I have the phone model shown in the attached photo, and I’m having trouble using the ‘R’ (Recall) button to transfer calls to other extensions. Between the phone and FreePBX, I have a Cisco SPA 122 adapter. All other buttons, including * and #, work fine. Any advice on resolving this would be appreciated! Apologies if I posted in the wrong section.
Thanks
The SIP branding is confusing. This predates SIP, as currently understood, and is an analogue phone.
It’s a GIugiaro Linea, whose design dates from 1987. I can’t find any user guide.
I’m going to guess that R is earth recall and RP is hook flash (possibly with the short duration called timed break recall, in the UK).
I can’t find anything in the Cisco documentation that suggests that it understands earth recall, and it seems to pass on hook flashes to the PABX. I don’t believe that Asterisk does anything for hook flash events received over SIP. If it is the timed break system, used in the UK, the minimum hook flash for the Cisco, 100ms, may be too long ( can’t find the timed break recall technical specification at the moment; it may be 100ms, in which case it might just be recognized).
I’d suggest getting an oscilloscope, and finding out what the buttons actually do.
For use with FreePBX, I’d suggest ignoring the buttons, and using DTMF feature codes, instead.
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This type of button was used to send a calibrated cut (In France, 170 or 270ms if I remember correctly) to generate a transfer.
Example: You are in communication with someone and you need to transfer the call to another extension, you then press R and dial the destination number and hangup call or repress on R to talk with the first call.
This type of button was used with pulse dialing.
It’s no longer used with DTMFdialing.
Anyway, if you press on R, no tone you will hear, but just a clip.
Same thing @david55 
Do this only if you can’t get hookflash working properly; DTMF transfers often interfere with other uses of in-call DTMF, and have security issues if not properly configured.
Can you transfer a call by momentarily depressing the hookswitch for ~0.5 seconds? If not, what happens? Have you checked these settings in the SPA: Hook Flash Timer Min, Hook Flash Timer Max, Blind Attn-Xfer Enable, Xfer When Hangup Conf?
If yes, use that if you can’t get the buttons to work. While on a call, what happens when you press R? When you press RP?
I’m pretty sure that the only use of hook flash in Asterisk is in chan_dahdi. For SIP, I think it is just passed through and made available as API events. If correct, either the Cisco would have to be discarded, and a DAHDI compatible PCI[e] card used, instead, or hook flash initiated functions would need to be handled by the Cisco, not Asterisk, with Asterisk receiving the resulting REFERs, etc.
Searching the Cisco 100 series administration guide, the only hook flash references I could find seemed to be about generating INFO messages, for the PABX to handle.
(I don’t think you can use F in features.conf, but it might be worth trying.)
Incidentally, earth recall is also a Europe thing. In the UK PABXes generally used earth recall, and the PSTN used timed break call. I think US PABXes generally use hook flash (which is a loosely timed break). The reason I had reservations about the minimum hook flash is that, with the actual implementation of timed break in the UK, a loop disconnect 1 would be interpreted as recall, but the pulse rate on loop disconnects is 10pps, so the break part has to be significantly less than 100ms. It’s possible that the exchanges were accepting timed breaks significantly shorter than the specification.
Not true. In
see the hook flash settings on p. 74 and the transfer-related settings on p.89.
A hook flash can answer call waiting, or switch between calls when call waiting is active.
Otherwise, a hook flash can be used to place a call on hold, or to initiate a transfer or three-way conference. For any of these functions, Asterisk doesn’t see anything special, only hold and REFER requests.
Are you saying that from practical experience, as page 74 just says how it recognizes hook flash, and page 89 is about the transfer features, but those are controlled by DTMF sequences, recognized by the ATA (page 76).
The only place where hook flash is associated with transfers appears to be page 5, but I read that as saying the features are processed by the PABX, not by the ATA. I suppose it could have hook flash and DTMF initiated local transfers, but I still can’t find anything in the documentation to say that is the case. I suppose they could have assumed that the traditional recall to transfer technique was so well known that there was no need to mention it.