Caller ID displayed but no ring

Drew Baker · Post by **Drew Baker** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:36 am

I'm having a problem I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else, and am hoping someone around has some ideas. It would be hard not to be more knowledgeable or experienced in these matters than I am. Here's my problem: when I hook my MJ to my Motorola MD481 or MD451 cordless phones incoming calls trigger the Caller ID displays, but the phones wouldn't ring.

I had hoped it would be like the "no caller ID" problem in reverse so I tried the 100K resistor trick, but to no avail. (Nor did a powered USB hub make any difference.) Since I had no idea why it would work or not I also tried the method for countering ring trip with a 150 Ohm resistor, with no results. Motorola's only answer was the phone "doesn't support VOIP."

(Just to clarify, the phones work just fine. On my land line they ring when they should, on the MJ they don't. Also, the MJ hardware and software are working. With other phones I get rings and Caller IDs just as I should. It seems to be something peculiar to the Motorola E32 phones -- which probably makes this too specific a problem to get an answer, but who else can I ask? MJ tech support? I'll ask them next, as my last resort.)

If I can't get them working on MJ I'd be glad for some pointers about other ways to use my phones for VOIP.

Thanks,

--Drew

SpamBox · Post by **SpamBox** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:09 am

I just want to be sure I understand...

Long story short - your MJ can ring other phone when connected but not this particular phone.
Correct?
You get CallerId, but no ring. And when you tried other phones, everything worked just fine?

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:18 am

maybe motorola is right and your phone does not support voip or maybe its a bug with MJ that hopefully will get fixed the only way you can tell would be if maybe you know a friend,relative or neighbor that has v*nage or some other voip service and try your phone with them and see what happens other than that you could google your phone manufacturer+ model# +voip(not always in that order) and see what comes up.hope this helps because MJ support is not the best place to go right now if you have a problem.(unless your feeling lucky,well are ya).

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:26 am

Perhaps it's the MJ device did not put out enough ringing voltage needed by the Motorola E32 series phone to ring.

Ringing signal is 20-30 hz (type A, older bell ringer) or 15-68 hz (type B, newer electronic ringer), ringing voltage is usually 48v (could be between 40-100v depending on how many phones are connected to the phone line.

If the phone display lights up with caller-ID, then the ringing signal (15-68 Hz) is present. However, if the ringing voltage is too low, i.e. < 30 volts, then the ringer may not ring.

SpamBox · Post by **SpamBox** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:42 am

Maybe this will help...

Drew Baker · Post by **Drew Baker** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:48 pm

SpamBox wrote:I just want to be sure I understand...

Long story short - your MJ can ring other phone when connected but not this particular phone.
Correct?
You get CallerId, but no ring. And when you tried other phones, everything worked just fine?

That's correct, yes.

SpamBox wrote:Maybe this will help...

I thought about that, but one of those won't help me find a handset to answer the call.

Drew Baker · Post by **Drew Baker** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:55 pm

LikeMagic wrote:If the phone display lights up with caller-ID, then the ringing signal (15-68 Hz) is present. However, if the ringing voltage is too low, i.e. < 30 volts, then the ringer may not ring.

That sounds right to me, at least that's the behavior I'm seeing. Do you think some sort of amplifier or voltage booster could solve the problem? If so, how hard would it be to put one together?

Thanks,

--Drew

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:40 pm

I'd say the cheapest solution is to get rid of the Motorola phones and replace with other phones that work fine with your MJ device. Ringer voltage boosters are not cheap, you could try these:
http://www.sandman.com/longloop.html

Also note that for the US & Canada, the ringing voltage required to ring older phones is 75-90 Vrms. For newer phones, the required ringing voltage is around 45-48 Vrms. From scanning some VOIP forums, it seems others also have similar problem like yours. Perhaps the Motorola E32 series requires higher ringing voltage. Most VOIP adapter will put out about 45-50Vrms ringing voltage.

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:56 pm

I just measured the ringing voltage for my MJ device and it put out 65 Vrms and my cordless Panasonic KXTG-3034 rang just fine.

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:58 pm

I agree with likemagic on this one, you will probably end up spending more trying to fix this issue than just buying a phone that already works with MJ I use a vtech 5.8 ghz model similar or the same as the one on the video shown on the MJ homepage the black and silver one.( I run win xp pro sp2 pentium 4 3.0 ghz with 2gigs of ram)

Drew Baker · Post by **Drew Baker** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:27 am

You're right, it looks like it's time to go phone shopping. Too bad, we've been really happy with these.

LikeMagic, could you point me toward those VOIP forums so I can check on phones' reputations before I buy? I'm afraid my google-fu is weak tonight.

Thanks again for the help,

--Drew

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:15 am

Here are some:

http://forum.voxilla.com/
http://forum.voxilla.com/linksys-sipura ... -9198.html
http://forum.voxilla.com/linksys-sipura ... 16931.html
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r193271 ... ng-problem
http://forums.hostrocket.com/showthread.php?p=115183
http://www.voipuser.org/forum_topic_5963.html
http://www.freeworlddialup.com/communit ... 9815#19815
http://forums.blueface.ie/archive/index.php?t-59.html

SpamBox · Post by **SpamBox** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 5:03 am

Drew Baker wrote:You're right, it looks like it's time to go phone shopping. Too bad, we've been really happy with these.
LikeMagic, could you point me toward those VOIP forums so I can check on phones' reputations before I buy? I'm afraid my google-fu is weak tonight.
Thanks again for the help,
--Drew

Stick them up on eBay. I'm sure you'll get some bidders.

For a new phone: I recommend the Panasonic DECT's. I have the KXTG-3033's which is the same as the 32's and 34's, just the last number determines how many handsets come with it, and they're all expandable up to 6 handsets. They seem to get the best reviews for the money. There's a few that get better reviews here and there but cost 2-3 times more.