Obi110: Any way to pick up to an existing call?

[drbobguy]

I've been using an Obi 100 plus a wired handset as my only home phone for a while now.

I just recently installed an Obi 110 in my mom's house, and for a variety of reasons I don't want her to get rid of her landline.  Everything is working fine except for one minor inconvenience.

The Obi110 is hooked up to a wireless base station, with 4 handsets scattered around the house.  There is still a wired landline phone in the kitchen though (in case the power goes out).  Sometimes my mom picks up on this phone direct to the landline, but then wants to transfer the call to a wireleess handset by setting down the wired handset without hanging up, and then pushing the talk button on one of the wireless handsets.

With the Obi110 this goes straight to a dialtone even though there is a "live" call going on the landline.  The Obi110 is also default configured, so that all normal calls are placed on the landline.  I have her speed dials set to SP1 so she can call me and other relatives for cheap/free without realizing how it's all working.

Anyone know how to get the Obi110 to connect to the live call?

[Mango]

If she dials # on the cordless phone, does that do what she wants?

It's unfortunate that the OBi110 no longer has the FXS->FXO relay.  If it did, you could connect the wired handset to the OBi110 and it would still function without power.  I think this was one of the most important features of the OBi110 and I'm sorry it was removed.

[drbobguy]

If she dials # on the cordless phone, does that do what she wants?

Yes! Thank you!

This will do, but is there any way to configure the Obi 110 to default to this mode without having to press '#'?  I know that seems silly, and for me it would be no problem, but my mom is a senior citizen and I can guarantee she will be calling me multiple times as she doesn't understand this extra key press.  (Bless her heart, she's the best mother ever!)

[Mango]

You are very welcome.

You can set the PHONE port's OutboundCallRoute to {li} however that would prevent you from routing calls via OBiTALK/SP1 as all outbound calls would go through the LINE port.  If there is a better way to accomplish this, I would love to know what it is.

Is there any chance you have the "old" version of the OBi110 with the FXS->FXO relay?  In other words, if you remove the power from the OBi, (but not the cordless phone) can you still make and receive calls via the POTS line?

I empathize.  

[dircom]

what if you plugged a splitter into the 110, and plugged the cordless base, and the corded phn into the same outlet?

[drbobguy]

You can set the PHONE port's OutboundCallRoute to {li} however that would prevent you from routing calls via OBiTALK/SP1 as all outbound calls would go through the LINE port.  If there is a better way to accomplish this, I would love to know what it is.

That's unfortunately and not what I'd like to do.  Basically I want the phone to work exactly as her phone worked before, UNLESS she hits a special key combo (**1) to enable the VOIP.

Logically this should be doable:

IF there is an existing phone call on the landline AND the phone connected to the OBI opens a connection to the OBI, THEN bridge the existing call to the OBI phone.

Maybe I'm missing something as to how phones work.

Is there any chance you have the "old" version of the OBi110 with the FXS->FXO relay?  In other words, if you remove the power from the OBi, (but not the cordless phone) can you still make and receive calls via the POTS line?

Just tried this and it definitely doesn't work.  With power off to the OBI there is no pass through at all.

[ianobi]

Your OBi110 is a very polite device and is designed not to "barge-in" if the landline is already in use. Mango has explained how to "barge-in" by pressing "#". Here's another idea, but only you can decide if it will suit your mother. My mother is 88, so I know how difficult some of this can be!

Maybe what you need is automatic "barge-in". This change would mean that if your mother picked up a handset connected to the OBi110 Phone Port and pressed the connect button, after 4 seconds it would automatically barge-in on the landline. You can change the 4 seconds to more or less as needed.

Add this rule <S4:#> to the Phone Port DigitMap. It could go anywhere, I have put it at the front:

Physical Interfaces > PHONE Port > DigitMap:
(<S4:#>|[1-9]x?*(Mpli)|[1-9]S9|[1-9][0-9]S9|911|**0|***|#|**1(Msp1)|**2(Msp2)|**8(Mli)|**9(Mpp)|(Mpli))

When originating a call from the phones connected to the OBi Phone Port, as soon as any digit is dialled, the new rule is ignored. If she is a bit slow and waits more than 4 seconds to dial the first digit, then she will be automatically dialling directly on the land line.

Anyhow, just a thought - good luck with it.