Last Updated: 26 Jun 95
This is a frequently asked question document for the Creative Phone Blaster audio/telephony card. This document summarizes many frequently asked questions and answers about the Phone Blaster. If you have a question, please check this file before calling Creative Technical Support as you may find the answer contained in this document.
Phone Blaster is an add-in board combining both our standard Sound Blaster 16 digital audio and FM synthesis technology, an upgradeable 14.4 modem, a full duplex speakerphone, powerful telecommunications software, and Enhanced IDE CD-ROM interface.
Three Key Messages:
The Phone Blaster is geared towards Small Office and Home Office users.
Phone Blaster can be found at all large computer retail chains as well as at smaller resellers across North America.
Currently, the Phone Blaster is available in Canada and Singapore.
Sound Blaster 16 (Optional settings in parenthesis)
I/O Address: 220h (240h, 260h, 280h)
Interrupt: 5 (2, 7, 10)
DMA: 1 (0, 3)
MIDI Port: 330h (300h, Disabled)
High DMA: 5 (6, 7, Disabled)
Adlib: 388h
Joystick: 207h (Disabled)
IDE CD-ROM Interface (Optional settings in parenthesis)
I/O Address: 170h (1E8h, 168h, Disabled)
Interrupt: 15 (10, 11, 12, Disabled)
Modem (Optional settings in parenthesis)
I/O Address: COM3/3E8h (COM1/3F8h, COM2/2F8, COM4/2E8h)
Interrupt: 11 (3, 4, 10)
The Phone Blaster will work in a Plug and Play system, but you will need to manually configure it. The Phone Blaster itself is not a Plug and Play card.
Phone Blaster supports Enhanced IDE CD-ROM drives. Our current SBIDE.SYS driver (available on the BBS, CompuServe, and FTP site as SBIDE.EXE) supports the following CD-ROMs directly:
SBIDE.SYS version 1.08 supports:
Owners of other Creative Labs non-IDE CD-ROM drives can call Customer Service at 1-800-998-1000 to obtain low cost stand alone CD-ROM controller card, such as the CT1810 which works with our Creative/Panasonic CD-ROM drives.
Note: Also available from Customer Service is the CT1830 which has both a Creative/Panasonic and Sony CD-ROM interface. The Sony CD-ROM interface will work with the Sony CDU-33A CD-ROM, which was packaged in some of our earlier Multimedia Upgrade Kits. This card is currently sold standalone without documentation or CD-ROM drivers. It will default to having the Creative/MKE(Panasonic) interface enabled with the Sony interface being enabled after a jumper change (add a jumper to JP2). All hardware settings are printed on the card.
Wave table synthesis is available as an upgrade. The Phone Blaster features a Wave Blaster connector to upgrade for wave table synthesis using the Wave Blaster II. For questions relating to the Wave Blaster II, see our Wave Blaster II FAQ, available on Creative's BBS (405-742-6660), CompuServe Forum (GO BLASTER), and FTP site (ftp.creaf.com) as WB2FAQ.EXE.
This is not supported. Two Sound Blaster cards generally cannot function together in the same system. Remember that the Phone Blaster is a SB16 card.
The Phone Blaster is 100% Sound Blaster compatible; therefore, it will work with all of your games and applications that are Sound Blaster compatible.
At this time we can provide a more cost effective solution to our customers by implementing both audio and the modem functionality in discrete silicon. We do however believe in DSP technology and use it on other advanced multi-function products.
The Phone Blaster uses a Rockwell Voice Modem chipset.
Yes. An upgrade is now available from your local Customer Service dept.
The Phone Blaster supports a single phone line only with automatic fax-voice detection.
Phone Blaster supports V.42 bis/MNP5 data compression and V.42/MNP4 error control.
Yes. Phone Blaster is fully compatible with Hayes standard commands as well as the extended AT command set, making it compatible with all common applications.
Phone Blaster supports class 1 and class 2 fax commands and Group 3 fax machines.
Yes. It is a standard feature on Phone Blaster as long as the user subscribes to caller ID via their local phone company. Standard Caller-ID supplies the Date, Time, and Phone Number. Enhanced Caller-ID supplies the Date, Time, Phone Number, and Name.
No. The Phone Blaster is an internal ISA card. However, the Phone Blaster will work with most docking stations.
The SBIDE.SYS line in the CONFIG.SYS should look something like this:
DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\SBIDE.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:170,15
You will also need to make sure you have the following line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT:
C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /M:15
Explanation of parameters for SBIDE.SYS:
Explanation of parameters for MSCDEX.EXE:
Type C:\DOS\HELP MSCDEX.EXE for further details on this driver. (MS-DOS v5.0 does not have this help file.)
For other Enhanced IDE CD-ROM drives, use the CD-ROM manufacturer's supplied CD-ROM driver. You may have to reconfigure third party CD-ROM drivers to match the hardware settings of the Phone Blaster.
