Troubles in dialing out on HT-488 FXO

[Halea]

Greetings,
I've installed a Grandstream HT-488 with no problems on the FXS side. I'm able to receive incoming calls consistantly. On the FXO side I've been up to the point that I would hear the click sound of the relay inside HT-488 while 3CX would show in yellow both my extension and the HT-488 PSTN line, but nothing else would happen. Not a sound from my IP phone. With a spy phone connected to the analog phone line I can verify that the line has not been dialed although it sounds like it was picked up (off hook) by HT-488.
I checked and double checked my FXO settings. On my 3CX system I also have an SPA-3102 which works nicely both through the FXO and FXS ports.
Any help you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks.
Halea :|

 

[Philco]

Hi Halea, I can honestly say that the HT488 worked fine first time for me.

Follow the suggested set up in the HT488 config at 3cx.com/voip-gateways/GrandStream-HandyTone488.html - this link is no longer available, please visit here: https://www.3cx.com/voip-gateways/

3cx say its unsupported but it worked for me.


Phil

 

[Halea]

Thanks Phil for the suggestion. I checked once again item by item. My setup is a mirror copy of what that document says to do. But HT-488 stops short of dialing out after picking up the line as if it cannot generate the DTMF signaling that it is supposed to send over the PSTN line. Actually I think that it issues some of the DTMF because when I take my spy-phone off the hook after the failed attempt the line seems to be dead until after a certain timeout period following which I get a busy/misdial signal from the telco. Either the DTMF sequence is not complete or it is too fast for my telco, or it is too faint :roll:
Tired of it! :|
Halea

 

[Philco]

I know what you mean ' tired of it' it gets that way when you try everything, but I tend to think if others have got things working then its worth trying. At least it doesnt seem to be related to Windows OS which I do give up on.

I'll have a look at my tests set up and see what would cause the conditions you have. I hope I can simulate it..


Phil

 

[Philco]

As a matter of interest Halea, what happens if you pick up the phone on the FXS side and key in *00 (the default for going out on the PSTN/FXO line) do you get the dial tone?

Phil

 

[Halea]

Great idea :idea: Amazingly, dialing *00 from the locally attached phone worked just fine. Although as I dialed a number there was some echo or high pitch sound with each DTMF stroke. Once the line was established everything was ok.
Nevertheless, I am no closer to figuring out what else to do to make it work. :roll:
Halea

 

[Philco]

Right, thats a start. Your High pitched sound I'm not sure of but you may like to check that reversing your FXO connections and see if his reduces or cures the hih pitched sound, but you appreciate that the *00 is not using the 3cx server of course.

These are my observations.

My HT488 is using firmware 1.0.3.96

Providing you don’t have any dial plan prefix set up in the FXS you should get a dial tone when accessing the FXO from the FXS with *00 or whatever you have configured for the FXS to FXO pstn access code on basic page, though this is not used for 3cx.

I have to admit that I don’t hear any ‘click’ in the HT488 whether a call is coming in via PSTN or out via PSTN.

On the basic page, I do not have any PSTN or VOIP rules configured except number of rings ‘0’ and the virtual extension configured in Forward to Voip for incoming PSTN calls.

Does this help.

Phil

 

[Halea]

Phil,
What you said about the lack of "relay click" sound caught my attention. I'm definitely sure that it's coming from HT488. I simply took it off the shelf where it normally sits next to an SPA-3102 and put it against my ear :lol: Whan I call the PSTN line attached to it from my cell phone (remember in that direction everything works just fine), the phone that it is supposed to ring via 3CX starts ringing just fine. At that very moment, with the very first ring I can hear a distinct relay click sound from inside HT488. I can even hear something inside HT488 faintly ringing! And as the first ring comes to its term there is again a clicking sound. On the following rings the ring sound can be heard inside HT488 but there is no more clicking sound. The clicking sound can be heard from 6 feet with a couple of other phones ringing, so it's not weak at all.
Now, when I try to call (from a 3CX extension) a PSTN number over HT488's FXO circuit, the same click sounds as the corresponding line indicator turns yellow on 3CX's line monitoring page. Nothing more happens. There is no timeout (I actually never waited past 7 or 8 minutes).
For whatever it's worth, my HT488 is clicking :!: :lol:
Halea

 

[Philco]

Very strange, maybe mines a slent click, I can hear a click when I pull power as it goes into fallback which I expect. However, when you dial out to PSTN from 3 cx it deffinitely should not operate the relay.

Can I suggest you factory reset your HT488 and reconfigure it unless you have already done so.

Can I ask you what rule you have to select the PSTN gateway?

