AT&T ® MERLIN II COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM MERLIN II Attendant Installer’s Guide
©1989 AT&T All Rights Reserved Printed in USA Issue 2 January, 1990 NOTICE The information in this document is subject to change without notice. AT&T assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. MERLIN is a registered trademark of AT&T. To order copies of this document, call the AT&T Customer Information Center, 1-800-432-6600 and include the document number 518-600-017 with your order.
Contents Section 1: Installation Requirements Overview 1-1 Equipment and Location Requirements 1-7 Administration Procedures 1-10 Connecting the MERLIN II Attendant 1-14 Section 2: Initial Programming Programming Features 2-1 Section 3: Testing and Troubleshooting Testing 3-1 Troubleshooting 3-3 Index
FCC Notification Information INTERFERENCE INFORMATION Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rules require that you be notified of the following: This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions in this manual, may cause interference to radio communications.
Overview The MERLIN II Attendant answers incoming calls on designated lines with a prerecorded message and directs callers to the appropriate extension in the MERLIN® II Communications System Release 3.
• Call Supervision The MERLIN II Attendant can supervise calls and monitor the progress of calls. • Alternate Routing When the first requested extension is unavailable, callers can be transferred automatically to an secondary extension. • Battery Backup Routing plans and programming changes can be saved up to eight weeks following a power outage, provided the battery is fully charged. Recorded announcements can be saved up to three hours under the same conditions.
• battery Table 1-1 describes the meaning of the different light combinations when ac power is connected: TABLE 1-1 Meaning of Power and Battery Lights I Power Light Battery Light On Off Battery charging On On Battery fully charged Off On Unit operating on battery power Off Off Unit not operating; refer to “Troubleshooting” On Blinking Out of Service code; refer to “Troubleshooting.” ● Description talking This light is on whenever the MERLIN II Attendant answers and monitors a call.
FIGURE 1-2 Back view of the MERLIN II Attendant. • reset This recessed button resets the MERLIN II Attendant. See “Troubleshooting” for details. • setup switches There are four setup switches. Switches 1,2, and 3 control the MERLIN II Attendant response to a power outage as shown in Table 1-2; switch 4 is not used.
TABLE 1-2 Meaning of Setup Switch Settings On (Down) Switch Off (up) 1 Recorded announcements are retained during a power outage Recorded announcements are erased during a power outage 2 Routes and other programming parameters are retained during a power outage Routes and other programming parameters are reset to defaults during a power outage The MERLIN II Attendant continues to answer calls during a power outage The MERLIN II Attendant does not answer calls during a power outage Not Used Not
• to line This connects the MERLIN II Attendant with the Basic Telephone (012) Module on the MERLIN II system control unit.
Equipment and Location Requirements The following equipment is supplied with the MERLIN II Attendant: • Power cord with transformer • 8-foot, 6-wire modular phone cord • Mounting plate • User’s Guide Also required, but not supplied, is a 517C13 Basic Telephone (012) Module housed in a MERLIN II Release 3 system control unit. Up to four MERLIN II Attendants can be connected to the module.
TABLE 1-3 Calls Per Hour Table Calls Per Hour 25 25-50 Number of Units Needed 2 3 50-100 4 If the customer does not know the number of calls the business gets during peak hours, you can estimate how many MERLIN II Attendants are required by asking the customer how many incoming lines the business has. Then refer to Table 1-4 to determine the number of MERLIN II Attendants required.
• Not more than 10 feet away from the MERLIN II system control unit • A sufficient distance away from a heating or cooling source to prevent exposure to temperatures beyond 32 °F to 104 °F (O °C to 40 °C) Equipment and Location Requirements 1-9
Administration Procedures Before installing the MERLIN II Attendant you must administer a port on the Basic Telephone (012) module for each unit you are connecting. CAUTION: Do not administer the port for outward call restriction. While you are performing administration procedures, you should also administer the lines that will be assigned to the MERLIN II Attendant(s). Ask the customer which lines are being answered by the MERLIN II Attendant, including backup call handling and Night Service.
5 ADMINISTERING LINES/LINE POOLS Press Conference to return to the main administration menu or slide the T/P switch to the center position to leave administration mode. Use the following procedure to administer the lines or line pools to be answered by the MERLIN II Attendant: 1 Enter administration mode by sliding the T/P switch to P. 2 Press Conference twice. The administration menu appears. 3 Press 4 Press the Auto Intercom button for the MERLIN II Attendant port. Press Enter .
