asterisk users - Jul 2004 - Has anyone tried using a Sipura-3000 as an FXO device for *?

I am considering using Sipura-3000s as FXO devices for my * system. Has 
anyone tried them in that configuration? They interest me because they 
need no PCI slots and therefore no drivers. I would much prefer not to 
have any special kernel requirements for my system.

/carmi

Yes, they seem to have many benefits. No PCI slots are used, echo issues
related to mainboards are eliminated, no interrupt sharing/dropping
issues, the list goes on.

My SPA-3000 was ordered last week and should be here any day now. Once I
do some testing on it I'll be sure to write a "review" comparing
it
directly to Digium FXO cards for the mailing list. 

On Tue, 2004-07-27 at 18:52 -0400, Carmi Weinzweig
wrote:
> I am considering using Sipura-3000s as FXO devices for my * system. Has 
> anyone tried them in that configuration? They interest me because they 
> need no PCI slots and therefore no drivers. I would much prefer not to 
> have any special kernel requirements for my system.
> 
> /carmi
> 
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-- 
Mike Benoit <ipso@snappymail.ca>

> I am considering using Sipura-3000s as FXO devices for my * system. Has 
> anyone tried them in that configuration? They interest me because they 
> need no PCI slots and therefore no drivers. I would much prefer not to 
> have any special kernel requirements for my system.
In the process of doing that now.

Simple / prelim implementation:

Each of the three ports (eg, fxs, fxo, cat5) are treated as separate 
interfaces, and one can configure fxo -> *, fxs -> *, ring-through from
fxo -> fxs, * g/w functions to the pstn, etc. There seems to be a ton
of functionality in the box and those functions are mostly limited by
your imagination (and how well one can read and comprehend).

Configurable from a web interface, however there are a ton of options
that aren't very clear without digging deep into their newly released
admin manual (called a user guide on their site). The manual seems to
have been written for the 1000/2000 with additional chapters/sections
oriented to the 3000. (Sort of rush to print.)

The fxo and fxs interfaces can be configured to register separately
with *, making both very addressable, etc.

Like *, it also has an internal dialplan, however understanding the
various interactions requires some experimentation, as each of the
interfaces seem to be considered a "gateway", and part of the dialplan
directs calls to gw0, gw1, gw2 (etc) which correspond to physical
interfaces in most cases.

The box was truly targeted for the residential user where existing
phones interface on one side, the pstn line on the other side, and
the default call is sent to the voip interface. Disconnected (or
failed) ethernet results in a relay flipping, tying the fxs directly
to the fxo. Same with power failure. Nice.

So, properly configured, it appears to be a very nice box that would
allow * to sit in the middle, but still provide excellent fail-over
capabilities when unusual events occur.

For small installations, it makes handling US 911 calls extremely
easy as that can be made part of the internal dialplan.

Initial tests did not show any signs of echo, very good volume and 
audio quality, and would probably be a good choice for small quantities
of pstn lines (particularily soho and residential users).

The only downside I've seen thus far (not much experience as yet) is
that * calls to the pstn line are cut through immediately, so one 
hears the initial dialtone from the pstn and the sending of the dtmf
tones on all outgoing calls. Kind of annoying, but there might be 
some config option to handle it; I've just not found it as yet. (If
anyone knows how to handle that, sure would appreciate a suggestion.)

Thus far, I'd give the box at least an A-, and will likely move 
higher with a little more experience.

Rich

On Tue, 2004-07-27 at 15:52, Carmi Weinzweig wrote:
> I am considering using Sipura-3000s as FXO devices for my * system. Has 
> anyone tried them in that configuration? They interest me because they 
> need no PCI slots and therefore no drivers. I would much prefer not to 
> have any special kernel requirements for my system.
A number of us are using SPA-3000s for this exact purpose, including
myself. Works pretty well.

-- PhoneBoy

I found it was worse when using the G726 or G723 codecs, but if you used the
G711 codec, the DTMF echo was hardly noticable.  I was using the latest image: 
2.0.9d



-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-admin@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-admin@lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of Rich Adamson
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 8:31 AM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Has anyone tried using a Sipura-3000 as an
FXO device for *?

> On Tue, 2004-07-27 at 15:52, Carmi Weinzweig wrote:
> > I am considering using Sipura-3000s as FXO devices for my * system.
Has
> > anyone tried them in that configuration? They interest me because they
> > need no PCI slots and therefore no drivers. I would much prefer not to
> > have any special kernel requirements for my system.
> 
> A number of us are using SPA-3000s for this exact purpose, including
> myself. Works pretty well.
> 
> -- PhoneBoy
Have you found a way to get rid of the dial tone and dtmf tones when
placing an outbound pstn call through the 3000?

In my config, the call completes as expected however the dialtone and
dtmf tones are slightly annoying.

Rich


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> On Tue, 2004-07-27 at 15:52, Carmi Weinzweig wrote:
> > I am considering using Sipura-3000s as FXO devices for my * system.
Has
> > anyone tried them in that configuration? They interest me because they
> > need no PCI slots and therefore no drivers. I would much prefer not to
> > have any special kernel requirements for my system.
> 
> A number of us are using SPA-3000s for this exact purpose, including
> myself. Works pretty well.
> 
> -- PhoneBoy
Have you found a way to get rid of the dial tone and dtmf tones when
placing an outbound pstn call through the 3000?

In my config, the call completes as expected however the dialtone and
dtmf tones are slightly annoying.

Rich