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Analog PBX connected to Raspberry Pi With Asterisk connected to C*Net?

Started by bellsystem, July 19, 2017, 03:47:14 PM

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bellsystem

If I decide to hook up to C*Net, I will likely use an ATA and find someone to host me.

That being said, I'd still like to do something with the Raspberry Pi, even if it's not related to C*Net. Maybe somehow hook it up to the PBX to add some functionality, even if not entirely useful? Preferably, I'd like it work without Internet access so I don't have to run an Ethernet cable around the house.

Does anyone have any similar, cheap ideas as to what to do with the Raspberry Pi? In particular, I was hoping to make a functional pulse to tone converter or maybe a Blue Box - or maybe both in the same Raspberry Pi. I don't want to modify any existing phones - for the P2T converter, I was thinking of having two RJ11 jacks on the Pi so that pulses pass in through one jack and tones out through the other. It seems feasible I could run a blue box and other boxes through the same Pi since it would be connected to the line.
Or maybe a DTMF keypad instead of a converter would be easier.
Is Asterisk useful without Internet connectivity, if I connected it to my PBX? I do have an unused router I can hook it up to if necessary, but it would not be connected to a modem (for Internet).

TelePlay

Quote from: bellsystem on July 23, 2017, 12:45:13 PM
That being said, I'd still like to do something with the Raspberry Pi, even if it's not related to C*Net. Maybe somehow hook it up to the PBX to add some functionality, even if not entirely useful? Preferably, I'd like it work without Internet access so I don't have to run an Ethernet cable around the house.

Does anyone have any similar, cheap ideas as to what to do with the Raspberry Pi? . . . .

Have you checked out the ultimate site for R-Pi users to get ideas? And, in reality, cheap is really in the wallet of the spender.

     https://www.raspberrypi.org/

or this link saturated site for ideas, help, products, etc.?

     http://elinux.org/RPi_Hub

bellsystem

Yeah, there's not many telephony related items on those sites there,

I don't think I'd do a P2T converter. Too complicated after some research.
Maybe a DTMF keypad from a Pi (shouldn't be hard, right?) and/or a blue box.

Actually, what might even be cooler is one keypad with a toggle that emits DTMF and when the toggle is switched the other way emits the Blue Box tones and 2600 Hz. Could I feasibly use one touch-tone keypad, and allow it to chirp out DTMF and blue box frequencies by using a Pi?

TelePlay

Quote from: bellsystem on July 23, 2017, 01:58:45 PM
I don't think I'd do a P2T converter. Too complicated after some research.
Maybe a DTMF keypad from a Pi (shouldn't be hard, right?) and/or a blue box.

Actually, what might even be cooler is one keypad with a toggle that emits DTMF and when the toggle is switched the other way emits the Blue Box tones and 2600 Hz. Could I feasibly use one touch-tone keypad, and allow it to chirp out DTMF and blue box frequencies by using a Pi?

Sounds like great ideas never done before that you can research, diagram, get the parts, hook it up and report back on your success including how to do it in case someone else may want to duplicate you creation.

andy1702

Quote from: Jack Ryan on July 21, 2017, 09:33:25 PM
I agree, but be aware that, as I mentioned earlier, the last batch of 502's I bought did NOT respond to pulse dialling. I have not followed it up.

Jack

That's interesting... I must have missed that post somewhere along the line. I wonder if it they are not responding because of an update?  One thing I was advised when I got mine was to go into the settings and turn off the option to update the firmware.

I'll also say that when connecting a dial phone to a Grandstream 502 the ATA is very picky about the make/break ratio of the dial contacts. I think they are set up for US operation but here in the UK our make/break ratio is slightly different, which meant about 1 in 10 pold phones worked as bought. The solution (on GPO dial 21s at least) is simply to very carefully bend the contacts so they don't open quite as far. This changes the make/break ratio enough to make UK phones work on the 502 without any problems.

As Jack says, I think the best option is to connect your phones to the PBX and then connect the PBX to the ATA so the PBX can handle the pulse to tone. That's the way I do it.

Andy.
Call me on C*net 0246 81 290 from the UK
or (+44) 246 81 290 from the rest of the world.

For telephone videos search Andys Shed on Youtube.

unbeldi

Quote from: bellsystem on July 23, 2017, 01:58:45 PM
Yeah, there's not many telephony related items on those sites there,

I don't think I'd do a P2T converter. Too complicated after some research.
Maybe a DTMF keypad from a Pi (shouldn't be hard, right?) and/or a blue box.

Actually, what might even be cooler is one keypad with a toggle that emits DTMF and when the toggle is switched the other way emits the Blue Box tones and 2600 Hz. Could I feasibly use one touch-tone keypad, and allow it to chirp out DTMF and blue box frequencies by using a Pi?

Quote from: TelePlay on July 23, 2017, 02:11:08 PM
Sounds like great ideas never done before that you can research, diagram, get the parts, hook it up and report back on your success including how to do it in case someone else may want to duplicate you creation.

You don't need an RPI for something this simple.  A $2 Arduino board running without an operating system is plenty.  There are several recipes on-line.

markosjal

With a 2 port ATA you can have a single google voice account make or receive 2 simultaneous calls , or even 4 with a 4 port ATA.

Mark
Phat Phantom's phreaking phone phettish

kb3pxr

Actually, you can ditch the Panasonics completely. In addition, if you configure your FreePBX dial plan correctly, you can also eliminate dialing 9 for a trunk, enable 7 digit dialing even when the phone company disallows it, etc. Also, you can keep the POTS lines.

What you need:


  • Host computer. This can be the Raspberry Pi, there is a Raspberry Pi asterisk distro with FreePBX.
    8 Port Ethernet Switch (unless you go with higher end hardware, you are going to need 4 ATAs (one for each two telephones, I suggest also considering having some POE ports if you wish to use Digital IP phones).
    FXO Gateway (Converts your POTS line to a VoIP line for the Pi to access, if you port your Number to a BYOD provider such as CallCentric you can eliminate this device)).
    4 Grandstream HT802 ATAs with 1.0.5.11 or newer (newest as of this post FYI) firmware.
    One or More SIP softphones on computers/tablets/smartphones (for testing prior to connecting ATAs).

This system will allow you to connect Rotary Dial phones direct to VoIP. Remember the firmware version and to set "Enable Pulse Dial" and "Enable High Ring Power" settings for the ATAs. You can also use this system without dialing a trunk code (such as 9) as Asterisk/FreePBX can interpret the dialed digits and route the call, however this requires some creativity* (or dialing 9 for CNET and no Prefix for PSTN) to allow international calls to CNET.

* IE using 00 for International PSTN calls (PBX can replace 00 with 011 before sending out)