ADMINISTERING CALL DISTRIBUTlON GROUPS Use this procedure when you are installing more than one MERLIN II Attendant to answer the same lines or line pools: 1 Enter administration mode by sliding the T/P switch to P. 2 Press Conference twice. The administration menu appears. 3 4 5 6 Press Stations , More , GrpCall . Dial the number of the Call Distribution Group (default numbers 870 through 875). Press Enter . Press the Auto Intercom button for each MERLIN II Attendant port.
ADMINISTERING NIGHT SERVICE If the customer wants the Night announcement to play whenever the business is closed, assign the MERLIN II Attendant to the appropriate Night Service group. 1 Enter administration mode by sliding the T/l? switch to P. 2 Press Conference twice. The administration menu appears. 3 Press 4 Press Group . Dial the intercom number for the receptionist of the Night Service group that you are assigning the MERLIN II Attendant to. Press Enter . 5 6 7 More , Night .
Connecting the MERLIN II Attendant I Before initial installation of the MERLIN II Attendant, set switches 1 and 2 on the back panel to off (up) . CAUTION: Follow the steps below to install the MERLIN II Attendant: FIGURE 1-3 Setup Switch Positions for Installing Unit. 1 2 Connect a basic Touch-Tone phone to the port on the Basic Telephone (012) Module that you have administered for the MERLIN II Attendant. Lift the handset.
5 Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each MERLIN II Attendant port. 6 Place the MERLIN II Attendant on a table or desktop or mount it using the mounting bracket: CAUTION: To avoid internal damage and feature malfunction, do not stack multiple MERLIN II Attendants. Using a #10 or smaller screw (wood, sheet metal, concrete), attach the wall mounting bracket to a vertical wall surface so that the hook end of the bracket is down.
TABLE 1-5 Switch Settings When Operating Unit Switch NOTE: Setting Result 1 On Saves recorded announcements during power outage 2 On Saves routes and programmable features during power outage 3 Off Does not use battery backup to answer calls during power outage (See NOTE) 4 Off Not used During a power outage there is no need to use battery backup to answer calls if the MERLIN II Attendant shares an Uninteruptible Power Supply (UPS) with the MERLIN II system control unit.
FIGURE 1-4 Connecting the MERLIN II Attendant.
Programming Features The MERLIN II Attendant is programmed from a TouchTone phone using special command strings that are discussed in this section. For each command string: * tells the MERLIN II Attendant that the following digits are a part of a command string. It can also be used to start a command over when a mistake is made #denotes the end of an entry or executes the command string All programming for the MERLIN II Attendant should be done from a single-line TouchTone phone.
NOTE: ENTERING PROGRAMMING MODE MERLIN II Attendant Planning Forms can be ordered through the AT&T Customer Information Center, 1-800-432-6600. Use this document number when ordering: 999-504-139 Perform the following steps before you begin programming: 1 2 Connect a basic Touch-Tone telephone to an unused port on the Basic Telephone (012) Module. Dial the MERLIN II Attendant and wait for the tone. Single beep sounds to indicate there are no announcements recorded.
To set the MERLIN II Attendant clock, use the following procedure: 1 Dial *71 followed by: a One digit for the current day of the week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 b Two Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday = = = = = = = digits for the current month 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 January February March April May June July August September October November December = = = = = = = = = = = = Two digits for the current date (01 - 31) d Two digits for the current year (00 - 99) e Two digits for
f Two digits for the current minute (00 - 59) g Two digits for the current second (00 - 59) NOTE: Step g is optional. Dial # to enter the command. 2 The two-beep confirmation tone sounds. Continue programming or dial ❉ #to exit authorized caller mode. Dial # again to disconnect. 3 4 SETTING THE BUSINESS DAYS Refer to MERLIN II Attendant Planning Form A to set the customer’s business days (the default is open Monday through Friday).
4 Continue programming or dial ❉ # to exit authorized caller mode. Dial # again to disconnect. 5 SETTING THE BUSINESS HOURS Refer to MERLIN II Attendant Planning Form B for the customer’s business hours. The default setting is Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
3 Continue programming or dial *# to exit authorized caller mode. 4 To disconnect, dial #. REALLOCATING ANNOUNCEMENT TIMES Five announcements are available. Each has a default duration in seconds, totaling 64 seconds. Refer to MERLIN II Attendant Planning Form D to see if the customer has elected to lengthen or shorten any of the time allocations. If a customer is not using an announcement, set the allocated time to 00.
Follow the procedure below to reallocate announcement times: CAUTION: This procedure causes all announcements to be erased. 1 Dial *49 followed by the announcement time lengths for each announcement: . NOTE: Set the time allocation to 00 for any announcement that is not being used.
