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

Ed_Jogg

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!

Serendipity

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! :T

johnniegif

Great news Serendipity. Thanks for the update, it might help others.:j

Serendipity

Ed_Jogg wrote: »

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!

Thanks for that, Ed, but I was clutching at the wrong straw . On JonnieGif's advice I changed the cable between the box and the BT socket, and since then it's been working fine again (it's been good for over a week since) :j

GCB_2

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!

Heinz

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.

GCB_2

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.

Geoff

Heinz

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.

yebaws

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!

Heinz

yebaws wrote: »

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!

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is no (unless - in the first case - you get lucky on ebay).