To RFord: Too late, I've already shipped unit #2 back to New Egg for another replacement. I did try with another power supply, as recommended by Ian way above. Didn't make a difference. When I said I tested with another line, I did so in my apartment, both at the same jack (I have 2 lines) and at another jack. I don't have anywhere else to test it -- I'm the last landline holdout among my friends.
But I should make it clear that the buzzing sound isn't something that sounds like it would ever go away. It's **not** an interference sound. It's like a very loud electric razor, constant, and it starts the instant I connect to the LINE port (either by pressing #, by making a call that routes to li, or by answering an incoming PSTN call). The buzzing doesn't just obscure the conversation of the call, it seems to prevent the call going through entirely.
Also, let me clarify that I agree with you that it's hard to believe that I had two defective units. More likely, there's something about my phone line that caused the innards of both units to fry. That's why I was really hoping that someone might be able to figure this out, before unit #3 arrives tomorrow and it gets fried, too.
Is it possible that the line voltage or the ring voltage on my phone line is somehow abnormal, or that there's something else about my phone line that's causing this to happen? I can't do the voltmeter test suggested above, but I did call Verizon and asked them to run a diagnostic. They said the line checked out fine -- but I don't quite understand how they can say the ring voltage is normal without actually testing while the phone is ringing, which they didn't do. I do live in an old building, so it's possible that there are some crossed wires somewhere along the line, but my phone service is just fine (no abnormal static or anything).
Here are details of how I hooked up the OBi110 (see diagram below). I think this is all kosher, but perhaps I'm missing something that contributed to the trouble:
I have 2 POTS phone lines coming into my apartment on the same wire. From the NID at the front door, the 2 pairs pass through a single cable in the walls into the interior media closet, where they terminate in a single RJ11 jack on a patch panel. Pre-OBi, that jack was patched via a patch cable into an 8-port common bus, which is in turn patched into the other individual RJ11 jacks that are connected through the walls to the various phone jacks throughout my house in a "star" manner. There are 5 or 6 active phones plugged in, most with dual-line (L1/L2) capability.
I installed the OBi110 in the phone closet, between the incoming RJ11 port and the bridge, along the wire for Line 1. I used a standard-issue modular 2-line splitter that splits the initial 2-line RJ11 into a Line 1 jack (R/G to R/G) and a Line 2 jack (Y/B to R/G). The splitter's Line 1 jack was connected to the OBi110's LINE port, and the OBi110's PHONE port was connected to the Line 1 jack of a second modular splitter, which was in turn plugged into the 8-port bridge to connect to all the other house jacks. The two Line 2 jacks on the splitters were patched directly together. As such, Line 1 was passing through the OBi while Line 2 bypassed the OBi.
_____ _____
| R | | B |===TO LIVING RM JACK (L1)
TELCO/LINE 1 (R/G)---| J | /--(R/G=L1)---[OBi]---\ | |===TO BEDROOM JACK (L1/L2)
TELCO/LINE 2 (Y/B)---| 1 |==SPLITTER< >SPLITTER==| U |===TO KITCHEN JACK (L1/L2)
| 1 | \ / | |===TO OFFICE JACK (L1/L2)
~~~~~ \--(R/G=L2)---------/ | S |===TO DINING RM JACK (L1)
~~~~~
<----NID--------> <---------------MEDIA CLOSET---------------------------> <---REST OF HOUSE---->
The only things new about this setup since the OBi arrived is the OBi and the two splitters. All the other wiring and the bus have been in place for years, and the wiring is sound and patched correctly. The splitters also check out okay, as do all the patch cables. I should also add that I've had plenty of phone equipment hooked up on this system over the years, including SIP/VoIP units, fax machines, old-fashioned phones, electric phones, modems, a TiVo, etc., without any other device ever getting its brains fried out before or even dying under mysterious circumstances. Line 2 works fine, bypassing the OBi. There is not and never has been any "leakage" between the Line 1 and Line 2 circuits.
The final clue here is that when I first hooked up the initial OBi several days ago, everything seemed to work fine for the first few hours. I was able to place and receive calls through the OBi on all services (SP1, SP2, LI [Telco Line 1), and OBiTalk), as well as directly through Telco Line 2 (non-OBi). The only thing I thought was odd was that when I placed PSTN calls on the OBi line by pressing # to direct connect, the first several DTMF tones sounded sort of overmodulated somehow every time, but by the final digit of each call, the tones sounded normal again. But several hours later, when I tried to make another PSTN call, the buzzing came on as soon as the PSTN line engaged. The second OBi also seemed to work, but it lasted only for 15 minutes, until I received an incoming PSTN call on Telco Line 1 (the line connected through the OBi) and picked up the receiver to hear only the loud buzzing.
Oh, and one more thing: To simplify everything, when I connected the 2nd OBi today, I didn't even hook it into the whole-house bus shown above. I connected everything to the left of the OBi in the diagram above, then connected a separate, dedicated phone to the PHONE port of the OBi. I did all my testing of the OBi with that dedicated phone (for the 15 minutes before it died). So I know that whatever killed the OBis came from the left side of the diagram, not the right.
I really do appreciate all the help here. I truly want to keep the OBi and for the new one coming tomorrow to outlast the first two by several years.
Thanks.
JON
