I was able to pick up what I believe to be a Western Electric 1D2 style "payphone". I use the term payphone lightly, because this one does not have a coin slot or any coin internals. When I picked it up, it had no keys, but I was able to get a t-key and have the upper lock drilled out. I have since bought a replacement lock, and all of that is working good now.
When I first tried to wire it up, I wasn't getting a dial tone at all. After playing around a bit, I realized that the grey serial plug type connector to the left of the plug coming from the keypad had to be plugged in. I'm taking it that this plug is where the coin mechanism would plug into. I suspect the plug that is there now is made in a way to short out certain pins to bypass the coin mechanism. As you can see from the pics, I have only connected the R & T wires (I'm using yellow/black). I do have a dial tone and am able to make and receive calls.
The main issue I am having is call quality. There is some slight background static that both parties can hear. Also, the voices on both sides of the conversation seem to be too low and we notice some lag.
Can anyone offer suggestions on what should be tested/replaced/added to help get this running better? I'm new to this stuff, but am constantly digging to learn more.
I appreciate any help given,
the_buzz_man
Larger pics of the inside pics, just in case it helps.
Calling card phone?
Just a guess
Jim S.
I bought one a few months ago and it was described as a "jail house" phone. It has a really short 2 foot handset cord. Mine also did not come with keys and had to drill out the Medico locks.
Quote from: the_buzz_man on February 16, 2018, 02:10:12 PM
I was able to pick up what I believe to be a Western Electric 1D2 style "payphone". I use the term payphone lightly, because this one does not have a coin slot or any coin internals. When I picked it up, it had no keys, but I was able to get a t-key and have the upper lock drilled out. I have since bought a replacement lock, and all of that is working good now.
When I first tried to wire it up, I wasn't getting a dial tone at all. After playing around a bit, I realized that the grey serial plug type connector to the left of the plug coming from the keypad had to be plugged in. I'm taking it that this plug is where the coin mechanism would plug into. I suspect the plug that is there now is made in a way to short out certain pins to bypass the coin mechanism. As you can see from the pics, I have only connected the R & T wires (I'm using yellow/black). I do have a dial tone and am able to make and receive calls.
The main issue I am having is call quality. There is some slight background static that both parties can hear. Also, the voices on both sides of the conversation seem to be too low and we notice some lag.
Can anyone offer suggestions on what should be tested/replaced/added to help get this running better? I'm new to this stuff, but am constantly digging to learn more.
I appreciate any help given,
the_buzz_man
This should just work as a regular pone mounted in a vandal resistant cabinet. Are you sure your black wire is connected to the right terminal? Could it be it should have been connected to the one Marked L1?
dsk
So is this likely a special chassis built to turn a 1D2 into a Charge-A-Call Phone?
Terry
Quote from: AE_Collector on February 17, 2018, 10:06:07 AM
So is this likely a special chassis built to turn a 1D2 into a Charge-A-Call Phone?
Terry
The light gray plug in lower left of chassis has straps to bypass the need for coin relay or totalizer. So it's a standard WE "dumb board."
Pelco near Birmingham, Alabama bought all 140,000 pay phones that BellSouth surplused when they exited the pay phone business. This looks like a Pelco-modified prison phone.
The phone is a payphone wired for corrections or jail phone. These were not used as charge a calls they were used as jail phones because of security. The problem you are describing is latency in the voice conversation. That does not sound like a phone problem it sounds like a line problem. What kind of dial tone is plugged into it?
Quote from: Payphone installer on February 18, 2018, 07:50:35 AM
The phone is a payphone wired for corrections or jail phone. These were not used as charge a calls they were used as jail phones because of security. The problem you are describing is latency in the voice conversation. That does not sound like a phone problem it sounds like a line problem. What kind of dial tone is plugged into it?
Not sure what you mean by what kind of dial tone is plugged into it. I'm using a line that was going to another phone we had hanging on the wall, which had no problems at all. That is why I feel it has something to do within the phone itself. This line runs directly to the outside box from the phone company.
The latency isn't too bad, though if it can be fixed, I would like to. The main thing I would like to fix is the slight static in the background and possibly increasing the volume. I'm just not sure what the proper order of replacing things would be to narrow down the issue.
