Your PABX system might be slightly different than mine, but if you go into programming mode, then punch in 49400#, the phone will ring until the person answers.
I got one of these things. I don't like the way it rings. Does a British type ring. I want the regular ring. I also like mechanical bells as well. The PABX should be designed to send the appropriate power to ring any telephony equipment. Back in the good ole days of POTS we could buy bells that were loud, made to attach to the exterior of the house, so the telephone could be heard ringing when one is outside. They needed another power supply, usually a battery box or a box that connected to the AC power then went into the box, where it would step up or down the current sufficient to ring the bell. This is mostly nostalgia reasons, but I am spending more money, that I really shouldn't be getting old telephones from E-Bay because the Amazon stuff is chintzy garbage. We need to go back to the old ways. I am not saying abandon the new but use the new as a back up for when the old fails, until it can be repaired. Things used to be so much nicer and it could be, but the powers that be seem interested in nothing except sucking all the enjoyment out of life, and making life insufferable for those of us that can't even afford to chase dreams that we think might make us happy.
Thanks for the video. I would like to use one of these to help filter the calls we get in which not one is on the other end. I would like to use the auto attendant feature to this end. I was curious if unit "rings" when an incoming call initially comes in. (I would prefer it not ring and let the auto attendant pick up and if the is a human they can select the appropriate extension)
If the auto-attendant is enabled, no phones will ring when a call comes in. It answers and plays a message and then will ring one of the phones depending on what number the caller presses in response to the message.
@@philipmosher8617 I would connect an answering machine to extension #1 and a phone to extension #2. Record a message on the auto attendant saying something like "If you are selling something, press 1. If you know me, press 2".
As to interconnecting two systems, I cant recommend it, it would be simpler and more efficient to simply buy a system with larger capacity system. As to wiring between two different systems simply run cable with more pairs, always a good idea for system expansion.. There are also modern key-systems that support single line phones. The phone guy 40+ years of experience.
One larger pabx would have been fine but we didn't have sufficient cable pairs between the buildings and it was much easier to put the second pabx in another building than pull another cable underground and then extend it several hundred feet back to the main equipment location. I agree that more pairs would be nice but over the years, most of the spare pairs got used.
@@rkb6783 I'm not the least bit offended I simply offered what I felt was the best advice you're free to do whatever you want to do no skin off my nose
I was able to set this type PABX to a Toshiba CTX100 PBX as an outside line 2 on the Toshiba system then connected to Port 8 or extension 608 on the Soho PABX
I would like to but the past few years have kept me pretty busy and I'm currently packing things up to move in a few months. Maybe when things settle down I'll find time to make more videos. Thanks for your interest!
sure, watch the video, it shows how to set it up. If you are looking for something simple for two phones, look at w4p300 #302 ua-cam.com/video/3l5se0gGM18/v-deo.html
Not quite sure what you are trying to do. It would be possible to connect two C.O. ports of two PABX units to one station port of a third pabx. If both of the first two tried to access the C.O. port by dialing 9, they would both be connected to that same station port so the second one to dial 9 would end up connected into a conversation already in progress. Does this help?
Yes. This particular unit had you choose between ringing or having the automatic attendant answer (then you dial an extension). If you choose to have the phones ring, you then tell it Which of the phones to ring, any or all. You would have to check the manual on other brands or models to see how they work. The seller may be able to provide you with a link to the manual so you can check it out first.
i just bought this sp-208 soho unit and cant seem to get my multiline phones to work on it? am i missing something? the led screens on my phones dont lite up. i just want to use them for intercoms between the house and barn and not hook it to a phone line at all. thanks.... dave
Are these multi-line phones the type of phone with lots of buttons like you would see in a business office? If so, they will only work when connected to a KSU (Key Service Unit; the magic computer phone box). Another similar looking multi-line phone is a VOIP phone which needs to connect to an internet connection with POE (power) and cannot interface to a PABX like this. This PABX is designed to work with simple, single line, analog phones like you would have in your house. You can get relatively cheap phones like the two white ones I connected to the second PABX from walmart for $10 or so and they work pretty good. No telephone line is required if you just want to use it as an intercom.
