AbleComm: Panasonic phone systems & phones
connecting your phone system
© 2004 AbleComm, Inc.  All Rights Reserved. installne.htm 1/25/04
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Most of our online clients have installed their own phone systems. Installation and programming are pretty simple: if you're comfortable with computers and screwdrivers, you should do OK. The wiring is no more difficult than ordinary home phone jacks. There are many programming options, but you can even use your phone system right-out-of-the-box with no programming at all, which is better than a lot of TVs and VCRs. Voice Processing systems DO require programming, with a PC.

Some of our clients had electrical contractors, audio system installers, phone guys, alarm guys or handy friends do some or all of the work. If you need a professional installer, we'll try to recommend someone; and we'll be glad to provide free tech support via phone, fax, or Email.
 
 
  • There are a lot of graphics on this page. If you have a slow Web connection, please read while they load.
  • We have eliminated information on connecting older analog systems (KX-T30810, KX-T61610 & KX-T1232). They all use RJ11 single-line modular jacks to connect to the phone company lines. The 30810 and 61610 use modular jacks to connect to your phone wiring, like the KX-TA624, below. The KX-T123211D, and older KX-T123210 and KX-T123211, have 25-pair "Amphenol" connectors for your phone wiring, like the KX-TD1232 below.
  • We will soon add a page on installing systems with patch panels.

Connecting to the Phone Company
The phone company's responsibility usually ends at a demarcation point ("demark" or "Standard Network Interface" or "Network Interface Device") located on an exterior wall, or inside, near your phone equipment. Some demarks have built-in protection against high voltage surges. Some don't. Even if your demark is protected, we recommend adding additional surge protection on the phone lines, and on the AC power.

There are many different types. Here are some of the most common ones:


This interface housing may be installed indoors or out, and can handle up to six lines with the installation of line circuit modules.

There are different versions available, and you may have a choice of plugging in or using screw terminals to connect your wires to the phone company's circuits.

There are usually two internal compartments. One is reserved for phone company technicians, and requires a special "can wrench" to open.

The RJ21X network interface is installed indoors, usually near your phone equipment, and can carry up to 25 phone lines.

It's based on a 66M punchdown block, with an attached female 25-pair Amphenol-type connector, and usually has a protective cover.

You can connect to it by plugging a 25-pair cable or a hydra adapter into the connector, or punching down your wires with a punch-down tool.

This demark, sometimes called an "NW1," is always installed indoors, and can handle one or two lines.

It's a modification of a  standard phone jack, with a rotating protective cover and a silver label that explains how to make a test.

There is no surge protection, but there may be an internal circuit that allows the phone company to make tests from the Central Office.

 

Getting dial tone into your phone system
The KX-TD308 control unit connects to the phone company's circuits through its internal three-line jack. You will need a nearby three-line (RJ-25) jack, which can be installed by the phone company or anyone else, plus two 6-conductor cords: one to go from the external jack to the surge protector, and one to go from the surge protector to the jack inside the control unit. If you only have one or two lines, you can use 4-conductor cords.
624

The KX-TA624 control unit connects to the phone company's circuits through its internal one-line jacks. You will need one or more nearby one-line (RJ-11) jacks, which can be installed by the phone company or anyone else, plus two phone cords for each line: one to go from the external jack to the surge protector, and one to go from the surge protector to the jack inside the control unit.
816
The KX-TD816 and KX-TD1232 and KX-TA1232 control units connect to the phone company's circuits through their internal two-line jacks. You will need one or more nearby two-line (RJ-14) jacks, which can be installed by the phone company or anyone else, plus two phone cords for each line: one to go from the external jack to the surge protector, and one to go from the surge protector to the jack inside the control unit.
 
The phone company may provide other types of connectors, including the common RJ21X 25-pair network interface. There are several versions of the RJ21X, but they all should provide a female 25-pair Amphenol-type connector. It's common for the female connector to be attached to a 66-type punch-down terminal block, and you can make you connections to the the punch-down clips, or to the 25-pair connector.

We can supply a "Hydra" adapter to go between your control unit's modular jacks and the phone company's 25-pair connector.
 
 
 

Connecting your phones
AbleComm's VersaBlock is a 66 type punch-down block with a connectorized cable and 8 phone jacks. It connects to the KX-TD308 with an attached male-ended 25-pair connectorized cable and provides tool-less plug-in connections, plus punch-down clips. 

The jacks provides instant plug-in connection for 8 phones. You can use the punch-down connections for more complex installations, including the separation of analog and digital pairs for connection to different jacks.

