Orchid V4, V4+ and Ranger 400 phone users - Discussion
Comments
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Serendipity wrote: »- a capacitor maybe, I seem to recall that they can fail with age...
Some types of capacitor, particularly electrolytic type, can suffer from ageing effects. These are most likely found in the 'power supply area' of the PCB, for smoothing the input from the transformer. If one of these failed it could stop power reaching the rest of the unit. But that's not to say that they'd be any easier to fix!0 -
johnniegif wrote: »Serendipity, you have my deepest sympathy. I would be lost without my Orchid.
I wonder perhaps if one or other of the cables coming from it has a loose connection - hence initially the lack of caller display and now not even a dial tone. This is of course is grasping at straws but worth investigating by replacement of the cables. Best of luck.
Johnnie
You should see me leaping up and down with a HUGE smile on my face :j
I just nicked the cord from an old phone and used that to connect my beloved Orchid to the BT socket, and the little red light glimmered for a while. Holding my breath, I tried a call and got dial tone. So then I used Kevin Lawry's fantastic spreadsheet to reprogram everything from my laptop, and IT WORKS! Even Caller ID is being passed through, so it looks like it was the cable all along, not the box. :beer:
Thanks so much for the suggestion - I don't know why I didn't try that, I had convinced myself the box had died. Excellent advice, Johnnie, I'm still grinning like an idiot! :TSerendipity
- noun: Looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer's daughter.0 -
Great news Serendipity. Thanks for the update, it might help others.:j0
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Some types of capacitor, particularly electrolytic type, can suffer from ageing effects. These are most likely found in the 'power supply area' of the PCB, for smoothing the input from the transformer. If one of these failed it could stop power reaching the rest of the unit. But that's not to say that they'd be any easier to fix!Serendipity
- noun: Looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer's daughter.0 -
Just checked my Primus bill (92p) today of which the bulk of the charge was 3 calls to an 0845 number (LV=).
From my spreadsheet, 0845 numbers are supposed to be diverted to BT (1280, override CPS, provider 3) and I would therefore have expected the charges to appear on the BT bill rather than the Primus. The Primus bill shows:-
"date BT LocalRate call 08456405266 00:04:06 Peak £0.11"
Rule 15 in spreadsheet is "0845 A 3 3 3"
Carrier 3 in spreadsheet is "1280"
(Note: prior to 25 July, Rule 15 was "0845 A 5 5 3" with Carrier 5 sending it though 18185 landline)
Looking back through my bills, I see that all 0845 calls (not many) have been billed on Primus since sept 09 i.e. this has been going on for some time rather than something that has just happened.
Question: Why isn't the override sending the calls via BT?
Cheers
Geoff
PS: I normally look up 0845 numbers on SayNoto0870 - these were dialled by my wife!0 -
You are right. The program should be using Carrier Code 3 at all times for 0845 calls because BT is cheapest (2p/min. weekdays, ½p/min. evenings and inclusive at weekends for those on BT's Unlimited Weekend Plan) so inserting a 1280 prefix (CPS override) is the obvious choice of routing.
I hope I am wrong but the fact that the call was billed by Primus suggests that, like Talk Talk, Sky Talk, Orange and AOL, they have changed to WCLI and so the 1280 prefix your Orchid dialled had no effect.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0 -
Thanks for the reply Heinz.
I hope they haven't disabled 1280 completely as I use it to get free BT CLI (needs six calls per quarter). BT used to require 2 chargeable calls per month but, on my last bill when I was charged because I had only made five calls, it said that I needed six or more calls and these could be inclusive i.e. the implication being that they could all be dialled in same month and did not need to be chargeable. After manually dialling an answer machine six times using 1280 as a prefix, these calls did all route through BT (I checked using my online account).
This may mean that Primus still allow 1280 but not on 0845 numbers.
Geoff0 -
I have my Orchid programmed to route all weekend 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 calls via the 1280 prefix so as to make the necessary number of inclusive calls each month.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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I have an old Orchid version without power supply, and it seems to stop caller display working properly. Wanted to buy a v4 with power supply as apparently CD works with this. But Orchid don't seem to be making them any more... Anybody know where I can get one or where I can get something similar?
Thanks!0 -
I have an old Orchid version without power supply, and it seems to stop caller display working properly. Wanted to buy a v4 with power supply as apparently CD works with this. But Orchid don't seem to be making them any more... Anybody know where I can get one or where I can get something similar?
Thanks!Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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