Splitting Nortel Phone Line

[Arreks]

I hope someone's good at telephony on here, because I certainly am not.

 

So here's the situation, in an office here there are two people working - only one handsets. The two people are quite far apart and would like two handsets, but would like to be on the same TN so that if someone dials for tat office, both handsets will ring etc.

 

There's one RJ11 jack on the wall, but I doubt it will be simple enough to just put an RJ11 splitter on it..

 

 

Opened up:

 

 

The green and brown pairs are flapping around in the wind, the orange and blue pairs are terminated.

 

Anyone got any ideas? I've done some digging but I can't find that much info.

 

The handsets are Avaya T7100.

 

Edited June 25, 2015 by Arreks

[plexer]

Just slap another socket in and terminate it to the same pair.

 

Ben

[tmcd35]

Only two cables are required. A splitter should duplicate all connections (live or not). I'll put money on a splitter working.

[kearton]

Avaya bought out Nortel's patents when they folded... Handset looks identical to Nortel T7100... What is this connected to at the backend? A BCM or something Avaya branded? Because I'm fairly certain you can't run 2 handsets off 1 number (we've had no luck on our BCM anyway)

[3s-gtech]

Yeah just looks like a Meridian Norstar PBX based system. We have an older but similar setup, normal splitters work fine if you just want two handsets from one line. So long as the wiring is decent enough to power two phones (some of ours is a bit crusty after over twenty years) it'll be fine.

[tomearnshaw]

Kearton is correct, the T7100 is a digital phone and therefore two phones cannot be connected to the same pair back to the PBX. If you want two phones on the same extension, you would need to acquire some ATA Digital to Analogue convertors and some analogue phones (assuming this is the same as the Nortel BCM range where we have a FAX and franking machine connected at the same time)

 

However if you have a 'free' extension, I would utilise that spare pair of cable and add another phone with a different extension, then either;

 

1. Set up a hunt group set to broadcast and get people to call that number instead so it rings both phones at the same time.

2. Set up both extensions in a group so if one phone rings, the other person can pick up using FX75 (or Avaya equivalent) and vice versa.

3. Use Answer DNs so one somebody calls 307 (for example), 308 will ring at the same time and vice versa.

 

At least with two digital phones on different extensions, you can have two simultaneous calls.

[Arreks]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

I'll try a splitter first (because I've already ordered it) and if that doesn't work I'll just get a twin master faceplate and hook that up then use one of the cool methods @tomearnshaw posted. If I use a master faceplate with two sockets on it, do I just hook up the second socket in the same slots with the green and brown (just like the orange and blue are connected)?

[tomearnshaw]

Yep, just terminate in exactly the same numbers/slots in the second socket of the face plate.

[Arreks]

Alrighty, I finally got some time to look into this so time for a bump.

 

I got my new double socket faceplate, took the spare pair (brown and green) and terminated like so (pro photoshop skillz):

 

 

But nada, nothing happens. I also tried pins 2 and 5 instead of 3 and 4.. am I missing a step? or do I need to open up BCM and find the socket/port before anything displays on the phone?

 

(This is while the old faceplate is still hanging from the wall though, maybe that has something to do with it but I didn't think so).

Edited September 14, 2015 by Arreks

[john]

Did you terminate the other end of the cable? the BCM needs a pair so at the other end you need to put the pair onto an extension port at the other end. The BCM uses breakout cables so by your BCM will probably be punch down strips labeled for extensions so you need to trace that cable back, find the pair you use and terminate to an extension and then look at the programming of the groups discussed.

[Arreks]

Ah, I didn't even check.. I assumed the pair would already be terminated for some reason. Watch this space, our boxes are in the reception so if I make it out of that place alive I'll update.

[john]

Ah, I didn't even check.. I assumed the pair would already be terminated for some reason. Watch this space, our boxes are in the reception so if I make it out of that place alive I'll update.

 

Nope they won't be you need 1 pair for these nortel systems so they will be left tied away usually but if bodged will be snipped off