KENNER@NYU-CMCL1.ARPA (Richard Kenner) (10/10/85)
Today we discovered an undocumented feature in the AT&T Merlin system which
makes a large difference in the usability of the system so I thought I'd pass
it on.
First an introduction to Merlin. We have the 3070 Merlin system. This means
that up to 30 lines and 70 instruments are supported. Three types of
instruments are supported: 5, 10, and 34-button instruments (actually, there
are two types of 34-button instruments, but let's ignore this). The idea is
that each button can either be used for a line or be programmed for a feature
(touchtone enable, privacy, "do not disturb", intercom and external autodial,
etc.). However, 2 buttons are reserved for intercom ("intercom voice" and
"intercom ring") and in a pooled system (any system where ALL the lines don't
appear on ALL the phones) two more buttons are reserved for the pool lines even
if you don't have any lines in the pool (pool lines are roughly like outgoing
trunks). Since in most uses, each instrument will also have one line assigned,
5-button phones have no programmable buttons.
This isn't all that bad because Merlin supports defining #01 through #22 as
outside autodial numbers. So you can do your speed-dialing without using a
button (though you have to push 3 keys instead of 1). However, there are
certain features you can't get without a button. These include touchtone
enable (we have an ANCIENT PBX which uses pulse but the outgoing trunks support
tone), privacy, "do not disturb", and call coverage.
All of the above is (reasonably clearly) documented. Now for what isn't. It
turns out that #01 - #22 correspond to 22 of the added buttons between 10- and
34-button phones. Reprogramming a button changes the #<code> and vice versa.
As mentioned in the manual, if a button is programmed to outside autodial, you
can change just the number and not the function by just going to program mode,
pushing the button, and entering the new outside number without having to use
the *<whatever> to set outside autodial. Also, the default state of most
unprogrammed buttons is outside autodial. This is the way the #<code> works.
You are really changing the outside autodial number of the (possibly phantom)
button.
In fact, you can program a #<code> to be ANYTHING, not just outside autodial.
For example, after putting the phone into program mode, you can enter #20*76
After doing this, you can use #20 as touchtone enable. As far as we can tell,
all programming is valid for these "buttons". It isn't always too useful to
program them to something where a button with a light is really needed, like
call coverage. However, it does have some use. Suppose you program #10 to
cover intercom 14 (#10*414). Since there is no button you won't see when 14 is
ringing or hear a ring. However, in many cases, such as ours, we can hear that
a phone is ringing and just aren't sure which. You can go to intercom-ring and
enter *714 to try to pick it up. In the example above, you can also use #10
without having to go to intercom-ring. Not exactly a huge savings, but it can
be a convenience to have some of these programmed.
If anyone knows of any other undocumented features of Merlin (maybe including
call forwarding?????), I'd like to hear about them.
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