Panasonic Voice / Voicemail

youstra

Hi - I have a client that wants to see caller id, call log and message info on a tp - has anyone integrated with pana systems? He's got a TAW848 and I believe the TVS120 vm system. I can't find a pana rs232 protocol anywhere.

Thanks,
Bill

DHawthorne

youstra wrote:

Hi - I have a client that wants to see caller id, call log and message info on a tp - has anyone integrated with pana systems? He's got a TAW848 and I believe the TVS120 vm system. I can't find a pana rs232 protocol anywhere.

Thanks,
Bill

I've done it. There is no protocol, per se. Just connect to the SMDR output; the information is straight ASCII in a fixed format, and parse out what you need. I connected to it with Hyperterminal and got a few pages of data so I knew what I was dealing with. The nice thing is that it not only suplies you with caller ID, but the length of the call, what extension picked it up, etc. You will have to manage the list yourself though, once you break out the data. There is, however, one major drawback - the Panasonic caller ID does not output call data until the call is complete, since it was meant as a call management tool, not for live caller ID. In the TDA series, this is somewhat mitigated by the slightly wonky phantom extension all rings go to before the actual instruments, but it is still at least a few seconds behind the live CID display. Rochelle makes an external box that serves the purpose better, IMO - http://www.rochellecti.com/ . It connects in parallel to your incoming lines, and is RS-232.

JDaggitt

Panasonic Phone System Code

Dave --

I've got the same request from a customer who wants access to the caller ID info on an MVP.

Any chance you'd want to sell some sample code to speed my project along?

-- JDaggitt

DHawthorne

I'll post it here, once I've had the chance to document it enough to be useful. It's rough, I'll warn you of that right away - it was cobbled together in a rush and was one of my earlier NetLinx projects, but it does work. It's not as modular as I would like either, there are some project-specific blocks that will need editing. I'm not sure how hectic my schedule is going to be yet, but hoppefully I'll get it up in the next day or two.

JDaggitt

You're a Champ

Dave --

Thanks for the quick response. If you are going to the EHX show in Orlando next month, I'd be happy to buy you dinner or drinks or dinner with drinks at the restaurant of your choice.

Your particiapation in this forum has proved very helpful to every AMX programmer at our company. I really appreciate the time you and others take to answer so many questions.

wcravenel

Here here ! Many thanks to all who consistently provide great and patient feedback (and theory).

I have used the AXB-DTMF with success for Caller ID - the Rochelle product looks very interesting also.

One very neat feature is to throw large font popup when call is inbound, then track all calls for review. Solves the interface issues with KX-TD series caller ID.

Bill

DHawthorne

For what it's worth, here it is. The axi file should have enough commentation to get you started; and there are definitely practices I used when this was written (in 2002) that I wouldn't use today. Here are the more glaring oddities :

There are two display devices defined. One is for the currently incoming call, and the other is a virtual panel for the call log. The original project used G3 panels, and I had a shortage of available channels, which I got around by having a whole set of button channels that I shared among devices. When needed, I would combine this set of real channels with the appropriate virtual, then uncombine them again when done. The paradigm actually works very well, but is not necessary with the plethora of channels and ports available in a G4 panel. The one channel for the current call was not part of this, since it was in use all the time. Do what you will with this part, but that's the explanation, not that I am just out of my mind .

Button channels are defined in the axi and sent to the module as a variable. Variable text addresses are hard-coded. I have no idea why I did it that way, you may want to make them variable based as well, but if you don't, dedicate a port on your panel to the caller ID so there are no collisions. I included a stripped-down panel so you can see how I used them.

Panasonic has NOT been consistent from model to model with the format of the SMDR output. You will need to tweak the 'Parse Buffer' call to make it work; I've seen 80 column and 130 column formats, but they are always fixed size since the SMDR is meant to output to a line printer. I also put some job specific stuff in there; for example, a gate box might come in as an outsdie call, but the customer may not want to log that. Another oddity I have seen is that the new digital hybrids use a phantom extension for the ringing, so every incoming call gets two outputs: the phantom, then the extension that answered the call. So you may need to trap the phantoms to eliminate duplicate entries ... pop up the display, but not log them, log the extension that answered it.

If you use this in conjunction with something like the Rochelle or the AXB-DTMF, just ignore the part that puts the current call on the dispay, and use this just for logging. What's nice about it is that it can track the lenght of the call, what extension answered, and outgoing call info as well, full SMDR information, which is far more than any CID box can give you.

Feel free to shoot me any questions - I've reused this code several times, and modified it accordingly each time. One day I really ought to update it properly, but there is always this nagging matter of open projects and paying customers ...

GSLogic

Dave

Tried your mod below and got the OUTGOING caller ID but... did you ever get the INCOMING caller ID to work?

Thanks

DHawthorne

GSLogic wrote:

Dave

Tried your mod below and got the OUTGOING caller ID but... did you ever get the INCOMING caller ID to work?

