Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] Caller ID interface (again) Wayne Wittenberg Tue, 16 Jun 1998 19:46:26 -0400

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At 07:20 AM 6/16/98 -0700, Dan C wrote:
>I am looking into a caller ID unit and have found one for $25!!!  It is
>a simple caller ID to RS-232 unit.  I asked their tech support what
>serial protocall they use and their reply was "The protocol of the
>232CID1 is RS-232 1200 baud N,8,1 from the phone company. "
>
>Does anybody know if this will work as a Caller-ID interface to replace
>the more expensive ones that are accepted by ECS?

   I think this will work as a Caller-ID-IFC-B.  That is the interface I am
using for my piece of hardware.  It runs at 1200 baud, N, 8, 1 as well.
Mine is made by International Micropower.  It is a boxless, bare board, it
is from 1991 or so.  I had it before I bought ECS, but I tried it with ECS
and it works fine, with one exception.  At some point in time I think the
ring detector failed, as it now spits out data whenever it 'hears' anything
on the line, including voices.  It is only supposed to send data between the
first & second ring.  This causes ECS to try and decipher bogus data and
sometimes announces very funny things.  If it is monitoring a modem line, it
can totally stall ECS from the data overload.  
   This ring detect failure does have the nice advantage of working with
'deluxe call waiting', where caller id comes in while you are on the line.
I couldn't find a CID to RS-232 converter for any amount of $ that claimed
to do this, but once I had the phone co. turn the feature on, I was amazed
to hear ECS announce who was ringing-in on you.  I would love to know why
this works or if anybody else has found a box to do this.  I was under the
impression that the CID data for call waiting was a different format than
the regular CID data.

try it & see,
Wayne

   waynew 'at' magicnet 'dot' net,   Orlando, FL
   http://www.magicnet.net/~waynew

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