Home > Help, Info, Tips, Advice, Specs, Fun > Advanced techie stuff > Panasonic > Panasonic KX-TAW848 tips

Panasonic KX-TAW848 tips

(1) While you are making programming changes with the software, it's important to save your changes to the SD card in the phone system. Click on the little SD icon near the top of the screen.

(2) If the alarm light comes on, don't assume there has been major damage. The light can be triggered by something as simple as unplugging a KX-T0141 cell station. Use the PC software. Close anything active on the right part of the screen by clicking on OK. Then click on Utility from the top of the screen. Then select Error Log from the drop-down menu. Then view and clear the error log (major and minor) when it opens on the right side of the screen. The alarm light will go out. (It's not possible to turn off the light from a phone.)

(3) Unlike the KX-TD systems, there are no default artificial extension numbers for the voice processor ports connected to a KX-TAW848. We recommend that you use 165 for the first one. In the 848, this is called a floating extension number.

(4) There are many lapses of logic, and inconsistencies in the installation manual and programming software. For example, you'll see both WIRELESS phones and CORDLESS phones, and both wireless PHONES and wireless STATIONS. They mean the same thing.

(5) Phones can have intercom numbers (extension numbers) ranging from 100 to 600. By default, the first 24 phones are numbered 101 through 124, but can be changed.

(6) When you turn on your system for the first time, you must initialize it with the System Initialize Switch and Reset Button on the cabinet. Instructions for this procedure start on page 98 of the installation manual. If you install any optional circuit modules after initializing, you don't have to initialize the system again. The system will automatically recognize the new additions.

(7) In order to use the "maintenance console" software to program your 848, you will probably have to load its USB driver. Drivers are included for Windows 98, 2000 and XP. (8) You can plug-in a source of music- or message-on-hold, or select from two types of synthesized built-in on-hold tunes, or a periodic "beep-beep" tone. Here's how to change the setting: From the expandable menu at the left of the screen, click on System, then BGM / Music on Hold. On the right-hand side of the screen, Click on "Apply" and "OK." Click on the SD icon near the top of the screen to save to the SD memory card. Internal BGM/MOH 1 sounds kind of like a combination "Sidewalks of New York" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Internal BGM/MOH 2 is "A Lover's Concerto" ("How Gentle is the Rain.")

(9) Unlike other Panasonic systems, it's hard to accidentally turn on background music. Press Intercom, then *7511 to turn it on, or *7510 to turn it off.

(10) The system is very smart. It knows what circuit modules you've installed. For example, you can't program door intercom ringing, if you have not installed a door intercom circuit board.

(11) If you're having trouble saving your program settings while using a PC, make sure you're not in BATCH mode, instead of INTERACTIVE. Look at the bottom-left of the screen. If you're in batch, exit the program, and re-connect to the phone system.

(12) The manuals have tiny type that may be hard for your to read. Much (maybe all) of the material in the Installation Manual is also viewable on your PC, with larger type and diagrams, by selecting HELP from the top of the "maintenance console" software.