Review: OpenVox A400P FXO and FXS Card
17th Dec 2008, 22:05:10
I bought this FXO card hoping it would be better than my X100P, which turned out to be an absolute turd.
Keep reading for my review...
This card is a clone of Digium's TDM400P, as such it is very well supported by Asterisk and Zaptel. The A400P has a modular design, able to accommodate four modules, each of which can support one FXO or FXS device. The modules slot into sockets on the card, so it would be very easy and inexpensive to extend my setup to include a second phone line or some FXS devices in the future. The card, bundled with a single FXO module was just over £70.00, significantly more expensive than the X100P, but it does at least have full support for UK line standards including Caller ID.
Installation was braindead simple; Debian picked up the card right away:
Zapata Telephony Interface Registered on major 196 Zaptel Version: 1.4.12.1 Zaptel Echo Canceller: MG2 PCI: Enabling device 0001:11:03.0 (0004 -> 0007) Freshmaker version: 71 Freshmaker passed register test Module 0: Installed -- AUTO FXO (FCC mode) Module 1: Not installed Module 2: Not installed Module 3: Not installed Found a Wildcard TDM: Wildcard TDM400P REV E/F (1 modules)
It was then a trivial matter to configure Asterisk and Zaptel to use the new card using
genzaptelconf -c uk:
/etc/asterisk/zapata.conf needs a little tweaking to tell it about UK caller ID:
#/etc/asterisk/zapata.conf ; Span 1: WCTDM/0 "Wildcard TDM400P REV E/F Board 1" (MASTER) ;;; line="1 WCTDM/0/0 FXSKS" [channels] usecallerid=yes cidsignalling=v23 cidstart=polarity signalling=fxs_ks callerid=asreceived context=from-pstn rxgain = 10.0 txgain = 10.0 group=0 channel => 1
I'm pleased with the performance of this card, the voice quality is good and it is easy to adjust the gain to the correct levels without inducing echo. In fact, I've bought a second one for my parents to use at their house.