Phil

 

[Halea]

Phil,

My HT-488's firmware version is 1.0.3.96. Actually, here a cut'n'paste of all the versions:
(Program-- 1.0.3.96 Bootloader-- 1.1.0.1 HTML-- 1.0.3.96 VOC-- 1.0.0.13)

I tried several different types of dial-out rules so far. (Prefix, length, combination, extension based, etc.) Recently I was mainly using 7 as a prefix. Dropping one digit and not appending anything.

Tomorrow, I'll try to reset it to factory defaults and reprogram it from scratch. I'm actually really tired of it and contemplating the idea of taking it apart, turning it into minute pieces :mrgreen: and performing some precision surgical procedure on its tiny components 8) (as soon as I purchased another SPA-3102).

:roll: Halea :roll:

 

[Philco]

Ok, the firmware variations is the same as mine too.

If your getting a click, I dont think you should be.

I know there is a bug in 1.0.3.96 with regards to flash/recall on HT488 but I have three HT488 here on the test bench all working fine on 3cx and I use a single digit like you for accessing any of the PSTNs. But as I say, when accessing the PSTN gateway via the HT488 you should not hear a click thats for sure, you do on an HT486/7.

This is also a long shot, the relay should only operate as far as I know when power fails, so the power supply could be failing, I have had some faulty grandstream PSUs giving low voltage on load, you could try another power supply, I think your SPA is 5v isnt it? you could try one of those.

Have you tried the HT488 with seperate VOIP accounts on the FXS and FXO to see if it performs outside 3cx, as you could have a faulty unit.

The HT488 deffinitely works though.

Phil

 

[Halea]

I finally figured out why my HT488 couldn't dial out under 3CX control. It had to do with the default value of "If current disconnect enabled, use threshold". I increased it from 100mS to 3000mS and it now works consistantly. I was also able to make it work by turning "Enable Current Disconnect" off, but I didn't want to disable that feature by fear that the line might reman open indefinitely in some cases.
I still have a (relatively small) problem which is that when I try to call over that FXO port using the phone attached to the FXS section of HT488 (via 3CX - not in FXS to FXO direct connect mode), I'm getting a busy signal, whereas if I do the same from any other extension, everything works just fine.
All in all I am very disappointed by HT488, but also by 3CX. I've come across many inconsistencies regarding this software. Although I realize that I'm using an older version (5.0.3752.0), this is my third version and as far as I can see they are all hardly beta quality material. 3CX should not advertize those as stable versions but rather as work in progress.
As I was troubleshooting this problem, I configured Axon in a heartbeat and got everything up and running in less than 45 minutes. 6 VOIP lines from 3 different providers and 2 PSTN lines (one with HT488 and the other with SPA-3102) all got together flawlessly. It's true that Axon's interface is a bit on the weak side but once everything is configured and works, who cares? I am seriously considering dropping 3CX unless a rock solid version is scheduled to see the light of day soon. I am also extremely disappointed that 3CX wouldn't graciously offer the message indicator feature in the free version. After all all these "free" riders are troubleshooting your product; right?
Halea

 

[Philco]

Hi Halea, I am still curious about you hearing the relay click in the HT488. My HT488s are about 2-3 years old and unless they have redisigned them they dont use the relay for calls coming in via the FXO voip account to PSTN and they dont use it for calls initiated via the FXS port using *00. The relay is only used for powerfail foldback. The HT486/7 does use the relay for placing a call on the PSTN foldback and you can hear that relay no problem. So if you are hearing the relay, there is something wrong. If I call the PSTN line the only thing I see on the HT488 is the red status LED on top, momentarily flash as it connect to the PSTN line, as it does when I'd issue a *00 from the phone connected to it to. Are you sure the PSU isnt failing and dropping the relay out, but not going low enough to reboot the ATA.

I have current disconnect enabled, use threshold but my timeout is set at default 100ms on all three HT488 units and works fine.

Your little problem regards not being able to place a call onto PSTN from the phone attached to the ATA is something I have noticed too but I think that its the HT488 recognising the call has originated form its FXS port and to overcome this you put the access code your using in 3cx to access the PSTN line in the PSTN access code in the HT488, Dont worry the HT488 picks this up before its passed on to 3cx due to the keyentry timeout in the FXS config. Works 100% for me and I dont hear a click either. This still really concerns me.

Re 3cx configuration. Well not knowing Axon but 3cx, I find 3cx quite intuitive and yes there are some oddities in it which you have to work round. The trouble with a Freebie virtual PBX with all the bells and whistles attcahed, there will be plenty out there now using and installing the free software comercially to third parties, as its good enough now to provide a good PBX, with some of the facillities in the UK which would cost thousands just for the box on the wall, particularly voicemail per extension. MWI for test and evaluation would be nice but I think think their strategy is that the serious trialer gets a free full version eventually and if you sign up with a 3cx agent you may also get a full version to experiment with as long as you dont install it at a customer.
I have to agree that the software must be stable in the facilities offered for it to be sold, but beta I expect the stable facilities to continue to work and the beta additions not to fail the existing facilities. Bearing in mind if a system is sold/installed and is working the customer is happy, If new facilities come along that the customer wants, then he'll pay the upgrade. I think at the moment looking at the forums most people are happy and impressed with 3cx and as long as the the development team look at the wishlist and amend or add the facilities available, the system should do well. What does concern me a little is that customers should not have to pay for upgrades simply where bugs had been found in earlier versions.

