Subj : Re: PhoneNET v2.0 [En] -NO ANSI-
To   : deon
From : rmurray
Date : Mon Aug 26 2024 05:21 pm

 de> I like your idea, and I'm curious to know if it gets any usage. While I
 de> do have a modem here that is practically new (from 25+ years ago), and
 de> I've thought of spinning up an asterisk server, I havent done so because
 de> I didnt think they'd be any usage (other than maybe me).
 de> 
 de> ...ëîåï

Well, I finally figured out why the USRobotics 56K modems I had weren't responding to AT commands, yet were still able to function and connect to a BBS and SIP connection without any issues. This also caused Windows to fail in recognizing the modems properly.

First of all, out of the six modems I acquired, all were second-hand, and one was an open box.

The first thing I discovered was that serial cards with AX99100 controllers are poorly recognized by Windows, and they don't properly identify the modems. So, it's best to avoid those. Instead, controllers with PL2303 chips are excellent and well-supported. So, if you're dealing with modems, go for the PL2303 controllers.

The second issue was that I only had one power adapter for six modems, so I improvised by creating 9V DC power supplies using the output from my UPS. This setup worked, and the modems seemed to function, except they wouldn't respond to AT commands. That turned out to be the major problem causing the modems not to respond properly. The power adapters that USRobotics sells are not standard 9V transformers like the ones you see everywhere on the internet that convert 120V or 220V to 9V DC. Instead, USRobotics uses AC power converters. These convert 120V and 220V to 9V AC, and if you check with a multimeter, you'll find it actually outputs around 10.57V AC. If you set your multimeter to DC, you'll get 0V DC.

I've been in computing and electronics for years, and I had never seen anything like this!

So now, I need to buy five more of these special USRobotics adapters that provide 9V AC at 1A.

I hope my experience helps someone else out there!

                VA2RFC BBS    Les M‚chins, Qu‚bec  Canada
               SysOp: rmurray    PhoneNet: 1000040 (Modem)
  Telnet: va2rfcbbs.photorm.net:23    FsxNet: 21:1/235    FidoNet: 1:229/114

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
 * Origin: VA2RFC BBS (21:1/235)

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