The bottom two rows of clips are used for connecting the door intercom speaker.
 
AbleComm's "ModBlock" is a 66-type punch-down block, equipped with 8 cords, that can plug into the phone jacks inside the 624. If your system has been expanded, you can use two ModBlocks for a 16-phone system, or three Modblocks for a 24-phone system.

Plug the ModBlock's cords into the 624, and use a "punch-down tool" to attach the wires from the phone jacks to the terminal block. We sell punch-down tools. It will take you about five minutes to learn how to use one.

You can also attach plugs to the wires coming from your phone jacks, and plug them directly into the 624, or use a patch panel.
 
AbleComm's "ModBlock" is a 66-type punch-down block, equipped with 8 cords, that can plug into the phone jacks inside the 816.

Plug the ModBlock's cords into the 816, and use a "punch-down tool" to attach the wires from the phone jacks to the terminal block. We sell punch-down tools. It will take you about five minutes to learn how to use one.

You can also attach plugs to the wires coming from your phone jacks, and plug them directly into the 816, or use a patch panel.

If your system has been expanded, you can use one of our VersaBlocks or TailBlocks to connect to the Amphenol-type connector in the KX-TD170 or 171 module mounted on the front door.

The KX-TD1232 and KX-TA1232 have 25-pair Amphenol-type connectors. Most of our clients use our VersaBlocks to plug into these connectors, and then connect the wires from the phone jacks to the VersaBlock. The VersaBlock can handle both plug-in and punch-down connections. If you don't care about plug-in connections, you can save a few bucks by using our TailBlock.
The expansion modules that add phone capacity to the KX-TD816, KX-TD1232 and KX-TA1232 also have Amphenol-type connectors, and work well with our VersaBlock and TailBlock.

You can use patch panels instead of (or in addition to) punchdown blocks. You can CLICK to see the equipment at our PhoneGeeks.com site.
This is a "punch-down" tool. You put a wire between teeth in a 66-block, and press the wire in with the punch-down tool. The wire gets connected, and excess wire is chopped off. It will take about five minutes to learn how to use it. Several models are available. CLICK
The great photo at the left is from Mark Henrichs. For terrific advice on installing wiring for phones, video, audio and more, see his Website.

 Wire & cable

The traditional 4-conductor "quad" wire with green, red, black and yellow should not be used in new phone installations. Use 4-pair (8 conductor) Category 3 or 5 wire.

Panasonic phones don't need four pairs, but it's nice to have extra wire in the walls, and the cost of extra wire is insignificant compared to the price of opening up walls to add more wire later.

The KX-T7130 and KX-T7135 phones requires three pairs of wire for off-hook call announcing when connected to an analog or digital 1232 control unit. Other current analog phones and control units use two pairs of wire. Digital phones can work on one pair of wires, but need a second pair for the eXtra Device Port on the back of the phone.

It's nice to have spare wire for additional devices later on, or to compensate for wire damaged by plumbers or squirrels. If you are running new wire, we recommend 4-, or 6-pair 24 gauge to each phone location. Wire is cheap to buy. Installing more wire later on is not cheap, and can be very messy. You can buy wire locally or from us.

If you need to install a phone in an adjacent building, such as a garage, we recommend that you use cable designed for burial in the ground. It's armored to protect it from sharp-toothed critters, and filled with anti-moisture gel. We also have "figure-8" cable, for suspension in the air from building to building, or pole to pole.

 
GREAT IDEA from Russia

Most people route the 25-pair cables from the bottom of expansion modules on the front panels of the KX-TD816, KX-TD1232 and KX-TA1232 control units.

This photo shows an installation by Andrey Andreanov, a computer engineer, Website designer, and Panasonic phone system installer in Moscow. Andrey has the cables exiting from the top, where they will stay out of the way when the 1232 front panel is opened.

For more photos of this installation, an elaborate supermarket system with two D1232s in a relay rack and 8 car batteries for backup power, go to Moscow.

 

  We will give you one FREE JACK for each "system" phone ordered for a Do-It-Yourself installation -- just ask. Let us know if you want a wall jack, or either a surface-mount or flush-mount jack for a table phone. (Any of the phones made for our Panasonic phone systems, except the KX-T7880 and 7885 cordless, may be used on a vertical or horizontal surface. The 7880 and 7885 can't be wall-mounted.)

In addition to standard jacks in various colors, we can also provide jacks to match Leviton "Decora" outlets and switches; and plates that hold up to six jacks.

