I recently purchased a Sidekick to troubleshoot incoming POTS lines. We have a lot of problems with AT&T saying everything is ok when really there are a lot of problems on their end. Does anyone have any experience with this tester? And if you do, do you have any cheat sheets on the tester? I am sure it is easy to use but I am having a little toruble figuring this thing out!
Lots of knowledge here. I'm a CLEC DSL/POTS installer. What do you want to know?
To be honest, most of the tests require you to remove CO battery from the loop and disconnect the cust premise wiring at the NID in order to get accurate results.
The tests you could run from your Sidekick on a "live" loop would be VAC, VDC, or Stress (as long as your DSL modem is disconnected).
To test for AC voltage, hook up the green ground cable to the ground in the NID or an appropriate ground nearby. Then red to red, black to green. Turn dial on Sidekick to AC. Look at the meter. You shouldn't have any AC voltage on the line. if you do, you shouldn't proceed with any further tests as you could damage your Sidekick.
To test for DC voltage, follow same procedure as above except move dial to DC. The voltage will depend on the provider and their equipment. The CLEC I work for provides -38VDC when not ringing or anyone on the line.
To stress test a line, hook up the leads in the same way. Then turn the dial to Stress. Read the stress in the black numbers middle of the display. Then check that you have a good ground by removing either red or black lead. Meter should go to 70 or above. This means you have a good ground at the NID. If it does not change, or doesn't go up very high, then the ground at the NID might be bad, or the ground you are connected to might be bad. From what I understand, each ILEC will have their own "best" value for stress. In my experience, anything over 30dB will be a problematic loop.
Kick test (resistance, loop length test) will not work with the battery on the line (at least in my experience). If you have a dry pair (such as DSL only), then the kick test *should* work. YMMV. I have access to the CO so I can disconnect CO battery temporarily to run further tests with the Sidekick.
I rarely use any of the other tests that the Sidekick can do.
I have never used the Sidekick on a T1 circuit (live or dead), so use these tests at your own risk. I cannot be held responsible....
If I gave wrong information, please feel free to PM me. I don't work for the LEC so I am giving info based on experience and trial/error.
Thanks for the info, I will test it out and let you know.