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Setting up an 120 B the right way?

Started by dsk, May 11, 2014, 09:04:02 AM

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dsk

After counting up and down, and really not knowing what I want... I bought this NIB BIN payphone.
It is a Palco 120B which I guess are pretty like the AE 120B's

I'm just waiting for it to arrive.

$200 Feels pretty expensive but it is NIB.

Now I need help to make it work, and hopefully collect/return money.

dsk

AE_Collector

Yes an AE 120B or some possibility of it being the earlier 120A. We need pictures inside to know for sure. Most likely not brand new but refurbished I would think. Palco made lots of phone parts for refurbishing telephones and I believe that they ran refurbishing centres somewhere as well. Others will know more about Palco. AE eventually sold their Payphone line to Quadrum.

Terry


rdelius

I thought Palco bought AEs paystation line.and was in Huntsville Ala.

AE_Collector

I do see that Palco is in Huntsville and wondered if they had acquired the AE Payphone line. But I recall lots of payphone parts being branded Quadrum here in the 1990's and maybe just assumed that Quadrum had wound up with AE's Payphone line when AE went under. All I can come up with for a location for Quadrum is Nashville and that says "since 2009" so maybe Quadrum has been acquired by someone else now.

I'm confused,
Terry

dsk

#4
 :) It has arrived  :D

I do not know how to connect it right. Just connecting line to red and green gives dial tone, but no function of the dial pad.

Enclosed some pictures and scan of the documentation.

dsk

dsk

And some pictures:

poplar1

"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

AE_Collector

Looks to be all the proper AE boards and pieces, no newer aftermarket stuff. I think that you should be able to get dial tone and make a call with the touchpad. Check all of those options on the main circuit board "Chassis" that are selected by moving wires to different pins.

Terry

mentalstampede

Nice phone! Looks just like the payphones of my childhood growing up in GTE territory.
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

dsk

Yes it is working as a prepay.
(manually pulsing 100V DC to the relay)
Norwegian 10 KR  (NOK 10 ~$1.7) works as 25 cents, and a krone works as 5 cents.

Now I have to get my fingers into some locks and the coin box, and of-course make a controller.  ;D

dsk

dsk

Here are the labels I got with it:
dsk



dsk

#11
Now I  have got my 120B in working condition ;D
But how should I set up to work like this?


As I have it by now, it is dial tone first. - Deposit the right amount 25 cents or a (Norwegian 10 krone. )
Then the dial works. 

My prototype controller returns when hanging up, or collects if my timer has counted 50 sec before hang up.

I do not understand how it should be made to remember the amount deposited before going off hook, and then allow dialing.

DSK's Controller: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11987.0

dsk

poplar1

#12
On GTE (Automatic Electric) multi-slot prepay phones I recall, you indeed had a dial tone before depositing coins ("dial tone first"), but you could not dial out until you inserted money. One advantage of this setup, rather than the "coin first" set up, was that the user could verify that the phone was "working"--i.e. had dial tone--before attempting a call.

Starting in the 1970s many WE prepay phones--whether single slot or multi-slot-- were converted from "coin first" (ground start) to "dial tone first" (loop start). This allowed emergency calls to be made without coins. The first instruction card in your other post seems to suggest that the AE 120B also allowed emergency calls ("Prepay  Tone First or Emergency HD-53007A.")

Perhaps Terry can tell us which way 120Bs were usually furnished for prepay--"coin first" or "dial tone first." I would also like to know whether the "dial shorting" on the multi-slots was done inside the AE phone, or in the central office.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

mentalstampede

I would set it up for dial tone first.  That's how all the AE120s were around my hometown in the 1980s.  I've never seen an AE single slot in actual service set up for coin-first service.
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

AE_Collector

Those yellow cards are the standard AE cards that come with AE Payphones. Did it have the clear plastic covers as well?

Terry