Redwood

[buttercool]

Hey Everyone,

I mostly lurk in the Meridian/CS1000 forums but as of late my interest in the old Rolm gear has grown quite a bit and I'm thinking about obtaining a small Redwood to mess around with (I have a serious phone system problem/addiction with both a CUCM 8.6.2 and a Nortel Option 11c 25.40 in my basement 'server room', so the Redwood would have good company).

I know the Redwood isn't the most well-loved of the Rolm systems but I'm thinking getting my hands on a CBX and requisite software is a little less reasonable. With that being said I wanted to see if some of the wise folks on this forum could point me in the right direction on a few things please:

- Does anyone have any of the Redwood programming manuals they would be willing to share?
- My understanding is the Redwood was Rolm's key system offering designed to compete with the Norstar and other similar systems, with that being said is the programming performed via Terminal or Phone? I'm comfortable with both but curious
- Are the classic Rolm phones (RP 400 and crew) compatible with the Redwood? Seems they are to me at least based on memories of seeing these in Dominick's stores in the Chicago-land area when I was like 8.
- Finally, does anyone happen to have a Redwood, preferably in working condition (thats a tall order in 2018), that they would be willing to part ways with? I would be able to cover reasonable shipping costs and would prolly be willing to pay a few bucks for the Redwood as well.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this

Cheers,
bc

 

[donb01]

My manuals only go back to the 9751 20 / 40 /50 /70. I'm not sure if "Redwood" is slang for some model number, but I've heard the term before. If I'ts one of those I might have the whole manual set.

Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[buttercool]

Thank you for the response donb01. I completely agree with your thoughts on the 'Redwood' naming being slang for some model number -- I'm suspecting this could be part of the reason I'm having a really hard time finding any parts or pictures of this system even. I've seen the classic rolm phones with the 'Redwood' logo on the paper insert but aside from that that's all I've ever seen with that name on it.

If you wouldn't mind sharing the 9751 manuals, even in part, I would love to take a look.

thanks,
bc

 

[donb01]

It might be a lot of data - I would zip up that directory and put it somewhere you can get it.

PerryPJ used to be the resident expert on some of that really old stuff, but I don't see his name around very much anymore.


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[TipandRingtoSIP]

Wow, that takes me back to my early days at ROLM.... No Don, Redwood is not a slang term. Some of the earlier ROLM products were named after trees.. Cypress and Juniper terminals for example.. I think I tossed all of my manuals, I'll check to see if I have any of the older tech CD's that may have the Redwood stuff on them. Yes,all of the ROLMPHONEs are compatible (400-240-120) with the Redwood, the 400 was used to program the system from the first station port if I remember. Originally used the old IBM 5140 convertable PC to program those things, it had two 3.5" floppy drives, good times! Sorry, not really being helpful here, just reliving 1986.. I'll check when I get home for the CD's, I think the original TECH cd's had redwood on them.

 

[donb01]

I started with the CBX8000 - big orange beast that had 8 inch floppy disks for backup and 2 cabinets took up most of a room! I didn't have many tech docs back then - just a cheat sheet of 3 letter commands to do everything from a VT100 or some other VDT.... From there we moved right into 9006 in 1996.


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA