Compatible phones for Linksys SPA 3102?

Hi

Can some of you who own the Linksys SPA 3102 please advise on what phones you use. I have a twin BT cordless phone which is about 3-4 years old and can't get it to work, but a new �5 (corded) analogue phone from Asda works.

I really don't want to go down the corded route and would idealy like to get the my old cordless working. However, if that is not possible, I would be willing to go out and buy another cordless package that is going to work. I just don't want to buy something that incompatible.

Also, I did read somewhere on google that some old phones have the RJ11 cables wired the opposite way, could this be my problem?

Redline

in what way doesn't it work - no dial tone or not ringing ?

if you use the original cable and an RJ11 plug -BT socket adaptor on the ATA you'll be OK, if you start changing cables you better understand the wiring convention used by the phone.

I am using the orignal cable that came with the cordless phone.

I don't get any dial tone and no ringing . I don't get anything when i press the star button 4 times either, it's just dead. Everything works ok on the cheap �5 jobby though.

When i get home I'll try the RJ-11 cable that came with the �5 phone from asda on the old BT Synergy dect phone to see if that make any difference.

Thanks for the advice. If you have any other suggestions I'm all ears

Redline

Edited by Redline (Thu 20-Mar-08 11:31:57)

In reply to:

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I am using the orignal cable that came with the cordless phone.

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what adapter are you using to plug it into the ATA ?

I'm not sure i understand your quetsion.

The BT phone base was originally plugged into my microfilter. I disconneted the lead from the base end and plugged it into the line port on the SPA 3102. I then took the cable that came in the SPA 3102 box and connected that to the phone port on the SPA 3102, the other end connects to the base of the phone.

Redline

In reply to:

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The BT phone base was originally plugged into my microfilter. I disconneted the lead from the base end and plugged it into the line port on the SPA 3102.

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Mistake. You should have been supplied (or bought) a RJ11-BT socket adaptor for the SPA, you would then plug the BT plug on your DECT base station into the BT socket provided on the SPA.

The cable supplied with the SPA is to plug into the phone line, for which you have used the DECT base station cable. There's a fair chance neither are doing the job.

Get an RJ11-BT adaptor for the SPA output, and a BT-RJ11 socket adaptor to plug into your microfilter, and it'll work fine with the cables in their intended roles.

Problem solved.

I borrowed 2 cordless dect phones from my neighbour and brother and they worked. So I went out and brought another cordless

Maybe I didn't communicate clearly in my last post, but your advice did turn out to be a red herring. I couldn't really see why I needed a RJ11-BT socket adaptor when all the other phones I tried worked perfectly. I just accepted my old cordless phones has some quirk-which I couldn't be bothered to investigate-plus they were getting a bit long in the tooth anyway......

That aside, the configuration options on the spa 3102 is amazing. I could see a lot of sleepless nights configuring distinctive Ring Patterns, dial plans, dial tones and the likes....God help me!!!

Regards

Redline

yes it is a nice bit of kit. very configurable, yet i found surprisingly easy to set up a basic config. basically the the 3102 needs an adapter to convert a normal phone socket connector (dont know the name) into an rj11 because it only has rj11 inputs, but it cant be just any convertor (i tried a couple i had), it needs to be a special one and it isnt included with the 3102 but normally you can buy it from the same place. i'm surprised you got your phones working without it. ive got a BT cordless phone, dont know the model but its a fairly common one and its a couple of years old. heres what i did to get around having to buy the adapter:

first adsl splitter plugs into master socket as normal - adsl connection goes to router as normal, but phone connection goes to second adsl splitter.
second adsl splitter - adsl connection goes to spa3102. phone connection goes to sky box.

it all seems to work - but dont ask me how.

In reply to:

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but your advice did turn out to be a red herring

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Did you actually try it ? I guess not. Don't dismiss something you don't understand and haven't even tried.

Your problem arises from the way RJ11 cables get wired. BT sockets use pins 2 and 5 for the signal and standard RJ11 uses 3 and 4. As a short cut to allow easy use of flat cables it is fairly common to find the RJ11 socket built into a phone using 2 and 5 for the signal, a proprietary (non standard) flat cable is supplied with straight through wiring so that 2 and 5 on the BT plug connect to 2 and 5 on the phone, so all is well.

What you did was to take this proprietary non-standard cable out of the phone base and plug it into the standard RJ11 on the SPA. Thereby presenting the signal on pins 2 and 5 when the inputs on the SPA are on 3 and 4. So it didn't work.

You then took a straight through RJ11 cable from the SPA box and used it to connect the standard output of the SPA (3 and 4) to the non standard input of the phone (2 and 5) - so this didn't work either.

The moral of the story here is to use cables for what they were supplied for and use adaptors to convert between connector standards.

Hold on a minute!

I did not dismiss your advice, if you read my first post it does indicate I know there can be wiring differences, and no, I did not get a chance to try it either.

I decided I needed a new phone and went out and brought one. This worked fine without a RJ11-BT adapter, like all the others. So the morrel of this story is you don't need to waste money on adapters just to prove someone right!

Redline

Edited by Redline (Mon 24-Mar-08 16:17:48)