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Rotatone Issues

Started by Tribune, December 30, 2010, 05:26:14 PM

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gpo706

Quote from: Phoniac on January 16, 2011, 08:32:43 PM
Quote from: Kidphone on December 31, 2010, 07:27:39 AM
Fellow Forumites....What is the benefit of a rotatone? Is is pulse to TT convertion? I am not a big fan of adding anything to a vintage phone that does not belong there. Tiny little ringers in a 202 is, in my opinion, just a bad thing to do to a great phone. Is a rotatone an individual device that is added per phone (expensive) or is it like the Panasonic 616. The 616 works perfectly (very reasonable) with my Comcast digital, give me intercom throughout the house and a test bench to boot. Why use a rotatone, whatever it is? I will now step down from my soapbox....Doug

I too have had problems with a Rotatone, the LPT 310, it plugs in between your phone and line. I had it hooked up to a WE 202 and then a 302 with no luck even after cleaning the  dial governor.
The Panasonic 616 you speak of I've heard about also a 308 and 123211 but I am unsure how to go about installing these into my home and I see on eBay they are quiet expensive for my wallet. Any suggestions?


Phoniac, the Panasonic "hybrid" systems are plug and play, power it up and it should reset to basic configurations.

Other than that take the battery out, and hit the "reset" button.

The configurations are: 308 - 3 POTS lines in - 8 extensions out, 616 - 6 in 16 out, 1232 - 12 in 32 out.

Every out has 4 REN, so go crazy if you can afford the cables!

A 308 would be fine for most average houses, but I have found the 616 more numerous on the bay, 1232's are quite premium boxes.

I got my 2nd 616 for 99p on the bay, absolutely required gear if you want to test your phones,
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Phoniac

#16
Thank you Sir! We'll have to try and get one. I believe the 308 will serve my purpose well being I only need two analog phones in service and one line for testing at this time.
One more question and please bare in mind I don't know that much about the technical aspects of phones. I have a small modern phone system consisting of two wireless phones and an answering machine, will these be affected by the KX-T308 or will I have to put them on another line?

gpo706

Anything with a phone plug on it should work fine, it might help to think of the PBX as basically a switching box / switchboard.

It has lots of other tweaks you can do with it, but its default settings should be fine for what you need.
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Phoniac

#18
Thank you again Sir!
Just to bring this up to date I contacted Oldphoneworks and they'll take the Rotatone back and refund me right after I pay to ship it back. :(

Tribune

I too have had problems with a Rotatone, the LPT 310, it plugs in between your phone and line. I had it hooked up to a WE 202 and then a 302 with no luck even after cleaning the  dial governor.
The Panasonic 616 you speak of I've heard about also a 308 and 123211 but I am unsure how to go about installing these into my home and I see on eBay they are quiet expensive for my wallet. Any suggestions?

[/quote]

I get the feeling that the quality of the rotatone units is a bit hit and miss. They're also polarity sensitive, so you have to watch that too - the internal ones come with a polarity filter.

As for the Panasonic 616, you can pick them up for between $25 and $50 on eBay quite often, though some are listed for much more.
Mark Furze - TCI, ATCA

To miss-quote "Bones" McCoy . . .
                     "darn it Jim - I'm a doctor, not a telephone engineer!"

Phoniac

#20
Tribune, I've locate some but being I'm not familiar with these what should I look for? Some say there in working condition but, this worries me cause it can work but not do everything it suppose to, if you know what I mean. A few show the covers opened and this tells me nothing, again I don't know what I'm suppose to be seeing.
Can anyone tell me what to be looking for? I'm also a bit of a cheap skate when it comes to buying things that are not at least vintage, so I want to get my moneys worth out of it and not have to put more money into it if I don't have to. Thanks guys for any help.

gpo706

If its described as working order, pay by paypal, and if it isn't your covered for a refund.

There's nothing to see under the door but the sockets, battery and power and reset button.