Yes, Ancilla will hang-up after an amount of silence determined by the "recording silence timeout" setting. The minimum is 1 second, and the maximum is 30 seconds.
The maximum message length can be set anywhere from 10 seconds to 999 seconds (over 16 minutes).
Ancilla will use approximately 250 Kb per minute at the 4 bits per second record setting, or 125 Kb per minute at the 2 bits per second record setting.
Ancilla automatically deletes the silence at the end of a message. Pauses within the message are left intact.
No. Ancilla's message limit is dependent upon the system's hard disk space.
You can reduce the amount of hard disk space each message occupies by using the 2 bits per second record setting and lowering the maximum allowed message recording time.
Ancilla supports 9000 passcode-protected mailboxes.
Yes, if the wave file is 8 or 16 bit, 11 or 22 kHz, mono, and uncompressed.
Yes. Ten documents can be set up for each mailbox, making a total of 90,000 fax on demand documents.
It is legal as long as the remote party is informed that the call is being recorded. Three beeps are played by Ancilla announcing the beginning of a recorded conversation.
Yes, if the application can export data to comma delimited text, which Ancilla will then be able to import. For example, the file should look something like this after it is exported from your application:
"DOE","JOHN","405","555-1234",...
"DOE","JANE","123","456-7890",...
No, because Ancilla provides the functionality within the software.
Yes. Ancilla does support message forwarding and pager notification.
VoiceView lets you exchange files with another user while maintaining the current voice connection. While the file is being transferred, the phone will be silent. When the transfer has completed, voice conversation can be resumed. This eliminates the need to make three separate phone calls.
Yes. It is a standard feature on Phone Blaster.
VoiceView must be used with the handset only. It cannot be used with the speakerphone. The remote system has to support VoiceView in the hardware and any type of file can be transferred.
Yes, Ancilla can play WAV files, MIDI files, or CD Audio while the caller is put on hold.
Remote access is done through DTMF tone. This means that when you check your messages remotely, you will use the touch tone keys on the phone to navigate Ancilla's menus, as a caller would to leave a message.
AT&C1&D2W1X4S38=0S7=60S11=60
Speakerphone volume may be increased with the Modem/PC speaker and master volume in the Creative mixer. Also, with the volume control at the bottom of the dialer. You may want to check JP25, and JP26 to make sure they are on the bottom two pins (see manual) so that the internal amplifier is enabled.
The default setting for the speaker volume is off. If you are having trouble hearing the Phone Blaster, turn the Modem/PC Speaker volume up.
This is probably the result of a COM port and/or IRQ conflict. You will need to change the IRQ and/or COM port settings of the Phone Blaster so that it does not conflict with existing hardware. It may be necessary to disable a COM port that is not being used in the system, and then set the Phone Blaster to that COM port's settings. Our Diagnose Program, which is documented in the Phone Blaster's Getting Started book, can help you locate an available COM port.
1 Good Morning 2 Good Afternoon 3 Good Evening 4 Prompt for touch tone 10 System Greeting 11 Greeting for main menu 20 Enter Mailbox Numberand so on...
Note: the Greeting for main menu can also be changed in the main menu setup screen.
Note: Ancilla's message structure cannot be changed or re-arranged. If you don't want Ancilla to play a particular prompt, you can record silence over the prompt. You cannot change the structure of the system, other than the main menu.
The updated Ancilla v1.51b upgrade/patch will correct this.
Ancilla v1.51 will only work correctly with Standard Caller-ID. The updated Ancilla v1.51b upgrade/patch will work with both Standard and Enhanced Caller-ID.
The updated Ancilla v1.51b upgrade/patch will allow callers with rotary phones to leave a message in the simple answering machine.
You should be able to use other voice messaging software with this modem if the third-party software supports the Rockwell Voice chipset. However, third-party software may not support all of Phone Blaster's features.
Try the following modem selections:
Supra FaxModem 144I
Hayes V-series v.32bis
Zoom 14.4
Other Rockwell chipset based modems
Class 2 Fax/Modem in Fax software
The default initialization strings will be fine.
No, you can only run one communication program at a time. Two communication programs cannot share the same physical COM port.
Edit the login.cmd file in the trumpet directory. Near the beginning there will be an "atz" string. Replace it with this string. Please note that this string is optimized for 14.4kbps only!
AT S37=11 S46=138 S48=7 W1 L3 N0 &R1^M
For a description of the above AT commands, please consult the Phone Blaster's AT Command help-file. The help-file is accessed by clicking on the AT Command ICON located in the Phone Blaster Windows Group.
Ancilla is a Windows based product. Ancilla does not work in DOS although the Phone Blaster will work with other DOS compatible communications programs. We do not support Ancilla under OS/2 or Windows NT.
Ancilla does work under Windows 95, although there is currently no 32-bit version available.
©1995, 1996
Creative Labs, Inc.