The Fruits of my Labour » Toys http://www.toao.net by Mango Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:44:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Linksys SPA921 IP Phone Review http://www.toao.net/27-linksys-spa921-ip-phone-review http://www.toao.net/27-linksys-spa921-ip-phone-review#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:46:02 +0000 Mango http://www.toao.net/27/linksys-spa921-ip-phone-review/ We got so excited setting up the VoIP system at my office that we decided to set it up at my home, too.  We didn't have a PBX to worry about so could choose pretty much any hardware we wanted.  We decided on a Linksys SPA921 IP phone.

In the world of all things wireless, it seems that corded phones are marketed at those who can't or don't wish to afford a cordless phone.  Thus, to keep prices low, quality is often low.  For ages, we've wanted a really nice corded phone...but we haven't been able to find one, until now.


Firmware upgrade

The first thing you need to know is that this is a HOT-looking phone.  We got it out of the box and were sold right then and there.  We were disappointed when we tested it out though.  There was echo.  Echo.  Plenty of it.  It.  So much that it made the phone unusable.  Unusable.

Dammit.

Dammit.

We played with various settings including turning down the gain on the handset.  This didn't help, and even one person on the other end complained about echo when we talked loudly.  We decided to do a firmware upgrade, even though the notes mentioned nothing about echo cancellation.  After the firmware upgrade, the echo left, completely.  WOOHOO!

Nifty features

Now that we had voice quality at an acceptable level, we could start playing with all the features the phone had to offer.  Scrolling through the menus, we discovered we could set a ringtone.  We tried them all, hoping everyone else in earshot wouldn't mind.  Now, here's the best part about this phone.  The very last ringtone was the CTU ringtone from '24'!!! Now I can pretend to be Jack Bauer.  Send that to my screen, would you please?

The SPA921 has a voicemail button on the phone which is programmable with the access code of your voicemail provider.  Unfortunately, as far as we know, there's no way for it to pause for a few seconds and then automatically enter your password.

We tested out the speakerphone and found the sound quality to be above average.

There were buttons for Call Forward, Do Not Disturb, Transfer, and Conference within easy reach.  Additionally, a Missed Call shortcut appears if any calls have been made to the phone that I did not answer.  The phone also has a Mute button, a Hold button, and a button for enabling the headset, which we have as yet not tried.

Default settings

Much of our PAP2T Review also applies to this phone as well.  Unlike the PAP2T, we've had the most success leaving the Handset Input Gain on the SPA921 at its default of 0.  Ring1 Cadence on the PAP2T is known as Cadence1 on the SPA921; the other ring settings do not apply.  Other than that, the settings for Dial Plan, Daylight Saving Time Rules, NAT, Codecs, and RTP Packet Size are common to both units.

Missing features

In another review that we read, the author complained about the SPA921's LCD not having a backlight.  This is true, but the contrast of the LCD is very easy to see as it is, if there is ambient light in the room.

One other feature that exists in the PAP2T that we miss in the SPA921 is the ability to forward specific calls to specific locations.  It would be great if this could be added in a firmware upgrade at some point.

We had trouble with the DNS client on this phone.  Occasionally, it fails to perform a DNS lookup and an outgoing call will fail.  We haven't been able to solve this issue, so instead we use the IP of our SIP server instead of the hostname.

And finally, in case you're all anxious to hear Mango's beautiful voice...

Here's a recording of Mango himself talking on the SPA921, if anyone's interested in hearing the audio quality.

The missing features we have mentioned are really nothing to worry about.  Call quality is of course most important and this phone couldn't perform better.  At some point we hope to test some Aastra phones as we are very intrigued by their XML browser.  Imagine - a VoIP phone that can be programmed! We drool just thinking about it.]]> http://www.toao.net/27-linksys-spa921-ip-phone-review/feed 2 Linksys/Cisco PAP2T VoIP Adapter Review http://www.toao.net/25-linksys-pap2t-voip-adapter-review http://www.toao.net/25-linksys-pap2t-voip-adapter-review#comments Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:14:27 +0000 Mango http://www.toao.net/25/linksys-pap2t-voip-adapter-review/ A company that we deal with has been using VoIP for ages and loves it, so we decided it wouldn't do for us not to have the same shiny toys.  The thought of saving $100 a month made things even better.

