atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Vodavi Telephones & Systems cannot get new station to work!

Well guys, now I don't feel like a complete loser! I have stopped trying.

I don't know what company did the install since it was in 2001. after that outside pedistool there is 1 long punch down block in each building, with another one of those small blocks that has the yellow/black "towers" on them. A few years ago to get one of the stations working again for our Camp Nurse's station, I had to take that block out of that picture.

Our phone guy here thinks there is a major short somewhere and/or the installer miss-wired a pair, which would make sense, with all the info you guys have given me here.

Those blocks look like sugre protectors(gas tube?) and they might be blown. you can get replacements.

I can remember one the first jobs i ever worked on i had seen one of these blocks and had no idea what they were and it ended up being the gas tube protector and at the remote building the had blown.

Usererror:

I have to tell you that most of us go out of our way to come up with an answer for anyone who posts here. I personally flip pages in manuals to give the best answers I can on a regular basis.

There simply isn't an easy way to assist here. I will be happy to lend you a spare box of protector modules that you can try using to trace the problem, replacing them one at a time. The problem is, there should only be a protector module at the beginning and the end of the pair.

That's why these protector "panels" are referred to as "terminals". They don't belong inside of pedestals ever. The fact that they are designed for indoor use only could also be your problem; there could be collected moisture inside of them.

I think, and hope, that you simply have failed plug-in modules. If so, the spares that I can send you will at least work you toward a process of elimination.

Needless to say, the original installation is way outside of industry standards, so I won't beat you up on that subject any more. If you want to PM me, I will arrange to send you a box of replacement modules that you can borrow just to see if that is the true problem. If they work, you can pay for them, if not, you can return them to me. We need to get this problem resolved to restore service.

Looks like to me he has spares, only pairs punched down on the one he is saying is the pedistal are pairs 1,2,3,4&11 leaving coils in pairs 6,7&8. So each location will have 3 spares..but they all look like the same picture to me, same V/SL on the 3rd pin and same green stripped grd in each pic. Looks like there's spares on his first pic of the other protector also. Just take a volt ohm meter and read tip to tip and ring to ring to make sure they aren't open and then tip to grd and ring to grd to make sure they aren't operated.

Bill, I think that a surgeon is needed to correct this installation; It is clearly a case of code blue. The only thing missing is the string and cans.

I think that the original poster is trying to find a simple solution and let's face it, plug-in modules and 66 terminations in an outdoor environment are asking for trouble. What I would like to see is that he simply tries replacing all modules, camus-wide, to see if anything changes.

Despite the temporary solution, it might buy him some time until they can locate a professional. Unless the cable is knicked or cut, terminations really don't change much on their own. From what appeared to be a final post, it seems that dragging a meter out will be out of the question at this point.

The whole thing is such a mess that I fear that other than trying to replace modules might do more harm than good.

You're so right, he seems reluctant to get the help he needs for some reason.

Well here's the update!

The professionals were called in and they were here today. Unfortunately I could not be here also since I have my 8-5 job to attend to as well.

Apparently the guy was here ALL DAY. He concluded the from the point where I had the phone working (which was on the outside pedistool at about the 4th/5th cross connect panel, which is also pictured above) to the next building was completely useless.

Luckily, when myself and our old maintenance director trenched and ran parallel runs of Cat5 for the data network I have and the 25 pair phone cable, we had that spare run of cat5. The guy who was here ended up using my spare cat5 line to get the phone working up at the last building (the one that is about 2,000+ feet from the KSU building.

While he was here he was also able to take care of some other button programmings and things on the menu we needed changed that would have taken me years of reading our pdf format manual and tons of posts here to figure out!!

thank you all for your support here. i really wish i knew why that 25 pair line is dead, and why the 5 stations that still run through it work, and none of the other pairs...

there was some construction done a year ago, maybe they botched something since it was very, very near the conduit that has all wiring running through.

*sigh, at least i did find out that i was NOT crazy and those lines really were BAD. =)

Man, I wish you had been there. Too bad, because I would love to know what acutally happened. 2,000 feet is REALLY pushing the distance limit of that system. Despite the very unprofessional installation, I don't think it was entirely the culprit. Yes, some stations worked, but I have seen situations where another ten feet of station cable was all that it took to kill a phone.

As for the mystery of the remaining pairs in the 25 pair, I can only speculate. I should keep my mouth shut though.

As for simple button programming and things like that, always come here. That's the whole purpose of this joint in the first place.

I really wish they had told me they had called them in. The only thing I know they still want setup is having calls forwarded from their desk phones to a cell phone. But I don't know if that's possible?

Also, can anyone here make and send me new labels for the phones? =) How much do they cost? I'm tired of hand writing them. my writing stinks!!

Desi! go to www.desi.com

you can get the software and the labels there.