Configuring Zaptel

[thunderheart]

Anybody know of a good freepbx-centric guide for configuring Zaptel? I finally got a good hardware configuration with my Rhino R4FX0 card (avoid VIA K8M800!) so now I need to figure out how to setup the trunks. I ran genzaptelconf and when I run lszaptel the output shows the 4 channels so I seem to be making progress.

Thunderheart

 

[jroper]

Hi

Which part are you stuck with, the configuration of FreePBX to set up the channels, or the tuning and balancing of the lines before putting into production.

I wrote a post here on setting the balances: -
http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/loss-of-volume-in-transferred-calls.968/?t=968

In terms of setting up the trunks, this should be useful:-

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/supported-equipment-list-rhino.275/?t=275

However, when that was written, we did not have the Zap channel DID section, so you need to add the telephone numbers of the channels into this section first, then you can route on the basis of DID.

Joe

 

[thunderheart]

This is what I needed I think

Thanx for the reply Joe. I hadn't even considered the tuning step yet. Couldn't figure out how to create the trunks. Also wasn't sure the hardware was properly configured at the zaptel level but apparently it is. There are sane looking entries in zaptel.conf and zaptel-auto.conf. Also, when I do a 'zap show channels' or 'zap show channel [1-4]' I again get sane looking output. I got to that point by installing the hardware and Rhino drivers, then doing a genzaptelconf

Ok, so now the 'group' thing has me a little confused. First off all four channels are in 'group 0' according to zaptel-auto.conf. I think this may be because I removed ztdummy (and all the other irrelevant drivers) from /etc/sysconfig/zaptel while I was adding the rcbfx driver. I guess thats OK right? I mean you only need ztdummy if there is no hardware timing source correct? The R4FX0 card provide that as I understand it.

So I have a zap trunk named 'g0' which was originally created when the system was installed (I assume because of the ztdummy module) but now my real zap channels are assigned to that group by zaptel-auto.conf. I should be able to do the zap DID thing, assign routes and roll on to the next stage right?

I'm afraid I'm a bit ignorant on this subject but I learn fast so bear with me. I really appreciate the help.

Thunderheart

 

[jroper]

Hi

You can create a group of channels, handy if you have a E1 with 30 lines, it saves a lot of typing. IN effect, you can refer to a set of channels by refering to the group, so when selecting oubound routes, it will select the first of the group, then the second, and so on until it runs ot of channels to select. So in you caseyou could refer to all channels as Group g0

Alternatively, you can get rid of g0 in FreePBX and replace with the individual channel numbers, as displayed in Asterisk, e.g. 1, 2 , 3 and 4

This method may be more flexible when you are dealing with a relatively small number of channels


Joe

 

[thunderheart]

Ok. Got it

That makes sense. But does the group concept work in other situations? Like in the Zap Channel DID page? I have 4 POTS lines in a hunt group from my provider. Would I just assign the primary DID to g0? Or do I need to ad a DID for each individual channel?

Thanks for all your help. I'm gonna write a little howto for this once I get it working.

Thunderheart

 

[jroper]

Hi

Short answer - don't know.

Try it, and see what happens.

Joe

 

[thunderheart]

Incoming Ok ... Outgoing not so good.

Hey Joe,

Finally got to test today and had good success with incoming calls. Used your tuning guide to set levels and quality is good. No worries. Although I did end up setting the RX gain to like 24. Does that sound unusual?

Anyway, on outgoing, asterisk reports congestion on the ZAP trunk and fails over to my IAX trunk. I've noticed that in the log data, it keeps refering to 'ZAP/1-1'. Does that mean ZAP Group 1, Channel 1? Obviously, I've got something configured wrong but I can't figure what.

Thunderheart

 

[cosmicwombat]

You might check the trunk settings...

If it is g0 try 1 instead.