Thanks for the help,
the_buzz_man
Many things static related with payphones usually involved the handset and transmitter when I worked payphones assuming that the phone line (dial tone) is good otherwise.
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=6789.0
Terry
What kind of dial tone means from a cable company? On Fios who is the dial tone provider. As for the handset when you here the static wrap it on a table or hit it on the side with a screw driver handle if its the handset it will temporary stop or get worse. With the upper on the phone hit it with your fist on the side with the handset against your ear. If the static gets worse it could be the dial. You have a APC dial in the phone. They made just ok stuff they were a US West company. The switch in your phone was designed to withstand impact that is why there are rollers on the switch hook. The design was to keep from transferring impact to the switch when the handset was slammed in the cradle. This was a jail phone so you can count on it being abused. Static is a bad connection,something is loose or a bad connection under a screw or contact. Latency is lost packets on a IP telephone line. They are two different things. So anytime you tap the various parts in the phone with your hand or a screwdriver handle it will get worse or better when you get to the right part. I used this method for 18 years on every kind of phone you can imagine. Princess phones were notorious for bad switches and you could find them by tapping the side every-time.
Quote from: dsk on February 17, 2018, 05:17:05 AM
This should just work as a regular pone mounted in a vandal resistant cabinet. Are you sure your black wire is connected to the right terminal? Could it be it should have been connected to the one Marked L1?
dsk
OK, I looked into the "L1" connection today. There is no wire that goes from the bottom of the "L1" terminal to anywhere on the control board. All three of the others had wires soldered to them and were connected to the control board somewhere. I have removed the "G" wire because it made no difference if it was connected or not.
the_buzz_man
Quote from: Payphone installer on February 18, 2018, 02:25:45 PM
What kind of dial tone means from a cable company? On Fios who is the dial tone provider. As for the handset when you here the static wrap it on a table or hit it on the side with a screw driver handle if its the handset it will temporary stop or get worse. With the upper on the phone hit it with your fist on the side with the handset against your ear. If the static gets worse it could be the dial. You have a APC dial in the phone. They made just ok stuff they were a US West company. The switch in your phone was designed to withstand impact that is why there are rollers on the switch hook. The design was to keep from transferring impact to the switch when the handset was slammed in the cradle. This was a jail phone so you can count on it being abused. Static is a bad connection,something is loose or a bad connection under a screw or contact. Latency is lost packets on a IP telephone line. They are two different things. So anytime you tap the various parts in the phone with your hand or a screwdriver handle it will get worse or better when you get to the right part. I used this method for 18 years on every kind of phone you can imagine. Princess phones were notorious for bad switches and you could find them by tapping the side every-time.
The dial tone is provider from my internet/phone company, Cameron Communications. I tried hitting the handset and moving around pretty much every wire I could, none of which made a difference with the static.
Just to be clear, the static is obvious, but it is mostly like background noise. It is constant, never really changing. You can still have a conversation with it going on, but it does get annoying after a while. Both parties can hear the noise. As for the latency issues, I believe that may have been due to the fact that we were talking to people on cell phones. Honestly, I haven't talked to anyone on another landline yet. I will have to try that soon.
A couple of things I noticed just playing around: I tried rotating the pin connector from the handset to the keypad assembly to see what would happen. The static actually went away, but I could not hear the dial tone. If I pushed the keys, I could hear them, but they were really faint. If I pushed down on the hookswitch about halfway, it would get louder. I have no idea what, if anything, this would mean to anyone. Also, I did notice a change in pitch and volume with the static if I barely connected the grey connector that bypasses the coin mechanism. Once pushed all the way in, it stays the same.
So, with all that said, if this was your phone, what would be the first thing to try swapping out? I'm thinking the handset, but wanted to double check.
Once again, thanks for the help and guidance.
the_buzz_man
Have you tried hooking up,another phone to the line that you have the payphone on to see if you have static. Are you sure the static is in the phone? This is where a butt set comes in handy to just connect into the end of the IW or inside wire to see if there is static there. Do you know for,sure,it is a phone problem?
