Street cabinet ticking noise

Inactive Digital · 04-03-2024, 11:06

Not sure which sub-forum is best for this one.

I've noticed that the VM street cabinet at the end of my road has developed a constant ticking noise in the past couple of weeks and I'm just curious why that is? I've heard another cabinet doing it before while I've out walking the dog, so assume it's some kind of intended 'feature' within the workings of the cabinets.

Assuming nothing sinister has been planted in there, what's it all about?

weesteev · 04-03-2024, 13:05

This will be a MUX unit with a faulty line card, the ticking is an error LED on the card that has an audible tick. With the shut off of POTS, these cards are now starting to become redundant and if a fault develops on an unused card its not replaced. This is probably more common in ex-Telewest areas where there are PDH muxes in the street cabinets, the NTL build was mostly SDH and the "newer" equipment doesnt have this ticking trait.

Inactive Digital · 04-03-2024, 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by weesteev

This will be a MUX unit with a faulty line card, the ticking is an error LED on the card that has an audible tick. With the shut off of POTS, these cards are now starting to become redundant and if a fault develops on an unused card its not replaced. This is probably more common in ex-Telewest areas where there are PDH muxes in the street cabinets, the NTL build was mostly SDH and the "newer" equipment doesnt have this ticking trait.

Cheers, that's my mystery solved then.

Yes I'm in an ex-Telewest area, though we've not been switched over to digital voice as yet.

vm_tech · 05-03-2024, 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by weesteev

This will be a MUX unit with a faulty line card, the ticking is an error LED on the card that has an audible tick. With the shut off of POTS, these cards are now starting to become redundant and if a fault develops on an unused card its not replaced. This is probably more common in ex-Telewest areas where there are PDH muxes in the street cabinets, the NTL build was mostly SDH and the "newer" equipment doesnt have this ticking trait.

Good old C-Mux+ cards