capacitor built-in to connect a handset/DECT base station to the OBI. The adaptor goes into the OBI phone socket and the lead from the phone into the adaptor. Then your phone will ring when called.

I bought my adaptor on Amazon.co.uk when I got OBI200 last month from said site too.

[drgeoff]

In the UK, you need to use a RJ11 to BTS Adapter which has a Ring Capacitor built-in to connect a handset/DECT base station to the OBI. The adaptor goes into the OBI phone socket and the lead from the phone into the adaptor. Then your phone will ring when called.

I bought my adaptor on Amazon.co.uk when I got OBI200 last month from said site too.

kknb0800 says he has "the same issues". The original poster complained about voice quality, not lack of ringing. Many phones available in the UK have a built in ringing capacitor and will function perfectly with a 2-wire cable.  A cable or adaptor with a ringing capacitor will not do any harm.  But lack of such capacitor will not, by itself,  yield poor voice quality. The cause of that lies elsewhere.

If the phone has a removable line cord it may well have a US style socket. My phones do and a 2 wire cable with a US plug on each end works perfectly between phone and OBi giving a neater installation than using an adaptor.  YMMV.

[kknb0800]

Thanks for the replies. My phone rings without any issues. My set up is that I have a cable from the BT line to the Obi202 obi line adapter. One end has a UK socket and the other, a US style socket with 2 centre wires. Between the Obi202 and the phone, it's a US style cable on both ends without any intermediary adapters. This cable is a 4 pin cable. Is this the correct set up or have I got something wrong?

I don't mean to hijack this thread with my issue, but since the issues described by OP are the same as mine, I thought I'd see what kind of cable I should be using in the UK before starting starting a new post only to find out the cables I'm using are incorrect.

[drgeoff]

Call the Obi echo test number **9 222 222 222. If the quality on that is OK then there is no problem between OBi and phone.  If so,  need to focus on the Obiline side of things.