The unit is powered directly from 120VAC. I'm assuming they have secondary winding that they are using to drive the ringers, probably something from 50 to 90vac (I never measured it). The real problem in driving mechanical ringers is that it is 60hz, not the usual 20hz. When it rings another station, you can hear a relay inside clicking on and off so I assume it diverts the station line to this winding. If you were to disconnect the secondary that provides the ringing voltage and fed in your own ringer voltage, this should give you what you want.
Yes, the problem is the frequency, not the voltage. The “arm” that does the ringing can not move quick enough. The clicking noise you hear is that arm trying to move. Usually there is no relays in standard phones.
@@stenne, I was referring to the relay in the pabx unit. It switches the station line to the ringing voltage to cause the phone to ring. If you were to disconnect the ringing voltage coming from the transformer (at 60hz) and substitute a 20hz supply, the phones would ring properly.
I'm not sure I understand what you need to know. The telephone line connections allow you to connect the unit to a telephone line and then access that line by dialing 9 from a telephone to make a call. The unit can also be programmed to ring one or more stations if a call comes in on the telephone line so you can answer a call. If you are just using this as an intercom, you do not need to connect a phone line to it.
Not sure. The longest lines I had were about 500' or so and worked fine except that there was a noticeable buzzing on the line caused by a lot of electrical equipment in the building. The main problem would be the resistance of the line (telephone wire or cat-5 cable is fairly small wire). Perhaps putting two pairs in parallel for each station would help.
I’m hoping to use vintage phones with this system. Could I insert a PoE injector between the pabx and the vintage phone to power the older bells within the vintage phone? If I can’t then that’s not a deal breaker. I have run cat6 cable x1 to each room. It’s too late to run a second. Can I use a splitter to run a pc and pabx off the same cable.?
The issue with using older phones with mechanical bells on this particular pabx unit is that it is (I believe) feeding 60hz AC power over the line to the bell, not 20hz which is what the bells were made for. PoE injector would not help. You would need to modify the pabx by adding a 20hz ring generator. It might be simpler to just buy an external ringer and add it in the line at each phone if the bell in the phone will not work. www.ebay.com/itm/Telephone-Ringer-Phone-Amplifier-Ring-Speaker-Strobe-Flasher-Bell-Wall-Hanging/193682519852?hash=item2d1860b72c:g:ySMAAOSwgbpfbavh The cat-5 (or whatever you have) cable contains 4 pairs. Only 2 pairs are used for the network (search internet for ethernet cable connections) and sometimes the other two pairs are used for PoE but if you don't need to feed power over the cable (which you don't if it is going to a PC), you could use one of the extra pairs to put a phone in that room. You would need to make some modified cables to split the pairs this way. There are splitters that are used to mix power onto a cat5 cable and another one to split it out at the other end, these are normally used for getting power to a camera at the end of the line that is not designed for PoE operation but I think you could use this to easily feed the pabx line over the spare pairs and pick it back out at the other end. www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-Power-Over-Ethernet-Passive-PoE-Adapter-Injector-Splitter-Kit-PoE-Cable/352691470963?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
When I just had phones connected next to my unit, I don't recall hearing any hum on the line. I have a couple of these in use at my work and there is a noticeable hum due to there being many hundreds of feet of line to other buildings with lots of machinery. These are cheap units and I suspect that the lines are not properly balanced which would allow for common-mode interference. I have not made any attempt to eliminate the noise, perhaps some kind of filter on the line would work.
@@wired-up thanks! its not really too bad I actually found out it was from the old ISP modem dish that was right out side next to the Phone line I ran to the Living room, once I had that all unhooked the hum is GONE! lol.
I bought these model SP-208 PBX on ebay for about $60-70 last year but when I look now I only see two sellers, one wants $145 and another wants $300. There were other similar units but for some reason I no longer see them for sale and the ones I now see are quite expensive as well.
I just found a place that sells these and others: store.soho-pbx.com on the left click on "analogue telephony" to see some options. The SP-208M is $59.99 but they don't specify if this is the 110v or 220v version of the unit.