Looking for Mango's recommended PAP2T settings?  Scroll down.

For those of you who are just joining us, the PAP2T is known as an Analog Telephone Adapter or ATA.  It allows you to use any standard telephone or PBX and route your calls over the Internet using VoIP.  VoIP is typically less expensive than a typical phone line because a VoIP provider does not have to deal with costs of infrastructure such as running phone lines to customers.

The provider that was recommended to us was DigitalVoice.ca.  (Edit: Due to subsequent service quality issues, we do not recommend this provider any longer.  We still recommend the PAP2T very highly.) We bought a PAP2T to test them out and were pleasantly surprised. We had a horrific experience with a different provider called Primus a few years ago, and we expected quality loss at the very least.  Call quality with PAP2T using the G.711 codec was actually better than an analog phone line!

The reason we like this device is that it can be configured to do practically everything but card tricks.  For example, the Linksys/Cisco dial plans are the best we've seen on any ATA.


Nifty Things to do with a PAP2T

We've discovered a few nifty things to do with this adapter that we haven't seen widely mentioned, so we decided to mention them:

You can call forward specific numbers to specific locations.  We have made a list of telemarketers' numbers and forwarded them to a special extension we set up with our PBX that plays "not in service" tones.

Calls can be made to another VoIP device without either device even having a VoIP provider, both on your LAN and through the internet...absolutely free.  (I foresee future geeks asking girls out like "Call me sometime!  My number is fabio@174.120.227.135:5060!") You could even configure this to support station-to-station calling for a small office or an IP-based intercom over any distance.

You can set up special rings for specific callers, so that you can tell who's calling from across the room.

The device can be configured to match the regional settings of many different countries.  The documentation for some of these settings is lacking, but plenty of good examples may be found online.

The PAP2T will talk to a syslog server and send it all kinds of information for ease of troubleshooting.  Additionally, one could use this to do fancy things such as search for a customer's record based on their phone number, and have it appear on an agent's screen.

Settings We Changed from the Default and Think You Should, Too.

The first thing we would recommend you do is upgrade the firmware of your PAP2T.  We noticed that upgrading to the latest version of firmware dramatically reduced echo.  If you do not have echo problems, you can skip this step if you like.

Most of these settings may only be set using the Advanced Administrator login.  To access this, navigate to http://[PAP2T_IP_address]/admin/advanced.

Let's start with the System tab.  Why not set an NTP server so that the date and time is always correct?  You may do this on the System tab.  Try 1.pool.ntp.org and 2.pool.ntp.org.

Let's move on to the SIP tab.  You may wish to set Reg Retry Long Intvl to 120 so that your device recovers quickly if it fails registration.

The default RTP Packet Size is 0.03.  For the most popular codecs, G.711 and G.729, the optimal setting is 0.02.  (0.01 results in even less latency at the expense of using extra bandwidth, IF your provider supports it.) The default setting of 0.03 will likely cause very choppy voice with G.729 and slightly choppy voice with G.711.

On the Provisioning tab, we set Provision Enable to No as we wanted to manage the settings of our VoIP device ourselves, rather than having our provider do it.

Next, we move to the Regional tab to configure the PAP2T to properly match our region.  You may want to set the Dial Tone to 350@-19,440@-19;20(*/0/1+2) so that the user has 20 seconds with which to begin dialing instead of the default of 10.

We decided to change the Reorder Tone because unless one is listening closely and knows the difference (two beeps per second for reorder and one per second for busy) the Reorder Tone sounds a lot like the Busy Tone.  We set our Reorder Tone to 480@-19,620@-19;10(.125/.125/1+2) which plays four beeps per second and is easier to identify.  Obviously this is not a true reorder tone but for our purposes it is useful.  The reorder tone is the tone that will play when you dial an invalid number or your VoIP provider is unreachable.

