Rotary COCOT?

[tallrick]

I don't own a rotary payphone yet, but have seen many rotary payphones pictured in places like New York where they were supposed to be installed to prevent beeper numbers from being called? I have always wondered, were they just dumb phones or were any of them equipped with COCOT boards? 

[Payphone installer]

There were no rotary COCOT as they were not nessary. Once the smart set came out the board had the ability to pulse dial. In other words as in the software of a Protel set you can tell the phone to Pulse out all outbound calls. It was common to program a phone this way in a drug area. However most private payphone companies did not want to do this as it suppressed revenue. If you are going to get a rotary set spend some time researching to get a nice older model the cost will be the same as one that has been put together. Look for something in the 70's.

[Protel8000]

There were no rotary COCOT as they were not nessary. Once the smart set came out the board had the ability to pulse dial. In other words as in the software of a Protel set you can tell the phone to Pulse out all outbound calls. It was common to program a phone this way in a drug area. However most private payphone companies did not want to do this as it suppressed revenue. If you are going to get a rotary set spend some time researching to get a nice older model the cost will be the same as one that has been put together. Look for something in the 70's.

Would a Protel 8000 board work with an actual rotary dial? The connector looks the same (I could be wrong, I've only seen photos) but can the chassis understand the input from the pulse dial? If so, you could have a situation where you dial via rotary and the chassis would dial to the line as DTFM. Wouldn't be practical for any real world usage but would be neat to have a functional coin rotary phone.

[Payphone installer]

Yes with a pulse to tone converter inserted in the circuit, it would take a bit of investigation to determine which wire on the dial plug talk to the chassis.