1970s style telephones and operation on router

[Graham G3ZVT]

Nick & Dave, that unit is unlikely to respond to pulse dialling, but neither does the the phone port of the Home Hub 2.

[Dave Moll]

There are, however, pulse-to-tone converters available that can be interposed between the LD 'phones and the adaptor.

[Gabe001]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

There are, however, pulse-to-tone converters available that can be interposed between the LD 'phones and the adaptor.

I've used this £25 converter with great success in my GPO 300 series telephone. You get *, # and redial, tones (obviously) and the ability to navigate sub-menus. You will need to reintroduce the ringing capacitor in circuit.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EzYRcGx

[emeritus]

Connecting the BT socket on the BT home hub to the existing extension wiring worked for me. I fitted an RJ socket to the existing extension cabling and used an RJ to BT cable to connect the extension wiring to the BT socket on the new BT hub, but only because I had an RJ socket and several RJ to BT cables, but didn't have any BT to BT cables and there was no existing extension socket near the home hub. Otherwise a double BT adaptor and a BT to BT lead could in principle have been used. You do have to disconnect the extension wiring from the incoming BT line.

[Brigham]

I've bought this adaptor:

https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/pr...0121-GN1T.html

Now all I need to do is find out why it won't register with the BT Smart Hub 2!

[Dave Moll]

That link gives me a message "no result found".

[Brigham]

I'll try again:

https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/pr...0121-GN1T.html

It works in Post 37!

[Dave Moll]

No, still the same. Is it just me (on two different computers) or are others having the problem?

[Station X]

Doesn't work for me on W11 MS Edge.

[Station X]

This is the correct link.

https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/products/bt-and-ee-digital-voice-adapter-100121-GN1T.html

Links in posts are truncated and cannot be copied. You need to open the link and then copy the full version from your browser's address bar.

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I see that the instructions say that a phone can be plugged directly into the hub's green port. On my hub albeit an EE one) the green port is labelled "phone" and is for a standard phone plug. No labels, blanking plugs or anything like that.

The adaptor is mains powered and presumably has a phone socket?

[Graham G3ZVT]

Hi Brigham. Have you succeeded in pairing it via wifi using the WPS button on the router and the button on the extender? It might help to do this with the units close together as this video shows.
https://youtu.be/V2n1yJyXMak?si=Dme1Aw1LIhGlPLlT
I must confess it's a mystery how your phone line configuration is communicated to the unit, ISPs remote provisioning I expect, a dark art.
What I would suggest is unplug that DECT unit they gave you from the network socket first, as the two units might not work together.

[Trigon.]

Originally Posted by Station X

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Or you can simply right click on the displayed truncated link and select 'Copy link address' / 'Copy link'. (Wording differs between browsers.)

Cheers

[Brigham]

Thanks Graham.
BT Engineer is booked for Friday. I'll keep you informed.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Be careful.
If it is determined that the installation is working as expected, ie with their supplied DECT solution, you may be charged £186(inc) the minimum Openreach call-out charge for No Fault Found.
It needs to be made very clear that the basis of your support ticket is that your expectation was you would still be able to plug in your existing analogue phone.

The thing that worries me is that I wouldn't have thought that needed an engineers visit, as no physical change to the installation is required.

I would expect a new appropriately configured router to be sent out, assuming it wasn't possible to configure the one you've got remotely.

[Graham G3ZVT]

I guess this the package you ordered Brigham?

https://business.bt.com/products/broadband-and-internet/affiliates/?productCode=T1000007

The "Enhanced" in the product name refers to the unit on the right, it's not for the phone as you were told, it's a 4G backup router.

The phone is an IP phone that works via Wi-Fi. Please ignore what I said about DECT

Is the phone BT provided a fully-fledged Smartphone? It says you can make calls "on the go" which suggests it has mobile data provision.

I suppose the question must be, is any of this what you asked for?

[Brigham]

Well, I contacted the BT helpilne, and they have sold me a different adaptor, this one called APA, and a BT engineer to fit it.
It now rings a BT BIG BUTTON V2, but it won't ring my 8746F, which is the instrument I was wanting to use.
You can answer a call on the 8746F, and the dial tone is present. It doesn't dial out, but no surprise there. I know how to deal with that.
I'm thinking it's a 2-wire/3-wire issue, but I've tried interposing an ADSL splitter, with no result.
It doesn't ring the Big Button phone properly, either. It rings like something from TVs 'Columbo'.
I'm starting to get tired of the whole thing. Perhaps it's time I retired.

[Dave Moll]

It sounds as though your 8746 is expecting an external feed to the ringer (from a capacitor in a master socket). There are two ways round this: either plug a UK ADSL adaptor between the 'phone and the router as these contain the requisite capacitor, or reset the links within the 'phone to use its internal capacitor (so long as it has one).

[Brigham]

I've tried the ADSL adaptor (using the 'phone' side) with no success.
The BT 8746 is the PSTS version of a 764, so it will probably be arranged for 3-wire ringing. What do I look for?
I've tried a 746 converted to plug-in. No ring, but it could also have the bell and capacitor wired out.
Otherwise it could be to do with the programming of the APA device, which is also called a 'Cloud Voice Express analogue phone adaptor (Cisco ATA 191/192)'.
Has anyone had experience with it?

[Dave Moll]

I take it you have checked that the ringer is not open-circuit.

[Brigham]

Progress!
I plugged-in a long abandoned extension in the workshop, and it rings.
It still has the capacitor in circuit. It looks like the APA device only supports 2-wire ringing.