The PAP2T we received shipped without a North American ring.  We were able to achieve a "normal-sounding" ring by setting the Ring1 Cadence to 60(2/4), the Ring Waveform to Sinusoid, and the Ring Frequency to 20.  We're told that these settings are standard Bellcore settings, though we've also had reports of specific telephones that respond better to a Trapezoid Ring Waveform.  Try Sinuoid first, and if your phone doesn't ring properly or you have Caller ID issues, try Trapezoid instead.  You may also need to set the Ring Voltage to 90.

You may want to set the CPC delay to 10 and the CPC duration to 0.5.  With the default settings, our phones had to be on the hook for an inordinate amount of time before it would actually end the call.

Because of the new North American Daylight Saving Time rules, PAP2Ts by default calculate DST incorrectly.  Also on the Regional tab, set your Daylight Saving Time Rule to start=3/8/7/2:00;end=11/1/7/2:00;save=1 and your time zone appropriately for your region.  (Trivia: 3/8/7/2:00 translates literally to "The Sunday that is on or after March 8th at 2AM."  The second parameter is commonly misunderstood as the week, however this is not correct.)

The default gain on the PAP2T is typically too high and can cause echo.  We adjusted the FXS Port Input Gain and FXS Port Output Gain, one at a time, in increments of three.  We found that -1 and -11 eliminates echo entirely and produces appropriate conversation volume.  However, we've had reports from people who have used these settings and found the volume too quiet.  You may need to play with these until they suit you.

Let's move on to the Line tab.  As we planned to place our device behind a router, we turned on NAT Mapping and NAT Keep Alive.

Update: We used to configure the proxy to the IP address of our VoIP provider's server as a workaround to a firmware bug that occasionally prevented the user from making calls.  Now, thanks to some excellent help from users in the VoIP Tech Chat forum, we have a better solution.  If you hear a reorder (fast busy) tone occasionally when you attempt to make calls, it is likely because your VoIP provider does not respond to the ATA's SIP NOTIFY message.

Here's a better workaround than using the IP address: set NAT Keep Alive Msg to KeepAlive.  (The default is $NOTIFY).  However, you should only do this if you have the symptoms described above.  For more detailed information about the bug and why it occurs, check the link to the VoIP Tech Chat forum above.

If your proxy is an IP address, you should now use the hostname instead.  The reason is that the VoIP provider can use DNS failover to ensure your device stays running if a server should become unreachable.

You should also set Register Expires to 300 to avoid "phone doesn't ring" issues.  Among other things, this will let your VoIP provider know within five minutes when your ISP changes your IP address.  You can also set Proxy Fallback Intvl to 60.  If your VoIP provider's server becomes unreachable and your PAP2T fails over to a backup server, it will retry the primary server again in 60 seconds.

We configured the Preferred Codec to be G.711u because we had the bandwidth available and were very pleased with its quality.  (Trivia: Though G.711 is a 64Kbit codec, it actually uses about 90Kbit/sec due to overhead.) We tested a few codecs and have samples available comparing G.711 vs. G.729 and also VoIP sound quality vs. an Analog Phone.

The dial plan that ships with the PAP2T isn't particularly useful.  This causes many a forum post that goes something like, "whenever I make a call, it takes ten seconds to start ringing!"  Our favourite dial plan is described on the Linksys/Cisco Dial Plan Tips and Tricks page.

The SIP Port on Line 1 and Line 2 should be different.  Try 5061 on Line 2.  Sometimes it will work if they are both the same but there are certain situations when it will not, so we just change the Line 2 SIP Port to something unique as a matter of course.

Other Stuff

We called our internet provider one day to have them make a change on our account.  We used the VoIP line, not thinking that in order to make the change, they would need to reboot our modem.  Which they did.  Which caused every device on the floor to lose its internet connection.  But when the modem came back up, our call was still connected, and we finished the conversation.  Colour us impressed.

