Analog equipment on digital phone lines

xanatos

Any phone phreaks out here? I'm interested in the technicals of getting an analog phone device working on a digital line. I've found some products out there that seem to do the trick, such as http://www.telcom-data.com/konexx.aspx - but they have a lot of bells & whistles. I'm interested in bare-bones, down 'n dirty simple one-off kind of thing here. I know a bit about analog line specs, but can't find much about digital line specs. Anyone able to point me in the right direction?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Analog phones will work on a DSL line, but they need a filter, like this one:

http://www.att.com/equipment/accessory-details/?q_sku=sku3950301

-Phil

xanatos

Hi Phil,

Sorry, my wording was vague - I'm talking about PBX phone systems, like Nortel, Lucent or Siemens. Here's a product that will do what I'm looking for, but it has a lot of unnecessary extras and isn't cheap ($225.00 each!) http://www.telcom-data.com/products/DSC.aspx

I'm looking to understand exactly what these types of phone systems are expecting - down to the signals-on-what-wires level. For example, if I wanted to talk to a Nortel system, what would I need to do. There has to be info out there somewhere. Although, I'm guessing that it would involve audio sampling and A/D conversion, some sort of data format and some sort of special line drivers. But - I'm hoping - maybe I'm overcomplicating things and there's an easier solution.

Thanks for any pointers/links/info.

Dave

LoopyByteloose

xanatos wrote: »

Hi Phil,

Sorry, my wording was vague - I'm talking about PBX phone systems, like Nortel, Lucent or Siemens. Here's a product that will do what I'm looking for, but it has a lot of unnecessary extras and isn't cheap ($225.00 each!) http://www.telcom-data.com/products/DSC.aspx

I'm looking to understand exactly what these types of phone systems are expecting - down to the signals-on-what-wires level. For example, if I wanted to talk to a Nortel system, what would I need to do. There has to be info out there somewhere. Although, I'm guessing that it would involve audio sampling and A/D conversion, some sort of data format and some sort of special line drivers. But - I'm hoping - maybe I'm overcomplicating things and there's an easier solution.

Thanks for any pointers/links/info.

Dave

This is very 'corporate' technology. I suspect that while you are thinking of generic engineering data, the companies have created their systems with billing and tracking billing activity as well as just providing a voice signal. At some point it gets all multiplexed together and then can be seperated in some centralized device.

They might very well want a signed non-disclosure agreement before offering any facts. And since you aren't a heavy-hitter that has a real deal to make them rich, the information may never be forthcoming.

There doesn't have to be information out there. They don't want information out there for the competition to sift through.

JordanCClark

Been a while (like 12 years or so), but the Nortel system we had at the time could configure a port (or bank of ports-- like I said, 12 years...) as either analog or digital. The one previous was dependent on which card was installed in the PBX.

Here's to hoping you have the former!

xanadu

I think you would need some kind of decoder chip from the manufacturer of the system you want to use that would do most of the heavy lifting.

xanatos

Yeah... not sounding very promising here. What I basically want to do is plug a device in where a desk phone would normally go, for example. Sort of an "automated phone" that can make calls out through the PBX on its own, sending the data that it needs to send to the number dialed.

Obviously it's possible, given the existence of devices such as I linked above, I was just hoping to get the specifics on how that format translation was happening.

Maybe the night-owls on here will have some juicy details? :-)

I wonder if there's anyone over at the 2600 kind of places who have played with Nortel systems before... I know that's a big hobby for some folks, although I suspect it's not as popular since they took away all the fun that could be had with red boxes & blue boxes and Cap'n Crunch whistles :-)

Dave

Gadgetman

We have Nortel phones at the office, and frankly...

no... You don't want to experiment.

If you want to hook up something analogue, try getting one of the sets with an analogue extension built-in. That's probably the cheapest and easiest way to get it done.
(They have a few models, mostly to hook up FAX machines)

Incidentally, DSL doesn't require an analogue line, so it may not work hooking up an analogue machine through a filter.
(It can be run on the same pairs as ISDN, too. Yes, I know the tech is dying, or may even be discontinued in some countries... )
And even if it IS an analogue line, it doesn't have to be 'active'.

Nortel is extremely tight-lipped about their tech. Mostly because they don't want people to 'tinker' with it and possibly break something.
(A PBX is an expensive thing to break... )
They don't push service contracts just because they want to make money...
(Well, they don't mind making a bit of extra, of course... )
It's just so easy to royally mess up a PBX, and if that PBX is in an organisation with a couple of thousand users, and maybe cross-linked to other PBXes also in that organisation, with smaller Remotes hooked up with leased lines or IP...
They really don't want it to crash because of the negative publicity it would cause.

Trying to hook up something 'Not Nortel' to a port on the PBX may in fact break the contract.
They do understand that stuff can get plugged into the wrong port, but if they suspect 'tinkering'...

xanatos

OK, verdict reached, no PBX hacking for now... thanks for the info.