HELLO & WELCOME

[chriseyj]

Hi a school I work at upgraded to fibre via Schools Broadband.
BT utilised an existing fax line in school and fitted a filter faceplate, unbeknownst to me the fax line was actually their line 2 on the Panasonic KX-TDA30 PBX and BT have removed it from it, the school are not happy.
I have been advised it is possible to come out of the phone side of the filter face plate and reinstate the line in the PBX.

I am unsure of the wiring or which port the original line came from in the PBX can any one help? It seems like it is an easy fix of patching it back into the PBX, if you know how to do it.

I understand the polarity of the line pair doesn't matter and I have an RJ11 crimper, i believe the centre pair are the line?

The school do not seem to know who installed the PBX originally or who supports them for it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Chris

[WelshPaul]

Hi Chris,

I would strongly recommend you contact BT Openreach as they should fix what they broke!

If you don't want to do that, in theory all you need to to is re-connect the disconnected cable. As there is now broadband on the line and a filter face plate now in place of the old NTE5, you're going to have to re-connect the disconnected cable but after the filter face plate and to do that you're going to need one of these:

jackplug431A.jpg (12.03 KiB) Viewed 2328 times

Simply plug it back in on the phone side of the filter face plate. The issue here is that should anyone unplug it, line 2 on the PBX will no longer work. I have attached another wiring diagram for your reference:

cord4_502.jpg (11.3 KiB) Viewed 2328 times

The question is this... Have you located the cable that BT disconnected or are you running a whole new cable to the PBX? If your using the old cable that BT disconnected how many cores does it have and what colors are they? Popping a 430a plug on the end of the cable closest to the BT socket wired as shown in the first diagram above should be all that needs to be done!

If however you're running a new cable from the BT socket to the Panasonic PBX then wire it as above at the BT socket and connect the White and Red to the outer pins 1 & 4 of the RJ11 connector (see 2.2.8 Types of Connectors in the installation manual).

The installation manual can be found here bt the way: http://www.overline.com/assets/Overline ... manual.pdf

I should point out that the manual doesn't say if polarity matters, I myself would wire th RJ11 as follows: white to pin 1 and Red to pin 4. You could use a volt meter on the RJ11 that feeds line 1 in order to discover what polarity is being used on that line.

Good Luck

[chriseyj]

Thanks for the reply and the info.

I thought id need some kind of 431a to rj 11/45 lead

The school did phone Openreach 5 minutes after they left as soon as the realised they had no line 2. They refused to come back , I am unsure though whether it was actually the new broadband supplier they phoned.

I wish I knew which RJ45 port they removed the line from on the pbx, I'm wondering if I connected my laotop via usb I may be able to find out from the configuration software.

There is one rj11 plugged in with some leads piggybacked out of it almost doubled up? It has a loose connection and knocking it made the line 2 go from an engaged tone(all its done since they messed with it) to nothing at all.

They are getting quotes for a new system now, this problem has bought it all forward. Looks like VOIP throughout is going to be the best option as they are looking for phones in every class and there is no single multicore between the junior and infant buildings. There is however a gigabit fibre.

Many thanks.

[WelshPaul]

The school did phone Openreach 5 minutes after they left as soon as the realised they had no line 2. They refused to come back , I am unsure though whether it was actually the new broadband supplier they phoned.

Very likely the new broadband supplier as open reach don't deal with consumers directly. I would make a complaint with openreach directly: https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/c ... roblems.do

It's also worth making an official complaint to whoever the broadband supplier is.

I wish I knew which RJ45 port they removed the line from on the pbx, I'm wondering if I connected my laotop via usb I may be able to find out from the configuration software.

There is one rj11 plugged in with some leads piggybacked out of it almost doubled up? It has a loose connection and knocking it made the line 2 go from an engaged tone(all its done since they messed with it) to nothing at all.

I'd be surprised if the engineer opened the PBX at all. Usually they just find the Master Socket and replace the faceplate.

Any additional wires that enter the Master Socket that feed an extension or go to a PBX are likely left disconnected because reconnecting them directly would result in Noise/Interference on the extension/PBX. (as they would be connected to the line before the filter)

I will look for a schematic diagram of the PCB and see how the PSTN lines actually connect to the board. It's possible that each RJ11 at the PBX side is capable of delivering two PSTN lines. Would explain why you're seeing one rj11 plug with some leads piggybacked out of it! A model number of the trunk card and a photograph of the RJ11 connector would be helpful.

They are getting quotes for a new system now, this problem has bought it all forward. Looks like VOIP throughout is going to be the best option as they are looking for phones in every class and there is no single multicore between the junior and infant buildings. There is however a gigabit fibre.

Many thanks.

It's crazy to have a PBX installed in an environment such as a school and not have any service contract in place.

[chriseyj]

Thanks for your help with this I finally got it working last week.

I downloaded the PBX software and USB drivers and plugged my laptop into it.
I found that one of the 4 port add in cards was a line card or named something to that effect. It had 2 RJ45s plugged into it which i assumed must be line 1 &2. Unplugging the first plug disconnected line 1!
You were right in that line 2 was still plugged in but BT must of cut it off elsewhere, this was adding to the confusion.
I borrowed the fax machine's cable (BT plug to RJ11) to patch from the telephone side of filter plate back to the line 2 input and bobs your uncle the school have a line 2 again.

They are very pleased!

Many thanks for all your help and advise.

Many companies that have been giving us quotes for a new system seem reluctant of going the VOIP route. One said VOIP is pointless with the state of internet connectivity in the UK. I thought VOIP could be used internally to aid installation and flexibility of handset relocation e.t.c but phones can then call out externally on a normal line?
We have POE switches from when I upgraded the wireless network therefore were all ready for VOIP handsets.

[WelshPaul]

Fantastic news!

I read in the manual that the Panasonic KX-TDA30 PBX takes a 4-Port Analogue Trunk Card (LCOT4) model number: KX-TDA3180 (2xRJ11 and 2xRJ45) and as such I couldn't understand why you only appeared to have the 1x rj11 plugged in with some leads piggybacked out of it.

Many companies that have been giving us quotes for a new system seem reluctant of going the VOIP route.

No doubt they would rather sell you a PBX along with a support contract.

One said VOIP is pointless with the state of internet connectivity in the UK.

While it is true some areas of the UK do suffer from poor internet connectivity it doesn't represent the UK as a whole. If you are in an area that offers a 2mb connection (which is poor in this day and age) with nothing else going on in your network, 3 or 4 simultaneous conversations using high quality codecs should be easily achieved.

Swith to the GSM codec and you can squeeze 10 or more calls simultaneously up a 256kbs pipe. In use, the GSM codec delivers indistinguishable call quality from an ordinary telephone call. Bear in mind, that in the old telecoms world, each call requires one line so using a GSM codec can give you the equivalent of up to 13 lines on a standard ADSL connection!

I thought VOIP could be used internally to aid installation and flexibility of handset relocation e.t.c but phones can then call out externally on a normal line?

You can use a VoIP telephone to call other VoIP telephones (we call them extensions) for free, Page another extension (make an announcement out loud using the other phones built in loud speaker) or make calls to the outside world (chargeable). You can actually do a lot more! Calling features such as caller display, three way calling etc cost you nothing!

Have a read of this: http://www.voipfone.co.uk/What_Is_Voip.php