Integrating PanaVoice with Existing Panasonic DBS After T1 Upgrade 1

[primedallas]

Hello,
Our company purchased a warehouse with a pre-existing Panasonic DBS 72 with OAI integrated PanaVoice 2.1 voicemail system.

The system came set up with trunk lines and a CPC-B. We upgraded it with a T1 card and CPC-EX 1.04, along with the sync card and MDF. It turned out that our documentation was wrong, and what we probably needed was actually the PRI card, but the T1 card seems to be working okay.

Where we're really having problems is integration with the Panavoice. The voicemail system was apparently running fine in the previous configuration. Now it refuses to answer calls to its hunting group or extensions, nor can it establish a local connection for changing messages.

I downloaded the appropriate manuals. I have been following the instructions from DBS systems programming and the technician's guide (assigning extension names, assigning terminal types to ports, and configure voicemail ports). The instructions start becoming less relevant on page 2-43 of the Panavoice Technician's Guide, where it says to program the API/DEC card slot. We've actually got 4 DEC cards. The previous setup was pointing to the second of the 4 cards. I've tried pointing it at each of the other cards, and even the T1 card. There doesn't seem to be an option for pointing it at the API card. I don't know if this is relevant, just something I'm unsure of what the correct setting should be.

Regardless, once we get down to step 5 on the following page "For the Panasonic DBS only, verify that the voicemail API port is set for standard API protocol and 9600 baud", the DBS system refuses to show or change any settings for any of the API ports. When I go into the general system settings and type code 41# or 42#, it just jumps straight to 44#.
Actually, I wonder if the instructions for getting to the settings for the API ports is correct; according to these instructions, setting 44# should be for the fourth API port, but our system is showing that as a setting to select between T1 and ISDN.

I've tried following the troubleshooting section of the DBS, but the above problem seem to be the real issue. I think one of the more basic settings of the DBS that needed to be changed during the upgrade didn't get done, but I have no idea what. The fact that we're using a T1 card in place of a PRI card may complicate that.

Can anyone suggest where to go from here?

TIA

 

[cwc3]

get a dbs legacy guy in there pony up and pay a pro!

 

[primedallas]

I did 'pony up and pay a pro'. After 6+ months of the system still not being complete, I decided I could read the manuals as well as he could. Now if the system actually did what the manual says it should do...

The problem is there is essentially no such thing as a 'dbs legacy guy', at least not with recent enough experience to remember anything about the system, experience with the T1 interface, and locally located. So I'm casting a wider net in the hopes of finding someone not local who can answer my question.

 

[cwc3]

well good luck you may want to consider upgrading
they pulled the plug on the dbs a long time ago so most of the dbs legacy guys are tda dealers now you may consider contact dbs tech support they still exist and beg them to sort you dbstech@panasonic.com or try posting at sundance
there are a couple of good dbs guys there....

 

[primedallas]

Panasonic email bounces. Had already hit up the sundance forums. CTO refuses to authorize replacement, as he's located at another office and doesn't have to deal, and we haven't yet gotten to the point where our office is in the black.

Let's hope some infrequent reader spots this in the next few weeks and posts something, or we're SOL.

 

[cwc3]

adding a t1 to that system must have been a nightmare!!

 

[cwc3]

try geo at austin telecom he's almost in your neck of the woods if you ask nicely he may help you
out I just don't know the dbs well enogh and I am sure not going to read the book for you...

 

[ronromano]

If you are even considering using a Panavoice on a DBS 72,using the OAI integration most DBS dealers stayed away from like the plague, then you deserve every ounce of pain you get.

 

[cwc3]

i can't believe he was able to get the t1 up and running.

 

[cwc3]

if you have an isdn pri it should not work at all on a T1
card??

 

[primedallas]

I don't know how it's working. I don't understand the mechanics of it well enough to differentiate what the functional difference is between a T1 connection and a PRI connection, other than that the PRI connection uses the last channel to communicate non-voice information to the PBX.

I suppose our tech we hired was either a sort of genius to get it working, or spent all that time just trying every possible setting until one worked.

I suspect the real challenge may have been getting the DID function, which seems to have been reserved for PRI usage, to work over our T1 card. From what I can see, it seems like half the settings programmed in are for T1 and the other half for PRI.

