[Asterisk-Users] Small / embedded system recommendations

[Chris Bagnall]

About the 4801, Kristian said:

> - No FXS ports - the Soekris doesn't have the means to 
> provide ringing voltage for the card.

Doesn't it use the 5V rail of a standard molex connector to generate ring
voltage? Or does it use the 12V rail. If it's the former, I think you could
probably use power that's provided to the hard disk support on the 4801 to
generate it. If it's the latter, a small transformer from your friendly
electrical store feeding a molex connector would probably do it.

> - Even four concurrent calls might be tricky.  Even if you 
> aren't doing transcoding, you will still probably have to do 
> echo cancellation, which is CPU intensive (especially on the Soekris)!

Good point. Echo cancellation's CPU usage isn't something I really
considered. Our original plan was to use this device in homes or very small
offices where there might be one or two analogue lines and 4-6 phones. The
analogue lines would be used for incoming calls for people/offices who can't
change their number to one delivered through an IAX gateway. Outbound calls
would go via an IAX gateway. Ideally, the phones would default to GSM for
outbound calls, and alaw for inbound calls from the TDM card or BRI card, so
no transcoding required (IAX gateway takes GSM quite happily).

> 	As far as 60 calls.  Maybe SIP to SIP, with re-invites 
> and even that is pushing it.  Overall, a Net4801 would not be 
> appropriate for what the OP is looking for.

Agreed. I'd be inclined to go with something like a Biostar 200N (Socket A,
1AGP, 1PCI). The OP hasn't specified his budget, but if I was looking to
build a compact asterisk box on the cheap, I'd use one of these and a spare
Socket A CPU that's been retired from another machine. Something in the
1700+ range won't use too much power or generate too much heat.

> P.S. - You should run AstLinux on your net4801:
> http://www.astlinux.org

I very probably will. :-)

Regards,

Chris
-- 
C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited
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