atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Vodavi Telephones & Systems Vodavi GDK100 (DVX+ Infinite) Information

Hello everyone,

First of all let me introduce myself, My name is Alex and i currently work for a title agency near dayton ohio. I've been working in IT for most of my life, i absolutely love technology

For some reason i have never really gotten into voice products. I have some idea of how they probably work, I've messed around with some servers running asterisk and some other SIP devices but not much more than that.

Recently we purchased a new set of buildings that i'm assuming were previously foreclosed. The previous business left a lot of junk laying around, but they did also happen to leave their entire phone system. The system seems labeled as a Vodavi GDK100, but after some research i found that it is actually an early DVX+ Infinite system.

I would like to find all the information i can on this system. I would like to know how all of the hardware and software works. This is more of an educational project than anything, but i'm sure i can find a use for the system.

These are my assumptions as of now.

When you open the lid i see a bunch on board fitting into slots, along with a power supply. This unit appears to have a four slot expansion attached to it. On the right of the main board is a lowered slot that contains a board label MPIB which i'm a assuming is the primary processor and houses the control software. It looks like you can interface with it via a serial connection. There are also other boards such as SLIB (has phone jacks) and DTIB (some type of huge telecom bus connector) which i'm not sure of how they work and their exact purpose. Other boards include MSIB and T1IB.

There are also other devices such as caller id interfaces and a 8 port digital voicemail box.

I would appreciate any information about these that you can give me. I would assume these are not VoIP as all of the phones do not have RJ45 connectors.

I hope i'm not stepping on anyones toes here, This is just a great chance for me to learn how some of these things operate. I would think this is an older system and while they may still be actively serviced, i cant imagine many people implement new installations of this system.

Thanks!

It is likely a DVX+2 or +3, depending upon the number of slots in the main cabinet. It may also be a Triad 1 or 2. These are basically the same systems but the software is different to support a different family of phone modes. The DTIB card interfaces with the digital phones using a 25 pair cable. Yes, the system is programmable via the RS232 connector on the MPB, however it is also programmable via the first attendant station (usually extension 100).

It is not classified as a VoIP system, however with the proper software and a LANB card, it can support local or remote IP phones. The phones are proprietary though and mainstream SIP phones are not supported.

The digital voice mail system connects via digital station ports. There is no other connection between this and the phone system itself. The RS232 port on the voice mail is also used for programming, however a proprietary administration program is required.

While it is true that this is an older system, there are still quite a lot of them in service. They are very rugged and the supply of phones and parts is quite abundant.

Awesome, thank you!

The phones are labeled infinite, this is what lead me to to the possibility that it was a DVX+.

Is there any documentation out three on the software? The SLIB cards, are these used for line inputs from the phone company? Is there a license for each card or can the software handle just about any card you put into it?

Honestly i would love to reset the software to factory defaults ( i have a ton of Vodvai floppy disks that i need to find an old computer for) and figure out how the whole system operates. Once i've done that i'd like to hunt down some pan cards for it and their associated software.

The SLIB card provides analog single line telephone extensions. You'd need LCOB cards for the CO lines. There's no licensing at all associated with this system, however the software might be too old to support VoIP phones.

If I were you, I'd just buy the manual for the system. There's a link at the top of this page with some resources.

How do i for certain that i have a DVX2, DVX+, or triad? here are some pics of the phones the system uses and the rom chips on the processor card.

If i am not on the latest software, how do obtain the latest software?

The latest software was v 4.1. It requires a chip change to upgrade.

You have an Infinite system. The software is V3.0. Ver 3.0 was decent but it had a few bugs when it came to flexible numbering.

I thought the last release was V4.17 but that must have been for Triad. It supports the unified 3000 series phones. As dealers, we ordered it from Vodavi (now Vertical)so you need to see a dealer for software. All I have is in the TR(iad) series, not IN(finite).

Again, thank you guys for all of the help.

Does anyone know of any dealers that will have these 4.1 chips?

PM sent.

How do i know whether i have a DVA1, DVX2, DVX3, DVX4, or DVX+? or does it not really matter?

I'm trying to locate a LAN card, i found one labeled LANB but from what i can tell it is for an XTS, not a DVX. Unless they are the same card? Also can these LAN ports be connected to an ethernet switch to service multiple phones on one port? It would be a shame if the 8 port cards could only handle 8 phones. I know the throughput per port is also an issue so you wouldn't want to run an entire office on one port (if a switch can be used that is). Are they megabit or gigabit ports?

Does the manual describe all of the different cards available and what they do / how they work? I'm hoping that with a LAN card, 4.1 chip, and the dVX manual i would be set.

EDIT: Looks like if i'm looking a the right card, it's only VoIP connections per card, bummer. But it does look like theres a 12/24 board as well.

You have a DVX+. The cards fit in both the DVX+ and XTS cabinets.

Yes, the IP phones are connected via an Ethernet switch. The LANB card can be configured with two, four, six or eight channels. Each one is generally good for two IP phones, but it is assumed that not all of them will be in use at the same time. I do not believe that the 12/24 port was supported by the DVX+ systems.

