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Protel Pay Phone

Started by Kelpie, September 18, 2012, 03:54:50 PM

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Randie

Hi Jim,

I used your call in number a few years ago to program my Protel Ascent phone.  It worked fine until recently when the ni-cad batteries went dead.  I replaced them and reset the phone to it's defaults.  I called your number for programming, but didn't hear what I remember as the modem negotiation sounds.  Just kind of a single tone.  I tried it through the pay phone and it was not successful at negotiating a connection.  Is your programming for 555-555-5555 still in place and usable?

Thanks!

Randie

Payphone installer

I will try and remember to check it on Monday,are you using a standard line it will probably not work on a VoIP line.

Randie

Soon after my wife signed up for VOIP phone service (through Pioneer Telephone in Maine), my Protel Ascent payphone stopped working.  The batteries were dead, so I replaced them with a new set.  I couldn't program the phone by dialing up Jim's Expressnet, but I was able to get it working again with some manual programming.  But just a few weeks later, the new batteries were dead and the programming was lost again. :(   I don't think I have the discipline to keep swapping out batteries every few weeks.

So I've a few questions for anyone kind enough to answer:

1)  Do the batteries get charged only when the phone is off the hook, or does it charge all the time from the line?
2)  Is there something about a VOIP connection & device that would prevent batteries from charging?  Maybe not enough current on the line?  Is there a way to measure the voltage and current to see if it's sufficient?
3)  Is there a way to hook up a battery charger to the battery pack while it's connected to the phone?  It would be ideal if I could just power the phone via a transformer cube and have the battery pack just there for power outages (assuming it would also charge from the transformer).

Any advice, from anyone would be helpful!  Thanks

Randie.


trainman

They are charged only when phone is offhook.

Www.payphone.com has an external battery charger if you want to get it, and a second battery to keep a fully charged spare.

Or you can use the payphone more often. But i dont use mine all that much, and never had a battery issue. I also have a traditional landline, so I cant say if the VOIP has an issue with charging it.

Payphone411

*#68 will tell your phone to charge the battery. If you have a security code you will have to enter that after you enter *#68
*#67 will let you know if your battery has a good charge. 1 beep for good 2 for marginal.

tallrick

My phones could go weeks without the batteries losing charge,. The problem I had was that corrosion developed on the connector where the battery meets the board and drained the battery. My system uses VOIP but the phones are connected to a channel bank and got charged fairly regularly. On the one phone I rigged a solar panel with charger that kept the enclosure light and fed back to the Protel battery. Simple LM series 5 volt regulator and comparator to prevent overcharging. Using a MagicJack,  will keep the Protel phones charged for a while but once the battery goes down too much it cannot recharge . The Sipura boxes seem to work as does the  Asterisk FXS interfaces. Ooma seems to also work but I never tried Vonage.

MaximRecoil

#66
Quote from: Payphone installer on February 04, 2017, 08:11:26 PM
We have batteries still it may charge back up with the code just depends on the version of software. If they are not used often they will always go dead.

I came up with a workaround for that for my Western Electric payphone (Protel 8000 chassis), because when I first got my payphone up and running in 2012 I bought one of those premade battery packs for it from Payphone.com and after about 9 months it was so dead that it wouldn't even hold a charge anymore (I rarely use my payphone).

To get around the problem I needed better batteries than those cheap Ni-CDs that come in the premade battery packs. So I bought a plastic battery holder (this one) and the right type of connector (Molex SL series 2-position; I bought the actual Molex connector and pins and crimped them on, but you can also just cut the connector off a dead premade battery pack and splice it onto the battery holder wires, if you don't have a Molex crimping tool).

The best rechargeable battery you can get is Sanyo/Panasonic Eneloop, especially for applications where the batteries sit for long periods of time without being recharged (due to their very low self-discharge rate: 70% retained charge after five years). The Eneloops I have can also be recharged 1800 times, which might as well be a lifetime in this case. And each one has a 2000 mAh capacity (newer Eneloops have even more impressive specs), compared to the 600 mAh capacity of each of those cheap NiCDs in the premade battery pack. As a bonus I can recharge them in the battery charger that I already have (a Sanyo brand one that was bundled with the first pack of Eneloop batteries I bought in 2012; $15.47 total).

I did that in the summer of 2013, and despite hardly ever using the payphone (I often go many months at a time without even picking up the handset), the Eneloops have always tested good (one beep) when doing the *#67 battery test. I swap them out with freshly recharged Eneloops maybe once a year just for good measure, even though they are still at about 1.3 volts each after that amount of time. I've bought a total of 12 Eneloop batteries (4 of them in 2012 and 8 of them in 2013), and I use them interchangeably in my payphone, digital camera, and flashlight. They all still recharge and hold a charge like new.

Here's a picture of it (with the premade NiCD battery pack on the left for comparison):



And here's a picture of it in my payphone:


Protel8000

Quote from: MaximRecoil on September 01, 2018, 12:55:02 PM
I came up with a workaround for that for my Western Electric payphone (Protel 8000 chassis), because when I first got my payphone up and running in 2012 I bought one of those premade battery packs for it from Payphone.com and after about 9 months it was so dead that it wouldn't even hold a charge anymore (I rarely use my payphone).

To get around the problem I needed better batteries than those cheap Ni-CDs that come in the premade battery packs. So I bought a plastic battery holder (this one) and the right type of connector (Molex SL series 2-position; I bought the actual Molex connector and pins and crimped them on, but you can also just cut the connector off a dead premade battery pack and splice it onto the battery holder wires, if you don't have a Molex crimping tool).

The best rechargeable battery you can get is Sanyo/Panasonic Eneloop, especially for applications where the batteries sit for long periods of time without being recharged (due to their very low self-discharge rate: 70% retained charge after five years). The Eneloops I have can also be recharged 1800 times, which might as well be a lifetime in this case. And each one has a 2000 mAh capacity (newer Eneloops have even more impressive specs), compared to the 600 mAh capacity of each of those cheap NiCDs in the premade battery pack. As a bonus I can recharge them in the battery charger that I already have (a Sanyo brand one that was bundled with the first pack of Eneloop batteries I bought in 2012; $15.47 total).

I did that in the summer of 2013, and despite hardly ever using the payphone (I often go many months at a time without even picking up the handset), the Eneloops have always tested good (one beep) when doing the *#67 battery test. I swap them out with freshly recharged Eneloops maybe once a year just for good measure, even though they are still at about 1.3 volts each after that amount of time. I've bought a total of 12 Eneloop batteries (4 of them in 2012 and 8 of them in 2013), and I use them interchangeably in my payphone, digital camera, and flashlight. They all still recharge and hold a charge like new.

Here's a picture of it (with the premade NiCD battery pack on the left for comparison):



And here's a picture of it in my payphone:



That's a really good idea. I haven't had any issues with my rechargeable pack (yet) but I will be putting this on my to do list.

cnowalk

I recently acquired a payphone with a Protel 8000 board. The board was damaged, but I was able to order a new one from payphone.com and get their help with programming it.

I stumbled across this thread last night and saw the programming instructions in post #31. The poster referenced a Protel CTR-201, but do these also work for an 8000? Using those instructions, I was able to program a free phone number as well as a coin box security code. However, I was unable to program a 211 repair phone number. I tried a few times and it still dials a toll free number likely associated with the previous operator.