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spurious tones (talkoff)

Started by ldkronos, May 24, 2011, 11:40:08 AM

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ldkronos

I've been using the Obi110 with google voice for about a month and love it. However, I've had a few times where, in the middle of the conversation, it sounded like the other person pressed a button on their phone, generating a tone, but she said she never did it. It has happened 3 times, each time with the same person. The first time it happened we thought she pressed the button but she denied doing it. 30 seconds later it happened again, and she again denied pressing anything. That was a few weeks ago, and yesterday it happened again.

I did some searching for this, and the term for it appears to be "talkoff". Has anyone experienced this on the Obi? Any way to deal with it? It's not a major problem as it doesn't happen very often. And of course, I can't be 100% certain that it isn't actually her pressing the button, even though she insists she isn't.

N7AS

Yes, I have this problem often. I only notice it on very long calls to my friend. We usually talk till GV cuts us off exactly 2 hours into the call. It can't be an Obi110 problem as this was happening when I used my PAP2T with sipgate + sipsorcery for GV.

Grant N7AS
Prescott Valley, AZ
https://www.n7as.com

A journeyman electrician sent his apprentice with a 5-gallon bucket and was told to put the ends of the service drop in the bucket and fill it with volts. He was there all day.

LeftRight

ldkronos,

what you experienced is the false DTMF digits detected by the other party. Each DTMF digit consists of two frequencies that range from 600 Hz to 1700 Hz, and sometime human voice might trigger the DTMF detector if the energy on certain frequency bins happens to be high.

The problem is NOT related to your OBi device unless your friend also happens to use an OBi. You might call her at a different PSTN line or cellphone, and check whether problem goes away ...

ldkronos

Well, like I said, it's a sporadic problem that has only happened 3 times in the month I've been using it. And I'm not gonna be able to get her to try something different (it's her cell phone). However, it has never happened to me before, ever, before I switch to Obi & GV, so I assumed it had to be related.

What component in the chain is responsible for generating these tones: her phone/device (a cell phone), her carrier (verizon, I think), my carrier (Google Voice) or my phone/device (Obi). It sounds like you are saying it's one of the first two. If so, that's a little odd that she's had both the same phone and same service for years without ever encountering this, but if that's what it is, then that's what it is.

Is there any possibility that it was my end that was generating it, perhaps in response to my wife's voice (I don't recall if it was my wife or her mom that was speaking at the moment it occurred). Would I have heard the tone on my end, too? If it happens again, I'll try to pay more attention to exactly what's going on at the time.

mykmayk

no, she's recording your conversations for ken starr.   ;D
əʞɪɯ mɪke

LeftRight

When one device picks up a false DTMF digit, it will be sent out and played back on the other end. I think, in your case, OBi device just simply play back the digit sent by the other party.

LeftRight

Also notice that, in call status, there is a field that shows how many digits you received during a call. Next time when you hear the DTMF tone on the phone, you might go to:

Status --> Call Status --> DTMF digits received

If the other party does not press any digits, and you see it from call status, then, pretty much you can confirm that is a false digit picked up on the other end.

ldkronos

OK, it happened again today. This time I was talking to a different person than before, and it happened twice. Both times she said she didn't press anything. I checked the Obi's call status and it said "DTMF Digits Received" was 2. So it certainly thinks they came from the other party. However, I find it odd that this type of thing has never happened before and now it's happened several times over the last several weeks. I don't know enough about how the process works to argue whether not there is any way the Obi could be causing this.

bitstopjoe

 It used to happen to me from time to time when I used MagicJack. I would hear a beep ( USUALLY when talking to someone female) and they never heard it.
I do hear it SOMETIMES with my OBi100, BUT many times now the party to whom I am speaking will hear a beep and I don't!! Makes one look like a 3 year old who has never used a phone before. WORSE YET is when it sometimes it thinks a 4 is pressed and you get the announcement from GV the call is being recorded. What fun that is trying to explain you did NOT press anything to record the call.
My one and only complaint about my Obi, BUT I think it is more of a GV problem with DTMF sensitivity...

Joe Sica

discerning

This is a long standing Google Voice issue, even back during the Grand Central days.  For some people, DTMF talkoff is all too common while using GV:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=042b039a63c487e5&hl=en

ldkronos

Quote from: discerning on June 01, 2011, 03:39:26 AM
This is a long standing Google Voice issue, even back during the Grand Central days.  For some people, DTMF talkoff is all too common while using GV:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=042b039a63c487e5&hl=en

Yes! Thank you very much. I was sure it was something specific to my new setup, but not sure which part was responsible. I think now we can be sure the Obi is NOT responsible for this.