Subject: From: Date:

PBX up & running Reddy Biggs Sun, 19 Jul 1998 21:32:26 -0500

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For those of you looking at PBX's the Panasonic digital units are solid, and
you can now program them completely by PC software rather than using an LCD
phone.

As far as upgrade hitches that I noticed...

1) Nowhere in the manual does it tell you in what order to put in the
accessory cards. I put in the CID card last, since it was mentioned last in
the manual,  only to find out I had to remove the two other cards in order
to dismantle the unit to install the CID card.

2) The lower numbered stuff is on the bottom of the unit. No big deal you
say ? Well I installed the above mentioned CID card in the UNMARKED slot for
CO 5-8 when I meant to put in the slot for CO 1-4.   Plus, once you put it
in, it's impossible to remove without wrecking it.

So my CO lines are numbered 5 -7 now, instead of 1 - 3.

Also, you have to tell the system you have a CID card, and which numbers you
want to use it with. It doesn't recognize it on it's own.

Likewise, you have to tell the system if you added any accessories like the
door phone/opener, or extension cards.

3) The 1232 uses Amphenol connectors. I bought prewired 66 punch down blocks
connected to the Amphenol 50 connector, and punched all my wires down. I was
a punch down virgin. I wish I had known which end was up on the tool, as I
chopped off my first 3 punches.  A tedious job at best.  The 816 version has
jacks, so you are OK with the smaller version.

4) All my phones had to be reprogrammed. Thankfully the PC software has a
'copy' function to clone the local programming. I'm up to 19 phones now, so
that was appreciated.

5) ECS now need to be told all the new extension numbers.  That will have to
wait until tomorrow....

Plus I do need to rewrite my SMDR program, as the format is a little
different.

6) The digital programming is incredible complex, and not particularly
intuitive. There are over 600 options available to set. Some have to be
altered for your configuration to work  right.  You have to figure out which
ones are mandatory on your own!

Once it's set up though, it looks and works great.

Reddy

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