[TriLUG] Options for replacing Panasonic PBX with Asterisk

[Aaron Joyner]

Rick DeNatale wrote:

>On 4/3/06, Cristobal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>You can get one analog interface card from digium that has four ports:
>>
>>http://www.digium.com/en/wheretobuy/digiumdirect/productview.php?category_id=17&product_code=RTDM11B
>>
>>The kit I link to above is $241 and includes the card, an FXS module
>>and an FXO module (among other things). Additional FXO cards would run
>>you $85 each.
>>    
>>
>
>If I want' my 12 internal lines with POTS phones, I need something
>like 3 TDM40Bs at $381 each, PLUS an FXO interface.  That's about
>$1200 just for the interfaces if I'm doing the math correctly.
>
>The TDM40B works out to be $95.25 per FXS.
>
>  
>
>>What were you referring to that runs $100 each?
>>    
>>
>
>The IAXy S101I  it's a Digium FXS-ethernet adapter.
>
>http://www.digium.com/en/products/hardware/adapters.php
>
>  
>
>>You could use the card in a PC you already have or build a low-end PC
>>from spare parts or new parts for < $300.
>>
>>Why do you have to lose the intercom? What kind of wiring is that on?
>>    
>>
>
>It's a pbx system function not a separate intercom, the Panasonic PBX
>can page either a specific extension or all extensions, turning on the
>speaker phone without manual intervention.
>
>--
>Rick DeNatale
>
>Visit the Project Mercury Wiki Site
>http://www.mercuryspacecraft.com/
>  
>
All these costs add up to a negative picture because you're trying too 
hard to keep analog handsets in the picture.  Switch out the analog 
handsets and you can keep some of the features you have now, paging / 
intercom, station buttons (ala one-button dial) for example.  You will 
loose the station indicators though, as asterisk doesn't really support 
that at the moment, to my knowledge.  I hope that's something that gets 
fixed sooner than later.

Consider replacing each extension with a Budgetone phone at ~$60 per 
phone(1), and you're looking at $720 for handsets, then $15 or so for an 
X100P-style card(2), and you're at $735 for an open source replacement 
with all new handsets.  You can mix it up with one of the Asterisk Dev 
Kits (3) which gets you one FXS and one FXO port on a well-supported 
reliable hardware platform.  This will get you a moderately better 
(read: very nice) FXO interface, and a very solid FXS interface for 
using a cordless phone (or even your whole panasonic system), as well as 
easy expandability for adding additional FXO/S interfaces in the future 
if you need them.  Cost that way drops one phone ($60), the modem ($15) 
and adds the $241 kit, for a net change of +$166, bringing the total to 
$901 (plus shipping and any applicable taxes).  Of course, if you decide 
you need fewer extensions, you can easily drop the price some.

That being said, there are interesting ways to come up with good 
handsets for cheap on places like Ebay that are slightly used / may need 
repair / etc which can keep costs down even further.

Let me know how it works out, or if you're considering interesting 
alternative solutions,
Aaron S. Joyner


1 - 
http://froogle.google.com/froogle_cluster?q=budgetone+101&pid=2312082119463396406&oid=7646128263905667194&btnG=Search+Froogle&scoring=mrd
2 - http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-pagehistory.php?page=X100P+clone&diff2=15
3 - 
http://www.digium.com/en/wheretobuy/digiumdirect/productview.php?category_id=17&product_code=RTDM11B