Using an ATA Adaptor as an intercom PLUS allow one end to pick up landline calls?

[boombox]

Sorry, I know this isn't EXACTLY vintage tech....although with the particular ATAs I have at my disposal, I guess it kinda is...

Basically my parents have a summer house at the end of the garden.

I have a couple of Grandstream Handytone HT503s and some old school POTS telephones.

WITHOUT spinning up a IP PBX for them (Freepbx I'd use as it's all I know...), anyone know if it would be possible to configure the HT503s to be used as point to point intercoms (ideally if a handset is lifted at either end the phone at the other would ring) AND for the remote station in the summer house to be able to pick up calls from the landline as and when they come in??

If the Linksys PAP2T WILL do all of this I can buy one, I'd just rather use what I have....and ideally avoid a FreePBX server just for this if at all possible.

THANKS

[AndiiT]

Hi, I don't know about the Grandstream units but the instructions how to configure the Linksys/Cisco PAP2 to achieve what you want to do are at this link

You can mess around with the settings, so there's a UK ringtone and a delay before the ringing starts, too.

Regards

Andrew

[AndiiT]

Hi again, I just relaised I hadn't fully answered your question. As for picking up calls from the landline at the "remote" station, you're then getting into the realms of needing things like a Linksys SPA400 or SPA 3102(?) in conjunction with FreePBX or similar.

Depending on the technical "expertise" of the users, the easiest option for the remote end would be something like a 2A switch with one side connected to the PAP2 port and the other to your (extended) POTS line, with an addition bell/tone caller to alert to an incoming call, the caveat there is that the switch has to be manually reset after receiving an incoming external call.

To prevent the aforementioned if you can obtain a 746 or 740 telephone with a latch plate and associated auxiliary switches/plungers etc. and a double additional gravity switch, you could configure the wiring so that the additional switches toggle between your internal line and your exchange line with the auxiliary button latching in one position and restoring to the gravity switch, with the bell being operational on the unused line when the phone is it use. This sounds complicated, however I have wired a phone in the past to do something like this.

If you do decide to go down the 740/746 route, I'm happy to draw some diagrams for you.

Andrew

[Graham G3ZVT]

You are goung to need a device with two FSX ports (for the phones) and one FXO port (for the line) so neither of the devices you mention will work on their own. Whether you could use two devices without Asterisk, I'm not sure, I doubt it.

I had a similar project, where I used a PAP-2 and achieved rather more functianallity than the instructables hack as mentioned.

In this case there were two rooms in a shared house each with a phone connected to the PAP-2 (or SPA-2102). The requirments were:
1) Each phone able to make calls on its own billing account
2) Each phone able to recieve calls on its own phone number
3) Each phone able to call the other directly

1) is obvious, set up Line 1 and Line 2 with discrete accounts, I used a couple from discountvoip.co.uk

2) For the number I used free geographic numbers from ukddi.com. These are no longer availible, but you could use 03 numbers from 03now.co.uk which work the same way, you simply set the forwarding destination to the URI of the corrisponding account for outgoing calls
(eg) username1@sip.discountvoip.co.uk
and a second DDi to
(eg) username2@sip.discountvoip.co.uk

3) for the "internal call" function just include something like this in the dialplan of username1

<11:username2@sip.discountvoip.co.uk>|

and naturally for username2 include

<11:username1@sip.discountvoip.co.uk>|

Now dialling 11 from either phone will ring the other.


Here is the actual (suitably redacted) line 1 dialplan I used. Line-breaks are for clarity only. Manchester local numbers allowed. 13-16 are speed-dials.

(<01:00441>x.|
<08:00448>x.|
<02:00442>x.|
<03:00443>x.|
<07:00447>x.|
<:0044161>[2-9]xxxxxxS0|
<0161:0044161 >[2-9]xxxxxxS0|
00x.|
<11:username2@sip.discountvoip.co.uk>|
<13:00447729xxxx67>|
<14:00447728xxxx49>|
<15:00441516xxxx34>|
<16:00441618xxxx48>)


No PSTN line unfortunately.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Of course you could use the above solution, plus another extension telephone from the house PSTN line, then you get to put two vintage phones in the summerhouse. Win-win.

[boombox]

I've just remembered I've got a BT Inspiration PBX as well, doing nothing, but I'm guessing that doesn't magically help matters much. I just remember that members here have hooked up their old analog PBXs in unusual ways.

I'm just keen to not 'break' the way my parents' telephony currently works with introducing Asterisk.

I'm aware I could get maybe 90% there in terms of making it appear 'as it was' with dialtones on the ATAs and dialplans and outbound routes etc

But there will always be (annoying or unexpected) quirks cropping up. I know this as I've got FreePBX running at home and it takes some management sometimes and thinking about!

Thanks all will do some thinking

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by boombox

I've just remembered I've got a BT Inspiration PBX as well, doing nothing, but I'm guessing that doesn't magically help matters much. I just remember that members here have hooked up their old analog PBXs in unusual ways.

The Inspiration was made for the job.
Pitty it doesn't support pulse dialling extensions

[boombox]

If the Inspiration could be setup in such a way that they DON'T need to dial '9' for an outside line, then yes I think it would be a winner.

Because I'm pretty sure it's got a 'hotline' function for the summer house to call the house...

and it's pretty bomb proof in terms of reliability apart from brown outs

but they WILL not cope with dialling '9' for an outside line.

It needs to sort of 'invisibly' slot into what they have without really changing their existing habits