Some mechanical ringers will work as shown in the video but most will not. I have not taken my unit apart but suspect that they are just taking one of the windings of the power transformer to drive the ringer but this is at 60hz which is the problem. When a station is being called, I hear a relay clicking in the unit so I suspect the relay intercepts the station line and connects it to the winding. If you could break the connection to the transformer and connect the relays to a source of AC at 20 hz (70 volts or so), this should take care of it. I have seen some ring-generator modules that will take 12vdc and put out ringer voltage but don't have any particular model in mind.
@@westogarage Search ebay for PCR-SIN03V12F20-C this should do the job. Generates 70vac at 20hz. I think you need to put some resistance in the ac output line to protect the unit from overload is the called station picks up during the ringing cycle.
@@westogarage I had to check thru my notes on a unit like this that I had bought years ago, the seller said to put a 330 ohm resistor (1/2 watt should be adequate) in series with one of the output wires but in looking at products currently available, one of the sellers says to put a capacitor of 1.8 to 2.2uF, 250v (or higher), non-polarized in the line to protect it. The red and black wires are the DC input, 12vdc on the unit I had. White and blue were the output, put the resistor or capacitor in series with one of these wires before they feed to the relays in the pabx unit in place of the ac power from the internal power supply transformer. If the yellow wire is not connected, the unit will produce ac output power. If you could tap onto the relay coils, you could use this to control the yellow wire to only turn on the ring generator when needed; have it at +12v when not needed and either open or grounded to the DC negative line when ringing power is required. You could just leave the yellow wire disconnected and let the ring generator run all the time but I don't know if that would cause it to wear out over time.
When calling between stations on the PABX, there would be no caller ID. I have not tried, but It is unlikely that caller ID would work on incoming calls from a telephone company line connected to the C.O. ports.
Does this pbx work with dial up modems? I am planning to build an intercom setup and also have dial up modems in it, so they could connect to each other.
I have not tried this but it would probably work. The possible problems would be the modem not detecting the ring since it is not a standard 20Hz ac signal and the audio quality might not be good enough for a high-speed modem which might require you to run at a lower baud rate. The pbx does not use 7 digits to dial (by default it was 3 digits and I changed to 1 digit) so if your software forces it to dial 7 digits, must make the first digit the one that selects the desired station and the rest of the digits would be ignored.
By default, this pabx wants you to dial 6 plus a two-digit extension number from 01 to 08. I reprogram the unit to only need one digit so it doesn't take so much dialing. Other units may work differently.
The smallest units I have seen were for 8 stations. I just found a place that sells these and others: store.soho-pbx.com on the left click on "analogue telephony" to see some options. The SP-208M is $59.99 but they don't specify if this is the 110v or 220v version of the unit.
Sure, no need for any outside connections. As shown in the video, I used the ports that would connect to the pstn (phone company) to link two of these together but this is optional, it will work just fine with nothing but a few phones connected to it.
This video was just what I needed to help with a home PBX project. Thank you! :D
I was able to get a firebell to ring with my pabx. I used two 1000 ohm resistors, 2 relays.
5:02 Wow. Very interesting. I never thought about something like that!
Your PABX system might be slightly different than mine, but if you go into programming mode, then punch in 49400#, the phone will ring until the person answers.
Did that with mine. Works great. Really like how i can put people on hold and play any hold music.
That because most old mechanical ringers need around 90VAC to work. The SOHO only produces 60 VAC
I got one of these things. I don't like the way it rings. Does a British type ring. I want the regular ring. I also like mechanical bells as well. The PABX should be designed to send the appropriate power to ring any telephony equipment. Back in the good ole days of POTS we could buy bells that were loud, made to attach to the exterior of the house, so the telephone could be heard ringing when one is outside. They needed another power supply, usually a battery box or a box that connected to the AC power then went into the box, where it would step up or down the current sufficient to ring the bell.
This is mostly nostalgia reasons, but I am spending more money, that I really shouldn't be getting old telephones from E-Bay because the Amazon stuff is chintzy garbage. We need to go back to the old ways. I am not saying abandon the new but use the new as a back up for when the old fails, until it can be repaired. Things used to be so much nicer and it could be, but the powers that be seem interested in nothing except sucking all the enjoyment out of life, and making life insufferable for those of us that can't even afford to chase dreams that we think might make us happy.