  Click to order jacks.   Click to learn more about wire & jacks
Analog phones CAN be used with digital control units, but  digital phones CAN'T be used with the analog control units.
If you are replacing an older "electromechanical" phone system that uses 25-pair cable, we can provide adapters that will allow you to easily put modular plugs into the existing "Amphenol" connectors. You can also simply cut off the connectors and attach standard modular jacks to the old cable. If you want to cut, I recommend that you cut off 20 pairs, leaving the five pairs in the "white group" of wires intact. Connect two or three pairs to the jack, and leave a few pairs of un-needed wire coiled up inside the jack for future use. It's always best to have more wire than you need. An AbleComm Hydra adapter has an Amphenol-type connector and multiple modular plug-ended cords. It has several uses in a phone system installation, including connecting to an RJ-21 phone company demarcation, and connecting the cables previously used for TIE phone systems.

Whether you are installing new wire or re-using existing wire, it must be in a "home-run" configuration (what computer guys call a "star topography"), with a direct path from each phone jack to the control unit. In residential construction, "loop-through" wiring is more common, where the circuit passes from one jack to another and another.

If you have a loop-through arrangement, you can change some of the connections to reconfigure one or more jacks as home-runs.

 

A tone generator and probe will make it easy to trace and rearrange wiring.
 
Put identifying tags on ends of wire segments. 
108 108 108  You can give several jacks the same extension number, and plug-in several single-line phones plus one multi-line phone, but they won't be able to access different lines at one time.

In a digital system, if you don't need an XDP in a particular location, you can ignore it, and install a jack for a single-line device elsewhere, using the control unit circuit and extension number that would have been used for the XDP. This flexibility can greatly increase the usefulness of your system. If you have just one pair available for a digital phone, keep in mind that it should be the SECOND pair (black and yellow in the jack).

Another option is to have the XDP circuit live within the phone, but also working in another location. In residential systems, I recommend installing two jacks in each kid's bedroom -- on at the bed and one at the desk. Even if they are wired in parallel with the same extension number(s), you can use a digital phone at one location, and a modem, cordless, or answerer in the other spot.

Use a surge protector on the phone lines and power line!!! You can buy protectors from us.  Don't trust a $3 protector. Get something decent, with a good warranty. Protectors for multiple phone lines are harder to find. We sell protectors that can cover up to 25 lines.
 
In case of a power failure, you can plug single-line phones into several jacks. The jack for the lowest intercom number will work on your first line, the next jack on your second line, etc.

Panasonic control units have internal batteries to maintain programming when power is off.

 

 T7436c.jpg (24446 bytes)All of our Panasonic phone systems can be programmed with a display phone, so you should order at least one.
 
If you want full system functions during a power failure, you will need an external battery back-up system .Generally, the more you pay for the UPS, the longer your system will work without normal power.

The digital control units can be programmed with an IBM-compatible PC. You'll need our ProCable or a serial cable and null-modem adapter from Radio Shack. Many of our customers use

Programator software. This software also allows you to back-up your programming onto a floppy disk or hard drive, for restoration after a chipset change or a disaster.

The digital 816 and 1232 can be programmed remotely via a modem. You can connect a standard modem to the serial port, or use special Panasonic modems.

The analog 308, 616 and 624 can't be programmed by PC, either locally or remotely.

The digital 308 can be programmed by a PC, but not remotely.
The door intercom requires one pair of wires. You can re-use existing doorbell wire if you remove the button, disconnect the transformer, and splice some wires in the chime housing. The door intercom circuit card operates one or two door speakers. With the KX-TD160 or KX-T30866 accessory circuit modules, you can dial a code on a phone, or press a programmed button, to unlock doors equipped with electric door strikes, or perform other remote control functions such as turning on lights or music.

There are several Panasonic voice processing systems. Each one mounts on the wall, and connects to your Panasonic phone system control unit, just like a phone would.

Connections are made via jacks inside the voice processor cabinet. When connected to a Panasonic KX-TD digital phone system or the KX-TA1232, one phone cord is capable of carrying two simultaneous conversations between the voice processor and phone system.

This technology makes efficient use of your phone system's resources: one phone system port can handle two voice processor ports.

With a Panasonic analog KX-TA624 you need one phone cord for each port in the voice processor; i.e. two cords for a KX-TVS50 in a KX-TA624.

Make sure you make connections with a phone cord that has a DATA PAIR -- the yellow and black wires in a normal cord and phone jack. A cord with just two wires in the center positions will NOT work.

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