sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Mitel Telephones & Systems New Installation Person

I am on a very tight budget with a new construction small motel. I feel sure that I can install the Mitel SX 50 myself.

I have one pair of lines available in each room.

Would someone please comment on my chances and my dificulties.

Thank you,
Mark

PM sent!

You said it is new construction so why would you only have 1 pair per room. Even though you only need one pair to run the phone in the room if you lose a pair you are sunk.

You can have one pair per room now that is cheap either you pay a little bit when you build or a lot more after when the pair is faulty. how does it go short term gain

I would guess He is splitting Cat5 per some sparkie ,It seems to be a favorite cheapskate method,I have even had one builder think you could install the "internet" daisy chain.Key West it is real scary ,even on new construction ,one room having to tear out drywall to get a new cable in ,will cost more than the little you did not have to spend on cable.I have been doing Motels for 30+ years ,and have yet to see anyone successfully save money by scrimping on cable, Maybe initially ,but in the near future you will pay ,and then some.it's like buying a new car with an old motor.

What is your background?

If you are building a motel and trying to do everything yourself but have never touched a phone system the chances of you installing it and programming it so that it will work efficiently are slim. If you do take the time to learn so that it works well you will most likely find that you have so much time invested that it isn't worth the money you saved by not hiring a professional.

There is a lot more to it than just making the physical connections. On top of that once you are up and running it is awfully nice to have someone to call in an emergency who can respond within hours with technical knowledge and parts.

On the other hand if you used to be a phone tech and are asking if it makes sense for you to buy the parts and do it yourself that is another story.

As far as the 1 pair - how did that possibly come about?

I love these kind of posts. I say go for it, man. After you've spent two weeks of your time trying to learn this new craft, then call a qualified technician that can do it in a day! Good freakin' luck.

Many years ago I retrofitted an old Days Inn Hotel (for those of you who are old enough to remember it was the kind of with the office and "Tasty World" restaurant in the detached building. Ripped out the Hitachi crossbar to install an SX200. in the "rooms building" there were 100 guest rooms and the housekeeping office. When the original feeder cable had been run under the 300 feet of parking lot they pulled a single hundred pair cable along with A ONE PAIR CABLE. Back in those days what do you think it saved not to run at least an extra 25 pair cable - $100.00 ?? Had to be a UCS job.

Key West if you are still checking I would run at least a 6 pair cable to every room - the extra cost is going to be minimal in the grand scope of things and will save you a lot of headaches down the road. As to what "upstateny" said - I once walked a guy through programming and installing an SX200 in a hotel he had bought near the Cleveland airport. He bought it with his winnings from the Ohio lottery and he was really interested in learning how to do it and had the time - maybe that is your situation. However if you ever watch the "hous flip" shows on TLC or HGTV it almost always turns out they would have been much better off hiring an experienced contractor to do certain things. Good luck man.

Geeze, and I was going to suggest free installation to Key West for the price of lodging in February :-)

Back in the day, Sparkie helped me out on a motel job (Days Inn coincidently) where they took a 25 pair cable and split out ONE pair to each room. I think it was Scotchlok city with 3 pair to the jack and a row of splices in the utilities tunnel behind the rooms. It wasn't my problem, I was too busy splicing the lobby feeder cable.

This was in the '80's when the payphone was a nickel and PBX trunks were a magnificent sum of about $14 a month.

I think the final PBX price was about 44K for less than 100 stations.

Carl

1-PAIR per room? Back-to-back jacks, 1 Quad split between rooms. Seen it, fought it, never did it! Seen 4-pair split between 2 rooms the same way. They wanted to put a second line into all the rooms, feeder from the phone room only had 9 spare pairs, 40 rooms, wouldn't spring for the extra 50pr feeder. Almost talked them into a copper fed EL system with a cabinet on each floor and make up the difference with all the resulting spare pairs from the phone room. But just imagine trying to explain to an English-challenged motel owner why I couln't use all those 'spare' pairs that I was going to have, to run the 'second' lines up to the second floor! John C. (Not Garand)