There are/were several versions of IP phones available. The 3813 series came with or without a pass-through LAN port (built-in switch). The later versions came with this 10/100 switch as standard.

You'll definitely want to get the manual to have a better understanding of this. The problem is, it doesn't go into any detail about IP phones and networking. You'll probably need to get an XTS manual as well and read the addendum regarding VoIP.

I got the DVX+ Mach1 manual, which doesn't seem like the same system from the pictures. But maybe the information is the same?

I also downloaded the XTS IP manuals and it has a lot of great info in it. My question is can you link multiple KSU's together to achieve more VoIP channels? From what i can tell, the MPB board can only handle so many VoIP cards.

It is definitely not the same system. It has completely different architecture, however the programming is nearly identical. There are just more features and capacities available in the DVX+.

You can link multiple XTS systems together because they support networking. You can only use IP to support IP phones with the DVX+.

Even if it was possible to link two DVX+ systems together, it would require networking software from Vertical, which I doubt that they'll be willing to supply since it was never made.

You can put more than one LANB card in your system though, as long as you don't exceed the maximum number of time slots available.

I would like to see if i am on the right track.

I installed software 4.10 today and the system would not boot (boot loop as appeared from the LED's) By flipping DIP switch 8 to ON the system flushed the existing database and resorted to factory defaults (which appears to be 2 DTIB cards and 2 LCOB cards by typing "d s" in the terminal).

So you should be able to add / remove cards from the database and assign extensions, etc... form the serial terminal correct?

RAM Block 2 and 3 also fail on startup

Yes, you can perform all aspects of programming from the terminal connection (and then some).

RAM Block 2/3 failure is normal, since they do not exist on this system. They are just included in the software.

I see,

maybe i have the wrong manual but i can't find any details about how to add / remove cards or change their port numbers. I also am not exactly sure what a time slot is, i see the term mention multiple times but i don't know exactly what it is or how many i have available.

The main processor i have is a MPB1, i see there are others such as the MPB2 and MPBE and I'm assuming they all have different time slots. The MPB2 and MPBE may only work on the XTS?

I can log into the terminal and i can use the "?" command to get some information, but not much. As far as i know there are two logins. CONFIG and ETRACE

Your system likely has 108 time slots. Each one counts as a station port, CO line port, etc. This is how the system prevents you from putting too many cards in. Just because they will fit doesn't mean that the system will support them.

I am pretty sure that you are seeing "mpbi", not "mpb1". It looks exactly the same on the card handles. No, the MPB1, MPB2 and MPBE will only work on the XTS platform.

Card slot assignments are performed in flash 24. In the manual, there is a table with the codes for each different kind of card. Be sure to reboot the system after changing these in order for them to take affect.

CONFIG and ETRACE are maintenance logins that don't permit any programming. They are just to monitor/check things in the system. You need to just get into standard system programming that is explained in great detail in the beginning pages of the programming section.

Thats makes more sense.

The manual i have skips right over FLASH 24-29. And also fails to mention how to press HOLD using a terminal (i'm using putty).

So flash 24 reports cabinet 0, but I'm assuming you can't add any more cabinets? so flash 25-29 is useless?

And why are slots 3-5 skipped? i have a extension to bring the system to 11 ports but the software reports i can have up to 16 ports.

Sorry for all of the questions.

No, there aren't any more cabinets with your system, even though there is an expansion cabinet. Makes sense, huh?

The expansion cabinet that you have just adds more slots to the base cabinet 0 in continued numerical order. Keep in mind that the system's software addressed all of the products in that family, specifically the DVX+4 that did allow up to three expansion cabinets. It is confusing.

What you have is a DVX+2. The only difference between it and the DVX+3 is the number of slots in the main cabinet. Why they chose to skip slot numbers 3-5 was to keep the slot numbering for the MPB and MISB the same for both. Again, more confusion.

Flash 25-29 don't exist, hence the reason that they are not there. I'm not sure why flash 24 doesn't exist in your manual though.

Interesting,

So if you were to buy a dvx+3 or dvx+4 KSU, could you swap all of the card from the dvx+2 into them and boot it up just like normal (considering you used the same slot numbers).

No, the DVX+4 uses completely different cards (physical size among other things). The +2 and +3 do allow complete flexibility between systems, even the MPB. The only difference between those systems is the presence of slots 3-5 in the main cabinet in the +3.

I found another manual and have the card programming working!

The only card i don't see on the list of cards is the MISB. It says that slot 8 is reserved for the MISB so does that mean if i place the MISB in slot 8 it just automatically works? It reports that there is no card in slot 8.

Is there an 8 slot expansion cabinet for the dvx+2 to bring the total slots to 16 (minus 3-5)?

Yes, just install MISB, not slot to assign. Hook up MOH & test. Have to check my manuals for +2 expansion.

No, there is only one expansion cabinet for the +2.