atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems Electra Elite 48/192 Connecting to VMS/Co-sessions

Hello all,

I have had the great fortune of inheriting an Electra Elite 48/192 system from many years back. It's been working just fine on it's own with very few changes needing to be made for a few years now. However, the power was knocked out a few weeks ago and the system appeared to reset itself.

I've managed to get a lot of the lines working again, a lot of the basic settings setup properly and recently was able to connect the system to the voicemail. Unfortunately there are a few things I'm confused about and I was hoping to get a little information.

1) I'm using a straight through cable to connect my PC to co-sessions via DB9 serial. Are there any changes I need to make to the default co-sessions settings in order to connect? It's a Windows XP box if that makes a difference.

2) My main concern is how outside calls are routed in our system. They ring on LK1 - 4 but don't follow the Call Forward Busy/No Answer rule. I assume this is because it's ringing to a group and not a particular phone. How do I go about routing calls that come in from the outside into either one person's voicemail or the voicemail system in general?

3) I was able to get night mode working, and it seems the VMS system (if night mode is connected to VMS) managed to keep the night mode message in tact. However, night mode directs you to a series of options and all of them show up dead. Where do I go to find out what buttons do things in Night Mode? Sorry for that last sentence.

I appreciate any and all help received. Re-reading my post I feel like I'm asking a lot but I've focused on this over the past few weeks and I feel like I've made very little ground, so I'm looking for some guidance and any help in any direction is appreciated.

Thanks

The cosessions set up log in is *****.
The VM system has it's own HDD which will not lose it's programming in a power down situation.
Your issue is probably the battery on the CPU. It's either turned off or no longer capable of retaining the system program. Given the age of the system it is most likely no good. If you lose power again you will probably lose your program again.
Typically for the VM/AA to answer calls you need to set up DIT D/N assignment in MB 3-42 and 3-43 to terminate on the VM pilot number. Incoming trunk calls do not follow call forward settings. That is an internal function on that system.

helpifican, thanks so much for replying.

I've replaced the battery on the CPU board, and confirmed it's now retaining settings. The VM system has held onto it's settings and hasn't lost anything.

Cosessions still won't connect, I'm getting either "A DSR ERROR HAS OCCURRED." or "no response was received from the host" I have tried both a straight through cable and a null modem.

I was able to setup the DIT D/N assignment and that resolved that issue, BIG thanks on that one.

My last real issue though is that during night mode the message says to dial "2" to get to our after-hours number. But hitting "2" goes nowhere, I assume because it's supposed to go to a line that's now dead. Any idea where I'd go about changing that?

Again, thanks for your help so far.

The only way to modify the VM one key dialing is with cosessions. I always used a straight cable. Have you tried different baud rates? NEC changed the default bd rates several times. Try 9600/14400/56K. Usually nothing slower than 9600.

I haven't had a chance to sit down with cosessions yet. But I purchased a new straight cable just in case the one I was testing with was a little wonky, so hopefully next week I'll be able to get that working.

I have two more questions and I'm not sure where to find the answers for these.

1) I'm trying to get incoming calls to ring on more than one station. The default settings have it ringing on port 01 and 02 but I want it to also ring on Port 40.

2) I'm trying to allow someone to set their DND up so it forwards to a cell phone (outside line) when they have DND on. I've tried doing this several times based on the instructions in the "Multiline Telephone User Guide" but it's not working, doesn't seem to like going to an outside line. Thoughts?

Thanks again for all the help so far. The amount of information I have available to me is massive and I'm trying to figure it all out and it's a bit overwhelming as I've never been in charge of a phone system before.

Ring assignment is done in MB 4-01 - day, 4-02 - night by station port.
Allow call forward off premise in MB 1-8-08, page 5 line key 4 = on.

I'm confused. We had actually set MB 4-01 for Port 40 and it's still not working.

https://i.imgur.com/OCm7Kp3.jpg

That's what it currently looks like. The instructions in the Programming Manual are a bit confusing though, as they show the Tel Port No. and Port No. on two different ends.

so

Tel / data : RNG DY | Port
40 / 01 : RNG DY | 01

I can't seem to find a way to get over to the far right, the 01 port, is that what I need to change or do I have it setup correctly?

Thanks,

You have port 40 setup correctly. The 01 on the far right is the page indication. You can have more than eight lines ringing, so you would go to page two to assign ringing for lines 9-16, etc.

Alright, so if Port 40 is setup properly, incoming calls should be ringing on Port 40? Right now they are not.

Go to MB 4-10 and scroll through all of the ports VS. extension numbers. You may not be dealing with the port or extension you think. Also verify that you do not have any duplicate extension numbers. It is possible with this system.