Cor that was a long reply.

So do you still hear a click?

Regards

Phil

 

[Halea]

The click sounds are still all there even after performing a factory default reset.
Halea

 

[Philco]

Then I would suggest its a faulty HT488, or PSU failing, or somehow the configuration but you now have it working. Did you add the PSTN access code for the FXS port Halea or are you going to perform some precision surgical procedure on its tiny components :lol:

Regards

Phil

 

[Halea]

One more kink that appeared today and I was able to figure out. It turned out that after factory resetting HT488, the answering machine attached to its FXS port did kick in when a call came in, but somehow it wasn't carried over to FXO (basically the line rang, the answerer responded but the caller didn't know anything about it as the PSTN wasn't picked up by HT488's FXO). By changing the "Number of Rings" from the default 0 to 1, it started to work again. Of course if you carefully read the explanation about what that setting does, you have no clue that it also serves that purpose. HT488's poor design, poor documentation language and poor logic are astounding! Don't take anything at face value, play with every setting and maybe, just maybe, things will eventually work!
By the way, I took the box apart and inventoried the components. The click sound is from the relay that physically picks up PSTN. I am sure everybody has it but some ultraminiature relays might not make any perceptable noise. Mine is a good old mechanical one with a nice click, which I don't care for.
But other than that the unit is not defective in the sense that eventually I was able to make everything work (except the local phone dialout, I am not using any PSTN access code so I am not sure how to do what Phil suggested). Of course there may be features that I didn't explore yet and something might blow up to my face any minute :lol:
Halea

 

[Philco]

Hi again Halea ok the oddity with the answer machine, again how is that seeing an incoming PSTN call , I have number of rings at '0'.

Well I can confirm that there is a mechanical relay in my HT488s which goes 'click' unmistakable when I power them up and 'click' when I power down, which is when the FXO is connected phycially/mechanically rather than electronically to the FXS port and phone. They just dont make any sound when the PSTN port is used as incoming or outgoing.

Regards the PSTN access code, what do you use in 3cx to access the PSTN do you use an outbound rule configured to see a code first. In my case all calls are via VOIP and all numbers dialed as is, but if I wish to send calls out via PSTN I dial 5 first which makes 3cx send calls out via PSTN. So, I also put 5 in the PSTN access code in the BASIC page of the HT488 which is purely for the phone/device attached to the HT488 FXS port. This means that the phone there crosses the FXS-FXO localy rather than through 3cx, which, as you found anyway, doesnt work and you get busy. As far as the users of the whole system are concrned, they dial 5 for PSTN at whatever phone they use including at the ATA. Now if you are only using PSNT for all your calls, then I guess all your outside numbers begin wih 0, if so, use the 3cx outbound rule and strip the first 0 off the number, and then in the HT488 FXO configuration put a dial prefix of 0 to add it back to the number. You then need to put 0 in the PSTN access code on Basic page of the HT488.

I like the HT series they seem to work, and are nice and simple to configure and just at my level of simplicity. But your click has got me troubled :roll:

Ok anyone else visting this thread using an HT488 would like to pass coment on their HT488 as to whether it has a click or not. Most currious..


Phil

 

[Halea]

Greetings Boys and Girls:
I'm through with this investigation and wanted to thank those who offered suggestions, input or help. Throughout this process I've noticed that the 3CX people were as stealth as the F117 Night Hawk, which retired just a couple of days ago; I hope the same won't happen to this software. I have no idea how large or small 3CX is, how many people they have, etc., but, I now know that their software is far from being ready for consumption unless you want to experience indigestion, and their business model seems to borrow from Microsoft's playbook while trying to present itself as an open source community party, eh, I mean project. :|
Wish you all continued fun :roll:
Halea

PS: I prepared screen captures of all my HT488 configuration screens, unfortunately I can't attach them to this post as the "Browse" button doesn't work (unless its purpose is to freeze IE :lol: ); and I am not ready to troubleshoot this one!

 

[Philco]

Yes it was a bit quiet wasnt it.. Lets hope the bystanders learned something.

Phil

 

[Halea]

My lucky day, I was able to make the "Browse" button work on this forum page. The following are my HT488 setup screens.
have fun :roll:
Halea