sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Security, Alarms and Paging Elevator Phones

I need to provide extension circuits to 6 elevator phones that will ring an extension at the front desk of an apartment building. Will a regular extension circuit work? I am not sure what the elevator phones do when the button in the elevator is pushed. Do they dial a number, or does the phone system have to sense that they are off-hook and connect them automatically to the front desk?

First off I would check with the local jurisdiction. I'm not sure elevator emergency phones are allowed to be answered by the front desk. Normally they go to a monitoring service that then calls the proper people.

Usually a dedicated line is required, not a system extension. The phone has a dialer that dials the programmed number when the button is pushed.

-Hal

The Otis elevator man was on site when I visited, and he told me that as long as the front desk is monitored 24 hours per day, this is OK. The building has a standby generator and the phone system has a big rack full of car batteries backing it up. (This is an old phone system about the size of a washing machine.)

Is there such a thing as an extension circuit that detects when a phone goes off hook and automatically connects it to another extension?

Arc -

You have two choices - either a device that autodials a number (any telephone extension should work) or a specific type of circuit called an automatic ringdown or a hotline circuit.

You don't say what type of phone system it is (I was going to ask if it was a Maytag or a Whirlpool, but I won't)

Size, in this case, really doesn't matter. If the phone system supports this type of circuit, fine (usually it's just a programming change).

If the system doesn't then you'll need to purchase a standalone ringdown circuit. Those are readily available, both from members here or from Telecom Supply houses.

What type of elevator phones you install should also be noted. Make sure they're compatible with your circuit.

If the Otis guy says a 24 hour front desk is good, you're probably OK, but, as Hal suggested, you may want to check with the AHJ.

Sam

I don't know if the elevator phones dial out or not. If they can be connected to a POTS line, like the Otis man said they can, then they would have to generate tones or pulses, I imgagine. It's good to know about the standalone ringdown circuit. I may need one. Does anyone on this board sell them? Please let me know.

The general rule for elevators is they must call out to a number that has 24/7 attendance. Your local codes and/or insurance could require more. Most elevators that I have worked on have a programmable dialer so there is no need for a special circuit besides a regular analog station port. Check out Viking for a ringdown circuit

All of the hotel/motel systems I deal with around here ring the front desk over an analog extension from the key system.
The elevator technician will program it to dial whatever it needs to dial be it the front desk or 911.
We just give him unrestricted dial tone and tell him what to dial if he needs an outside line, usually "9" just like the rooms.

But as recommended, you want to check with the local authorities. I would think the elevator tech. would know what is allowed in the area.

One problem with unrestricted DT that we found (and maybe it's just a NY thing) was people making calls on these phones. That's why we used hotlines so often.

People would pick up the line and then (because the auto-dialer usually had a delay) would use a little tone dialer with a speaker to call LD (or Internaltional) before the autodialer could kick in.

Sam

My client has a concern about people abusing the phone by their swimming pool in this way. I'm going to deny any outside line to this extension. Is there still some trick they can use to make outside calls?

Good point.
I don't have to worry about that too much in this area because every elevator car I deal with nowadays is either new construction or has been updated with new control panels which do not have a handset, just a call button. And so far (knock on wood) nobody has came up with a way to over ride them for fraudulent reasons.

Just in case some of you have seen problems please don't post details about how it was done. Remember, this is a public forum. But a p.m. would be nice because I would be interested in what I need to do to avoid such problems in the future.