News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Xlink My experince after some months of using it.

Started by dsk, September 07, 2010, 04:31:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

dsk

Xlink emulates a POTS line, understanding both tone and pulse dialing.  :D
You use ordinary mobile phone with Bluetooth connection to the X-link, you phone rings as usual :D, you may dial out as usual  :D and hopefully you may have a conversation with some echo without any great problems  :-\  about every third
conversation breaks in the start, sometimes you will get a loud hum or howling. >:(  all this is depending of locating the mobile within 2 meters (6 feet) of the unit.
If the mobile is more remote you get more trouble.

Conclusion so far; I have probably wasted some money, and should have got my selves a 2500 set instead.   ???

The next test I will do; is using it as a skype-box.  
It has a few functions I miss on  my other skype adapter.  It understands pulse dialling, and you do not have to end dialing with a #.

dsk

Greg G.

#1
Funny you should mention the Xlink after using it a while.  I've been using mine for a few months also.  The theory behind it is great, but in practice, not so great.

I had my Xlink line going in to my PBX, which worked just as ok as with a single phone plugged directly into the Xlink.  The audio quality was only ok (most of the time).  There were times when the audio was awful on my end, but the other end could hear me fine.  If my cell was more than a foot or two away from the Xlink, I got a "rain on a tin roof" sound.  There was hesitation when I picked up the phone, I got in the habit of picking up and then waiting a couple of seconds before I said anything.  

My cell phone network lately has gone to crap for no reason at all.  It only gives me emergency use, and T-Mobile's "customer care" is a joke.  Even though I don't make or get many calls, it was still frustrating being w/o phone service, so I signed up for a POTS line.  Now that I'm getting great audio quality and service reliability, I can't go back to relying on the Xlink to use with my rotary phones.

My overall conclusion - Xlink is a novelty, not really meant for serious rotary phone use.  It will do if your land-line, be it POTS or or cable, doesn't support rotary use, but even then, if I were in that situation, I would invest in a pulse-to-tone converter rather than rely on the Xlink.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

dsk

Now I have tested it as a skype box. Comaired to my USB telbox, the sound is better :D but quite often the adapter does not disconnect when I do  >:(
Another snag is: The skype status is fixed as on-line, not that important, .... 8) :'(

So the conclusion so far is, this was waste of money!  :'(

I have to keep on using my mobile on the holidays.   :(

dsk

dsk

 ;D New software downloaded, and its working well as a bridge to my mobile. It even reeds quite untuned rotary dials. (parameters had to be adjusted, but now it accepts all my dials.)

>:( Skype application doesent work anymore.

On the other hand who cares, Skype are telephony, its something on its own.   :(

dsk

dsk

Here you may see my recent communication with the X-Link Support:

Hi Dag
Thanks for the info. I did not know that.  Strange.

Anyways that us very easy for us to add and we will do it as soon as somebody needs it and can test it for us.

So please let all your friends know to buy one!

Cheers
Xa

On Thursday, June 21, 2012, Dag S Karlsen wrote:

    Hi
    Thank you for the quick feedback, The special dials are kind of reversed. New Zealand (and Oslo, Norway) http://tinyurl.com/8yudjk3 use a dial with 1 pulse= 9, 2pulses=8, 3=7....9=1 and 10 pulses are 0 as normal. The Swedish dials are even more difficult : http://tinyurl.com/6vuoxel 1 pulse=0, 2=1, 3=2...

    Happily for me, I live outside Oslo, and we use a std. dial. The  Xlink are working fine now.
    If you are making any changes in the software please tell me, and I will tell my friends exactly what i think about it.  ;) winking  http://is.gd/uxzCUZ

    Best regards

    Dag S Karlsen

    Hi Dag,

    I think all the rotary dialing numbers can be changed manually to any settings you want.....

    Do you have the numbers for the countries you mentioned - perhaps i can add or update the configuration settings....

    Cheers,
    XS

    On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 1:46 AM, <support@xtremetechcorp.com> wrote:

        Thanks for contacting Xtreme Technologies. Someone will reply to your email shortly

        name: Dag S Karlsen
        company:
        email: dskarlsen@yahoo.com
        phone: +4790893011


        After years of not beeing able to get X-link BT having a good enough sound quality, your last software made it. Thank You!

        Please make it possible to receive notifications about major upgrades.

        As a collector of older phones the parameters for setting up the details around rotary pulse lengths are brilliant.  For those who are not familar with such setup I will suggest you to set the default to accept the widest range of un-accurate pulsing not making conflikts with flash etc. It looks like the US standards work well in most countries. (default)

        Only one set of parameters are missing, the rotary dial configuration for normal dial vs Swedish vs New Zealand standards.

        (This may be solved by using a Dialgizmo together with the Xlink.)

        Regards
        Dag S Karlsen





    --
    Xtreme Support

Bingles

I use my xlink on a regular basis and have three phones connected to it.. a WE candlestick, WE 202 and a WE 500.

The key is leaving your cell phone near the gateway... which, since it's the rotary phones we want to use.. should not be a problem.  For me, the gateway is under my nightstand -- so when I'm home the cell stays on the night stand and I have cords discreetly run throughout the apartment to the various phones.

