Panasonic 616 Inside House Wiring

[Fabius]

Hello All,

Our house was built in 2005. While it was wired for a land line when built we have never had a land line installed. With the cost of land lines falling a bit and the fact that we live in a very rural area and want reliable 911 service we are considering installing one. That being the case I'm toying with the idea of installing a Panasonic 616. Does the incoming line connect to the 616 using a RJ-11 standard connector? Does each extension have a separate line back to the 616 and is that a 4 wire line?  The Panasonic 616  seems to be an inexpensive and uncomplicated way to go. Are there alternatives to the 616?

[WesternElectricBen]

Hi,

I'm not a pro with these things, but I have took the time to study.

Yes, what you basically have to do is, mount the PBX near the jack feed off area, (to the phone jacks in the house.) If it was wired with blocks, you could simply wire in tip and ring, to each jack, then running it into the PBX, and modulating the end, so you can plug it in.

For the main phone line, I'm not sure. Our old house, the wires came into the basement and were wired into a box. So, that could be easily wired and modulated for the 616. Meaning, keep the initial wire in, but like the jacks, bridge it over to the PBX.

Once again, I'm not an electrician, I'm just a theoretical idea person.

Ben

[Phonesrfun]

The 616 does use standard RJ-11 connectors all the way around.  The incoming lines only have 2 wires (tip and ring) that are used, which is standard.


Extensions use 4 wires when the electronic extension phones are being used, but for a standard phone, you only need 2 of the wires.  You will need to have one electronic phone to make any custom programming changes, but the default program is almost always good to go, so the need for an electronic extension is not always needed. 


House wiring will all need to be home-run wiring to the PBX.  Standard pre-wired house wiring usually uses the daisy-chain method which won't work in this case.


The 616 and 308 are both vey easy to work with. 


Two of the annoying things:


Extension ringing cadences are divided in groups, so extension 10 and 11 don't ring on an incoming call at the same time.  11 and 14 do.  It will potentially drive you nuts if you dont connect extensions by group.


Caller ID is not passed through to any extensions.

[twocvbloke]

Are there alternatives to the 616?

The Panasonic 308... 

Seriously though, the first versions of the 308 and 616 used a proprietary connector rather than RJ11, so make sure the one you buy has the RJ11 connectors (as sourcing the proprietaries may prove difficult), and from there it's as simple as plugging in to the nearest phone socket to connect it to the outside world, and if you felt like it, use the other CO ports for say Skype, C*Net, a 2nd line or any other service that you felt the need to have if you so wished...

And if you wanted to have the system ring all extensions, you can loop-back one of the extensions to a spare CO port and dial that extension to trigger all phones to ring (I use Ext. 36 (26 across the pond) to CO6 on mine), even the phone that dialled can be hung up and made to ring and it'll do that until any one of the phones are picked up...

[Fabius]

Thanks for the clarification. That's too bad about caller ID. Possibly have a RJ-11 jack between the phone company's network interface and the 616 to plug in a caller ID box might work?

[twocvbloke]

Possibly have a RJ-11 jack between the phone company's network interface and the 616 to plug in a caller ID box might work?

Yep, that would work, just as you'd use one between line and a phone...

[TelePlay]

If you want to program the 616/308, you need a Panasonic KX-T7130 with a 4 line modular line cord (assuming you go with a modular style PBX)

They can vary in price from $25 to over $100, don't know why other than seller stated condition and luck of finding a newly listed BIN phone cheap.

Here's one for example on eBay right now. There are many others.

[Fabius]

I just did an eBay search for Panasonic KX-T7130 and a whole bunch come up.

[Phonesrfun]

Often times a 308 or 616 will be offered for sale with a KX-T 7130 included.

[Fabius]

is the 61610 and earlier version of the 616?

[Phonesrfun]

I don't know for sure.  I always thought that the 616 was the name of the total package and the 61610 was the Designation of the PBX box itself.

[Fabius]

You may be right as everyone on eBay is marked 61610 with a 3 in a circle.

[Fabius]

FYI Searching the web finds that the Panasonic 824 will display caller ID. A search of eBay finds several of those units available.

[Phonesrfun]

I haven't used an 824.  I presume it is also a hybrid?

[WesternElectricBen]

I heard Sarge had an issue with his brand new 824, just so you are aware.

Ben