atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Vodavi Telephones & Systems HELP!!! VODAVI STARPLUS STS

Can someone please help!! at wits end.
we installed last year an expansion unit with an 8 station board, the system now has 26 phones.
For some reason no matter what we have tried, once the Expansion unit is plugged into the main CPU, the voice mail goes haywire and will just ring and ring and becomes sporadic, the id's were changed on vm, to match numbering etc.. the main unit and the expansion unit and the voice mail have all been changed out to rule out any probs with equipment and still does the same thing, Tech support from vodavi is useless, what the heck are we missing? We upgraded software everything. HELP!!!

Default the system and then reprogram the cards back in. I find that when you flex number the vm extensions, whacky things can happen. So you may have to live with a gap in the phone extension numbering.

We completely defaulted everything and started all over from scratch, the numbering starts at 100 and ends ar 125 for everything, is right by the book, has this happened to you??

Are you using the cable that came with the EKSU to connect to the KSU? In other words, you're not using a longer, standard amphenol cable, are you?

No is the cable it came with the 2 additional phones work fine just VM all over the place, is hit or miss and driving us crazy, we completely tore everything down in programming, re-initialized you name it, I sent expansion unit out for repair, thinking maybe that was bad, but came back re-installed and still same prob. If you inplug exp unit everything is just fine. ????? YIKES!

Maybe it is something as simple as a bad cabinet connection cable.

What type of voice mail are you using?
An Inskin or an external(analog/digital)?
If analog, possible problems with ring generator.

When did it stop working properly? Only when you put the expansion cabinet in? Is the digital card the only thing in the expansion cabinet? Just hook up the expansion cabinet and don't plug in the DTIB card. Is vm still sporatic? Then plug in the DTIB card and see if the same thing happens.

Have you used etrace to see call progress if timers are activating extensions properly?

Are there more than 28 co ports in system? Not lines, but co ports? If so partition out what's not being used.

It's hard to give specific advice not knowing all variables. If you are close to port limits, resources start failing.

I wouldn't expect to get answers to all this stuff but look at any of these items to see when things go wrong.

I'm not asking about the cables going to the phone. I'm asking about the cable between the Basic KSU and the Expansion KSU.

Hi,
I appreciate all your help,

I am not sure if my tech did the process of eliminarion with 1st the EXP unit and then the dtib, but I certainly will pass that to him. There is an inskinVM. The system is fine until the EXP unit is plug in. There are 6 co lines there is 1 additional CO board in the main processor;There is only 1 dtib in the expansion. Not sure if he used etrace, but the problem is sporadic sometimes the extension will forward to VM after 4 rings and sometimes, it just doesn't???? Big mystery, But I will have him check those items individually, I'm sure he may have, but who knows...

Thanks for your great help, more than Vodavi has ever given LOL

Lorena

Ok,

Sorry I'm back, I stand completely corrected on 1 issue that I thought we covered:
The cable we are using for the EKSU is NOT the cable it came with, rather the cable we are using is a 6 to 8 foot amphenol cable, There was no room for the other. The question I have now is the supplied cable a straight through, or reverse orientation? This question is from my tech.
I guess is an issue of distance?? It seems wierd there is that much sensitivity, but is possible?
We are going to hold the unit closer and try it, then will have to spend all day re-arranging phone room, but will be worth it if it fixes the issue

Let me know what you think, I will be forever gratefiul for any help you cab give me, as is really been a pain!!

Thanks

We had this exact same situation where there wasn't enough wall space to mount the EKSU directly above. We used a 15' CAT5 cable between them and had all kinds of problems as a result. Once we reoriented the BKSU to allow use of the standard cable, we never had any more trouble. I'll bet that is exactly what is causing the problem you are having.

Yep, I have a feeling you are right, and will be so happy if indeed it is, end the nightmare!!!

The supplied amphenol cable is used as the bus. It is critical that you use the one supplied with the EKSU. We learned this the same way Ed did - by trying to work with the customer's limited equipment area

What happened when you tried it, ??