I've only heard of one malfunctioning 616 from all the posts here (Tribune?), even that still worked as an internal PBX.
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Phoniac


gpo706

Let us know how you get on, my 2nd Pana 616 came from a search for Panasonic PBX rather than Panasonic KX-T etc, obviously no one had a clue what was listed and it went for 99p.
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Phoniac

#24
I sure will gpo. You paid 99 pounds for it? Isn't that $158 USD ? KInda pricey for this ole tight wad! LOL



Well, I bought one, a 616 . But we'll just have to see what she looks like when it gets here. I'm crossing my fingers. Downloaded the manual for free off the web yesterday in anticipation. I'll most likely still need you all's advice and instruction on how to hook this dadburn thing up cause we're just not this advanced in technology around here.

I was kidding my wife awhile ago that if she kept complaining about the old washer and dryer we had that I'd get'er a big rock by the stream to replace them
.

gpo706

Errr, thats ninety-nine pence. One penny short of one pound. (postage was 17 pounds).
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Tribune

Phoniac
Glad you've entered the world of PBXs! If your 616 is in good shape, it should just plug and play. You don't really need  a programming phone unless you want to do all the really fancy office-type stuff. Just pull the battery and let it sit for 5 minutes before rebooting it. Then have fun!
I have mine in my basement where the central office line comes into the house. I have then an extension from each room (a couple in some rooms) coming down to the PBX.
One of the main reasons that I got the PBX to start with was that I wanted to have more than 5 phones (each with an REN of 1.0) connected and ringing at once.
Mark Furze - TCI, ATCA

To miss-quote "Bones" McCoy . . .
                     "darn it Jim - I'm a doctor, not a telephone engineer!"

Phoniac

Less then one pound? $14 USD Now that's my kinda price! I have to admit I paid almost 5 times that much with shipping included.

Phoniac

#28
Quote from: Tribune on January 19, 2011, 03:59:34 PM
Phoniac
Glad you've entered the world of PBXs! If your 616 is in good shape, it should just plug and play. You don't really need  a programming phone unless you want to do all the really fancy office-type stuff. Just pull the battery and let it sit for 5 minutes before rebooting it. Then have fun!
I have mine in my basement where the central office line comes into the house. I have then an extension from each room (a couple in some rooms) coming down to the PBX.
One of the main reasons that I got the PBX to start with was that I wanted to have more than 5 phones (each with an REN of 1.0) connected and ringing at once.

Tribune, My phone modem is in the attic were the main line to all the outlets plugs into it. Can I just hook it up between the modem and that line. Or will I have to run a separate line to each phone from it?
I think I can answer my own question here after thinking about it. 1 ren per line so I'll need at least 4 lines for 4 phones, right?

Tribune

Each extension from your 616 should be able to support up to 4 or 5 REN if I'm not mistaken. So theoretically 16 extensions multiplied by 4 phones (to be conservative) on each extension = 64 1.0REN phones!!!

It does depend on how each of your phone outlets is wired though. Each of my outlets is on a separate line, coming together in my basement at once central hub where, before I installed my PBX, they came together at the junction box with the incoming line form outside. Now my Pana 616 serves as the central hub - each outlet being a separate extension from the PBX and the incoming line from outside being the CO line into the PBX. This style of wiring is, if my memory serves correctly, a star or spider topology.

The other way people often have their outlets wired is by daisy-chaining them, one to the other such that there's only one internal line coming out of your junction box (in your attic?) where it meets the line coming in from outside. Each socket is then linked to the next.

The problem with daisy-chaining is when you want to install your PBX because you would only effectively have one extension, with all your outlets split off it. They would all have the same extension number and, would only be able to support a REN of 4 or 5. Kinda defeats the advantages and fun of having a PBX. There's nothing to stop you just hooking up the phone between your incoming line and the main internal line to all your outlets. Just means you're not getting the full advantage of having the PBX there.

There's a good link here http://www.homephonewiring.com/route.html to know more about home wiring topologies.
Mark Furze - TCI, ATCA

To miss-quote "Bones" McCoy . . .
                     "darn it Jim - I'm a doctor, not a telephone engineer!"