Does anyone use Verizon's or AT&T's "Home Phone" in their RV from their RV batteries and not an AC inverter? The reason I am asking is I have encountered a problem using a Verizon “home phone” along with a cordless phone. Briefly when I use the “Home Phone” (a wireless phone provided by Verizon and AT&T) connect to a cordless phone in my house with both running on their own 120 volt ac wall warts all works fine. I want to take this along with me in the RV and want to use it on the vehicles battery system. The “home phone” is 12v DC (direct plug into 12 volts in RV) and the cordless phone is 6.5v DC (convert 12v to 6.5v adapter). The “home phone” and cordless phone are tied together with the standard 4 pin RJ-11 connector. What happens when I try to run both on DC with the proper voltage adapters, is I get no dial tone. I am assuming this has to do with the tip and ring function. Now to get around this I purchased a 12v isolation power supply and use this to plug my 12v to 6v convertor into. By isolating the ground between the two it works fine, just like at home. I would like to do away with the isolation power supply and not use an inverter. I am looking for suggestions as how to do this. If you are running a similar setup on your battery system without any problems what brand of cordless phone are you using?Thanks

Here is one possible explanation: Those cordless phone are often duplex operations with one side of the operation going out over 900 MHz or 2.4GHz, or 5GHz...and they receive on low frequencies sent over house AC wiring. When you are running your system with 12VDC there is no AC wiring available for the low frequency antenna.

Ed_Gee wrote:Here is one possible explanation: Those cordless phone are often duplex operations with one side of the operation going out over 900 MHz or 2.4GHz, or 5GHz...and they receive on low frequencies sent over house AC wiring. When you are running your system with 12VDC there is no AC wiring available for the low frequency antenna.If you are referring to a standard cordless phone I'd like to know the make and model of any phone in the last 20 years with any operation below 72MHZ. Any digital phone these days is spread spectrum or a channel hopper at the least, and duplex operation is packet shared on exactly the same frequencies.OP- have you watched the off hook DC voltage as well as static? All signaling and audio should be transferred over the RJ-11. If the design is such that the electronics grounds need to be DC isolated and the manfacturer is relying on xformer isolation of the wall worts... That sux.. You can find DC-DC converters on eBay that might work but it sounds like you need to do a little research with a DVM or scope and see if ring ground is being carried through via DC ground and giving the appearance of the phone hung up :(

We have our Phone Power VOIP "home" phone service forwarded to one of our cell phones so we don't need to lug anything else along with us. The forwarding is set so if the first phone doesn't answer after several rings, the second cell phone rings. A no answer there goes to voicemail. Both cell phones have an app for the VOIP service installed that lets us make calls using the VOIP service. I don't know if the Verizon Home Phone cell service supports any of that, although I'm sure it supports basic forwarding at least. At $35/year using an ObiHai phone adapter, our Phone Power service is a lot cheaper though.

A Home Phone is a cell phone service base unit that has the capability of connecting to a cordless phone just like your land line. I have the unit working on the RV's 12 volt system but have to use an isolation power supply so I can separate the ground between the home phone and the cordless phone. I would like to find a workaround so I don't have to use the isolation power supply or an inverter, both of which are inefficient and consume unneeded power when boondocking. My setup is basically the same as yours (Panasonic base with 2 remotes) but using a wireless phone instead of a hardwired landline.RoyB wrote:I guess I am not reading this good but how is this going to work on the road. The base unit in my case has to be connected to my telephone company Verizon land line connection. I have a setup here with one of the older Panasonic base station units that has four remote portable setup units. Here in my back yard where I have a 5th wheel trailer that is setup and never goes anywhere and the wireless portable units connected to my base unit work just fine. I have a good 50-foot range in my back yard with this setup.If I carry one of the wireless remotes outside the 50-foot backyard range zone then it quits working and I get no dial-tone.We may be talking about two different problems here... Disregard all if we are talking about two different problems hereRoy Ken

Verizon "Home Phone" | Good Sam Community

Coach-man
Explorer
Nov 23, 2016
There have been several good posts of a possible solution. However, as a "HomePhone" with a cordless phone I would think they both are designed to work off 120 V AC? I would invest in a small invertor and connect to a 120 V AC outlet where you can plug both into. Then they would "think" they are "home" and work as advertised!
SCVJeff
Explorer
Nov 23, 2016
Thats an incredible waste of power and exactly what the OP is trying to avoid
garry1p
Explorer
Nov 24, 2016
One solution would be to use the old style corded phones.

The Home Phone has 2 RJ 11 slots so you could have 2 phones you would have to run wire to both phones. Not as convenient but workable.

Not sure how to get around the ground problem with the wireless other than your current set up.

You can find old style phones at thrift stores for a dollar.
RLS7201
Explorer II
Nov 24, 2016
You might try a Ferrite noise filter on the ground lines.
Cheap and easy to try. The more passes you make throught the filter, the better it works.
We had a simular issue with a 12 volt Blue Ray player and our 12 volt TV. The Ferrite filter on the ground wires fixed our problem.
We also use a Verizon Home Phone Connect. Both at home and in the RV, using the RV batteries and a cradel phone when on the road. Best deal in town.
Ferrite Filters

Richard
SCVJeff
Explorer
Nov 24, 2016
RLS7201 wrote:
You might try a Ferrite noise filter on the ground lines.
Cheap and easy to try. The more passes you make throught the filter, the better it works.
We had a simular issue with a 12 volt Blue Ray player and our 12 volt TV. The Ferrite filter on the ground wires fixed our problem.
We also use a Verizon Home Phone Connect. Both at home and in the RV, using the RV batteries and a cradel phone when on the road. Best deal in town.
Ferrite Filters

Richard
We've (me & OP) have been talking via PM. He's done all the homework and is correct that it's a common ground rail problem, and the manfacturer expects an AC wall work that by default floats ground from the rest of the world. His solution of a DC-DC converter is the right, and maybe only one to get around a really cheaped out design.
LannyV
Explorer
Nov 25, 2016
We have a hardwired set up in the camper and carry the wireless in the cab of the truck.

garry1p wrote:
One solution would be to use the old style corded phones.

The Home Phone has 2 RJ 11 slots so you could have 2 phones you would have to run wire to both phones. Not as convenient but workable.

Not sure how to get around the ground problem with the wireless other than your current set up.

You can find old style phones at thrift stores for a dollar.
LannyV
Explorer
Nov 25, 2016
We have been using the Home Phone like you for several years now both at home and in our TC. We do have a corded cradle phone in the TC but use the cordless in the cab of the truck.

RLS7201 wrote:
You might try a Ferrite noise filter on the ground lines.
Cheap and easy to try. The more passes you make throught the filter, the better it works.
We had a simular issue with a 12 volt Blue Ray player and our 12 volt TV. The Ferrite filter on the ground wires fixed our problem.
We also use a Verizon Home Phone Connect. Both at home and in the RV, using the RV batteries and a cradel phone when on the road. Best deal in town.
Ferrite Filters

Richard
Gene_Ginny
Explorer
Nov 28, 2016
An easy thing to try is to reverse the "tip" and "ring" of the RJ11 plug that goes into the Verizon Home Phone unit. Standard phone wiring from the central office has ground on the "tip" side and 48 volts DC on the "ring" side. To get dial tone all you need is a resistance accross the tip and ring.

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