Orchid V4, V4+ and Ranger 400 phone users - Discussion

Heinz · 9 January 2009 at 6:11PM

I regret to have to advise that Orchid have this afternoon posted the below announcement on their website:

Changes to programming your Dialler

As of March 1st 2009 the free remote programming service, CW Client, will no longer be available.

Due to the remote location of our new offices BT are unable to supply us with the necessary ISDN 30 which we need to operate this service.

All diallers can still be programmed manually using the touch tone key pad of your telephone and instructions on how to do this will shortly be available on our website.

We will continue to give our utmost support to all your dialler needs.

This announcement is regrettable but, in view of the current economic climate and the non-availability of the necessary ISDN 30 lines at Orchid's new location, is understandable.

Looking on the bright side, manual programming will still be possible and, after a few hours of studying the procedures, I realised that manual programming allows considerably more* flexibility. Yes, it appears to be time-consuming and difficult at first (particularly for those who have been using the 'semi-automatic update service' and have just been forcing their dialler home whenever I updated the program and Orchid sent them an email) but it's a question of learning how to key in your own program - or disconnect your dialler.

* Just as an example, I quickly learned how to program a Routing Rule to bar calls to a specific mobile (i.e. to a single 11-digit number rather than to a whole range of numbers) and then realised that, using a similar procedure, it would quite easily be possible to bar all mobiles except, say, 5 or 6 family ones - the ideal teen-tamer programming!

This will also mean, of course, that manually updating the internal clocks on diallers will be necessary at least twice a year (when the GMT to BST and BST to GMT clock changes take place). In fact, I'd recommend doing so once a month or so anyway to be on the safe side.

Of course, this will not be welcome news but these are tough times and, IMHO, we need to take a pragmatic approach. As I see it, users can either spend a while getting to grips with manual programming of their Orchid (I'll do my best to offer support to anyone having difficulty) or find another LCR.

I've Googled extensively but, as far as I can see, there are no alternatives on the market and to get a new version manufactured (probably somewhere in China) would require considerable up-front finance (for design, prototype manufacture, bug testing etc.) and then further funding for a minimum initial order of, say, 5000 or 10000 units (probably more). Sorry, it's not going to happen, the market is too small.

mbailey · 9 January 2009 at 6:30PM

What shame.

Just a thought, but why do they need an ISDN30 line? I assumed they just had a PC running some software with some modems connected to it. Is it not as simple as that?

Victor_Delta · 9 January 2009 at 8:33PM

This is really bad news - I'm very disappointed although somehow I'm not totally surprised after the very long, virtually unexplained, service outage before Christmas.

On the face of it, it seems very odd to move to a location where BT cannot supply a basic necessity for the business. However, does this suggest the move to a very rural location has been done at relatively short notice to save cost? Especially in the current climate, this might mean only one thing...

One final thought, presumably someone cleverer than me will be able to comment on whether the provision of an ISDN 30 pipe is really the only option for overcoming their problem. Surely there must be other possible, and affordable, solutions?

V

Heinz · 9 January 2009 at 10:25PM

I think the problem is simply economics and the state of the economy.

I know that Orchid are selling very few diallers now. Even a figure of 100 a month means retails sales of, say, £2000 with a profit margin of anything between £100 and £1000 (not even one employee's wages).

I have no idea why they moved from Corby to Ridlington in May 2007 but, AIUI, they were aware of the ISDN line problem then and overcame it by reaching an agreement with the new firm renting the Corby premises to leave the hardware in situ and operational provided they continued to pay its costs.

Reading between the lines, either that agreement has now failed, the ongoing costs exceed operational viability or the new firm is, or is shortly to be, no more and the premises will be vacant (with little imminent likelihood of a new tenant).

Victor_Delta · 10 January 2009 at 12:32AM

How very sad for both Orchid and their customers. Despite some good products, it sounds as if their business model has long been flawed.

V

RatAtAt · 10 January 2009 at 7:08AM

Heinz wrote: »

Looking on the bright side, manual programming will still be possible.

Okay, but what is the best way of recording my custom V4 settings?

And while I'm here, what would I need to do if I change my address?

Thanx :eek:

Heinz · 10 January 2009 at 9:53AM

RatAtAt wrote: »

Okay, but what is the best way of recording my custom V4 settings?

And while I'm here, what would I need to do if I change my address?

I took screen shots (Alt/Prnt Scrn) of my program on CW Client and then copied them onto an Excel spreadsheet. I've since added columns showing how each Carrier and Routing entry could be manually programmed - and that'll form the hard copy of how my dialler is programmed and allow me to record any planned changes before implementation.

If you move house, there's no need to do anything if your calls provider(s) and STD code remain the same, If either alter, some manual reprogramming will be necessary in future.

mbailey · 10 January 2009 at 2:06PM

I was thinking about creating an easier way to program the dialler.

What if you had an old modem connected to the line. You could then use the dial command (ATD "Any numbers you like") to send commands to the dialler. It would be relatively simple to write a simple VisualBasic program to send serial commands to the modem and then write a visual front end to take care of the programming. That way we could have a visual front end (similar to CW Client (hopefully alot better!) that makes programming the device easy.

What do people think?

Quite a few years back I wrote something to access my telephone banking service before internet online banking started. I got fed up of pressing all the buttons on the phone, so I use a VB program to control my modem to send the DTMF tones.

Anyone else got any other suggestions or better ways of programming the dialler?

One other thing, am I right in thinking that all other settings in the dialler are stored in some kind of flash memory, and it is only the date and time that need to be programmed manually when you connect the dialler to the phone line?

RatAtAt · 10 January 2009 at 2:54PM

mbailey wrote: »

What if you had an old modem connected to the line. You could then use the dial command (ATD "Any numbers you like") to send commands to the dialler. It would be relatively simple to write a simple VisualBasic program to send serial commands to the modem and then write a visual front end to take care of the programming. That way we could have a visual front end (similar to CW Client (hopefully alot better!) that makes programming the device easy.

What do people think?

Fantastic Idea :T All we need is a Hero (You?) :A

But beware, peeps will want the drop-down of pre-dials :eek:

Jon_S_4 · 10 January 2009 at 3:08PM

Is there anything moneysavingexpert.com can do about this ?

As martin already has servers for the website, could it be taken over and run on a subscription basis ?

Just an Idea.

Orchid V4, V4+ and Ranger 400 phone users - Discussion

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