Thanks for the video. I would like to use one of these to help filter the calls we get in which not one is on the other end. I would like to use the auto attendant feature to this end. I was curious if unit "rings" when an incoming call initially comes in. (I would prefer it not ring and let the auto attendant pick up and if the is a human they can select the appropriate extension)
If the auto-attendant is enabled, no phones will ring when a call comes in. It answers and plays a message and then will ring one of the phones depending on what number the caller presses in response to the message.
Wired Up thanks for that, I am going to order one of those units.
@@philipmosher8617 I would connect an answering machine to extension #1 and a phone to extension #2. Record a message on the auto attendant saying something like "If you are selling something, press 1. If you know me, press 2".
As to interconnecting two systems, I cant recommend it, it would be simpler and more efficient to simply buy a system with larger capacity system. As to wiring between two different systems simply run cable with more pairs, always a good idea for system expansion.. There are also modern key-systems that support single line phones. The phone guy 40+ years of experience.
One larger pabx would have been fine but we didn't have sufficient cable pairs between the buildings and it was much easier to put the second pabx in another building than pull another cable underground and then extend it several hundred feet back to the main equipment location. I agree that more pairs would be nice but over the years, most of the spare pairs got used.
Whoa Chris...
Your Got A Bit To OFFENDED !
IT'S JUST A VIDEO.
YOU KNOW, A DEMONSTRATION.
@@rkb6783 I'm not the least bit offended I simply offered what I felt was the best advice you're free to do whatever you want to do no skin off my nose
I was able to set this type PABX to a Toshiba CTX100 PBX as an outside line 2 on the Toshiba system then connected to Port 8 or extension 608 on the Soho PABX
Hello @Wired Up. Why dont you comeback to posting youtube videos?
I would like to but the past few years have kept me pretty busy and I'm currently packing things up to move in a few months. Maybe when things settle down I'll find time to make more videos. Thanks for your interest!
@@wired-up Your welcome! Thank you sir!
This appears to be a modern day "Easa-Phone" type of KSU.
Hello @Wired Up I'll like to learn how to setup an intercom system from scratch. Please can you help.
sure, watch the video, it shows how to set it up. If you are looking for something simple for two phones, look at w4p300 #302 ua-cam.com/video/3l5se0gGM18/v-deo.html
Спасибо
Can u have 2 trunk lines on the sane jack
Not quite sure what you are trying to do. It would be possible to connect two C.O. ports of two PABX units to one station port of a third pabx. If both of the first two tried to access the C.O. port by dialing 9, they would both be connected to that same station port so the second one to dial 9 would end up connected into a conversation already in progress. Does this help?
@@wired-up well basically I was wondering if u can have to calls with 2 trunk lines with 1 signal CO port
@@ryanbelknap814 Nope. One port, one call.
Is it possible to have an incoming line from the phone componey on line 1, ring all of the stations without needing an extention to be dialed?
Yes. This particular unit had you choose between ringing or having the automatic attendant answer (then you dial an extension). If you choose to have the phones ring, you then tell it Which of the phones to ring, any or all. You would have to check the manual on other brands or models to see how they work. The seller may be able to provide you with a link to the manual so you can check it out first.
i just bought this sp-208 soho unit and cant seem to get my multiline phones to work on it? am i missing something? the led screens on my phones dont lite up. i just want to use them for intercoms between the house and barn and not hook it to a phone line at all. thanks.... dave
Are these multi-line phones the type of phone with lots of buttons like you would see in a business office? If so, they will only work when connected to a KSU (Key Service Unit; the magic computer phone box). Another similar looking multi-line phone is a VOIP phone which needs to connect to an internet connection with POE (power) and cannot interface to a PABX like this. This PABX is designed to work with simple, single line, analog phones like you would have in your house. You can get relatively cheap phones like the two white ones I connected to the second PABX from walmart for $10 or so and they work pretty good. No telephone line is required if you just want to use it as an intercom.
