Topic: Echo even with auto echp TDM404 card

[del]

I am getting terrible echo even though I have the TDM404EF card with built in echo cancellation! Can anyone tell me what I should check to see if the card is faulty or if I am doing something wrong with it. Is there a way that I can check if the echo module is working or loaded properly? Thanks again.

Del

[SARK devs]

dmesg will tell you...


Look for it loading VPMADT032.  This is the EC daughterboard.

Kind Regards

S

[del]

Hi Selintra,

I ran dmseg and this was there:

VPM100: Not Present
VPMADT032 Loading firmware... Success
Booting VPMADT032
VPMADT032: Present and operational (Firmware version 107)
Found a Wildcard TDM: Wildcard TDM410P (4 modules)
dahdi_transcode: Loaded.
INFO-xpp: revision trunk-r6056 MAX_XPDS=64 (8*8)
INFO-xpp: FEATURE: without BRISTUFF support
INFO-xpp: FEATURE: with PROTOCOL_DEBUG
INFO-xpp: FEATURE: with sync_tick() from DAHDI
INFO-xpp_usb: revision trunk-r6056
usbcore: registered new driver xpp_usb
dahdi_echocan_mg2: Registered echo canceler 'MG2'
dahdi: Registered tone zone 4 (United Kingdom)

Two things stand out:
1. Found a Wildcard TDM: Wildcard TDM410P (4 modules) - I have only 3 modules plugged in
2. dahdi: Registered tone zone 4 (United Kingdom) - I thought I had set everything to the US!
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Del

[SARK devs]

Firmware is loaded

I don't think it knows what you have plugged in and what you haven't

You can change tone zone settings in server-manager=>PCI Cards...

In the top window (/etc/dahdi/system.conf) find

# Global data

loadzone   = uk
defaultzone   = uk


change uk to us and press commit.

Kind Regards

S

[del]

Firmware is loaded

I don't think it knows what you have plugged in and what you haven't

You can change tone zone settings in server-manager=>PCI Cards...

In the top window (/etc/dahdi/system.conf) find

# Global data

loadzone   = uk
defaultzone   = uk


change uk to us and press commit.

Kind Regards

S

Do you think that changing UK to US will help?

Del

[SARK devs]

It won't hurt

[del]

It won't hurt

I've changed that as directed but it still shows:
dahdi: Registered tone zone 4 (United Kingdom)

Del

[SARK devs]

you'll need to restart asterisk or restart your box

Kind REgards

S

[SARK devs]

Did you get sorted with this echo Del?

[del]

Did you get sorted with this echo Del?

Hi Jeff,
I've been out of town but will be going back in the office tomorrow. The girl answering the phone for me said that she is still getting echo on incoming calls, so I will have to take another look. Do you have anymore suggestions?

Thanks,
Del

[soprom]

I'm also having a terrible echo problem.

Dmesg says:

Code: [Select]

dahdi: Telephony Interface Registered on major 196
dahdi: Version: 2.2.0.2
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:04.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
Freshmaker version: 73
Freshmaker passed register test
Module 0: Installed -- AUTO FXO (FCC mode)
Module 1: Installed -- AUTO FXS/DPO
Module 2: Installed -- AUTO FXS/DPO
Module 3: Not installed
Found a Wildcard TDM: Wildcard TDM400P REV I (3 modules)
HTB init, kernel part version 3.17
Ingress scheduler: Classifier actions prefered over netfilter
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
dahdi: DAHDI: Cannot start tones until tone zone is loaded.
dahdi: Cannot start tone until a tone zone is loaded.
dahdi: Cannot start tone until a tone zone is loaded.
The echo does not go away ater a few seconds like usual.

Any ideas?

[soprom]

Don't if it's related but logs are saying this after post-update:

Dec  9 18:13:18 pbx 90saildb_create: ERROR
Dec  9 18:13:18 pbx 90saildb_create:  1069 (42000) at line 30: Too many keys specified; max 64 keys allowed
Dec  9 18:13:18 pbx mysql.init: Loading 90saildb_create into mysql failed

[del]

Has anyone found an answer to this? The echo on my system seems to be getting worse. It is almost impossible to have a conversation at times  I have spoken to the Digium dealer and everything he asks me to check seems to be working as expected. Is there any way to check if it is hardware or software related? Is there a newer version of SAIL (currently running sail-2.3.2-15) and if so should does anyone think it will help to upgrade? I haven't done the latest kernel upgrade yet, so does anyone think that I should do that and upgrade the the DAHDI? Any help is appreciated.

Del

[SARK devs]

I think the answer lies with the dealer and her recommended setup. Kernel versions and so on shouldn't make any difference, the VPMADT032 EC board runs its own firmware and DSP.  It should just work...  If it doesn't then you need to speak to your Digium dealer to understand why not (and perhaps to demand your money back).  Your dmesg output looks a little different to some others I found...

VPMADT032 Loading firmware... Success
Booting VPMADT032
VPMADT032: Present and operational (Firmware version 107)

...I found a dmesg of a TDM800 coming up (same technology, more channels)...

