ATT 1991 22A programmable pay phone

[ramegoom]

Found this beauty of a pay phone, brand new, complete with the install components and transformer. But I have no idea what it is other than an ATT pay phone. It appears to be one that is owned and programmed by a private party. No idea how to make it work, but I'm inclined to attach it to the wall wart and see what happens with the LCD screen inside the phone.

Can any of you pay phone experts enlighten me? I'd like to work it into my switchboard and have no outside line.

[ramegoom]

Anyone here have any info on how this phone is set up? Appears to have a programmable feature with an on-board computer inside the phone.

It's complete and unused, so I thought I'd play with it a bit.

[Payphone installer]

Private payphone plus if you hook it up correctly it will fire up and work on default mode

[ramegoom]

Thanks.

I assume since it has a speaker, it will ring on an incoming call.

I'll power it up and experiment with it. There are no instruction cards - any idea where I'd find them, or do I need to fabricate the cards?

[Key2871]

From what I remember, you can't play around with it. Unless you have the program disks, and call in via remote phone.
I never got any I worked on to work on default. They wouldn't do anything. But Jim is more expert on that than I am.
He may even have the disks.
I did several for Paul vaverchack back years ago. Used ITT phone parts like network and dial pads. Retro fitted them to just work as a non ringing phone.

[ramegoom]

Well, plugged the transformer in, hooked it up and I get a dial tone. Inside, it prompts for a security code on the keyboard. Hacked it a while, it's 0-0-0-0 and it gets me into some sort of audit info, coins in, receiver off-hook, etc. Nothing of any real use.

Oddly, the LCD screen defaults with a time and date that's close (less than a day) to current, so there must be a real time clock that's been ticking away for the last 27 years while it sat in a box. I don't see a way to enter the correct date and time though.

Anyway, I get a dial tone and if I dial a 7 digit number, a voice prompts me to insert $1 for 5 minutes of talk time. If I dial ten or 11 digits, a voice tells me the call can't be completed.

The build date on this phone is 1991. Apparently, you didn't need to dial the area code if you made a call back then.

Next, I'll try to feed it a ring signal to see if it actually rings. But, it seems that the phone won't connect to the outside world unless I coin it up, so I'll play with it some more.

[Payphone installer]

What you see is what you get,messing with the key pad on the inside will Bly mess up the default program. One of the problems with the phone was it was not able to handle 10-digit dialing. It was produced prior to 10 -digit dialing. So it could only handle 7 and 11 digit dialing. AT&T scraped the phone and replaced it with a completely different model. I do have the software but it is on floppy disks. The phone was first released I believe in 1987 or so. It was in service until sometime in the 90's. They worked very well, only the very earliest smart payphones had transformers.  The biggest cause of trouble on the phone was the AT&T handset on the phone. It hand a cable threw the handset armor that was not coated with plastic. The cable eventually cuts threw the wire and grounds the handset lead. This causes the transformer to burn out. I installed and worked on these for years it was the most common problem of why they quit working. They made the Eagle 1,2,3 there were shuttle differences. The AT&T logos was removed because of a law suit. But that a long story that I already typed on the forum. I do believe the manual is already on the forum so place also. 








a completely different payphone after the advent of 10 - digit dialing.

[Key2871]

When I was in the ATCA a member there offered to program a set that I got used. I wanted it to be a quarter for out going calls. At first it was good, he made it so I could answer incoming calls, the problem arose after an update he did a second time. It was then set at 75 cents for an out going call, and it was only for a minute. I asked him why he changed it. He said that he didn't,  something must have happened in it to change the programming.
I didn't think that was possible, but then again I didn't know anything about these and programming, so no just decided to make it a D set, and live with it that way.
Now a days protel boards and programming would make that phone work right.
Question for Jim, did this guy change something in programming the second time? Or was it really my set that changed its mind?

[Payphone installer]

Sounds to me like he changed the rate file that rates the calls. It's been so long since I used the software just really can't remember. It was really primitive stuff.

[Key2871]

Stone knives and bear skin stuff...
But that's what I said he denied it. It's all irreivant now anyway. Thanks Jim.

[ramegoom]

Now I need some professional help (people tell me this all  the time)
I now have this phone wired and "functional". Pick it up, you get a dial tone. Dial a 7-digit number, the computer voice prompts "Please insert one dollar for five minutes".

Dial 10 or 11 digits, it tells me it can't complete the call.
Dial 411, 511 etc. and it requests 50 cents to complete the call.
Dial an 800 number, it again wants 50 cents to put you through.
Dial 911, the line goes dead - so I assume it's trying to connect to an outside line to dial emergency.

The internal time and date shown on the LCD is within two days of today's date, so the sluggish internal clock is working, but no way to correct it.

So my question: Is it feasible to program this phone, and if so, who among us has the software/hardware to do it? I don't have an outside line, so it'd have to be programmed on-site. It's strictly a gimmick but I'm wanting to tinker with it, try to understand the system. Questions directed to you former phone installers, and strictly wanting to keep this goofy phone alive if for no other reason, because of the vintage-ness of it.

I managed to get my 551a switchboard up and running perfectly thanks in a big part to forum members in the know. Maybe I can make this one work.

I hacked the internal security code to get me in to the internal menu, so it's working correctly so far. And, I designed some custom instruction cards to fill the openings in the front. It is a cool nostalgic flash from the past.

[Key2871]

Payphoneinstaller said that phone will NOT  dial a ten digit number, it won't do it. The newer eagle set will, yours will not.
That's why it was discontinued shortly after being on the market. Unless programming is done to tell it what it's supposed to do for local or emergency calls, it charges you for it.
Basically it's a smart dumb set. It will take money but for local calls only.

[ramegoom]

I figured.

It will take and hold coins when inserted, and when I hang up, coins are returned to me. I just though it'd be fun to re-program it to do other things, but still, it's useless otherwise.

[Key2871]

Yes, if you want the coins to be returned, just reverse the leads on the coin relay. So after money is deposited and you return the handset to the cradle, coins will fall into the return.

[ramegoom]

So it sounds like, even if I delve into the programming of this phone, I'm limited to what can be set up, since the phone was never designed to accept 10 or 11 digit inputs. Later phones were.

Strictly novelty here. Nevertheless, it's a peek into the past, before cell phones took over. And before life was complicated.