[asterisk-users] Is this bad hardware? Dahdi-v-X100 clone

[Tilghman Lesher]

On Monday 14 December 2009 12:52:50 pm listuser at spamomania.co.uk wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-12-14 at 11:11 -0600, Tilghman Lesher wrote:
> > On Monday 14 December 2009 10:28:08 am listuser at spamomania.co.uk wrote:
> > > I've spent a week playing with Asterisk 1.6 and I love it. What a
> > > brilliant piece of software!
> > >
> > > Progress and learning have been reasonably good. I have external SIP
> > > provider calls coming in and have put together a little call platform
> > > and I'm stunned at the flexibility.
> > >
> > > There is one issue for me. I took me a while to click that ZAPTEL now
> > > equals Dahdi, but now I'm there I have an issue with the a X100 clone
> > > card that I have been told *not* to mention as I'm guaranteed a hostile
> > > response :-< So, I've put on my flameproof pants to ask a simple
> > > question:
> > >
> > > dahdi show status gives a red alarm. I'm guessing this means the card
> > > is unable to detect the battery. I've plugged a test but into the loop
> > > through on the card, dialtone is there. I've tried reversing the
> > > polarity, two way/three way jack leads (I'm in the UK) but none the
> > > less I get:
> > >
> > > Description                              Alarms  IRQ    bpviol CRC4
> > > Fra Codi Options  LBO
> > > Wildcard X100P Board 1                   RED     0      0      0
> > > CAS Unk  YEL      0 db (CSU)/0-133 feet (DSX-1)
> > >
> > > Is this likely to be bad hardware (hostility towards this cheap card
> > > noted) or software/driver?
> >
> > Getting dialtone on the passthrough port (it's passthrough, not loopback)
> > doesn't tell you much, as the pins are usually hardwired between the two
> > jacks.
>
> Sure. I agree. It does tell you the leads to that point are OK, but
> nothing more :-)
>
> >  Generally, what we tell people here who are having hardware problems
> > are to contact their reseller for support.  That's true, whether the
> > cards are Digium, Sangoma, or a cheap clone.  However, given that cheap
> > clones generally have no support system, it's interpreted as hostility
> > when we cannot offer any particular help.
>
> The 'hostility' line is in the Asterisk book. There is a warning on
> 'clone' cards that speaks of 'hostility'. Apologies for any offence.
>
> I don't want to start a war, but there is a square to that. I'm new to
> Asterisk having spent years in analogue telephony. If I can get a test
> Asterisk working on a cheap clone card without a hitch, I'm most likely
> to expand this and buy TDM400's and above and swear its virtues to all.

On the contrary, you're likely to continue to buy clone cards.  If there's no
advantage to buying premium hardware, why would anybody spend the
excess cash?  I can tell you that the Digium cards work, and the clone cards
can be hit or miss.  The real question is, when you have a problem, is there
anybody you can call to help you diagnose a problem with that particular card
and that particular driver?

> However, as they cost of some of the DIGIUM cards is about the same (if
> not more) than many SIP gateways suitable for SOHO's and SME, I'm
> unlikely to buy an expensive hardware card just to 'prove' it works OK
> on a whim.

Actually, many people have taken it a step further than that.  If you can get
a SIP trunk provider on a broadband connection who will provision a telephone
number to you, why are you even bothering with analog telephony at all?

-- 
Tilghman