atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Executone-Isoetec Telephones & Systems IDS-228 station lockout on startup

This is a strange one. Re-installed a system for a customer who reloceated. Everything up and working fine. When system is Power cycled (off then on) some phones don't come up. If you unplug and replug any of the stations that didn't come up they come up fine. The system seems to do this on a daily basis; although, the option for a system reset is set to "N" at 00:00. Another note is that if I bring the KSU up with the Amphenols disconnected and then connect them one at a time (about 15 second interval) it seems to come up with all stations no problem. Am I missing some sort of initialization timer or delay somewhere? Has anyone ever experienced this?

The IDS resest after 3 hours of inactivity. Are all the phones that do not come up on system reset on the same card?

If the the phones that don't come up are NOT the same every time, and are not all on the same card (which would mean a problem with that card or slot, or one of the stations or cables on that card), two possibilities are:

1) marginal power supply - check the voltages, and if you can get your hands on an analog voltmeter, watch it on each voltage during and just after a system reset. Sometimes a power supply on the verge of going bad will measure normal under normal load but will dip during/after reset. Also, if it's a dual power supply system, be aware that some of the power buses are common, and for this test to be meaningful you need to back out all but the first (rightmost) 9 cards and do the test with only the right power supply connected to the KSU, then repeat the test with the other power supply in the righthand position. If you have extra power supplies that you know are good, it would be easier just to change them out and see if that fixes it.

2) noise on common data bus - this is a tough one to find, causes flakey problems such as the one you've got and also intermittent operation of random stations. Noise can be fed into the system from a single station, either because the phone itself is bad or because of something funky with station cabling. One way to find it is to cycle the power with just one station amp unplugged, and repeat with a different amp unplugged until you've been through all of them (or until you find one that makes a difference). If you find that the problem goes away when one of the amps is unplugged, and comes back with it plugged in, start doing the same thing with the jumpers on that station block, one by one. If you can narrow it down that way, either the phone needs to be swapped or the cabling has a problem. More than once I've seen a low-resistance short - damaged cable touching metal stud, cobwebs/moisture etc. - cause stuff like this.

If the stations that do this ARE the same every time, look for turned over pairs in station and frame cabling. The IDS will run with pairs turned over, but it doesn't like it.

Unfortunately, no. There are several ports on all cards with no specific grouping and no commonality that I can see. Thanks for the heads up on the no activity reset, that is a good piece of information to help me confirm that I am not loosing my mind. One more piece of information that is relevant, I ran the self-test diagnostics and they indicate a fail on 4 of the five line cards, but of course there is no "reason" or "error code" that I can find. But the problem sets are also on the card the receives the "passed" on self-test.

oops, my last post was sent before I saw Tim's response, but its suggestions are still ok.

By the way, the IDS self-test is almost meaningless, except for the line tests, which are good for POTS lines. It (the internal test) was created primarily as a marketing tool. It does do some testing, but after its original creation it was never included in the QC test plan for software releases.

Also, there's a way to turn off the 3 hour inactivity reset; I don't remember if just setting the B screen option to N does that, or if it's in Level 9.

Excellent suggestions. It does appear to be the same stations every time, and it is a dual supply system. I suspected the power supplies but then wrote them off because the phones will ultimately come up. But with your info above, I am going to revisit that and check them with an analog meter to watch for any bouncing during powerup. I'll post again after we test that on Tuesday. Thanks

I've looked everywhere in Level 8 for it (already set the B screen option to N.)
so I've got to believe it's lower down in the code if it exists. I also have to believe that it is a good thing to have turned on though or Isotec wouldn't have put it there. So I'd just as soon leave it on and find the problem rather than just cure a symptom. It's a better strategy in the long run for the customer.

A momentary, slight dip is normal, caused by the load of all the stations resetting at the same time. What you're looking for is a dip that doesn't come back up immediately, or is steep (sorry I don't remember how to quantify that). The main thing is to look for a difference in behavior between the two power supplies as you swap them intoe the righthand position. And if it does turn out to be a power supply, I'll bet you'll find that the stations that fail to reset every time are the longest station runs.

Also, since it's the same ones every time, do look for turned over pairs on at least a couple of them before doing the power tests. Good luck!

And dont forget to check the simple things that slip us up. Check and verify your ground. I know I had this problem before and am racking my brain to think of what it was.
One thing I would try is swiching the Power supplies, and checking the A/C, remember its suppose to be an isolated, dedicated outlet. I'll chime back in if I remember.
Damn old age is a pain.

There were at one time ' certain ' software versions that had problems with "too short" cable runs, to fix it , we used to put a resistor on the tip and ring pair of the phones in series, I know also that Executone had come out with a special base cord with the resistor value built in. I can't remember the size resistor, But, I'm sure "Idsproductmgr" would.

The reason I'm suggesting it is the fact that You relocated the system. Different cable lengths etc.