Booting VPMADT032
VPMADT032: Present and operational (Firmware version 117)
Found a Wildcard TDM: Wildcard TDM800P (8 modules)
dahdi: Registered tone zone 0 (United States / North America)
dahdi_echocan_mg2: Registered echo canceler 'MG2'
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:
-- Set echo registers successfully
-- Setting echo registers:

Your dmesg didn't show the register mesages and since these technologies are essentially all the same, I would expect similar dmesg outputs.  You might want to quiz your dealer on this.  You don't say whether you ever set your tone zones correctly (US) so I don't know if that has a bearing on the situation (I know the cards used to be able to run different impedances in different markets).

I have to confess that we just don't get involved with Analogue lines on Asterisk because they are more often than not problematic to set up.  However, I would have thought that the EC board would squash a lot of potential problems if it was working properly.   We use them on PRI lines and they work well for us.  Perhaps your dealer can suggest some tests to run to see if the card is actually doing its job properly.  I could be wrong but I don't think that swapping asterisk and kernel software components will make much difference to such a severe problem.

Kind Regards
S

[del]

Hi Jeff,

The problem I am having with the dealer is he is saying that I am not using a "recognized" (his words not mine  ) Asterisk system like AsteriskNOW or Trixbox with FreePBX and he doesn't understand how SAIL does it's configurations etc. 
Meanwhile I have spoken to Digium tech support and they are saying that I am using
1. A very old kernel version
2. A very old DAHDI version
3. An old version of Asterisk
The guy said if I allow him ssh and root access he will install/build the lastest versions of them for me  I have tried to explain why I don't think he can do that, but he insists that he can  Because I am not in the office again until Friday, he is leaving the ticket open and I have to call him back if I want him to sort it out. So should I let him have a go? I am thinking that if I back up /home/e-smith/db/selintra, /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/usergreeting, /var/log/asterisk/cdr-csv/Master.csv and /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail files I can at least reinstall it when he breaks it 

[SARK devs]

He can't easily build asterisk because there is no compiler on SME.  If he tries then there is a fair chance that he will break SME if he assumes that it just a version of RHEL & CentOS.   However, as long as you don't mind a potential re-install and you've taken backups then there is no reason not to let him try. You never know he might get something running for you.

Despite what they (Digium) may say, you are not using a very old kernel. CentOS 4 is still supported (although Digium will try to get you to upgrade to CentOS 5 because they do have problems with some of their boards on EL4  & CentOS 4).  Just ask them to send you an email confirming that they no longer support EL4 - it makes them go very quiet and it will give you a chuckle if nothing else). 

Your dealer is correct, SARK is not common compared to FreePBX and trixbox, however it is still just Asterisk.  SARK does NOTHING different in the asterisk files to any of the other Asterisk GUI.  Your dealer can change anything he wants in the ZAP/DAHDI configs.  If it helps, you can yum update your SME box and install the latest DAHDI Asterisk and SAIL 2.3.  SAIL 2.3 uses EXACTLY the same Analogue card sniffer mechanics as Tbox/FreePBX/AsteriskNow.  They all use dahdi_genconf.   

If none of that works then you could always ask your dealer to install an Asterisk system of his choosing and demonstrate that EC works with that platform on the phone lines that are giving trouble. 
You never know, it just might be a CentOS 4/5 thing after all.

Kind Regards

Jeff

[del]

After speaking to Digium and emailing them the versions of the kernel, Asterisk and DAHDI I am using plus my reasons for them not trying to upgrade the kernel etc. this is what the said in the reply:

Del,
That version of DAHDI you're installing is insufficient.  We do not support third party builds (such as the one provided by SARK).  You need to download, compile, and install the latest DAHDI release candidate, currently DAHDI 2.2.1-rc2.  Let me know if you need any help doing this.

So does anyone know if DAHDI 2.2.1-rc2 will work with SARK and the current SME kernel? Thanks.

Del

[SARK devs]

OK - first things first

We do not support third party builds (such as the one provided by SARK).

We don't provide Asterisk builds; the Asterisk rpms you are using are provided by ATrpms.   I don't know if Digium support ATrpms builds or not but from the blanket statement, it sounds like they don't (even tho' just about everyone who runs Asterisk on RedHat/CentOS uses them). 

You can install Dahdi-whatever-release-they-recommend on SME but you will need to install gcc, the kernel sources and various other stuff before you can compile it.    It isn't hard if you know what you are doing but it can be a bit daunting if you haven't done it before.  If you look at this thread...

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,44375.msg213388.html#msg213388

... it shows you how to compile 1.6 Asterisk and dahdi-2.2.0.  The principle is the same for asterisk 1.4, you just need to download the 1.4 source instead of 1.6.  You can find all of the source files on Digium site at www.asterisk.org.

KInd Regards

S

[SARK devs]

New page up on the wiki showing how you might install Asterisk & DAHDI from sources for anyone who wants to do it.

http://sarkpbx.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/DocChapter03d

Kind Regards

S