Tropical Telecom
Z-1820A-13
5
4.2 1820A Phone Line Technical Details
4.2.1 When a doorphone or other intercom call is made, the 1820A removes the telephone line from
the house phones and monitors the line with a ring detector. If a phone call arrives during an
intercom call, the ring detector senses the incoming call and sends a beep tone to the intercom
connection as a call-waiting alert.
4.2.2 If, during a regular phone call, a doorphone call is initiated, the phone user hears a call-
waiting alert (beep tone). If the phone user ignores the doorphone call, the door station disconnects
automatically after 30 seconds.
4.2.3 Because the house phone wiring is shared between phone calls and intercom calls, you cannot
simultaneously make 2 two independent calls. It is an either/or arrangement. You can talk to the
phone bus or to the intercom bus. See Fig.2B on page 7.
4.2.4 When a doorphone makes a call, ring back tone is sent to the door station until a telephone
station answers or until the call times out.
4.2.5 If another doorphone call arrives when you are already on a doorphone call, both door stations
and your telephone are conferenced together. All three parties can talk to each other.
4.3 Ringing Options and Cadences
4.3.1 Phone Line. Ringing from the telephone company is simply passed to the phones by the
1820A. So, outside calls ring at the familiar 2sec.on/4sec.off cadence.
4.3.2 Doorphones and Intercom Stations use the 1820A’s internal ring generator. Normal
doorphone and intercom ringing is a ring-ring pause ring-ring cadence. Often called UK or British
style ringing, it differentiates internal calls from telephone line calls.
4.3.3 A few older answering machines count the UK ring-ring as two cycles rather than one. That
means the answering machine answers after only two cycles of a doorphone call. In this rare case,
see table below, and set switch #1 to OFF. That sets a long ringing cadence for doorphone calls.
(3Sec. ON/4Sec. OFF
4.3.4 Option switch #4 allows doorphone calls to ring for either 3 or 5 ring cycles before timing out.
Five cycles is about 30 seconds and is the standard ringing length.
4.3.5 Users with a telephone answering machine (TAD) often do not want the answering
machine to record doorphone calls. If you set option switch #4 to ring for 3 cycles and set the
answering machine to reply after 4 ring cycles (see the User Manual of the TAD), the answering
machine will ignore the door station and only record telephone line calls.
4.3.6 If the home has a door chime system, you can set the 1820A so door phone calls will ring
the chimes only, phones only, or ring both telephones and door chimes. See settings of Switches #
2 and #3 in the table above.
ON
OFF
OPTION SELECTION
DIP SWITCH
1234
Ring Phones Only: Switch #2 OFF
Switch #3 OFF
Ring Chimes Only: Switch #2 ON
Switch #3 OFF
Switch #2 OFF
Switch #3 ON
Ring Chimes
and Phones
RING CADENCE
Switch #1 Selects the cadence used for doorphone calls.
ON selects UK ring cadence.
OFF selects long "doorbell ring" cadence.
Intercom calls always ring the telephones using
UK cadence.
RINGING CHIM ES and/or PHONES
Switches # 2 and 3 work together to determine which devices
signal a doorphone call. (Only doorphone calls activate chimes.)
Selects the number of times a doorphone or
intercom call rings before terminating.
RING CYCLES
Switch #4
ON rings phones 5 cycles.
OFF rings phones 3 cycles.
ON
OFF
OPTION SELECTION
DIP SWITCH
1234
Ring Phones Only: Switch #2 OFF
Switch #3 OFF
Ring Chimes Only: Switch #2 ON
Switch #3 OFF
Switch #2 OFF
Switch #3 ON
Ring Chimes
and Phones
RING CADENCE
Switch #1 Selects the cadence used for doorphone calls.
ON selects UK ring cadence.
OFF selects long "doorbell ring" cadence.
Intercom calls always ring the telephones using
UK cadence.
RINGING CHIM ES and/or PHONES
Switches # 2 and 3 work together to determine which devices
signal a doorphone call. (Only doorphone calls activate chimes.)
Selects the number of times a doorphone or
intercom call rings before terminating.
RING CYCLES
Switch #4
ON rings phones 5 cycles.
OFF rings phones 3 cycles.
RINGING OPTIONS FOR DOORPHONES AND INTERCOM STATIONS