atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Mitel Telephones & Systems New Guy with easy question

I have worked on a few phone systems and done wiring work before and have a really dumb question. I have a friend who just bought a small hotel and wants me to get the phone system working, existing system is mitel sx50 and I see how its all laid out and it should work if I can get tone to the trunk card. How the heck can I find out where the trunk card is punched down to, I have traced it back to a 66 block but can't seem to figure out what to do with the telco lines. Which pairs do I punch down the telco lines to that will allow the system to get dial tone and an outside line. I get trunk 65 card 9 busied out errors now when trying to place a call, which makes sense because there is no tone to the trunk card. Or am I just not thinking this through correctly. Please help, any advice would be great. :bang:

Do you have a manual?? Does the company that your friend bought the SX50 from have a good support staff?? You may have bitten off more than you can handle.

This is not the easiest system to set up and program. Years ago we installed 4 of them--but with alot of support help and one of our techs had taken a course on the SX50. We do not support nor maintain them any more. It's for a good reason---believe me.

Maybe one of the Mitel regulars can jump in and offer some help. Perhaps some paid help from a board member/certified tech would be appropriate. Welcome to the board and good luck.

The only thing that I can suggest is that with the system being existing, there must have already been trunks connected to it. If you are lucky, and I say that with a capital "L", you should be able to simply trace the jumpers from the existing network interface for the original trunks to locate their position on the system's blocks. If this is your case, you can simply move the jumpers to the new network interface.

I'd be willing to bet that the original system was set up for ground-start trunks and I'll throw another dollar into my bet that the new lines ordered by the customer are not ground-start trunks (cheaper is better, right?).

If I had only minimal system experience, I'd steer clear of this situation. If you don't truly understand the concept of PBX trunking, ground-start, trunk polarity, etc., you are setting yourself up for a big headache.

Mitel's hotel/motel systems are remarkably simple for people who know them, but they are a daunting task for those who don't.

I absolutely HATE replies where we tell people to "call a professional", but when dealing with the SX-50 and having no experience, I just can't think of anything else to say.

By the way, your question isn't "dumb" at all. At least you had the foresight to ask first before you landed yourself into a den of snakes.

I have some manuals, which aren't very good. This system came out in 87 from what I can see and I was 6 yrs old so I am shooting from the hip at most troubleshooting I have done.

Right now its programmed to call room to room and down to the operator but I can't get dial tone for outgoing calls.

8 trunks on the card, 2 wires a trunk, 16 pair out of 25 should be used, I am thinking I could cross connect the line coming in to the first pair of the trunk card and get out on the system. Sound right?

Now to just get it to work.

Would I have to activate those trunk locations on the card through console programming?

Anyone know anyone in MI who does Mitel system work?

I am not going to screw anything up by guessing anymore. She will just have to get out her checkbook.

Thanks for the help though.

See what you find by clicking on the INSTALLERS link on the left/top part of this page.

One question: Have you ever heard dial tone at the DMarc and verified the lines?

Just curious as to whether you're working with ground start or loop start lines.

Yes, I put my butt set on it and have good dial tone. Which leads me to believe they are loop start lines. Which tells me if the system is configured for GS, then the pbx won't use these lines anyways.

Yes--for sure.

From what I remember when I worked on one of those at a small hotel you can pull the trunk card out and there will be a little toggle switch on the board that switches the card from G to L. Switch it to L for loop start. This may have been a feature on the old sx200. Good luck.

Can anyone verify this. I plan on going over there after work tonight, I have some networking of pc's to do, so I can pull the card and look then.

Pull the card on this system=
1) Power down
2) Disconnect 25 pair
3) Use supplied tool to pull card
4) Switch from G to L
5) Reverse for install and power back on.