@@wired-up awesome info!! thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly... i appreciate ya!
I wonder if their is a way to modify the ringing current so that it produces 90vac
The unit is powered directly from 120VAC. I'm assuming they have secondary winding that they are using to drive the ringers, probably something from 50 to 90vac (I never measured it). The real problem in driving mechanical ringers is that it is 60hz, not the usual 20hz. When it rings another station, you can hear a relay inside clicking on and off so I assume it diverts the station line to this winding. If you were to disconnect the secondary that provides the ringing voltage and fed in your own ringer voltage, this should give you what you want.
Yes, the problem is the frequency, not the voltage. The “arm” that does the ringing can not move quick enough. The clicking noise you hear is that arm trying to move. Usually there is no relays in standard phones.
@@stenne,
I was referring to the relay in the pabx unit. It switches the station line to the ringing voltage to cause the phone to ring. If you were to disconnect the ringing voltage coming from the transformer (at 60hz) and substitute a 20hz supply, the phones would ring properly.
Wired Up ok, I thought you heard the clicking from the phone.
Hello thank your for video I don't know how I use ligne 1and 2 in outside
I'm not sure I understand what you need to know. The telephone line connections allow you to connect the unit to a telephone line and then access that line by dialing 9 from a telephone to make a call. The unit can also be programmed to ring one or more stations if a call comes in on the telephone line so you can answer a call. If you are just using this as an intercom, you do not need to connect a phone line to it.
I live on a farm & want to be able to communicate over greater distances...would this unit work over say 1 mile?
Not sure. The longest lines I had were about 500' or so and worked fine except that there was a noticeable buzzing on the line caused by a lot of electrical equipment in the building. The main problem would be the resistance of the line (telephone wire or cat-5 cable is fairly small wire). Perhaps putting two pairs in parallel for each station would help.
@@wired-up awesome, thanks for that. I'll give it a go!
I’m hoping to use vintage phones with this system. Could I insert a PoE injector between the pabx and the vintage phone to power the older bells within the vintage phone?
If I can’t then that’s not a deal breaker.
I have run cat6 cable x1 to each room. It’s too late to run a second. Can I use a splitter to run a pc and pabx off the same cable.?
The issue with using older phones with mechanical bells on this particular pabx unit is that it is (I believe) feeding 60hz AC power over the line to the bell, not 20hz which is what the bells were made for. PoE injector would not help. You would need to modify the pabx by adding a 20hz ring generator. It might be simpler to just buy an external ringer and add it in the line at each phone if the bell in the phone will not work. www.ebay.com/itm/Telephone-Ringer-Phone-Amplifier-Ring-Speaker-Strobe-Flasher-Bell-Wall-Hanging/193682519852?hash=item2d1860b72c:g:ySMAAOSwgbpfbavh
The cat-5 (or whatever you have) cable contains 4 pairs. Only 2 pairs are used for the network (search internet for ethernet cable connections) and sometimes the other two pairs are used for PoE but if you don't need to feed power over the cable (which you don't if it is going to a PC), you could use one of the extra pairs to put a phone in that room. You would need to make some modified cables to split the pairs this way. There are splitters that are used to mix power onto a cat5 cable and another one to split it out at the other end, these are normally used for getting power to a camera at the end of the line that is not designed for PoE operation but I think you could use this to easily feed the pabx line over the spare pairs and pick it back out at the other end. www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-Power-Over-Ethernet-Passive-PoE-Adapter-Injector-Splitter-Kit-PoE-Cable/352691470963?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
I hooked up a pabx unit in my house. Ive noticed slight hum on the line. Is that normal?
When I just had phones connected next to my unit, I don't recall hearing any hum on the line. I have a couple of these in use at my work and there is a noticeable hum due to there being many hundreds of feet of line to other buildings with lots of machinery. These are cheap units and I suspect that the lines are not properly balanced which would allow for common-mode interference. I have not made any attempt to eliminate the noise, perhaps some kind of filter on the line would work.
@@wired-up thanks! its not really too bad I actually found out it was from the old ISP modem dish that was right out side next to the Phone line I ran to the Living room, once I had that all unhooked the hum is GONE! lol.