The technique for setting up Visual Call Waiting is somewhat involved.  Here's how to do it: On the Line tab, be sure that "Call Waiting Serv" is set to "yes".  Next, go to the Regional tab. You need to set up four activation codes. If they're already set up, then that's fine, just make a note of them. If there is no code listed, make one up (that is not already in use on that page) and type it in. The four features that require activation codes are: "CW Act Code", "CW Deact Code", "CWCID Act Code", and finally "CWCID Deact Code". Note that these codes must all be different. We used *56, *57, *58, and *59. It doesn't matter what you use as long as you remember it, and as long as the code is not already in use for some other feature. Save your changes and wait for the device to restart.  Pick up your telephone and dial your Call Waiting Activation Code. Wait for the dial tone and then dial your Call Waiting Caller ID Activation Code. Visual Call Waiting is now ready for use.

So far, we've only found a few features that this device lacks, although one really can't complain when considering the price of the PAP2T.  It can't sustain more than one G.729 conversation at one time.  But, since we use better quality G.711, (and recommend you do too) that isn't a problem for us.  The PAP2T also does not support T.38 for faxing, though faxing may be done over G.711 if one's internet connection is very stable.  Note that there are a great deal of references online that say that the PAP2T can in fact sustain two G.729 conversations, and supports T.38.  We have no idea where this information came from; we only know that both of ours definitely cannot.

The other feature that this device lacks is the ability to use a backup set of SIP credentials.  It would be great to be able to automatically fail over to another provider if one was unreachable.  We can fail over to another server but we do not know of any way of using a different username/password for it.

This is our favourite ATA.  We like it even better than other Linksys models that have routers included.  We find the performance of these routers to be sub-par.  Besides, an ATA such as the PAP2T should work perfectly fine behind a (decent) router without even any port forwarding, as long as your provider is NAT-aware.  The only other ATA we might consider is the SPA2102 if you require T.38 support.

Happy VoIPing!]]> http://www.toao.net/25-linksys-pap2t-voip-adapter-review/feed 19 OV2Tools not working? Let us explain three confusing things. http://www.toao.net/81-ov2tools-not-working-let-us-explain-three-confusing-things http://www.toao.net/81-ov2tools-not-working-let-us-explain-three-confusing-things#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:27:22 +0000 Mango http://www.toao.net/?p=81 Mrs. Mango and I have a diesel Smart car, which I just absolutely love.  He holds a surprisingly large amount of cargo (such as enough equipment for a two-camera video shoot along with the operators), he's all kinds of fun to drive, and as a bonus he's cheaper than the bus.  We've even named him.  Affection aside, I made a Google map with locations of all the Diesel Stations in Vancouver, BC that I could find.  This of course required going to the computer and looking up the map any time we needed gas in an unfamiliar area.  So when I got a TomTom GO720 GPS, I thought it would be a grand idea to create a POI list of the Google map.

As it turned out, this was VERY much easier said than done.



TomTom has released set of tools called OV2Tools.  These tools convert to and from ASCII and the TomTom OV2 format.  At first glance, these tools look easy enough to use.  Of course, I've long since learned that software with crucial design flaws seems to magnet itself to me.

Let's use the coordinates (49.26386, -123.15296) as an example.  If you enter this into Google Maps, you'll come up with the Shell station at Broadway & Arbutus.

You can't actually enter a minus sign into the TomTom, and the TomTom doesn't display it when you're browsing its map.  So already we have the issue that if we got these coordinates from Google and tried to plug them into TomTom, it just plain wouldn't work, and if we got coordinates from the TomTom and plugged them into Google, sans minus sign, we'd end up in northern China.  But here's the first confusing thing.  When you're creating your text file for OV2Tools to read, you do want to use the minus sign, à la Google.

Here's the second confusing thing, which is not only confusing, but I think royally insane.  The text file doesn't go Latitude, Longitude, like every other set of coordinates ever written, including those displayed on the TomTom itself.  It's backwards.  It goes Longitude, Latitude. Though the instructions that come with OV2Tools mention this, the mention was insignificant enough that I missed it.  And the only error that the program gave me said "Invalid coordinates", but it didn't specify anything further so I had no idea exactly what was invalid.