I have never had a problem with reception or static.  My calls are always very clear.  I am SO thankful for this device as it saved me having to get a landline just to enjoy my phones :)

Paul Albertson

I have been using the Xlink BT for about 9 months. Amazon.com feedback logs show it makes a big improvement if the unit is SW updated to current version. Use your PC with a USB cord to do the update. Also the old wireless phones use the same frequency, so that can generate the noise.
I have no trouble with my Xlink. It connects from my cell to a rotary, whenever I am within range (most places within my house). Also not all cell phones have smooth bluetooth performance nor good BT range. My cell is an old Nokia 2600. It has great BT range. Most of the occasional connection problems are my Nokia went to power save mode and when the incoming call arrived, it had trouble waking and then reconnecting to the bluetooth function. Watch the cell phone display to see if it is the cell phone that is making the problems. The SW update is important.

George Knighton

Quote from: Bingles on August 12, 2012, 11:23:18 AM
I use my xlink on a regular basis and have three phones connected to it.. a WE candlestick, WE 202 and a WE 500.

The key is leaving your cell phone near the gateway... which, since it's the rotary phones we want to use.. should not be a problem.  For me, the gateway is under my nightstand -- so when I'm home the cell stays on the night stand and I have cords discreetly run throughout the apartment to the various phones.

I have never had a problem with reception or static.  My calls are always very clear.  I am SO thankful for this device as it saved me having to get a landline just to enjoy my phones :)

I have only had my XLink BTTN for two days, but so far my experience mirrors yours.

It works perfectly with the 302's and the Princesses.

The signal is being provided by an iPhone 5 that idles with a one-bar 4G signal, and which boosts itself to three bars when there is a call coming in or going out.  Knowing the iPhone has to power itself up like that, maybe it's a comfort knowing that you're not irradiating your head unnecessarily.  :-)

I knew going into it to have the iPhone close to the XLink, so the charging station of the iPhone is only a few inches from the XLink. 

It was a long shot, but I bought the more expensive BTTN version to try something.  I hooked it up in an office to see if, just in case, the XLink functioned like a PBX would in these circumstances and allow me to connect via analogue modem to a remote server.  No dice.  It's working just like a regular cell phone signal and cannot negotiate with the machine at the other end.

If this had worked, I was going to play around with hooking the XLink to the whole house.  Since it won't work for everything I need, I will just use the XLink for a hookup with one of the Princesses, in a room where there is no wired phone jack.
Annoying new poster.

AE_Collector

I moved this to the VOIP etc switching thread though I am not certain this is the best place for it or not! Probably close enough. Maybe if we add "Cell" to the "VOIP, Asterisk, C_NET etc" title of this board.

Terry

George Knighton

#9
By the way, I seriously recommend downloading and using the XLink software.

You're going to want to have the latest firmware, and that's the only way to do it.  Even if you have to buy the old type of printer USB cable, I recommend it for a number of reasons...not the least of which reasons is that it's the only way to reduce the modulation.

As shipped, the XLink volume is turned all the way up.  Especially on the G handsets, this is just way too high.  It's so high that on some phones at your end and at your caller's end there can be distortion and unpleasant loudness.  If you're on a pretty modern phone, you're really going to want to turn it down.

I don't know why they'd ship it turned all the way up.  Maybe they built it for people who are on E1 202's with bad networks or something.

You can also use the software to do other things like programme your voice mail number and put your phone book onto the XLink to be dialed from the handset.  I gather that some of these functions only work with DTMF phones, of course, not our older rotary phones.

Warning:  There is only a Windows version of the software.  If you're on SEL or Mac, you might as well install your virtual machine before you bother going to the manufacturer.   >:(
Annoying new poster.

George Knighton

Another advantage to downloading and using the software for configuration:  You can set up your phones tied to the XLink to use a different ringer style (like the old British two-short) in order to differentiate which set of phones is ringing.  :-)
Annoying new poster.

dsk

The last upgrade made the Bluetooth work even better, so no I use the Xlink again together with an old cellphone as a secondary line at the Panasonic 616.

You may even adjust the tolerances of the dial pulse reception to accept about everything.

Here is parts of my setup:

dsk

markosjal

Quote from: dsk on June 20, 2012, 10:02:08 AM
;D New software downloaded, and its working well as a bridge to my mobile. It even reeds quite untuned rotary dials. (parameters had to be adjusted, but now it accepts all my dials.)

>:( Skype application doesent work anymore.

On the other hand who cares, Skype are telephony, its something on its own.   :(

dsk

were you able to answer skype by only taking receiver off-hook?

I would like to consider this for whatsapp as it seems it is very popular here in Mexio
Phat Phantom's phreaking phone phettish

dsk

I guess skype to telephone adapters generally has been impossible due to changes in skype.
My Xlink needed a dayly reset after an update, to work well. It has now been stored and not used for more than one year.

dsk

podor

Quote from: dsk on December 23, 2016, 02:40:58 AM
I guess skype to telephone adapters generally has been impossible due to changes in skype.
My Xlink needed a dayly reset after an update, to work well. It has now been stored and not used for more than one year.

dsk

What type of cell phone do you have? I went from Android to iOS a few months ago and have had issues ever since. Every operating system update, it goes weird. I've also noticed that if I don't power the phone down at least every other day, the phone Bluetooth doesn't work with anything, not just the Xlink.