How should I get started and what should I know?

[umts]

Greetings! I've always had this weird obsession with bigger phone systems but have always either lacked the money to get one or to really get invested in learning how to operate one.

However after doing some cable runs at the company I work for I've stumbled upon a Meridian 1 and after 3 years of begging for it they let me keep it!
I actually didn't believe that I would be allowed to take it home hence why I didn't really prepare that well in-terms of knowledge.

I've taken great care to label all cables connected to them / between them and have taken home all cables and connected devices (minus the battery backup and the cables going from the patch panel throughout the two office buildings these fed with phone service)

Heres part of the hoard in my room, cables had to be left in the hallway for now.
I have also been able to pick up a few (15-20) M3904 phones because I found a good deal for them at a local electronics reseller and the cabinet the Meridian was found in had a few empty boxes of those so I figured they should be compatible.

Heres the installed cards in them. They had fiber running between them and Unit 1 was hooked up to a Fiber ISDN modem using a G.703 RJ45 port on it. I did get an off hook tone and DTMF on some of the lines with an analogue phone but that was all testing I could viably do at their original place.

Now I've tried to do some reading on Mike's PBX Cookbook for a few days prior to transporting them but its been a bit overwhelming to be honest and I've not had time to test them properly, so heres what I'd like to know :

• How do I know what system this is (I think its an Option 11c but not sure) ?
• What revision is this system these and how would I figure that out ?
• If I would fail at finding the original Installers Documentation would there be any way of accessing them without reseting their configs so I'd have an easier time figuring them out?
• Does anything look off with them?
• If a line card fails or the interlink between the chassis will that stop them from working?
• What would be the easiest way of learning this phone system platform? (I am very open to reading manuals but as a busy intern/student time saving options are preffered)

I'll go and hang em up on the wall tomorrow as well as beginning with hooking them back up like they were and give an update on more infos i might collect!

Thanks in advance for everyone trying to help me here!

 

[Firebird Scrambler]

Well, I'm guessing that it's never too late to learn old kit.

I'm wondering if you are in the UK as slot 1 in the main Option 11e cabinet has a 2meg ISDN card.

Your software release might be version 20 or 21.
Version 22 was when the later 11c systems came out with a different processor.

My little website might contain information that could help you.

 

[aoh74]

Hello,

It's an Option 11e which preceded the 11c (older CPU) so probably an earlier release of x11 (<22 or so). The 39xx series handsets were supported in rel 25+ so not sure if you'll have much luck getting them to work properly but they might work to some extent. There is one analogue card (FALC) so that would be where you got dial tone/DTMF from with an analogue set. Mainly digital set cards (DLC) with an ISDN PRI2 and ISDN basic rate (MISP & SILC).
Best place to start is the x11 'library' (used to be a shelf full of system programming books, shipped with each system). Be warned, it'll appear quite daunting at the beginning.

 

[umts]

Well, I'm guessing that it's never too late to learn old kit.

I'm wondering if you are in the UK as slot 1 in the main Option 11e cabinet has a 2meg ISDN card.

Your software release might be version 20 or 21.
Version 22 was when the later 11c systems came out with a different processor.

My little website might contain information that could help you.

I am from Switzerland and have confirmed it to be an Option 11e supposedly on Release 20.22+ Software version 1411, I've found the Technical Documentation of it sofar by digging through some archives at the company. I will post it after this reply

 

[umts]

Hello,

It's an Option 11e which preceded the 11c (older CPU) so probably an earlier release of x11 (<22 or so). The 39xx series handsets were supported in rel 25+ so not sure if you'll have much luck getting them to work properly but they might work to some extent. There is one analogue card (FALC) so that would be where you got dial tone/DTMF from with an analogue set. Mainly digital set cards (DLC) with an ISDN PRI2 and ISDN basic rate (MISP & SILC).
Best place to start is the x11 'library' (used to be a shelf full of system programming books, shipped with each system). Be warned, it'll appear quite daunting at the beginning.

I wasn't able to find the physical books sofar but the Technical Documentation (see part of it below). Where would I download those books of wisdom? On the PBX Cookbook Site right?

 

[umts]

I've been able to find the Technical Documentation for it during lunch break! I've blurred out any details that I think shouldn't be public as it seems to have been installed by the previous owner of the buildings.

 

[aoh74]

I don't have docs around right now (not much CS1k stuff these days). Have a look on here https://archive.org/search?query=creator:"Nortel"
MERL was what they distributed with systems when it went pdf so look for that, a lot of new stuff in there but the basic commands etc didn't change much
over the years.
If you don't have any luck I can get something from the Avaya site for you.
PBX Cookbook is very useful also as is the Meridian forum here (although I find it harder to navigate since the change).

 

[Firebird Scrambler]

Ah. Switzerland. I didn't realise that you also used 2 MEG PRI circuits.

Just send me a private message and I'll sort out what release 20.xx documents, I have.

 

[umts]

Thanks for all the replies ill answer right after this post.

Okay so I've read through all physical documents that I was able to find by now.

The folder I've shown in a previous post seems to be either incomplete or just like all the documentation done before the actual installation.

The second folder I found did contain a list of where all the numbers and their cables initially went as well as kind of a logbook of the phone admins in charge of moving numbers whenever office layouts changed.
Skip this if you don't care about the systems history :
Entries of moved numbers range from 1995 right up until very early 2004 when the company moved to a newer building, there was also a post it from some phone techie with a heartfelt goodbye message (translation : See you again, Hopefully)

In addition I found three floppy disks which supposedly contain backups from late 2003 of both cabinets and some excel spreadsheets for quick dialing and customer data? Not sure what that means, I'll go and search an area appropriate computer in my collection tomorrow to try and image them.

I have also gotten around to putting these beautiful machines up on the wall so I can walk in my room again! My back is now in pain but my willpower and commitment was too high.

I've taken half a day off tomorrow so I have a bit more time to actually finish hooking them up.