News:

On Tuesday September 6th the forum will be down for maintenance from 9:30 PM to 11:59 PM PDT

Main Menu

Two lines with splitter?

Started by mattwarner, March 23, 2013, 09:24:25 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

mattwarner

I have a Google Voice number and also a CallCentric account.  I would like to push these both over my home phone wiring, so that the phone in my office can use the Google Voice and the rest of the house uses the CallCentric line.  I recall when I was a kid, we had two lines coming in from the phone company on a single line, and we used a line splitter at each jack that split the two lines, and we plugged each phone into the appropriate line.  Can something like this be done off of the OBI202?  For example, could I use a splitter (like this:  http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3900035&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_term=3900035&utm_content=Exact&utm_campaign=PLA&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CPiQm92_lLYCFaIyMAodYH8AAA&gclsrc=ds ) coming out of the OBI202 into the house phone wiring and also at the jack?  Or, has anyone accomplished this in a different way?

I appreciate your kind assistance.

Shale

#1
You had one cable with 4 wires when you were a kid. The OBi202 has two phone lines, and both are run to the Phone 1 connector -- each with its own pair. (inner pair is line1, and the contacts just outside of the middle 2 contacts are line 2. You don't need to plug anything into the OBi202 phone jack in that case. So you don't need that gadget at the OBi202 end.
So if you plugged the RJ-11 plug shown into Phone 1 jack on your OBi202, line 1 would be on the red and green pair, and line 2 would be on the yellow and black pair. If you plugged that into Phone 2 jack, line 2 would be on the red and yellow pair, and the  yellow and black pair would not be connected. Red, green, yellow and black are the older convention. Newer ones use solid blue and blue+white for line 1 and solid orange and orange+white for pair 2.

You might need that gadget at the phone that should hook up to line 2. Alternatively you could do wiring on the jack at the other end where the line 2 phone will be plugged into.

mattwarner

Right now I only have the OBI202 "line 2" (CallCentric) plugged into my home phone wiring.  If I understand what you're saying, plugging "line 1" from the OBI202 will feed the house the way I'm remembering from when I was a kid, and I can use the splitters (or two line phones) around the house to select which line each phone should use?

Rick

It's not that simple.  When you were a kid, your house may have been wired with 4 wire phone cable, with each wire connected, even though only red and green were live.  Adding a second line usually meant they connected the other two wires for that line.  Then, at any jack, you could split the wires to two jacks or get the adapter that you're talking about.

Your current home MAY be wired the same.  It may also be wired with 4 wire cable, but only 2 wires are connected.  This is VERY common.  You should check both where the wire feeds the house AND at each phone jack.  Then, instead of buying adapters, you can choose how you want to feed that signal throughout the house, i.e. most jacks use red/green for the primary service, and a limited number of jacks use the other two wires for the secondary service.  Then, you just have to ensure that the correct OBi phone ports are feeding the correct jacks.  I don't have a 202, but MY understanding is that each port can handle any of the 4 services, you configure that in the OBi, and then feed a phone cord from that port to your wall jack.  If using a standalone phone, you can plug it right into the OBi. 

GregoryZ

Matt,

This link may be of some help also.

http://voip.mi-telecom.org/

Good Luck!

-G
OBi100, OBi110, OBi200, OBi202

giqcass

What you have described is how I have set up my wiring.  I have my OBi202 with the house wiring plugged into line one.  The main phone is line one.  I only need the splitters in the rooms that I want to use line two.

I'm using this splitter.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=Steren+4-Conductor+2-Line+Split+Adapter+%28300-324%29

This setup does require you to check your wiring of course.
Long live our new ObiLords!


Shale

Azrobert's wall plate looks good, and it will be more elegant that an adapter if that fits the installation. It is often easy to rewire an existing wall plate or connect as well to maybe swap the pairs.

If you are ever wiring for somebody who might be putting in a jack where might be putting in wiring for an emergency pendent or alarm system, look into an RJ-45 jack with appropriate wiring. Wiring is more complex, but it allows the device to call out on a line despite a phone being off hook.

giqcass

I was thinking about replacing the wall plate with one of the two line plates myself but the adapter was cheap and easy.  Since I only wanted to use the second line in my daughters room laziness won lol.
Long live our new ObiLords!