atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems Spirit 308/616 will not dial out in tone mode

Hello all from a newbie here.

My office has an old AT&T/Lucent Spirit phone system with the CS308A1 controller (as well as the expansion module). It has worked trouble free for many years. Yesterday, with no cause apparent to us, we found that we could not make outgoing calls. Incoming calls were fine, but when we picked up to dial out the tones generated by the keyboard made a normal beep but would not break the dial tone. Phone co came out and the incoming lines to our controller box checked out OK. I tried re-setting (unplugging) the controller and re-setting the system to tone mode, to no avail. While doing the later, I found that if I switched all the lines to pulse mode we could make outgoing calls. This works but we would obviously prefer to work in tone mode. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

About the only thing I would try is connecting to the lines at the demarc with a butt set and seeing if they are OK. You could use a single line phone. If you can't access the demarc or connect to it with the plug you could pull a CO line plug from the Spirit and connect there.

If your test confirms that the lines are all right then your problem is with the KSU. At that point you are looking at replacement of an old low cost system that is way beyond it's useful life.

-Hal

to program at the controller turn admin switch to on
at ext 10 press intercom dial *0
confim tone
dial 1
next touch conf button, dial 7
press all your lines ,dial 1

if this does not allow to tone out, then try unpluging your expansion module, and try again

I assumed the OP knew how to change from pulse to tone- I tried re-setting (unplugging) the controller and re-setting the system to tone mode, to no avail.

Certainly try unplugging the expansion module. Good luck.

-Hal

Thank you both for your replies. Yes, I tried unplugging the expansion module and also reprogramming the lines to tone in case they had somehow reset to the default pulse mode.

hbiss, is the "demarc" the connection between the outside phone lines and the controller? If so I have not tested that yet (I need to bring in a one line phone from home), but does the fact that we can dial out in pulse mode rule out everything but the controller (all phones and lines exhibit the same problem)?

I know this is an old system, but is there any problem with trying to pick up a used controller (I see them for less than $100 on the web) in lieu of buying a whole new system? We have four incoming lines and six phones on the system.

Thanks again for your assistance.

You can test anywhere before the line gets connected to the system just to make sure you can tone dial. I seriously doubt that you will find a problem but it doesn't hurt to check.

If you want to replace the KSU I see no problem with that if the system suits you. You may have to do some programming though.

-Hal

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