sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems How to build a "budget" Definity system?

Now don't laugh, but...

I used to administrate a Definity G3 system at a small hospital. I did everything all the way down to the wiring of individual phone sets and end user education. We were exclusively using 4-wire 7400-series sets (in addition to analogue, of course), and had begun the transition to 2-wire (were those 8400s?) shortly before I left the job.

I have been entertaining (this is the "don't laugh" part) the idea of building a wee little PBX for fun/geek factor. There seems to be a lot of "legacy" Definity equipment floating around that can hardly be given away (7400-series stuff, the 4-wire digital and lowww-density analogue circuit packs, etc).

Would it be feasible to do this? What would I need? Have I lost my mind?

No responses at all...?

Well what are your needs, all you said was buget. I'm sure you copuld pick up some cheap stuff from different places.

Will it be for regular use or just the can-it-be-done and hey-that's-neat factor? There's lots of parts floating around pretty cheap, just keep looking.

If you're like me, just post that you'll take almost anything and see who starts giving you stuff. You might end up with 1A2, Merlin Classic, and other stuff that's not even good for a door stop, but you might get lucky.


[This message has been edited by junkman (edited June 03, 2005).]

Hi, sorry if I wasn't being quite clear in my initial post - I guess when I say "budget", I really mean that I want to cobble together a working Definity switch from scratch with cast-off and/or cheap surplus parts.

Junkman, the can-it-be-done and hey-that's-neat factor are definitely part of my motivation, but I also certainly want to eventually create something that actually works, even though the primary purpose will be to re-teach myself Definity administration and simultaneously torture the members of my household.


[This message has been edited by heiff (edited June 06, 2005).]

Check the equipment for sale area of this board and also ebay.

The equipment board might be good, but low volume and lots of the stuff seems to be fairly nice.

...eBay can serve up some great bargains. I got a 96 port Panasonic system, newest software version, w/ 20 sets (some of them LCD sets) for $400.

I've put in some bids on ebay for most of the really basic stuff that i know i need, like a processor, tone clock, and a 4-wire digital circuit pack, but I'm hazy about

·what kind of cabinet I need
·memory card

I've been told I need one of the newer-type PCMCIA cards (I'm assuming this is what replaced the tape drives that were in use when I originally worked with Definity), but wouldn't I also need an expansion card with a socket for the PCMCIA card? I haven't seen anything like that for sale.

The Definity product line has changed alot since the tape drives. The PCMCIA card holds customer translations and depending on the system type and processor vintage, can plug into either the network control card or the processor. Best bet is to download system manuals for an si or csi system from Avaya's web site and then decide how new of a system you want to play with. Good luck.

heiff,

I too was looking into putting together an old definity junk system. However, I hit some snags when it came to system passwords. While browsing another forum I found that its possible to default the older definity's by pulling out the pcmia card and rebooting without it. However, I am unsure which version of the processor this works on. Can anyone tell me the oldest processor that this defaulting technique would work on (preferably this processor should be able to work in a CMC (the SCC's are too heavy to ship)). I do not need anything exceptional in terms of features, all I want to be able to do is run the 8400 series phones with basic functions. And yes I am a little insane, because I do, in fact, want to install this in my house.

[This message has been edited by chicagotechsolutions (edited June 19, 2005).]