I would start on the outer edge and work my way in:
1) use a different handset/cable - this would either identify or eliminate the handset
2) The wire connecting from your source to the phone itself
3) Other connections along the way (see below)
I haven't read up on the details of this model, but would look at all of the connection points:
1) All the screws tight (and yes, every single screw)
2) Solder joints - could have something failing
3) Connectors - there may be one pin on a connector which is not making reliable contact.
It's working, just with some static...
Hope this helps.
Jim
I moved another phone to this line and I do believe I can hear a faint bit of static, but not nearly as bad. Do these handsets have something that may be amplifying the noise? I think what I will try tomorrow, weather permitting, is going and hooking up straight to the outside box where the phone line comes out from the fiber box.
One question right now though...in the pic below, what is the little green board that I have outlined in red for? The only thing hooked to it is the red wire coming from the ringer. I removed the terminals that was above this board and hooked directly into the controller board with my phone line to remove one possible source of bad connections.
Thanks for the info,
the_buzz_man
to test a different dial or handset dont take the whole thing apart just hold a handset in your hand and plug it into the dial. Do the same with a different dial and handset. One more thing I just thought of is there DSL on this line and does it require any type of filter?
Quote from: Payphone installer on February 21, 2018, 03:09:57 PM
to test a different dial or handset dont take the whole thing apart just hold a handset in your hand and plug it into the dial. Do the same with a different dial and handset. One more thing I just thought of is there DSL on this line and does it require any type of filter?
No DSL here, so no filters being used.
I have gone ahead and ordered another handset which should be here in a couple of days. We will see if that helps any.
the_buzz_man
Maybe someone can chime in here to help me remember..
I remember one of my old (meaning no longer here) phones that had the Gemini dial setup had to have two of the pins jumpered on the 11 pin round connector to pass audio properly.
I had to wrap a bare wire around pins 5 & 6 connecting them to one another.
I'm pretty sure that's a Gemini but I cant confirm because I have only WE dial assemblies on the shelf.
Also, are you sure the handset plug is oriented correctly on the pins?
I have sometimes found myself mixing up which way it came off by 1/4 turn or more incorrect.
I should ask if you are hearing sidetone? Without actually hearing what you're hearing I can only speculate and in full disclosure,
I'm not a phone pro. I work for the cable company.
Just a thought that may or may not help...
jon
Quote from: Sigmaz on February 24, 2018, 04:37:38 PM
Maybe someone can chime in here to help me remember..
I remember one of my old (meaning no longer here) phones that had the Gemini dial setup had to have two of the pins jumpered on the 11 pin round connector to pass audio properly.
I had to wrap a bare wire around pins 5 & 6 connecting them to one another.
I'm pretty sure that's a Gemini but I cant confirm because I have only WE dial assemblies on the shelf.
Also, are you sure the handset plug is oriented correctly on the pins?
I have sometimes found myself mixing up which way it came off by 1/4 turn or more incorrect.
I should ask if you are hearing sidetone? Without actually hearing what you're hearing I can only speculate and in full disclosure,
I'm not a phone pro. I work for the cable company.
Just a thought that may or may not help...
jon
I will check and see what jumping pins 5 & 6 do. I have tried rotating the 4-pin connector on the handset, just to make sure. There is a white line drawn on the side that faces you, so I suspect that is an alignment marker. The new handset should be in tomorrow, so I will get back to playing with it again then.
Thanks for the ideas,
the_buzz_man
Well, I tried jumping pins 5 & 6, and that didn't seem to make any difference. I did notice that pins 4&7 and 6&8 were already jumped. See pic below
Also, it seems the "new" handset I received was broken as I never could get the transmitter to work, which was the main thing I was wanting to test out.
Does anyone know exactly what components (control board and dialer) these are and can point me in the right direction of how they are supposed to be wired? I'm willing to resolder these connections, but I want to make sure that I solder them back in the correct locations.
the_buzz_man
Darn. I was hoping that would do something for you.
The wiring diagram and pin designations have got to be around somewhere.
I was trying to get a hold of them myself a while back to rewire my totalizer.