Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

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coolcats
Posts:2
Joined:Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:00 pm
Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by coolcats » Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:06 pm

I cannot get the Ooma Scout to work on other jacks throughout the house. I can get it to work if I hook it directly up to the Ooma hub. But if I follow the installation diagram, use the supplied splitter, and run it back through the house wiring -- no dice.

I have active DSL on the line, and a still-active landline pending the number port. The landline signal is present on every jack. I do not have any DSL filters installed on the jacks that I am trying to hook the scout up to.

Other than the scout not working, Ooma has been great for the few days I've had it. I would appreciate any advice on what I can do to get the scout to work properly.

murphy
Posts:7554
Joined:Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:49 pm
Location:Pennsylvania

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by murphy » Sat Nov 07, 2009 8:06 pm

The DSL signal on the house wiring will cause the scout to not work and will reduce your DSL throughput.
You either need to use the line 2 wiring in your house to connect the hub to the scout or separate the DSL signal where it comes into the house and only run it to the DSL modem and no where else.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx

coolcats
Posts:2
Joined:Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:00 pm

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by coolcats » Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:45 pm

That's what I was wondering. Unfortunately, there is only one jack close to where I have the hub and scout set up. So apparently I won't be able to use the scout. How come the instruction manual seems to indicate it is possible to have both hooked up?

Groundhound
Posts:2711
Joined:Sat May 23, 2009 9:28 am
Location:Atlanta, GA

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by Groundhound » Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:53 pm

coolcats wrote:That's what I was wondering. Unfortunately, there is only one jack close to where I have the hub and scout set up. So apparently I won't be able to use the scout. How come the instruction manual seems to indicate it is possible to have both hooked up?
There may be only one jack, but I bet there are at least two wire pairs connected to that jack - with one pair likely unused - the line 2 wiring murphy mentioned. You can access that unused wiring with a "L1, L2, L1&2" splitter at each end, plugging your wall port on both hub and scout into the ln2 port on each of the splitters.
Image

GearGuy
Posts:18
Joined:Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:51 am

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by GearGuy » Fri Nov 13, 2009 8:33 am

I just completed a Scout installation with 2 of these adapters. Not easy to find in a local store, and I probably went with the most expensive option myself but it works great.
Here are some links:
Radio Shack: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3808512 $8.99
FRYs: http://www.frys.com/product/2486040 $1.69
MonoPrice.com: http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... largeimage $0.87 (posted by Groundhound)

I have a cable modem, house wired with 4-wire phone wire and a phone I wanted to work near my Hub. POTS phone line from the outside pole disconnected from the wiring in my home.

A diagram would be great but I will offer a step-by-step of my installation...

Buy 2 of the L1 & L2 phone jack adapters mentioned above.

1) Plug the 1st L1 & L2 jack adapter mentioned above into the wall phone jack located nearest to the cable modem and Hub.
2) Plug Ooma supplied phone jack splitter into "Phone" jack in back of Hub.
3) Connect phone nearest the hub to one port of the Ooma supplied phone jack splitter in step 2.
4) Connect a phone cable from the other port of the Ooma supplied phone jack splitter installed in step 2 to the "L1" connection of the L1 & L2 jack adapter installed in step 1. This will provide a Hub supplied phone line connection to all phone jacks in the house on the L1 wire pair.
5) Connect another phone cable from the "Wall" jack on the back of the Hub to the "L2" connection of the L1 & L2 jack adapter installed in step 1. This will supply the Scout signal to the L2 wire pair through the house.
Go to the Scout location...
6) Plug the 2nd L1 & L2 jack adapter into the wall phone jack located nearest to where you are installing the Scout.
7) Connect a phone cable from the "Wall" jack on the back of the Scout to the "L2" connection of the L1 & L2 jack adapter installed in step 6.
8) Plug a phone into the "Phone" jack on the back of the Scout.
9) Power up Hub (if not already done).
10) Power up Scout. Allow time to connect (~30 seconds).
Ooma tab should turn blue (check that brightness dial is turned up), no red buttons (if no messages and no one on the phone). Scout should be working at this point.

The 'L1' and 'L1+L2' jacks of the 2nd L1 & L2 jack adapter installed in step 6 will offer a L1 phone signal being supplied by the Hub. Any standard one line device plugged into either of these 2 ports will use a phone signal supplied by the Hub. 2-line phone devices should not be plugged into the 'L1+L2' port to avoid conflict with the Scout.

Hope that my steps were not too confusing.

dkcook2
Posts:178
Joined:Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:07 pm

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by dkcook2 » Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:15 am

Great write up....very helpful. Well done. With no DSL would a regular splitter (non-L1, non-L2) have worked?

GearGuy
Posts:18
Joined:Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:51 am

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by GearGuy » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:07 am

dkcook2 wrote:Great write up....very helpful. Well done. With no DSL would a regular splitter (non-L1, non-L2) have worked?
Thank you.

A regular splitter will not work because the contacts are simply duplicated for each jack. There is no conversion between L1 and L2 which is required for this installation.

If you take a look at the image of the product in the Radio Shack link you will see the following...
1) The "L1+L2" jack to the far right has 4 connector pins. The 2 inner connector pins supply the Line 1 signal. The 2 outer connector pins supply the Line 2 signal.
2) The "L1" jack at the far left only has 2 connector pins. These are wired to the same 2 inner connector pins in the "L1+L2" jack to supply the Line 1 signal.
3) The "L2" jack in the middle has only 2 connector pins and looks identical to the "L1" jack. This is where the "adapter" part of the device comes to play. The 2 outer connector pins from the "L1+L2" jack are wired to the 2 inner connector pins in the "L2" jack. This moves the L2 signal from the 2 outer connectors to the 2 inner connectors for the "L2" jack.

