AT&T Private Payphone Plus

[OSchwartz]

I just purchased an AT&T "Private Payphone Plus".  The unit was brand new in the box, made in 1991.  It all seems to be working after an evening or two of setup.  However, I can't program the phone.  All calls cost $1, which I think must be a default setting.  The software required was called CoinSoft from AT&T.  Does anyone know where there might be a copy of this still around?  As I have learned, it came on (5) 5.25" floppys!

Thanks!

OSchwartz

[AE_Collector]

Welcome to the forum OSchwartz!

Do you have a picture of the payphone? What does it look like? A real payphone similar to a Single Slot or is it more of a deskphone modified into a Payphone?

Terry

[Weco355aman]

Oschwarts and Ae Collector
It is a standard WECO 1d2 singleslot payphone with a really bad cocot board.
AT&T failed at making a smart phone. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a .01
The software was not sold with the phone. I don't know anyone with the book or software. Do a google search and see if you can find a payphone support
company.

[poplar1]

Isn't this the COCOT sold by Amway for about $1,800?

[OSchwartz]

I am not sure if Amway sold this or not.  As far as I can tell from the installation manual, AT&T sold this as an early COCOT unit.  Weco355aman is correct, it is basically a 1D2 with a large module installed.  It is kind of clunky, but interesting to see if I can get 22 year old electronics up and running. 
Weco355aman, do you know what the options are for the DIP switches on the 20A coin chute/totalizer?  Are they the same options as on the 22B totalizer?  I what are the options for setting on this?
Thanks!

[G-Man]

I think that part of the AT&T-Amway own your own payphone scam was that you had to go to them for programming and updating rate-tables, and while there may have been some exceptions, they typically would not provide programming software to the owner.

As I recall, their computer called the payphone and on the 10th ring, it would answer and connect to its internal modem and then update the internal rate-table.

Not only would they profit from the sales but they would realize a re-occurring profit from rate-table updates. So I suspect that there much in the way of programming software floating around.

As Phil has already alluded to, it was a crappy offering and AT&T eventually went to Elcotel boards. IIRC, Elcotel eventually took over AT&T's payphone product line.

[southernphoneman]

you may want to look at my topic on this labeled payphone opened up/no network and look at dave pei's green 1d2. if all is lost with your current set up this may worth considering. eric salter sold me the parts and it now works perfectly, Gregg

[ESalter]

As long as it still has a 47A signal board(or equivalent) for a totalizer, a regular 32A, B, or C type chassis board should work with it.  I have a number of those available(along with pretty much every other WE 1D2 part imaginable) if you decide to go that route.  If you can, take a couple pictures of the inside of both the lower housing and the upper housing(back of the dial assembly) and that will tell us if parts would be compatible.  Granted, turning it back into a 1D2 would sacrifice all coin collecting ability.  It would act like a plain old phone not requiring any money.  You would need to make a coin controller to count the money, perform call timing and make the decision to collect/return the money.

Does it still have the chrome faceplate that says "AT&T"?  Those are actually pretty hard to come by.

---Eric

[OSchwartz]

ESalter,
The phone has its shiny AT&T chrome face plate which looks very nice.  As to the components, it does have a 47A totalizer attached to a 20A coin chute, but the dial is labeled 62c.  The plug for the dial is not the standard round one found in the usual 1D2, it is a rectangular one with three rows of pins.  So if I wanted to convert to a 32C chasis, I would have to replace the dial set. It might be possible to replace the existing rectangular plug with the round octal one, but I would need a schematic for my current dial to see how the wiring might match up.  thanks for all the advice. 

[Payphone installer]

AT&T private came in 3 types Eagle 1,Eagle 2 and Eagle 3 before it got the Elcotel board. If you purchased the phone from AT&T you got the software it came with a binder and floppies in the early version. You also had to purchase a rate file. The phone worked well but did require a transformer,which gave it plenty of power to fire the relay. The phone saw its demise with 10 digit dialing which the software was never upgraded to do. The major case of trouble on the phone was a grounded handset cable which burned out the transformer. There were a lot of payphone scams that resulted in a lawsuit against AT&T, that is when they removed the AT&T logo. There were to versions of the Eagles one for the public another for AT&T public which did military bases. These phones are impossible to find and quite different. The Eagle must be part of any W/E payphone collection it was a turning point for the payphone industry. Just as the 31A and 60A Public Payphone Plus were industry changing also. AT&T was miles ahead on this stuff and if you are dialed in today on modern public telephones that are left you can see there influence. Exspecially inmate telephone systems.

[robert_m]

Looks like i may of been just burned as well also bought a NIB ATT and dint know it was a plus anyone out their have this coinsoft program?

[Payphone installer]

save the parts at some point Iwill make this software avaiable.

[timmerk]

save the parts at some point Iwill make this software avaiable.

Looking forward to this! I have 2 Payphone Pluses. I dumped the EPROM from one and uploaded it here, for anyone interested:

https://dsh.re/33e27

Running the firmware via the strings command shows some interesting text:

ENTER SECURITY CODE
ENTER NEW CODE
1-CASH COUNT
2-COIN BOX STATUS
3-CALL COUNTS
4-DIAGNOSTICS
5-PROGRAM OPTIONS
CASH =
INTRA CALLS =
INTER CALLS =
OTHER CALLS =
1-OFF-HOOK ALARM
2-ON-HOOK ALARM
3-ANSWER DETECT ALRM
4-INSUF DEPOSIT ALRM
1-RESET PASSWORD
3-RESET OPTION1
1-RESET PASSWORD
2-TURN CALL BACK OFF
3-RESET OPTION1
ENTER NEW CODE AGAIN

OFF-HOOK
HOURS
OFF-HOOK ALARM
ON-HOOK
DAYS
ON-HOOK ALARM
ANSWER DETECT OK
ANSWER DETECT ALARM
INSUF DEPOSITS =
INSUF DEPOSITS ALARM
COIN BOX REMOVED
COIN BOX
% FULL
ACCEPTING COINS
COIN BOX REMOVED
COIN BOX
% FULL
NOT ACCEPTING COINS
WAITING
TALKING
CALLING

PayPhone 
Copyright AT&T

[Payphone installer]

Is the phone working in the default mode, also for anyone who had a Private Payphone Plus replace the AT&T handset if it does not have a handset cable threw the middle that is not insulated with plastic or a handset with no cable. The cable in the AT&T handset always comes in contact over time with the conductors in the handset and burns out the transformer. That was the biggest sourse of trouble on these phones.

[timmerk]

Is the phone working in the default mode, also for anyone who had a Private Payphone Plus replace the AT&T handset if it does not have a handset cable threw the middle that is not insulated with plastic or a handset with no cable. The cable in the AT&T handset always comes in contact over time with the conductors in the handset and burns out the transformer. That was the biggest sourse of trouble on these phones.

The phones are working because they had been programmed once before - the LCD screen shows there have been a few phone calls made on them. Good tip about the handset - I had a third Payphone Plus from my old highschool that had the board and powersupply burnt out. Must have been because of the handset.