Who makes these units and a sales source for them.
I bought these model SP-208 PBX on ebay for about $60-70 last year but when I look now I only see two sellers, one wants $145 and another wants $300. There were other similar units but for some reason I no longer see them for sale and the ones I now see are quite expensive as well.
I just found a place that sells these and others: store.soho-pbx.com on the left click on "analogue telephony" to see some options. The SP-208M is $59.99 but they don't specify if this is the 110v or 220v version of the unit.
@@wired-up says the site cant be reached. :(
awsm video thanks
how can i get mechanical bells to work with this?
Some mechanical ringers will work as shown in the video but most will not. I have not taken my unit apart but suspect that they are just taking one of the windings of the power transformer to drive the ringer but this is at 60hz which is the problem. When a station is being called, I hear a relay clicking in the unit so I suspect the relay intercepts the station line and connects it to the winding. If you could break the connection to the transformer and connect the relays to a source of AC at 20 hz (70 volts or so), this should take care of it. I have seen some ring-generator modules that will take 12vdc and put out ringer voltage but don't have any particular model in mind.
Wired Up okay i can look to see if i can find a ring generator, mine just don’t have enough power to ring my one phone line
@@westogarage Search ebay for PCR-SIN03V12F20-C this should do the job. Generates 70vac at 20hz. I think you need to put some resistance in the ac output line to protect the unit from overload is the called station picks up during the ringing cycle.
Wired Up ok i’ll check it out, where do i put the resistance?
@@westogarage I had to check thru my notes on a unit like this that I had bought years ago, the seller said to put a 330 ohm resistor (1/2 watt should be adequate) in series with one of the output wires but in looking at products currently available, one of the sellers says to put a capacitor of 1.8 to 2.2uF, 250v (or higher), non-polarized in the line to protect it. The red and black wires are the DC input, 12vdc on the unit I had. White and blue were the output, put the resistor or capacitor in series with one of these wires before they feed to the relays in the pabx unit in place of the ac power from the internal power supply transformer. If the yellow wire is not connected, the unit will produce ac output power. If you could tap onto the relay coils, you could use this to control the yellow wire to only turn on the ring generator when needed; have it at +12v when not needed and either open or grounded to the DC negative line when ringing power is required. You could just leave the yellow wire disconnected and let the ring generator run all the time but I don't know if that would cause it to wear out over time.
will caller id worked on any phone?
When calling between stations on the PABX, there would be no caller ID. I have not tried, but It is unlikely that caller ID would work on incoming calls from a telephone company line connected to the C.O. ports.
Does this pbx work with dial up modems? I am planning to build an intercom setup and also have dial up modems in it, so they could connect to each other.
I have not tried this but it would probably work. The possible problems would be the modem not detecting the ring since it is not a standard 20Hz ac signal and the audio quality might not be good enough for a high-speed modem which might require you to run at a lower baud rate. The pbx does not use 7 digits to dial (by default it was 3 digits and I changed to 1 digit) so if your software forces it to dial 7 digits, must make the first digit the one that selects the desired station and the rest of the digits would be ignored.
@@wired-up Thank you for answer. Yeah the ring frequency and overall line "quality" were my biggest concerns.
How you get 601 extension number?
By default, this pabx wants you to dial 6 plus a two-digit extension number from 01 to 08. I reprogram the unit to only need one digit so it doesn't take so much dialing. Other units may work differently.
Are there any cheaper PABX units you would recommended for a home office with probably 4 phones?
The smallest units I have seen were for 8 stations. I just found a place that sells these and others: store.soho-pbx.com on the left click on "analogue telephony" to see some options. The SP-208M is $59.99 but they don't specify if this is the 110v or 220v version of the unit.
Well thank you for trying to find one. I’ll be sure to stay tuned in case you do another pabx video. Thanks again.
CAN I USE IT WITHOUT PSTN
Sure, no need for any outside connections. As shown in the video, I used the ports that would connect to the pstn (phone company) to link two of these together but this is optional, it will work just fine with nothing but a few phones connected to it.
Good video