[Soekris] 4801 + Sangoma 101u

[Kristian Kielhofner]

Barry Fawthrop wrote:
> Hi All
> I'm new to the list and embedded systems in general
> been a Linux user since 1990s (many distros) and Asterisk for last 3 years
> 
> You can get the 4801 with Sangoma 101u
> 
> 11480153 <http://www.soekris.com/bundles.htm> 	net4801-50 Board and Case 
> + Sangoma A101u 	$646 	$626
> 
> 
> 
> Question 1: Can you change out the 101a for a 200 with 4 FXO ports ?  or 
> with a Digium TDM400p and 4 FXO ports ?
> 
> Question 2: What is the difference between 4801 -50 and  4801 -60 ?
> 
> Question 3: How well does the 4801 work with AstLinux and Asterisk ?
> 
> Thanks all I look forward to learning
> 
> Barry
> 


Barry,

	The Soekris A101u is mainly used in conjunction with a Soekris board 
for data.  Whether it be frame relay, PPP, Cisco HDLC, etc it is a 
wonderful combination.

	For voice, however, it doesn't work so well.  The software echo 
cancellation algorithms in Zaptel use a lot of floating point math that 
will quickly kill the 266mhz Geode in the net48xx boards.  In summary, 
you can use the A101u for data, but not for voice.

	As far as the tdm4xx bundles from Digium, people have reported those 
work, with varying levels of success.  There are several problems with 
these boards and a Soekris:

1)  They are PCI v2.2.  The Soekris only supports 2.1.  This doesn't 
seem to be that big of a deal.

2)  Software echo cancellation = CPU usage.  Just like I mentioned above.

3)  Power.  If you have any FXS ports, you won't be able to provide 
ringing on them unless you figure out how to get 12v to the molex 
connector on the TDM400.  I have seen people solder an old half cut 
molex connector from a hard drive onto the dc in leads on the net48xx. 
Ugly, ugly hack.  It sounds like you only want to do 4 FXO, so this 
shouldn't concern you much.

	However, #2 is probably your biggest obstacle.

	As far as RAM on these boards, don't worry about it.  When using 
AstLinux it is rare to see more than 50mb of used RAM at any given 
time...  Then again, the more the merrier!

--
Kristian Kielhofner