very useful, I now have kiax up and running and connected to the tesco service (using gateway.tescointernetphone.com ) Next step is to try it with the tesco handset I seem to have mislaid

thank you

Also, one little funny with the IPA1000, it wouldn’t ring any of my phones (a BT one, some no-name slimeline thing and a Siemens DECT).

OK, first a little background. POTS phones normally have 48 volts DC on the line. To make the phone ring, 90 volts AC is superimposed on this. The traditional ringer consists of two high-impedance electromagnets which alternately attract and repel a magnetised armature in sympathy with the crests and troughs of the current; the armature has a clapper which oscillates between two metal bells tuned to slightly different pitches. The electromagnets are connected to the line through a capacitor which only lets AC through and blocks DC.

In most countries, each phone has its own ringing capacitor. This allows just 2 wires to be used between sockets. UK phone wiring (in a throwback to a bodge which sits on top of something done in the bad old days of the GPO for a reason that made sense at the time) has just one ringing capacitor wired between pins 2 and 3 in the master socket. (Pins 2 and 5 are the actual line; pin 4 was once used for earth recall.)

To get a made-for-UK phone to ring on a two-wire line, it’s necessary to connect a capacitor between pins 2 and 3. The value found in a master socket is 1.8µF, which is good for up to 4 phones (you may squeeze in a fifth if you’re lucky). For just one phone, though, 470nF will work nicely. This capacitor needs to be rated for at least 200 volts. Phone sockets have a space on the PCB for this capacitor, plus a 470k ohm resistor (between pins 3 and 5) and surge protector (between pins 2 and 5). These components are fitted to master sockets, but absent from extension sockets.

A very non-obvious workaround was to plug a spare ADSL microfilter between the phone and the IPA1000! Whatever it does to the POTS side of things, it also allows the phone to ring.

An ADSL filter works essentially like a loudspeaker crossover network, diverting the DC and low frequencies to the “phone” side and the high frequencies to the “ADSL” side. The original ringing signal on pin 3 is liable to have all manner of high-frequency stuff on it from the ADSL side of things; so a new, “clean” ringing signal is regenerated from the low-pass (phone) output with a 470nF capacitor.

(Found this site while looking for something else; hope this explanation helps someone else.)

Simply use sip.tescointernetphone.com for the domain and your user/pass as normal to use SIP instead of IAX2.

Don’t suppose anyone knows of the linux configuration for the cordless tesco (binatone) phones yet? It’s recognised as usbaudio.

I’ve joined Tesco Internet Phone, with one of their IPA1000 units (now half price at £24.98), and have also got Kiax working with it.

I’m using gateway.tescointernetphone.com (77.75.0.135), and it worked first time. I have a US Robotics USB skype-phone, which works fine with it, so I’ve got the ringer on /dev/dsp, and input & output on /dev/dsp1.

Also, one little funny with the IPA1000, it wouldn’t ring any of my phones (a BT one, some no-name slimeline thing and a Siemens DECT). A very non-obvious workaround was to plug a spare ADSL microfilter between the phone and the IPA1000! Whatever it does to the POTS side of things, it also allows the phone to ring. It took me ages to work this one out, and wasn’t a solution that Google came up with…yet. Though looking for a solution ishow I found this page.

Hope that’s of some help to you folks.

It started working perfect, but recently it started refusing to connect with message in the bottom of kiax: [name] rejected… wonder if tesco server’s changed?

I’d be grateful if someone has more insight into this.

Thanks

If so, go to your linux console as root and do:

lsusb

Now plug the Tesco device in and do ‘lsusb’ again, see if it is recognising the fact that you have just added a device. I hope this makes sense.