HELLO & WELCOME

[AndyJ]

Any suggestions for encouraging the (2) phones to show the incoming VoIP caller ID? The correct number shows in the OBi call history but not on the phones.

Related port settings are currently FSK v23 and trigger after polarity reversal (before first ring made no difference).

Phones were previously reliably showing the correct caller ID before ditching the POTS copper line in favour of fibre to the house.

[WelshPaul]

Set CallerIDTrigger to: After First Ring

The correct UK setting is indeed Before First Ring but this is unreliable on the OBi for some reason.

[AndyJ]

I finally found time to experiment with this and still cannot get this working.

I have tried all three CallerIdTrigger settings, both FSK settings, and on the Philips DECT (Onis Vox 200) phone a variety of "Line Type" and "Operator Type" settings - most common recommendations on the internet were Line Type 1 and Operator Type 2, But I have yet to find a combination that work.

I have also tried with a direct cable between the OBI and the phone and this makes no difference.

Are there any other suggestions? Anything else I can try?

[WelshPaul]

You say that the CLI is displayed within the OBi call history? If so it's definitely being passed by your VoIP provider. This would point toward a misconfigured setting on your OBi200 or the DECT phones being the issue.

How are you physically connecting your phones to your OBi ATA? Are you using one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DK2PG86/r ... Xxb62C2BMS

Try setting the following on your Phillips Onis Vox 200 DECT phone:

Under 'Line settings' set:

• Network Type=Public
• Operater Type=Type 1

On your OBi set:

• CallerIDMethod to: FSK(V.23)
• Set CallerIDTrigger to: After First Ring

Googling "Onis Vox 200 caller id" returns many results, looks to be a common problem with the Phillips Onis Vox 200. This model of DECT phone appears to be at least 14 years old. Might be time to buy a replacement?

[AndyJ]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the comments. The OBi is reliably showing the calling number in the call history so it is some issue between the OBi and the phones.

While playing today I had the OBi connected as directly as my cables allow - RJ11-RJ11 cable -> ADSL microfilter -> 2 port phone adapter -> normal phone plugs in

(OK it's horrible but works and the polarity is correct too, and the RJ11 ADSL side of the microfilter is unfiltered)

For normal deployment I have half an RJ11 cable, the plug end in the OBi and the bare end in the IDC on the back of the NTE75 faceplate (hanging loose behind the sofa). That way the OBi can share 12v UPS with the fibre modem and the phone base (incl. answerphone) can stay on the other side of the house, via the existing POTS wiring.

The settings you list below are the defaults for the phone and that was where I started, and the OBi settings are the values I started with too.

You are right, there did seem to be a number of hits with the phone not displaying caller ID, that's where I found the network/operator type settings that I mentioned above.

I hate throwing perfectly good stuff away just because of some software incompatability...

Next things I will try are to see if a USB POTS modem will recognise the CLI, and also see if I can borrow a phone from elsewhere to test with.

Thanks for your help.

[AndyJ]

OK so I connected a 1 year old USB modem (driverless, proper hardware modem - CX93010, firmware CX93001-EIS_V0.2013-V92) to the OBI200 with an RJ11-RJ11 cable.

The modem is set to the UK country code, and caller ID is both supported and enabled (AT+VCID=1 or 2). The OBI web pages continue to reliably show the CLI every time.

With the modem set to AT+VCID=1 (formatted CLI) and the OBI set to after first ring or before first ring or after polarity reversal, I see no caller ID.

With AT+VCID=2 (modem prints raw unformatted CLI) and only when the OBI is set to "after polarity reversal" I saw a CLI string from the modem which (according to http://melabs.com/resources/callerid.htm ) contained sensible data including caller ID (including the checksum). But I could not recreate this with AT+VCID=1 (modem should print formatted CLI); what is more, once I had tried that, if I switched the modem back to AT+VCID=2 in the modem, it no longer would show any caller id until the phone line was disconnected from the modem and reconnected.

The DECT phone continued to refuse to show any CLI.

It really feels like the OBI is not doing something quite correctly. I am pretty much out of ideas and cannot see anything worth changing - time to escalate to Obihai...

[WelshPaul]

@AndyJ I have suspected a CLI issue for some time now, Before First Ring is the correct CallerIDTrigger UK setting but I have never managed to get CLI displayed on any handset when using this parameter.

I reported this to Obihai a couple of years back but never heard anything back. Good luck escalating this to Obihai, you're going to need it!

[AndyJ]

I have opened a ticket on this, will keep you posted!

[AndyJ]

Still never heard anything back from Obi on this.

But just made an interesting observation on this - if an incoming call occurs while you're already on the phone, the Obi (as expected) sends the call waiting sequence, and the phone correctly picks up the caller ID from that.

[paul1609]

I have a rather odd set up where I have an Obi 200 with a set of Panasonic DECT phones on one phone port and an antique pulse dial wall phone fitted with a rotaphone unit on the other all this worked well until the original Obi was flood damaged. The replacement OBI 200 with the Uk settings on never worked correctly in that the pulse phone didn't hang up after a call and the DECT phones didn't display CLI, following some advise from WelshPaul I carried out a couple of factory resets. Suddenly for no apparent reason the CLI suddenly worked again and the pulse phone started working correctly however if I load the whole UK config files it goes back to the fault. I just use it with limited uk settings now and it works fine. As far as I can see its none of the obvious settings causing the fault.

[AndyJ]

Do you know the differences between the config which worked and the config which didn't?

[WelshPaul]

Still never heard anything back from Obi on this.

Doesn't surprise me.

But just made an interesting observation on this - if an incoming call occurs while you're already on the phone, the Obi (as expected) sends the call waiting sequence, and the phone correctly picks up the caller ID from that.

Odd, I read Lavarock7's reply to your post on the Obihai forum and TBH the ring voltage came to my mind too as that would be the main difference between the two scenarios.

The only known issue with the UK configuration file is this setting:

Code: Select all

    <ParameterValueStruct>
      <Name>CallerIDTrigger</Name>
      <Value>Before First Ring</Value>
    </ParameterValueStruct>

The value Before First Ring is indeed the correct UK setting but often doesn't work. In fact for me, it never has! I have always needed to us 'After First Ring' otherwise caller display doesn't work. Confirmed this with various Panasonic and BT DECT phones.

I used to think that with the likes of eBay, more and more phones designed for use in other countries end up in use within the UK and maybe that is why some have issues. That however cannot be the case, like I said above, had caller ID issues with Panasonic and BT DECT phones purchased from my local PC world store.

[AndyJ]

Thanks for your comment - I already tried loads of permutations of caller ID trigger and line type setting in the phone and got nowhere.

Sounds like I need to beg/steal/borrow a storage scope and take a more detailed look at what's actually happening. Do you know where the specs can be found for this stuff?

[WelshPaul]

@AndyJ as requested...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID

Not all types of caller identification use 202-type modulation, nor do all systems send the information between the first and second ring, e.g., British Telecom sends the signal before the first ring, after a polarity reversal in the line. (Because of this most caller ID software is not compatible with BT even if the modem is) As a result, not all caller ID devices are compatible from country to country or in the same country, even though the basic phone system is the same. Some providers use FSK, others use the DTMF protocol.

United Kingdom: United Kingdom
Caller ID standard: SIN227 (V23 FSK before first ring)

BT SINet: http://www.sinet.bt.com/sinet/SINs/

SIN 227 (Calling Line Identification Service): http://www.sinet.bt.com/sinet/SINs/pdf/227v3p7.pdf