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[cscjjd]

So, I connected the 1200 to my landline and was testing it (for call-in, call-out etc.) and it seemed to work fine but it somehow seized control of my landline and won't release it...

Now, when I pick up my land line to make a call, the 1200 is there prompting me to enter my pin -- when I enter it , the 1200 recognizes it and takes commands as it should (except it won't relinquish the line).

When I am getting an incoming call on the land line, none of my phones ring -- though the keypads light up and I can then answer and receive the call.  I have disconnected the 1200 but the same thing happens (no ringing for incoming calls).

Then, when I reconnect the 1200, there it is again prompting me for my pin when I try to make a call and not ringing for incoming calls.

This has been going on for a couple of hours now.  Is there a command I can issue to the 1200 to tell it that we are finished and it should release the line? Any other ideas on this?

Thanks!!!

p.s. the 1200 seems to be functioning normally (dialing out for alarms etc.) other than this.  I have used this 1200 for several years.

[Brian H]

Try unplugging the power cube and remove the backup batteries.
Let it sit for awhile the then try it again.

You can also try the SC1200 keypad. 7 then 9 then On then Clear.
That should reset it but you will have to reset your pin as it will revert to 0000.

[cscjjd]

Hi Brian,

your second suggestion...are you talking about menu choice 7 etc.  or just keying in 7 etc. outside of the menu?

[Brian H]

On the normal operating screen not a setup menu screen. Like you wanted to control an X10 device with the keypad.

Just to clarify. You still get no incoming ringing with the SC1200 disconnected?
You mentioned keypad lights. Are they on the phones?
Is there anything special about the phone system? Like needing a number dialed to access an outside line or it can intercom between extensions?
Kind of sounds like you have you own internal phone system.

[cscjjd]

I tried the keypad sequence on the 1200 (normal operating screen) but no luck.

This is my regular, traditional land line and yes, the phones no longer have incoming ring even when I disconnected the 1200.  There are two different phones on this line and neither ring.  I was referring to the keypad lights on one of these phones.

There is nothing special that I know about.  It is the regular phone line that I've had for 25 years.

It is as if...
1. the 1200 somehow turned off the ringing capability of the two phones, or of the phone line (so that even with the 1200 disconnected from the phone line, the ringing remains off)
2.  the 1200, when connected, continually believes it is receiving an incoming call so each time I pick up one of the phones, it prompts for the password and allows commands to be entered just as if I had dialed in to it.

p.s. I have not yet tried the total power down of the unit -- I was hoping for a less drastic solution and also didn't see how that would solve the lack of ringing problem

[Brian H]

If the phones are not acting normally with the SC1200 disconnected.
You probably have a phone company problem and the problem maybe triggering the SC1200 into monitoring the phone line for commands.

You may want to try the system with one of your two phones unplugged and then try the other one. If one of the two causes the problems. It has a problem.

My personal thoughts are you have a partial short on the phone line and the ringing voltage is not high enough to activate the ringers, but flash the dial lights.
Also may make the on hook DC voltage low enough for the SC1200 to think the line is in use and start monitoring it for command tones.

You don't have any clicks, noises or hear other phone users on your phones do you?

[cscjjd]

Hi Brian,

I haven't noticed any strange noises on the line.  I am out of town for a day or two but when I get back will disconnect everything from the phone line and connect just a basic simple phone to see if it clears up.  Beyond that I have found a thread that describes how to troubleshoot an interior phone line.

I will check back here again before I get started and will update when I find the solution.

Thanks again for your insights!
 

[cscjjd]

Phone company tech came out and found no ring on the Demark (primitive form of NID) outside the house though everything else was OK.  He said he'd never seen this before (this was scarey as his age would indicate 20+ years of experience).  He went to a phone company box a mile up the road and found that a circuit board for my line was malfunctioning.  So, now my phones are ringing but here's my question...

Could the SC1200 be responsible for blowing that board? 

If not, then do we conclude that it was a coincidence that it happened as I was using the 1200 and would this malfunctioning board explain the strange behavior of the 1200 when I would pick up a phone to make a call (each time I would pick up one of the phones, I would hear the 1200 on the line and it would prompt for the password and allows commands to be entered just as if I had dialed in to it)?

I have not reconnected the 1200 yet as I am afraid it may blow the phone company board again.  I don't know a lot about how the phone company lines work so would appreciate an opinion before I attempt to re-connect the 1200...

[Brian H]

I doubt the SC1200 damaged their interface board. They have to stand surges from things like lightning.

Was most likely a failure at about the same time you where testing the SC1200. My guess is if the phone technician had also checked the on hook voltage it was also low and may have been fooling the SC1200 into thinking the phone was off hook.

The modern electronics interfaces where not around 20 years ago. So it is possible it was the first time the phone technician saw such a thing.

I have a phone company electronics shack at the end of my street. Power goes off on my street. I get about one hour of phone used before the backup batteries in the shack go dead. In the earlied days when we had copper wire pairs all the way to the central office. I rarely lost phone service even during a 1 week without power from a hurricane and the trunk wires where hanging about 10 feet off the ground.
They call that progress. 

[cscjjd]

My next move…as a precautionary measure, I connected a friend’s 1200 to my phone line.  This time when I was getting an incoming call on the land line,  the phones rang as they should but, again when I picked up my land line to make a call, the (second) 1200 was there prompting me to enter my pin -- when I entered it, the 1200 recognized it and took commands.  I reconnected my 1200 and same thing.

Solution:  it occurred to me that I had set the “Answer Delay” to one second on both 1200’s.  When I set the answer delay to 2 seconds, it solved the second problem.

Conclusion 1:  the ringer problem was on the phone company’s end -- most likely just a coincidence.
Conclusion 2:  the short (one second) “Answer Delay” caused the second problem.

I have a question about one of the early suggestions to this problem (#2 in this thread)…I didn’t know that you could enter commands on the 1200 keypad.  Where can a list of these commands can be found?  Should I ask this question in a new thread?

Thanks for all your great help in this forum Brian.

[Brian H]

Page 8 of the Users Manual shows the keypad information. You know that is where you access the menus and set things.
In addition if you want to locally control an X10 module on the House Code set in the  SC1200. Punch  in the modules number and then use the On or Off button to control that module.

Page 27 gives you the Delay settings. Default Answer Delay is 30 seconds.

The keypad sequence I gave you. Was posted by another user with the Radio Shack version of the console and it must have been a demo or returned unit and didn't have the default password in it. The Shack told him. 7,9,On, Clear.
I discovered that 7,9,On put you into a test mode and other keys did varied things like an LCD test etc.
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=22912.0