I have mounted both cabinets sideways when I didn't have room above the main cabinet to mount the expansion unit.

I can't understand why the Vodavi techs didn't ask you what cable you are using.

Yeah, been there done that. It doesn't friggin' work. Use the supplied cable by all means.

Thanks everyone,
We really had no place to move everything soooooo.....we used the supplied cable, added to the cable we were using and viola! it works.
We wanted to try this 1st only because there was absolutely no room, without spending an entire day to move evrything around. Tested and tested and works like a charm, hopefully stays working!!!! If not then move we will do as a last resort.
Thanks for all your help. As far as Vodavi, the best answer I ever get from them is to shut down, re-boot, re-initialize yad yada.. Oh well you guys are smarter than they are as you are out in the field!

Thanks again hopefully this helps someone else.

Lorena

That tells me there must be some unique pin-outs in the EKSU cable. I've never put in the EKSU yet, but if I ever do I'm going to check the pin-outs just for grins.

Thank you for letting us know the outcome.

I thought that too, Bill but I checked it out and the connectors are wired normally. My guess is that the bus design just won't accommodate any additional resistance or capacitance whatsoever.

I think that's it Ed, I had a similar situation and problems with a TIE OnyxVS with two cabinets and I recall tech service telling me the cable had to be the exact length they provided and that it couldn't be looped but needed to be stretched straight

I don't think they are wired normally. All the pairs are inverted on one end, that is why it is now working with a standard cable attached to the supplied one.

That's what I suspected Derrick. Otherwise it wouldn't make any sense just adding the EKSU cable to a M/F extension cable. However Ed is a pretty reliable source for this kind of thing.

So are you saying pins 1&26 are 25&50 on the other? I did search the internet trying to find the answer. All the installation manual says is they are 50 pin champ connectors, well I knew that. I know the EKSU cable is straight with no cable loop at either end, so if a M/F extension cable has to have a loop at either end there's the answer. Hope I explained that so everyone knows what the heck I'm talking about.

Bill, don't count upon me too much on this one. I've only spot-checked the orientation of the pairs and pins on the cable itself.

Here's why I think that the cable is a standard M-M 25 pair. Even with a longer cable, the system works. It just doesn't work reliably. It took almost a week before we started to see problems that couldn't be explained. On the other hand, it worked perfectly with the factory cable.

On that note, I'm going to have to say that the jury is out on this one.

Thanks Ed. The thing that's throwing me is the statement that they just added the cable that came with the EKSU to the extension cable they were already using. Not ever having put in an expansion cab I'd have no idea. Could be in a few days Derrick will find out it's still not right. Will wait and see.

I'm with you Bill. I think Dillandra will be back. This explanation isn't correct, but I sometimes think of the bus cable as being like an antenna. Too long or too short and the signal gets messed up.
Perhaps a larger question in all of this is why we are so willing to always try to accommodate the customer and squeeze our stuff into the most difficult of places to service sometimes. Does any other industry do that? Where is Hal when we need him?

Well and Ed point out it's a M-M cable so they couldn't have just added it to the cable they were using without an adapter. So I keep getting a bit more confused all the time. If I had one in front of me I'd sure be doing some checking. Thanks for the info.

I had the exact same problem. We tried to use a longer amphenol and it did not work. I had to reverse the other end of the cable and it works just fine. System has been in over five + years and have never had to go back.

OK I just took one apart and it is wired pin 1 is BL/WHT and pin 26 is WHT/BL on both ends. I always thought is had to do with the clocking speed on the bus and anything longer would throw the clock speed off. At least that is what engineering used to tell us for the DVX +4/Triad 3 and Mach 1/Triad S. So I am not sure if they fixed there problem or it only seemed to be cleared when they tested it and the problem will probably return.

So far so good, I am now finding out that the voice mail NEVER worked the way it was prior, so time will tell...