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Success- Got my my Millennium Payphone Working

Started by Hill Haven Telephone Company, April 04, 2020, 03:34:15 PM

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Hill Haven Telephone Company

Thanks to the help of Howard Harte and his Millennium Manger Software,  I was able to get my Millennium operational.   Quite a neat phone to play around with.   

In the near future im going to write up a how to and do a video on how to set it up.    This payphone is going on our living room wall. 

Still lots to figure out,  I want to be able to program the speed dial buttons among other things. 


.....

#1
"Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable." - Coco Chanel

Sorry to hear this.


Hill Haven Telephone Company

Not having it working right was bugging me to no end,  So i was up till 3 in the morning working on it.    I found another power supply in my huge tub of wallwarts.  Good idea to keep those around they are handy. 

I got it sorted in the asterisk dialplan now where calling out on the PSTN is a long distance call,  and NPSTN and C*NET are a local call. 

Ill be a zombie today working in the yard,  but it was worth it lol. 

Key2871

Yea some of the walwarts supplied with these things are just cheap. I always keep a small assortment around because you never know.
Just don't over volt the phone or over amp it. Then you'll have real problems.
Good luck on your work.
KEN

tallrick

You are lucky to get help Nobody has been answering any of my mesages and the Expressnet enthusiasts have abandoned the whole payphone hobby it seems. My home setup is abandoned too, I shut it off in November although I still use the pay phones to answer calls.

Key2871

Well back when AT&T smart sets were popular I had one and nobody to get it running.
Then I found one, who changed programming but in doing so kinda messed the phone up.
It cost me a quarter to answer a call an fifty cents more to keep talking for another minute.
So that didn't work out so well after all.
So I too abandon that as well.
KEN

tallrick

I wish I knew how to get the interest back there was in this in 2018.

Key2871

From,what I've read about these sets, it's hard to program, hard to find the correct modem. And software is touchy. I as the video, it was cool how the set worked how you could change somethings check things.
But unless a person posses the knowledge on computers modems, etc. It's not a desirable phone.
I ended up changing my AT&T smart set to a dumb set, as I had done with about a dozen for Paul Vaverchak back in the day. Then it was plug and play, no questions or issues. I'm sure those sets that I changed even thought looking at the set from the inside out didn't look any different from what they would look like as built, except the display inside on the chassis didn't work. You would need to take the chassis out and apart to see the changes.
So I'm thinking from layman's terms the Millennium even though it looks cool, was found to be to difficult to work with. I could be wrong. But from my perspective that's why I don't have one.
KEN

.....

I have 2 Millenniums up and running, One on the Millennium Manager that calls in on another collectors line.
The other is running on U.S. West Demo firmware.
I also have used the hacked demo firmware that is out there on the net.
It does take time to learn how to program the Millennium, but it can be done. I know, I've done it.

Hill Haven Telephone Company

Quote from: Duffy on April 09, 2020, 11:19:52 AM
I have 2 Millenniums up and running, One on the Millennium Manager that calls in on another collectors line.
The other is running on U.S. West Demo firmware.
I also have used the hacked demo firmware that is out there on the net.
It does take time to learn how to program the Millennium, but it can be done. I know, I've done it.

Its quite the challenge but loads of fun.   I've got the Millennium bug now,  I want another one to have on my bench just to hack on.  Definitely enjoying it very much :)   

My fiance uses the Millennium every day to call her mom,  always has a handful of quarters to use cause its set to $1 for 4 minutes and the way my switch is set up its a long distance call out of it.    I haven't changed that yet.  But she has fun. 

Key2871

I'm sure it is fun. I enjoyed my smart set before a guy changed programming. Then it got old fast to answer and have quarters in my pocket to answer the phone.
It wasn't like that at first, but after he changed programming it took the fun out of it.
But looking at yours and seeing how you can change things with out having to call the set remotely to do changes, that makes it fun.
But I'm not that good with computers or figuring software, so I avoid the frustration.
Well I do enjoy reading about these and what you can do with them though. Very interesting.
KEN

tallrick

There's a Protel version of these and I knew someone that had one set up through Expressnet a few years back. My collection is of regular COCOTs with a Protel board inside. I built a vintage Pentium computer to run expressnet on DOS 6.22. It has an external 3com 56K modem.

MADhouseTelephone

I had a Millennium running modified demo software, but had it powered down for several months while I worked on other things. Now all the displays work, and it talks, but it will not break dial tone when it dials out. Any ideas?
ADavid, MADhouse Telephone

Payphone411

Quote from: tallrick on April 15, 2020, 11:59:48 PM
There's a Protel version of these and I knew someone that had one set up through Expressnet a few years back. My collection is of regular COCOTs with a Protel board inside. I built a vintage Pentium computer to run expressnet on DOS 6.22. It has an external 3com 56K modem.

I think that was me I have 2 two Protel Ascension Pluses running at my house.

dsk

I have always liked the design of US payphones much better than those used here, and when I bought a single slot in 2014 I did not really know what I was doing. Reading threads like this I feel it was just plain luck that made me end up with an AE 120B It was so much easier to set up and get working.  Since then it has been hanging on the wall in working condition, maybe with an extremely simple tax system. 1 call = 1 coin independent of value, or where you call.  If the party does not answer you get your coin back.  ;)

I have even got it tuned to accept the Norwegian 10 kr coin. (=$1.21)

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11846.msg126045#msg126045