So to keep the installation of the Scout clean in my Cable (non-DSL) house installation, I used the L1 & L2 phone jack adapters to re-route the Scout signal through the L2 side of a 4-wire home phone wiring system.
1) The Scout signal is being fed from the "Wall" jack on the back of the Hub through the 2 inner connectors.
2) Near the Hub, I move the Scout signal from the 2 inner L1 connectors to the 2 outer L2 connectors using the "L2" port of the L1 & L2 adapter so it can be fed into the house wiring on the L2 line.
3) Near the Scout, I move the Scout signal from the 2 outer L2 connectors from the house wiring back to the 2 inner L1 connectors using the "L2" port of the L1 & L2 adapter.
4) The Scout signal is fed into the Scout using the 2 inner L1 connectors.

I hope that this explanation helps clear up the concept. I'm sure that diagrams would help...

I just realized I posted to a DSL setup thread so my apologies. I have not bothered to think through how a DSL fed home would affect this method of installation which is why I mentioned that this method is for a cable installation. With a DSL system you basically have 3 signals to deal with; DSL, Phone signal and Scout signal. Some one else could probably help me get back on track with this thread but I would think that you could still feed the phone signal from the Hub back to the Line 1 side of the house wiring, combining the DSL and hub phone signal on L1 and still save L2 for the Scout signal? Just not sure if you need to run through a DSL splitter/filter or not. And then for every other phone device that connects to L1 you would need the DSL filter.

My apologies if I caused any confusion.

dkcook2
Posts:178
Joined:Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:07 pm

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by dkcook2 » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:06 am

No apology necessary....great setup.

Groundhound
Posts:2711
Joined:Sat May 23, 2009 9:28 am
Location:Atlanta, GA

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by Groundhound » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:29 am

GearGuy wrote:
dkcook2 wrote:Great write up....very helpful. Well done. With no DSL would a regular splitter (non-L1, non-L2) have worked?
Thank you.

A regular splitter will not work because the contacts are simply duplicated for each jack. There is no conversion between L1 and L2 which is required for this installation.

If you take a look at the image of the product in the Radio Shack link you will see the following...
1) The "L1+L2" jack to the far right has 4 connector pins. The 2 inner connector pins supply the Line 1 signal. The 2 outer connector pins supply the Line 2 signal.
2) The "L1" jack at the far left only has 2 connector pins. These are wired to the same 2 inner connector pins in the "L1+L2" jack to supply the Line 1 signal.
3) The "L2" jack in the middle has only 2 connector pins and looks identical to the "L1" jack. This is where the "adapter" part of the device comes to play. The 2 outer connector pins from the "L1+L2" jack are wired to the 2 inner connector pins in the "L2" jack. This moves the L2 signal from the 2 outer connectors to the 2 inner connectors for the "L2" jack.

So to keep the installation of the Scout clean in my Cable (non-DSL) house installation, I used the L1 & L2 phone jack adapters to re-route the Scout signal through the L2 side of a 4-wire home phone wiring system.
1) The Scout signal is being fed from the "Wall" jack on the back of the Hub through the 2 inner connectors.
2) Near the Hub, I move the Scout signal from the 2 inner L1 connectors to the 2 outer L2 connectors using the "L2" port of the L1 & L2 adapter so it can be fed into the house wiring on the L2 line.
3) Near the Scout, I move the Scout signal from the 2 outer L2 connectors from the house wiring back to the 2 inner L1 connectors using the "L2" port of the L1 & L2 adapter.
4) The Scout signal is fed into the Scout using the 2 inner L1 connectors.

I hope that this explanation helps clear up the concept. I'm sure that diagrams would help...

I just realized I posted to a DSL setup thread so my apologies. I have not bothered to think through how a DSL fed home would affect this method of installation which is why I mentioned that this method is for a cable installation. With a DSL system you basically have 3 signals to deal with; DSL, Phone signal and Scout signal. Some one else could probably help me get back on track with this thread but I would think that you could still feed the phone signal from the Hub back to the Line 1 side of the house wiring, combining the DSL and hub phone signal on L1 and still save L2 for the Scout signal? Just not sure if you need to run through a DSL splitter/filter or not. And then for every other phone device that connects to L1 you would need the DSL filter.

My apologies if I caused any confusion.
I prefer a setup like yours, keeping the HPNA signal between hub and scout on a separate wire pair, but just to clarify, that HPNA signal can co-exist on the same wire pair that the hub's phone dialtone is connected to. So in the absence of DSL you can run both the hub's phone port dialtone and the hub-scout wall port connection on the same wire pair using a "regular" splitter. But again, I prefer to do it the way you did.

07pilot4me
Posts:40
Joined:Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:34 pm

Re: Ooma Scout Does Not Work Properly

Post by 07pilot4me » Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:37 pm

hello,

i think this may solve my problems, can someone reprhase the instructions for me. it would be helpfull if a diagram or

L1---> phone ----> ooma (with ----> denoting a phone line). i have been trying to fix this scout problem without any success and unfortunately am very tired so getting kinda cross eyed reading the instructions. hopefully this fix helps.

thanks

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