asterisk users - Jul 2003 - Problems with TDM40P

Heya all,

I'm experiencing some problems with a TDM40P and was wondering if
anyone else on this list has similar experiences, or maybe even
a possible solution.

My setup is a dual PIII-750 with 1 gig of RAM, with an X100P, connected
to an analog line to my telco, and a TDM40P with analog phones
connected.  The TDM-card is not sharing any interrupts, but the
X100P is, with the 2 Adaptec SCSI hostadapters on the mainboard.
There's only a tapestreamer on one of them, though, and it's mostly
idle, as I only use it during backups.  Not loading the SCSI-drivers
at all doesn't make any difference in the problems below.
All of the disks in the machine are IDE, and those controllers have their
own interrupts.

My problems with this setup are as follows:

- I hear a soft fading hiss in the background on the TDM40P-connected
phones.  It's also present when I call something like voicemail
or a conference on my local box, so it doesn't seem to come from
the X100P.  If I uncomment the "NO_CALIBRATION"-option in the Zaptel
Makefile, the hiss decreases in volume, but is still audible.

- Some of my TDM40P-connected phones go dead frequently.  By "dead",
I mean that the line-voltage goes away, so there's nothing there when
they're picked up.  When this happens, the remedy is to call that
extension and let it ring once, or restart Asterisk, after which the
line-voltage re-appears.  I have this problem with several different
phones and know at least 1 other person with similar problems.

- Making data-calls from a line on the TDM40P, through the X100P, to
an external number is almost impossible.  Even 2400bps is unreliable,
and anything higher than that usually doesn't even connect.  Voice-
calls sound very clear, though.  I suspect it might have something
to do with the first problem above, as I've also tried data-calls
between ports on that same TDM40P, with the exact same results.  I've
even tried a completely different TDM40P, so it's unlikely to be
a hardware-problem with that.  The afforementioned "NO_CALIBRATION"-
option seems to make a slight difference in the quality of data-calls,
but not much.



   Grtz,

      Oliver

Without quite just saying me too, see below...
> I'm experiencing some problems with a TDM40P and was wondering if
> anyone else on this list has similar experiences, or maybe even
> a possible solution.
Similar experiences...
> My setup is a dual PIII-750 with 1 gig of RAM, with an X100P, connected
> to an analog line to my telco, and a TDM40P with analog phones
I have an AMD XP 1800 with 256MB RAM, and a single IDE HDD. I have a X100P,
a TDM40P and a ISDN BRI card using ISDN4Linux driver.

[root@asterisk root]# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:    1929531          XT-PIC  timer
  1:          2          XT-PIC  keyboard
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  5:          0          XT-PIC  usb-uhci, usb-uhci
  8:          1          XT-PIC  rtc
 10:   18895682          XT-PIC  eth0, wcfxo
 11:      23378          XT-PIC  HiSax
 12:   17057246          XT-PIC  wcfxs
 14:      45267          XT-PIC  ide0
 15:         13          XT-PIC  ide1
NMI:          0
ERR:          2
> My problems with this setup are as follows:
>
> - I hear a soft fading hiss in the background on the TDM40P-connected
> phones.  It's also present when I call something like voicemail
> or a conference on my local box, so it doesn't seem to come from
> the X100P.  If I uncomment the "NO_CALIBRATION"-option in the
Zaptel
> Makefile, the hiss decreases in volume, but is still audible.
I have the same problem, but it seems to only be on one phone. Originally I
had all 4 extensions passed across a single CAT5 cable, now I have 4
separate CAT5 cables with RJ45 connectors on them and it seems better, but
it is still there. I also get a funny 'ring' tone if I am in
voicemail/conference/phone call/whatever and another extension rings (sort
of like a crossed line perhaps, but it isn't the sound of the ring, perhaps
the actual ring voltage being applied/leaked to my line).
> - Some of my TDM40P-connected phones go dead frequently.  By
"dead",
> I mean that the line-voltage goes away, so there's nothing there when
> they're picked up.  When this happens, the remedy is to call that
> extension and let it ring once, or restart Asterisk, after which the
> line-voltage re-appears.  I have this problem with several different
> phones and know at least 1 other person with similar problems.
I have the same problem, usually all 4 lines will go at the same time, but
while I was re-cabling (lots of pickup, listen for dialtone, hangup cycles
on each line to see if my cabling was working) and I got this a number of
times. ie, one or more extensions not working. My fix was a stop asterisk,
remove modules, insert modules, start asterisk.

I've also had a number of problems where all TDM400 extensions are dead but
the X100P and ISDN still work fine. When I stop asterisk, and remove the
modules, all is OK, but as soon as I insert the modules, the machine locks
up, and a power off/on is the only thing that works. I don't really know how
to track this one down, or how to diagnose it to better assist other people
to fix the problem....
> - Making data-calls from a line on the TDM40P, through the X100P, to
> an external number is almost impossible.  Even 2400bps is unreliable,
I've not tried data calls, but I think there is a d parameter to the Dial
application (see show application dial) which assists with data calls. Are
you using that?

Regards,
Adam