Orchid V4, V4+ Programing Tool Support

shilcor

Have you got a normal corded phone with an LCD display that you could hook up to the orchid ? That's what I use as it's my office phone anyway and always connected to the orchid along with the base station for my cordless phones. It's then a simple job to key in a code string, lift the handset, hear it dial the code and then when its finished, replace handset.
I have a total of 17 routing codes and 7 carrier codes in my setup and it only took about half an hour to program it all from scratch following the steps in my guide.
Trying to get modems and spreadsheet macros to do the job is far too much hassle IMHO.
If you don't have a suitable phone, you can pick them up cheaply enough on eBay. I sold one recently for 15 quid and that had built in answephone and supported SMS texts too - a BT Paragon 500. Better than forking out for a new modem that you'll rarely use?
Just my thoughts for what they are worth!

seanhodges

Hi Shilcor,
I have a very basic phone, with buttons and curly wire to the handset, which I use for the code input.
My main phone is a fancy cordless DECT one.

When I did have a working modem it was very slick when used with the spreadsheet - you clicked a button and the whole lot of codes were sent to the V4, with pickups and hangups included.

A new modem would only be £7.50 from eBay, but after all the efforts to save money on calls it seems a minor surrender to have to buy a second modem!
Nevertheless I probably will.

It's about time I put my vast collection of unused gadgets onto eBay. The old modem can be added to the pile. Maybe someone will give me 99p for it!

shilcor

seanhodges wrote: »

Hi Shilcor,
A new modem would only be £7.50 from eBay, but after all the efforts to save money on calls it seems a minor surrender to have to buy a second modem!
Nevertheless I probably will.

It's about time I put my vast collection of unused gadgets onto eBay. The old modem can be added to the pile. Maybe someone will give me 99p for it!

Hi Sean,
I guess £7.50 isn't too bad if it lets you get the job done but I know what you mean - feels like spending a quid to save a penny!
I'm also trying to unload my collection of ADSL routers on eBay - 8 routers for a tenner the lot and they are still unsold
The trouble with eBay is the fees and high cost of postage relative to what you get for the item. The alternatives are Preloved and Gumtree but I've had mixed success with them.

Good Luck :wave:

charlieheard

Quick update on the BT8500. We've had the set for a couple of months now, and it really does screen out cold callers. Had to add the regular numbers to its phone book, but then it just works. No problems at all using it with the Orchid, though we've twice needed to add numbers when they go through the screen, but it's as simple as pressing '1' or '2'. The phones blocked 21 calls last week!

Only downside is that you can't have a cheapo corded phone plugged in to another socket (just in case) like we used to, as it might mess with the system's call handling...

johnniegif

My mother is imminently moving from BT "free" evening & weekend calls to The Post Office, where she'll only get free weekend calls.


But the Post Office's weekend starts at 6pm Friday and finishes 6am Monday.


I'm trying to get my head around programming the spreadsheet so that she doesn't get charged for Friday evenings and early Monday mornings.


I know I can make changes in the config tab to Weekend Start Day & Weekend End Day (currently 6 & 7 respectively for Saturday & Sunday)


On the main spreadsheet I know I can change the Weekday start and end times which would be 06 00 and 18 00. The Weekend start & end time is currently 00 00 to 23 59 but how can I include Friday 18:01 to Friday 23:59 and Monday 00:00 to Monday 06:00 programmed as "Weekend" - or go straight over the landline?


I guess "Weekday Evenings" which are programmed in the Night column are the remaining hours which are NOT defined as Week End Days and not defined by the Weekday Start & Weekday End parameters.


I think I'd be barking up the wrong tree if I defined Friday as "Weekend Start Day" as with the Post Office it is both a Weekday and a Weekend Day.


Perhaps if there isn't a way to do it all with the spreadsheet I could reprogram her Orchid with the spreadsheet and later dial some manual changes for the tables? If so, does anyone have any ideas what these codes would be?


Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it as telling my mother "Dial 121 first on Friday nights or in the wee small hours of Monday morning" won't work due to confused user error!

RatAtAt

johnniegif wrote: »

I think I'd be barking up the wrong tree if I defined Friday as "Weekend Start Day" as with the Post Office it is both a Weekday and a Weekend Day.

No - that's okay, then you set the weekend start time to suit.
And you do the equivalent for weekend end day and end time.


I've had mine working ok similar to this for a number of years.

johnniegif

Thanks for your help RatAtAt.


I'd gone away, read the original Orchid manual programming guide and almost given up all hope!


So are you saying that in the config section I should change:
Weekend Start Day from 6 (Sat) to 5 (Fri)
Weekend End Day from 7 (Sun) to 1 (Mon)


Then in the main spreadsheet:
Weekday Start Hour/Minute 06 01
Weekday End Hour/Minute 17 59
Weekend Start Hour/Minute 18 00
Weekend End Hour/Minute 06 00


(The Post Office define Evenings as 6pm-6am and Weekends as Fri 6pm-Mon 6am)


I was concerned that if I did this a) Monday & Friday Weekday settings wouldn't work as I'd classified them as Weekend Days. b) On Saturday and Sunday, the Weekend column would be restricted to between 6 pm and 5:59 am and not work from 6 am to 5:59 pm!


I guess Weekend Start Hour/Minute applies to the first defined Weekend Day only and Weekend End Hour/Minute applies to the last day only defined as a Weekend End Day?


Can you confirm that I am now barking up the right tree compared to how you programme your Orchid please?


Thanks for your help.

RatAtAt

johnniegif wrote: »

I guess Weekend Start Hour/Minute applies to the first defined Weekend Day only and Weekend End Hour/Minute applies to the last day only defined as a Weekend End Day?


Can you confirm that I am now barking up the right tree compared to how you programme your Orchid please?

Yep! You seem to have understood it now :-)

johnniegif

So far, so good. I programmed the Orchid and tested a Monday afternoon and a Monday evening and both went through 18185 correctly on the Post Office line.


I will ask my mother to check Friday evening and some time on Saturday to ensure that landline calls go over the Post Office line.


As an experiment, I used my little netbook that I've used for years with a Zoom 56K USB modem - model 3095. In the past this has been with Windows XP and this was the only task I used XP for. On my main PC, I use Windows 7 and that works fine with Office 2010. But I now have XP, Windows 7 and Windows 10 Technical Preview running on the netbook, all running an ancient version of Office 2000. I used the Windows 8.1 driver from Zoom modem and it programmed the Orchid perfectly. The only issue with the modem is that I didn't hear the modem noise over the netbook speakers, like I do in XP & Win 7. But for future proofing I am happy to live with this as it works!


Long live our handy Orchid diallers!

btuv

johnniegif

I have just tried to manually reset the V4 clock (first time for n years!) following a misdirected and expensive, routing experience.
However when entering the characters into my handset found it would only accept 20 and not the full 21 required.

I naturally wonder whether others have experienced this and how it is overcome. You appear to have been successful

Many thanks in anticipation

btuv