Here's the third confusing thing.  You must have a blank line at the end of your ASCII file.  This one was NOT covered in the instructions.

Here's the working files for TomTom POI list of Diesel Stations in Vancouver.  It includes the OV2 file, the ASC file that I made it with, and the little icon.]]> http://www.toao.net/81-ov2tools-not-working-let-us-explain-three-confusing-things/feed 0 Finally, an affordable CD label printer! http://www.toao.net/12-finally-an-affordable-cd-label-printer http://www.toao.net/12-finally-an-affordable-cd-label-printer#comments Tue, 15 Aug 2006 06:24:23 +0000 Mango http://www.toao.net/12/finally-an-affordable-cd-label-printer/ Thermal CD Label PrinterWell, I've tried CD Stomper, LightScribe, and now this.  My only regret is that I wish I had tried this first!

CD Stomper was...well, paper labels.  'Nuff said.

LightScribe worked relatively well, but it was slow, the media was expensive, and the finished product only looked satisfactory.

The Signature Z1 works like a hot damn!

The Signature Z1 is a thermal printer for CD and DVD labels.  Instead of ink like an inkjet printer would use, it uses a ribbon and heat-transfer technology to transfer your designs to a disc.  And it's FAST!  An entire disc will take less than a minute to print.  There's no worrying about getting a paper label on straight.  And the best thing is, inexpensive, generic, unbranded discs not only work, they're in fact recommended.



I've seen mixed reviews about this printer, but purchased it anyway.  According to other reviews, it was the "Cream of the Crap" as I like to say.  Well, I beg to differ, and I'd like to write a slightly more enthusiastic review than I read.  I made sure to get Express RMA coverage, but I didn't need it. As soon as I got it back to the office, I printed about 100 DVDs right away to give it a workout. I was pleasantly surprised - the printer performed without complaint and the finished product looked SO professional!!

A few notes:

I've found best success setting the printer to its darkest setting.  I actually don't notice the print any darker or lighter when playing with this setting, but the printer takes slightly (only slightly) longer on the darkest setting, and intricate designs or very small text can be printed more reliably.

Make sure the label-side of the disc is clean and as dust/smudge free as possible before printing.

For those of you who have quickly become bored with PrimeraPrint as I did, it's easy to create designs in Photoshop or with any other graphics software. For best results...
1) Your images should have two colors: black or white. No antialiasing.
2) Side images should be 192x378, top & bottom should be 529x192.
3) Have fun!

Here is a video of the Signature Z1 that I made.  (Quicktime, 6.19MB.)]]> http://www.toao.net/12-finally-an-affordable-cd-label-printer/feed 0 My new toy! http://www.toao.net/8-yamaha-mw10 http://www.toao.net/8-yamaha-mw10#comments Sun, 28 May 2006 02:07:57 +0000 Mango http://www.toao.net/8/yamaha-mw10/ Yamaha MW10 USB Mixing StudioI've been wanting a mixer for ages and finally picked one up.  I chose a Yamaha MW10.  It has a nifty little USB interface that, in essence, allows it to perform as an external sound card - perfect for people like me who previously thought they were destined to a lifetime of less-than-excellent-quality laptop sound.  I was able to install it in no time flat - all that was necessary was plugging in a USB cable.

The mixer is nice and compact - small enough to fit in a backpack if necessary, but big enough to look cool.  And, in the end, isn't that what owning gear is really all about? :-)

I've only attempted to record piano music twice in the last eight or so years, but I decided this would be an excellent way to test out the new mixer.  After much frustration before discovering that my piano (Yamaha P250) liked being recorded in stereo, and NOT under ANY circumstances in mono, I was able to come up with a relatively decent rendition of Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch". I hope you enjoy.]]> http://www.toao.net/8-yamaha-mw10/feed 1