RE: Keith, You'll know this....

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Keith,

>
>The first consideration for BABT approval is electrical safety. There
have
>been many cases in the past where unapproved or poorly modified
equipment
>has passed mains voltage out of the house onto the telephone line
thereby
>endangering the lives of BT engineers and the general public as the
>insulation on telephone cables is not rated for 240V.

AFAIK there are no mains voltages present in the box - I actually don't
know
if it requires a power supply, (I guess it probably does), or whether it is
powered from the phone line...

>
>As long as it is FCC approved it will be built to a high standard and
>should
>be OK, although if you get banged up by the heavies from BABT I will
send
>you a cake with a file in it so you can cut your way out of jail :-))
>

Rich states that it will be both FCC and UL approved for use in the US.

>I have to admit that I am not familiar with the device you refer to and
>havent been able to find it during a quick search of the web.

go to http://www.keware.com/cgi-bin/bbs5/config.pl?read=1175
for a
description of the box.

>
>Is it purely for DTMF/Voice control or does it also use Caller ID. If
it is

It is basically a 3-way switch between the external line, the internal
phones, and a TAPI voice-modem connected to the Homeseer Phone software.
It allows the software to distinguish between external and internal calls
and handle them differently, and allows the software to seize the line when
required. The description on the URL above has more detail.

>purely DTMF/Voice then I dont forsee any problems so lond as you use a
good
>quality UK mains rated power supply. If however, it uses Caller Id then
it
>may or may not work. There are differences between UK and US Caller ID
>specs
>particularly with regard to when the caller ID is sent.

The box doesn't actually USE caller-ID per se, but it does allow the data
to
be routed to the attached modem. - The box can also silence the first 2
rings from reaching the internal phones, so that the caller-ID can be
acquired silently.

>
>In the States I belive Caller ID is sent BETWEEN the first and second
ring.
>The UK spec was adapted to send Caller ID BEFORE the first ring so that
it
>could be used for remote reading of the electricity meter etc where the
>device would answer the call bfore the phone rang so as not to disturb
>householders in the dead of night.
>

This is curious, as I have come across this suggestion before, however, I
can quite definately state the MY caller-ID comes BETWEEN the 1st & 2nd
rings. - I have monitored incoming calls in Hyperterminal, and I can quite
plainly see the call progress, and the data arriving.


>As I said, I dont think you will have a problem but before you buy see
if

I suspected this would be the case, as I know I have used US modems in the
past on BT lines without any problem (apart from having to replace the 110V
PSU)

>they will take it back if it doesnt work.

I'm sure Rich will be very helpfull in this respect - he's nice like that!
-
If you haven't dealt with Keware before, then I can highly recommend them -
the Homeseer HA software is excellent, the developer support is second to
none, and the overall level of commitment and service is just superb, -
cannot be praised highly enough in my opinion.


You will not do any damage to
>either phone line or device. All phone systems around the world use
around
>50v DC

Thats  pretty much what I thought, but it's good to have confirmation from
an expert! :-)

>
>Hope that helps

It does - thanks.

Cheers Keith,

Paul G.


>
>Keith
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Paul Gordon [mailto:paul_gordon@xxxxxxx]
> > Sent: 06 October 2000 19:30
> > To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ukha_d] Keith, You'll know this....
> >
> >
> > Hi Keith,
> >
> > I'm after finding out what various properties of BT phone lines
> > are, with a
> > view to finding out if its likely to be possible to connect Rich
>Helmke's
> > Homeseer Phone box to it, without blowing up either the box, my
> > phones, my
> > neighbours phones, myself, or indeed having some heavies from
> > BABT banging
> > on my door....
> >
> > NOTE: I'm NOT suggesting for a second that I intend to connect
>unapproved
> > equipment to my line.... ;-)
> >
> > This is the reply from Rich when I asked him about using it in
the UK:
> >
> > " The box will be FCC approved for use here, but your right,
I don't
>have
> > any plans right now to certify it overseas. Will US phones work
on your
> > phone system? The box supplies voltage to the line, is it the
> > same? I have
> > not researched the specs on UK phones so I'm not up on it.
> >
> > -Rich "
> >
> > Are US & UK phone systems electrically interoperable? (IE
will it
> > be "safe"
> > to connect his box?)
> >
> > Are US & UK phone systems signalling compatible? (IE, even if
I
> > connect it
> > and it doesn't blow up, will it actually work as intended?)
> >
> > Thanks for any insights you can offer....
> >
> > Cheers.
> >
> > Paul G.
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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