As for 'deserving every ounce of pain', this isn't in any way my decision to have it set up this way. This was the previous owner's set up, and the decision of our CTO to minimize cost by doing as little to it as possible. But he doesn't have to deal with the pain, does he?

To get back to the original topic of the post, I have a new suspicion: all the settings for the Panavoice & the DBS are correct, but the 4 port modem in the Panavoice computer may have gone out. That would certainly account for the symptoms.

The only problem with that diagnosis is, when I first got here, none of the red voicemail lights on any of the extensions were blinking. At some point while tinkering, the lights on two handsets started blinking (the primary attendant's and a nondescript extension). I suppose these were from messages left for the previous owners. I believe I have since then cleared those messages out of the Panavoice, but the lights are still blinking. The conjecture there is that at some point I enabled the Panavoice to at least dial out to the PBX at some point, but then disabled it again somehow.

At this point I have decided not to worry about it too much, unless the CEO starts asking about why there is no voicemail at this office (not likely unless we get one of the really big contracts we're bidding on, which is quite unlikely). I'll keep tinkering when I have spare time.

Right now I'm trying to get it to ring an outside speed dial number whenever a line is busy, rather than give a busy signal, so we can get pseudo-voicemail by putting an answering machine on one of our backup analog lines.

 

[cwc3]

count you blessing that It works I guess not that I'm biased but you need to take a hard look at the KX-TDA /TVA product and get the most out of your PRI . Does you caller id on the incoming call work?

 

[primedallas]

Oh, hell no. But it may be that the package we got from Time Warner doesn't include ANI (at least I don't see it mentioned anywhere on our Versapack info forms).

Actually, glancing through those...

I really ought to try and get the CSU working. Right now the PBX is plugged directly into the PRI port, because neither the tech nor I was able to get the PBX working with the Adtran T1 CSU ACE that was available. It'll sync with the PRI port fine, just not the PBX.

Jeez, this thing's still got a host of problems...

Hey, look, the Sync light's come on again. Big surprise.

 

[cwc3]

hey do you have the dbs manager pc software for the 72?
or are you programing through the keypad?

 

[cwc3]

we had that kind of csu and the pri (on a tda 600)we just did not too long ago at a huge toyota delership the guy I sub contracted for got an adtran ace off ebay instead of
buying one it did not work at first set all dip's
back to default in the manual green lights and btw you are not trying to use network cables they should be flat usoc satin telephone cords not network patch cables there is a difference....

 

[primedallas]

I didn't even know they made software for the 72, other than the Panavoice system. I wouldn't want to try integrating a modern computer onto this clunker, anyway.

I was using network cable, but I tried all kinds of variations on the pinout without success. The cable I made from the CSU to the PRI works, just can't figure out the one to the PBX. This was after the tech tried the same thing.

I might try the 4-wire flat cable that's currently plugged into the executive's large-display w/ EM/24, after everyone's gone home for the day.

 

[cwc3]

its a 8 conductor flat satin true usoc cable with 8 conductor plugs on each end it crossess over unlike a network cable .its not 4 conductor flat satin . do you have a website setup that i could possibly pull a phone number off of?

 

[primedallas]

Well, I did some digging around in ye old box o' abandoned cables and came up with an 8 conductor flat wire. Plugged it in, and the CSU isn't showing LOS like it was with all the other straight-through, cross-over, roll-over, and made-up roll-your-own cables I tried. I've got traffic in and out through the CSU now.

Interestingly enough, a standard ethernet patch cable also seems to be working the exact same way. There was probably something else wrong the last time I tried that. Of course, this is the cable from the T1 card to the CSU, not from the CSU to the PRI demarc. That one was always wired odd, but it was a known quantity.

The Slip light is still on solid, though. Probably because of the T1 card.

Anyway, the slip is pretty low priority, just another stick of wood on the fire, and off topic for this thread. The voicemail and associated automated attendant functions were much more important, and I just need to check the modem on that next.

 

[primedallas]

Hah! Finally figured out the slip, anyway. The short little cable from the T1 card to the PCB with the RJ45 connector is touchy as a mofo. I just touch it and watch the dummy lights start flashing. Since it sticks out a bit, every time I was putting the cover back on the cabinet or removing it, the cover was pushing against the cable.

I taped it down so it couldn't move and it looks like the light's staying off.

For now.

 

[cwc3]

keep us posted!