RECORDING ANNOUNCEMENTS Refer to MERLIN II Attendant Planning Form D for the standard announcements. The customer may elect to record these announcements in his or her own voice or the voice of another employee. When recording the announcement, the speaker should speak clearly, use a normal tone of voice, and pause after each route number so that when the message is played the caller has an opportunity to hear the number he or she needs to enter.
Continue programming or dial *#to exit authorized caller mode. 4 Dial # to disconnect. 3 PLAYING BACK ANNOUNCEMENTS To confirm the recording of announcements, use the following procedure: 1 Dial ❉ 5 followed by the appropriate announcement code: 1 2 3 4 5 = = = = = Day announcement Night announcement Transfer Fail announcement Hold announcement Connect announcement You hear the renouncement as it was recorded.
a car serviced would not want to talk to the sales department if the service department was unavailable. FIGURE 2-1 Blind Transfer process.
• Supervised Transfer During a supervised transfer, calls are monitored by the MERLIN II Attendant. If the route or extension number is busy or doesn’t answer, the MERLIN II Attendant retrieves the call and handles it one of two ways: > If a secondary extension is provided, the MERLIN II Attendant transfers the call to the secondary extension when the first (primary) extension is unavailable.
FIGURE 2-2 Supervised Transfer process.
Refer to MERLIN II Attendant Planning Form E to see how the customer would like to handle incoming calls. Programming Call Handling Options The MERLIN II Attendant can be configured to handle calls in two ways: • Immediate Call Handling The MERLIN II Attendant answers all the calls coming in on the specified lines. The receptionist handles callers who have rotary sets or who require additional assistance. • Backup Call Handling Incoming calls ring first at the receptionist position.
FIGURE 2-3 Immediate and Backup Call Handling.
Programming Supervised Transfer Routes Refer to MERLIN II Attendant Planning Form F to see if the customer has planned any supervised transfer routes. To program these routes: NOTE: If you make a mistake and want to reprogram a particular route, enter *3 followed by the route number (0 through 9) and dial # four times. This erases all programmed extension numbers for the route entered. 1 Dial ❉ 3 to enter a route. 2 3 Dial the route number (0 through 9).
8 9 When the business is closed, the Night Primary Extension is the first number that the MERLIN II Attendant dials when a caller selects this route after normal business hours. Dial #to indicate the end of the command for the Night Primary Extension. Dial the Night Secondary Extension. If this space is blank on the form, skip to step 10. If a secondary extension is not programmed, callers hear the Transfer Fail announcement when the first extension is busy or does not answer.
1 Dial ❉ 8. 2 Dial the mute number (0 through 9). This is the number callers enter when they want to be connected to a particular department. N O T E : When programming route 0 for the receptionist, use an extension number that is not in the dial plan, such as 720, so that calls to the receptionist are directed to a line button not to an intercom button.
If the customer wants callers to have the option to enter individual extension numbers so that they can be connected to employees’ telephones directly, these commands can improve the processing of those calls. Call transfers to extensions can be expedited when the MERLIN II Attendant knows which extensions are valid in the MERLIN II system and what the maximum number of digits are in an extension (two to four).
TABLE 2-2 Call Processing Options Program Code Option/ Description Default Setting Possible Settings 2901 Day Answer Delay In Day mode, number of rings before the MERLIN II Attendant answers an incoming call. Determines immediate or backup call handling. 1 1–5 2902 Night Answer Delay 1 1–15 2903 Dialing Delay Number of seconds after an announcement that a caller has to dial a route or extension before the call is transferred to the receptionist.
TABLE 2-2 Call Processing Options (continued) Program Code Option/ Description Default Setting Possible Settings 2918 Extension Transfer Indicates how extension calls are transferred. If blind transfer (2) is selected, calls are transferred to the receptionist when an extension dialed is busy or does not answer. If supervised transfer (1) is selected, callers hear the Transfer Fail announcement when an extension dialed is busy or does not answer.
2 Wait for an answer. 3 Dial * followed immediately by your authorized caller number and #. The two-beep confirmation tone sounds. 4 Dial * followed by “Program Code” shown on Table 2-2. 2901 2902 2903 2904 2916 2918 9709 9710 = = = = = = = = Day Answer Delay Night Answer Delay Dialing Delay Extension Delay Extension Digits Extension Transfer Lowest Extension Highest Extension 5 Dial the number you have entered under "Current Setting”. 6 Dial #. The two-beep confirmation tone sounds.
