I am in the process of selecting a buttset for my new position in a network group and was talking to one of my coworkers who said it would be nice to get one that worked for digital as well as analog phones. We have Mitel XS 2000 Lights and the thought was to be able to check for service at various 110 blocks throughout the buildings on a given circuit. I have been trying to find such a device for quite some time and have come to the perhaps erroneous conclusion that it does not exist. What does one use to check for service on 'digital' circuits between a switch and the phone on the desktop ?

What I do when I have to half split a circuit is get a spare jack and punch some cross connect to it, then you can punch the jack down on the point you want to test; just plug a system phone in to the jack and test. Just keep a spare system phone around to use for testing.

Log onto Graybars website an order an AT&T AT-8662 D test cord . It clips right onto 110 blocks and connect the spade lugs on the cord to a biskit jack . I have been using one for years and it still works like new .

Spaceman:

Mike Sandman (www.sandman.com) has a plug-on four-pair adapter for 110 blocks that gives you a modular jack (568B) for testing. I don't know for sure if it works on circuits with the jumpers in place though. Anyway, their part number for it is "TOO6S" and my catalog (old one) has it listed $13.99.

I think this guy is looking for a "universal" butt set not adapters to connect one to 110 blocks.

There are so many manufacturers of so called "digital" systems out there that it would be impossible to design a butt set that would work with more than one.

The answer to your question is as you suspected- ain't no such animal. I suppose you could put clips on the end of a line cord and carry around an XS 2000 with you.

How then do you trouble shoot a "digital" circuit? Disconect the wiring from the switch and use a cable continuity tester that will check for opens, shorts and crossed pairs. Or do it the old fashioned way- with an ohm meter.

-Hal

The AT&T AT-8662 clips on with jumpers punched down or not . That is why it is so handy when testing on 110 blocks .

I'm with hbiss on this one. You can use a traditional buttset to verify connections and so on but as far as a buttset that will operate as in this case a Mitel digital, I don't think that is gonna happen. But if anyone is gonna know for sure it'll be them guys over in the Mitel zone. Put a post up in their category and you'll get much more reliable info than from me. But I'm doin my best.

Guys: My suggestion was a device that he could use to plug a digital set in at various points along the way. I agree that there's not a universal "digital butt set" available. Wouldn't that be nice!

volt ohm meter is as good as your gonna get boss

hbiss is correct in his posting about digital buttsets . One is not made for the following reason . Just within the family of mitel digital sets a ss4dn will not work on a port porgrammed as a ss4 . A ss420 will not work on a port programmed as ss4dn . A ss4025 will not work on a port programmed a ss420 . A ss4150 will not work on a port programmed as a ss4025 . I can see in the future an IP buttset once every IP set is using the same PROTOCOL .

Lets all agree there is no butt set connector that taps onto a 110 block and that is because different manufacturers transmit the 1s and 0s at different rates and different patterns and different voltages and have different characteristics when a 2nd phone is plugged onto it.

That said, there is one rational way to do this.

Get the 110 to modular adapter that several people sell. You first disconnect the phone at the far end. Then with the same style phone in hand, you can move from the ksu to the first, second and so on connection points.

At some connection point the previous connectiion works and this one does not. There or somewhere inbetween lies the problem.

With a Samsung for example, you don't want to carry a lightweight 8 button phone and plug it into 110 connection points for a 24 button phone because you will reprogram every phone you touch that is not an 8 button phone.

This would not happen on a Toshiba but the tech should know which ones would work and which ones must only be tested by the identical style phone.

If you unplug the far end set that has trouble and clip onto the 110 block with your modular adapter and use the same style phone, you are jack cool.

Hey look at my Mitel SS4150 test set, it looks just like a real phone but I can do diagnostics with it.

I tried to shorted Ed's idea, but I think I went in reverse.

Bunnie how did you know I was running windows 2000 with internet explorer 5.6 ?