atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information A good "analog-heavy" PBX?

Older Tadiran Coral systems if you want true Bellcore standard ANALOG lines. Thinking an older Coral II with an RPS generator and 16SH cards. Haven't seen any systems lately that come close. But, not a system for the untrained. Hell, you can even get magneto cards for crank field phones.

Legend/Magix, 4 digit is the maximum number of digits for the numbering plan. The "Set Up Space" numbering plan starts the extensions at 7100, and you can renumber them from there, to anything you want, mixing single digit, 2, 3, and 4 digit numbering, as long as nothing overlaps.

There's a few Merlin/Magix systems on ebay, but a lot stuff is priced at $xxx+, which seemed a bit high given the lack of modules. ACS systems appear to be priced from $xxx+. (I might be a bit jaded given I paid $xx shipped for my TD1232.)

I did see a Meridian 1 for $69 shipped. It doesn't look like it has a processor module, but is loaded with the following:

- x1 NT8D09AK Analog Card
- x7 NT8D02GA Digital Cards
- x2 NT8D02EA Digital Cards
- x1 NTDK78AA Power Supply

Be careful if you buy an M1. Make sure the seller has both PASS1 and PASS2. Also make sure the SSC has the button battery dongle and the software flash card on board.

I presume PASS1 and PASS2 are system passwords, and the battery dongle has something to do with battery-backed RAM? Any idea what fair market value for any of the aforementioned systems is?

Why not just buy a system from one of the guys here where you know you'll get tech support?

While you cite the features of the Panasonic TD system, perhaps a little time with the manual would solve most of your problems.

A straight line ringer is designed to ring on frequencies from 16 2/3 to 33 1/3 Hz. Sure, Pana uses a 25 Hz ring generator, but any straight line ringer will ring on 25 hz.

In the programming manual for a TD, you might look at program 100, which sets the dial plan. It will let you implement 4 digit numbering for extensions, kinda redundant on a 64 extension board, but you can do it. Also, the ring cadence is adjustable. Since you don't have outside lines, just swap the extension ring with the trunk ring. Outside of the ring generator, all of the above specs are available on the TD.

Carl

PASS1 and PASS2 are indeed the passwords. The battery dongle is actually a system ID dongle and the system will not come up without it. Price is dependent upon equipment included. I would expect to pay between $300-$500 for a good 0ne cabinet 10 slot cabinet with passwords.

Merlin Legend. Hands down. This is what I use for everything. The programming is so easy using the MLX-20L phone. The manuals are readily available for free from support.avaya.com.

You just need an 012 Basic Telephone Set card w/ Ring Gen.

Don't make the mistake I did and get the 016 without the ring generator, I made this oopsie once. Thankfully it only cost me around $25, so not a big loss.

The rotary dialing internal isn't converted to tones, so it's more authentic. It's only converted to tones when you dial out on a CO trunk, but since you won't be using those...

Carl: I could never get 4-digit extensions to work on my TD, even though the manuals say it's supported. The PC software would always complained when I tried. The manual also references the different ring cadences, but I didn't see anything about changing it. I posed both problems to the Panasonic sub-forum a few months ago, but not a lot materialized. To the credit of the TD1232, though, I love how easy it is to configure hotline dialing.

For the curious, this is where I'm going: a flexible automation system with a cool 1A2/Bell System interface. Whatever PBX I use will be connected to my Astlinux box through CO trunks. The Astlinux box will be connected to some USB circuitry I'm designing to run relays/sensors/power monitoring gear. Getting Asterisk to trigger the relays and all that is pretty simple (all hail the System() command!).

Example scenario: alarm goes off at 6AM, I take my nightstand 2564 off hook, dial the Astlinux box and dial a few digits, and a contactor closes and turns on my coffee maker.

Asterisk is really only there for two reasons: (1) C*NET/Google Voice, and (2) Flexible I/O interfacing. There were a lot of design choices behind the latter that I won't bore everyone with, but I'll happily explain to the curious.