I work for the city. We get the old stuff that just keeps on working and working and working.....

I've got an office a few miles away from me that's got a DK96 (yes, it still works) that one of my former guys transferred to.... he knows what I made the phones here do, and he wonders if I can make his roll over and bark like I did at my office....

but, he's got an older system than I do.... mine's all digital phones, and I upgraded the processor so I could add caller id, and added a card so I could hook into the paging amp....

he's got a DK96, with all electronic phones, plugged into PEKU boards... he wants to at a minimum get the overhead page hooked to the phone.... from reading the history on here, I should be able to do this by either 1) adding a piou(s) like I did at my location, or 2) hooking to the voice pair of a peku port and shorting the data pair, or 3) using a CO line port

I'd like to have at least the option to upgrade him to pdku boards and digital phones in the future (sound quality is just so much better).

so. all that being said. the question.
1)I can easily add a piou(s) to his system (assuming I can find the 20 button display phone that they're supposed to have in a cabinet somewhere). i see this as the least useful choice tho, I don't wanna use up a whole slot if I don't have to.
2) what has to be done to the "data" pair of a peku port to make it play nice? searching says "short it" or "put a resistor across it" but... is it really that simple? does that trick the processor into thinking there's an ekt phone there, so when I "call" it, it thinks there's a phone there, and lets me talk, like if it was a station to station intercom call?
3) I get the concept here... hook a pair from the CO line port, dial the access code, you're on.... is that it?

I've gotta go over there today and actually look at what exactly they've got, i've not looked at it in a couple of years, the last time somebody asked me about it....

kinda long post to ask a couple of simple questions, thanks for any answers tho, ya'll are the best.

Jeff Schouten

Start at page 8-10 manual

You don't mention what type of paging amp and speaker you are going to connect are they talk-back speaker?

as to paging amp and talk back. no, it's an announce only thing, and so far, all they can show me is a wire coming out of the wall that says "intercom" above it. it HAD a microphone attached to it, and where the bundle of electrical taped wires comes out there's also a standard XLR mic connection... but where is the other end? no idea. there is something that LOOKS like it should be the paging amp in the next room, but when asked, everybody said "oh, that doesn't do anything" even though it looks to be tied into the fire alarm.

I said this stuff is old, right? I should have taken a picture of their phone room (or several... it deserves several.... ) I'll take pics of the whole fiasco the next time I go over there.... they belong in the category of "how not to do things"... it might have made sense, 30 years ago, but now it's just a rats nest.... ugh. I'm gonna have to get a display phone and go over there and see just what it thinks it's doing. 8 peku cards... that's 64 extensions, and yet in the "main office" there are only 2 working phones (for 6 desks)... there's 3 CO line cards, possibly 12 lines...... but nobody knows what more than 4 of them do. I could spend days in there.

anyway. there are open slots, I can install a pious (if I can figure out where I left it) but there are also 8 peku, and they can't tell me where more than maybe 20 of the phones are. I'm tempted to just make it worse and start unplugging things just to see who complains. oh, and all the interior walls are concrete block, just to make it that much more fun.

Regarding the paging, why not just tap off the internal speaker of the phone to the paging amp?. Its not like your going to void the warranty.

You can short the data pair on a PEKU port and wire the voice pair directly to an amp. Man it's been years but that is how I remember doing it.

2) what has to be done to the "data" pair of a peku port to make it play nice? searching says "short it" or "put a resistor across it" but... is it really that simple? does that trick the processor into thinking there's an ekt phone there, so when I "call" it, it thinks there's a phone there, and lets me talk, like if it was a station to station intercom call?

Yes, it really is that simple. Phonemeister is correct. I think tech support used to say to use a 10 or 100 ohm resistor across the data pair but just a direct short works fine.
Adding PDKU's and digital phones requires the PCTU to be a rel 3 or 4.
Most programming can be accomplished with a 10 button set, but a 20 button display is ideal especially for reviewing existing programming.

Bung a PIOU card in the system and hook up the PA to it.
You can then use the PIOU card with Hyperterminal to program up the system using your laptop.

re: taping off the speaker of an existing phone. that'd require a phone to actually be in a useful place and not be moved.... they drag the phones all over the office right now.
re: shorting the data pair and wiring directly to the voice amp. that actually sounds like the simplest solution, provided I can figure out the mess of wires in this closet.
re: adding a piou and using hyperterminal. will the beastie find the piou automatically on powerup? don't I still have to enter programming mode on the phone and tell it what type of card is in that slot? I forget now if it found it automatically or not when I did this on my box...
re: needing pctu3 or 4 to do digital phones. bummer. it's got a pctu2 in it, so I'll add a 3 or 4 to the list of "would be nice, but not required" things.

the system is such a tangle, I'll likely need to stick a piou into it just to see all the programming... i don't wanna look at it 2 lines/20 characters at a time.

thanks guys, ya'll are great!

re: taping off the speaker of an existing phone. that'd require a phone to actually be in a useful place and not be moved.... they drag the phones all over the office right now.

It'd work but not ideal.

re: shorting the data pair and wiring directly to the voice amp. that actually sounds like the simplest solution, provided I can figure out the mess of wires in this closet.

Yes, the simplest solution.

re: adding a piou and using hyperterminal. will the beastie find the piou automatically on powerup? don't I still have to enter programming mode on the phone and tell it what type of card is in that slot? I forget now if it found it automatically or not when I did this on my box...

Also an option, but no the beastie will not auto recognize it, you will have to program the slot in program 03 as 41.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

it's likely gonna take me a few weeks before I have the kind of time I need to go over there and start futzing with it. but I'll definitely get pics of it the next time, and keep ya'll updated with any progress.

The system will only find the PIOU card automatically if you re-initialize the system SO DON'T DO THAT otherwise you will have to completely reprogram the system from scratch.

Program the spare slot in program 03 as 41 then power off and back on and then you will be able to get to programming via Hyper Terminal or Putty using the PROG or DUMP commands.