Testing Once you have installed and programmed the MERLIN II Attendant, you should dial the MERLIN II Attendant extension and perform the following tests: TESTING SUPERVISED TRANSFER ROUTES Use this procedure if the customer has programmed any supervised transfer routes: 1 Dial the first supervised transfer route number. 2 Verify that the primary extension from the Route Plan (Planning Form E) rings. Do not pickup the call. Make sure the call is forwarded to the secondary extension, if programmed.
TESTING EXTENSION NUMBERS Use this procedure if the customer allows callers to enter individual extension numbers: 1 Dial a valid extension number. NOTE: If the system includes various numbers of extension digits (e.g., 2- and 3-digit extensions), dial a valid extension number for each extension length. If supervised transfer is selected, there will be a delay of up to two seconds (or the current “Dialing Delay” setting) before you are connected to the extension numbers of the shorter length.
Troubleshooting OUT-OF-SERVICE CODES If the MERLIN II Attendant detects a problem, the unit enters an out-of-service state. The LED labeled “battery” on the front panel blinks a specific number of times, pauses, then repeats the pattern. Refer to Table 3-1 for a list of the Out-of-Service codes. NOTE: The MERLIN II Attendant will not answer calls while it is out of service. The line will continue to ring until the caller hangs up.
TABLE 3-I Out-of-Service Codes Number of Blinks POWER FAILURES Problem 1 Announcements were not recorded or were erased (slow blink) or cannot compute battery level (fast blink). 2 Unable to turn Voice Recorder off. 3 Unable to turn Voice Recorder on. 4 Unable to turn Voice Playback off. 5 Unable to turn Voice Playback on. 6 Announcement detected with no time allocation. 7 Attempt made to play an unrecorded announcement. 8 RAM constants pool corruption detected.
PRINTING REPORTS You can connect a TI 700 or equivalent 1200-baud serial printer to the serial i/o port of the MERLIN II Attendant to produce reports to analyze call traffic patterns or to see how routes, announcement times, or business schedules are programmed. NOTE: A special adapter is required to connect a “silent 700” printer. Setting the Baud Rate The default baud rate for the serial i/o port is 9600.
Contents of a Traffic Analysis Report The traffic analysis report provides the following information: • Route The report is detailed by route number (O through 9) • Messages This field is not relevant to the MERLIN II Attendant. • Attempted This field contains the number of times outside callers have selected a particular route since the last time the counter was reset to 0. See “Resetting the Counters’” for details.
The cable must be configured as shown in Table 3-2.
Resetting the Counters To reset the call handling traffic statistics to O, perform the following steps: 1 Dial the MERLIN II Attendant extension from a Touch-Tone phone, preferably a single-line set. NOTE: 2 Printing Call Processing Reports If you are programming from a multiline Touch-Tone phone connected to a MERLIN II system control unit, you must enter an additional pound (#) sign each time a pound (#) sign appears in a programming command. Wait for an answer.
5 6 Dial #. Once the report is completed, exit authorized caller mode by dialing *#. 7 To LOST AUTHORIZED CALLER CODE disconnect, dial #. If the default authorized caller code (789) is changed and the new code is lost or forgotten, the default code can be restored. However this procedure also restores all the MERLIN II default settings so that any changed programmed setting must be reentered and all announcements must be rerecorded.
Index A Administration mode entering, 1-10 leaving, 1-11 Alternate routing, 1-2 Announcements, 1-1 duration, 2-6 —2-7 maintained during power outage, 3-4 playing back, 2-9 reallocating time, 2-6 recording, 2-8 –2-9 Audio out 1-5 Authorized Caller Code, lost, 3-9 B Back panel, 1-3 Backup call handling, 2-13 Basic Telephone Module, 1-1 administering port 1-10 connecting to, 1-7 connector, 1-6 Battery, 1-2, 1-16 charging, 3-4 light, 1-3, 1-15, 3-3 in out-of-service state, 3-3 recommended switch settings (tabl
O R Out-of-service codes, 3-3 table, 3-4 Outward Restriction, administering, 1-11 Recording announcements, 2-8 —2-9 Remote programmability, 1-1 Reports announcement time allocations, 3-7 business schedule, 3-7 call processing, 3-8 routes, 3-7 traffic analysis, 3-7 Reserved, 1-5 Reset button, 1-4,3-3 Ringing options, changing, 2-17 —2-21 Routing, 1-2 Routing plan, 2-9—2-17 P Panel, bacl, 1-3 Panel, front 1-2 Planning forms, 2-1 Planning Form A, 2-4 Planning Form B, 2-5 Planning Form D, 2-6, 2-8 Planning
