7940 headset port and Plantronics CS50

[kbsimm789]

I have a 7940 and wish to use a Plantronics CS50. Plantronics cautioned about using the CS50 with the headset port as they said the headset port is powered and thus might damage the CS50. Is it true the the headset port is powered and if so is an adapter available that would diconnect the power. Or does anyone know what pin the power is on.

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Brad,

We have been using the CS50 with 7940's, 7960's, 7941's and 7961's for about 18 months now.In all we have approximately 75 CS50's in service (all using the built-in Headset port)and have never had any issues. The compatability setting on the CS50 should be set to 4. The users (myself included) really love them.

Hope this helps!

Rob

[kbsimm789]

Rob,

Thank you....

Do you happen to know or can you point me to a source of the technical details of the compatablity settings. Plantronics tech support was no help.

[Rob Huffman]

Hey Brad,

Plantronics has great products but not the greatest documentation :( The compatability setting is set at 1 when shipped from the factory (this works for most phones, for example Nortel digital 2000 series and 3900 series). When we started using the CS50's we played with the setting and determined that when using the built-in Headset jack on Cisco 7900 series phones that 4 was the way to go. Our supplier of Plantronics did confirm this setting at a later date. Unfortunately I can't find any real great Plantronics docs to provide that describe the spec's for this Compatability setting, but this one does go over it in limited detail;

http://www.plantronics.com/media/media_resources/literature/user_guides/73156-01_CS55_US_DL.pdf

Hope this helps!

Rob

[joeharb]

Rob,

We are trying to do this....we have the cs50 set to 4...can you answer a call by pressing the plantronics button or do you have to still answer from the phone...please give any advise you have...

Thanks,

Joe

[kbsimm789]

You must still answer the phone. There is a headset button on the front of the Cisco 7940 phones we use and pressing that button will answer the call.

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Joe,

Like Jerri and Brad have indicated with their great info, you still have to pess a button on the phone :( The idea of true mobility is not quite there yet. You could always use the "Auto Answer on Headset" line setting on CCM but this doesn't allways give the user the choice they might want.

Hope this helps! Still all in all a great product.

Rob

[dgahm]

We have always used the handset jack with our CS50s (1 setting) with good luck. This was per the Plantronics documentation, showing the CS50 used with a phone that did not have a headset jack. That seemed to indicate it was designed for handset audio levels versus the lower levels needed for headsets. Rob's experience demonstrates that the CS50 can be used successfully either way, so I wouldn't worry too much about what Plantronics said about the headset jack.

Dave

[Jerri3613]

We have used the handset jack with our CS50s as well. We have about 90 out on the floor in our call center now and they are used both ways - in the handset jack with handset lifters and in the headset jack using the headset button on the phone. Every one is extremely happy with them - until the settings get changed somehow. But it is easy to fix - just set it to the appropriate setting. I found that Plantronics documentation is very simple but pretty useless in troubleshooting or setup.