Thanks

Yes, I have it working in several systems. There are several formats available in the Panasonic for the way it outputs SMDR data. You may have to adjust the code to match how you have it set, or change the setting. The module was originally written for an older system that had a fixed output ... I would start there in the routine that parses strings from the serial port and get rid of the check for a specific line length, or adjust it to your setting.

GSLogic

I'm think it's in the Panasonic 848 programming, because there isn't any return string for the Call ID incoming but there is on the outgoing.

Thanks for the info!

DHawthorne

They definitely changed a bunch of stuff in the Panasonic program. This code was originally written for a D1232, but I have definitely got it going on a TAW series KSU ... only thing is, I forget what parameters I had to change to do it. I vaguely remember a similar issue, but it was one of those "under fire" situations, so I was in a bit of a hectic state and don't recall exactly what I did. I only remember for certain the option to change the display format. There is probably somewhere an option to turn on CID reporting on an extension or group basis as well.

youstra

Update

Hi all - I just updated a system to the latest pana firmware for the TAW848 and the SMDR now outputs call id info in real time over RS232.
-Bill

vining

GSLogic wrote:

Tried your mod below and got the OUTGOING caller ID but... did you ever get the INCOMING caller ID to work?

There's a set up menu in the Pana 848 that allows you to select what you want to "print" set out via the RS232 jack. Incoming, outgoing , etc.

GSLogic

I did finish the mentioned module back in 2005. The only thing I didn't like was the callerID didn't come through the rs232 port when the line rings. I had to use a NetCallerID box which will display the callerID when the line rings.

I now use the Inter-Tel 3000 phone systems, VERY simple to program well designed and I don't ever have to talk to a Panasonic tech! Oh ya, they still sell a 900mhz wireless phone that works great.

youstra

How did you get NetCallerID to work?

Gary,
I have another project w/ NetCallerID boxes but can't get the things to work. They work fine in sending com strings to Hyperterminal, but I have had no luck w/ sending to AMX. Tried lots of different things. What settings and wire mapping did you use? I went so far as to send the box into AMX to see if they could figure it out, but no dice.
-Bill

GSLogic

Bill
I'm sure you know this but it took me 10 minutes to realize that you can't receive callerID info from a phone system extension . You have to use the phone line feed from the pole. After the above mentioned stupidity, I just plugged the NetCallerID rs232 in the AMX and out came caller ID info. Lastly check your baud rate - do "get baud rate" from Studio just to make sure.

baud rate 4800,n,8,1
returns: ###DATE09120847...NMBR5866777500...NAMEGS LOGIC+++$0D

vining

To get back to "Panasonic", is there something in the Panasonic (TAW 848) set up that allows you to adjust the amount of characters per section that is outputted to the printer (AMX). Most of my TEL numbers are being cut short because, I believe, the current settings only allows 23 characters for the name and number combined and if I have a long name or a multi-part name the numer gets trimmed. If I could take characters away from ring time or call duration and still maintain the 80 characters per outpuuted line I would be very happy.

This is a function of the phone system not the AMX program as we verified by direct telnet connect.

I normally have one of my guys do the phones but this is the first time we've connected AMX to it.

GSLogic

I'm not 100% sure, but I remember reading that Caller ID will only carry 16 chars for the name and 16 chars for the number.
Thought you'd like to know: we started using the Inter-Tel 3000 phone system and it is very easy to program, setup and it's IP compatible. I'll never go back to Panasonic.

vining

GSLogic wrote:

Thought you'd like to know: we started using the Inter-Tel 3000 phone system and it is very easy to program, setup and it's IP compatible. I'll never go back to Panasonic.

Yeah, I saw that in one of your previous posts and it already got me thinking of changing. I do however like the PANA multi-cell cordless and I don't think anyone else has a similar set up. Now in light of the recent interference threads I kinda want to get out of the 2.4ghz band completely. I used the PANA 900mhz cordless phones for the longest time just because I was paranoid about interference possibilties of the multi-cell and now that I finally switched over I'm finding out I have to go back. And I know as soon as I switch to a different system PANA will come out with 5.8g multi-cell or maybe in that lower band 1.2ghz or 800mhz?? that just opened up.

vining

One of my guys just found a setting in the PANA 848 that lets you set the output mode from A to B or C. C provides a 120 character output and the name and number fields increases to 50 characters while in mode A it was 25 and in B it's 20 and provides a 80 character output string. This change allows for full name and numbers to be sent from the PANA w/o the number getting trimmed when a long or multi-part name is received.

"In the maintenance console for the TAW848 go to System Menu item #10, "Maintenance" & select "Main". The 1st tab is SMDR and allows you to set the "type" a,b or c. Use the "help" feature to learn about these settings, my brain is a little foggy since it's been awhile that I've played w/ this. On the bottom of the page in the "Print Information" section you'll probably want to selct print for incoming calls & outgoing.

Next tab SMDR Options you'll probably want to select caller ID Number & Name & select Name & Number but again read the help file & experiment."