Classic Rotary Phones Forum

Telephone Talk => Pay Station Telephones => Northern Electric/Northern Telecom Pay Phones => Topic started by: compubit on December 30, 2017, 10:57:28 PM

Title: Northern Electric Centurion Semi-Postpay Question
Post by: compubit on December 30, 2017, 10:57:28 PM
Playing with my QSD401A phone (semi-postpay), I have a quick question about operations:

As I understand it, line polarity was normal when initially dialing, but when the call was completed to a normal local call (i.e., not 911, 411, 0, Repair, etc.), line polarity reversed.  Once the appropriated amount (determined by the jumper board inside the phone), did the phone send a signal to the CO to re-reverse the line, or was the internal board supposed to handle that automatically (i.e., no signalling to the CO)?

Also, how would an operator know how much was deposited - I hear some beeping when coins are deposited - is there some specific frequency that the phone sends?  If anyone has some pay-phone references, I'd appreciate it.

I'm waiting for my ATA to arrive (tomorrow) so that I can setup the polarity change upon call completion, but wanted to see if anyone had any familiarity with these phones (in advance).

Thanks!

Jim
Title: Re: Northern Electric Centurion Semi-Postpay Question
Post by: ..... on December 30, 2017, 11:44:02 PM
Jim,

I hope this helps you. It's a installation manual.
Title: Re: Northern Electric Centurion Semi-Postpay Question
Post by: Payphone installer on January 04, 2018, 05:17:48 PM
Post a pic of the inside of the lower housing if you can.
Title: Re: Northern Electric Centurion Semi-Postpay Question
Post by: AE_Collector on January 04, 2018, 05:59:44 PM
The beeps when coins are deposited were for the operator on LD calls. One beep for 5c, 2 beeps for 10c and "about" 5 beeps for a 25c coin. The manuals I read would have been for AE payphones and made a point that "about" 5 beeps indicated a 25c coin and if only 4 beeps that didn't mean only 20c had been deposited.

I can't recall what the standard was now to allow the local call to be made once the initial deposit was correct. Might have been a splash of ground back to the CO rather than battery reversal.

Terry
Title: Re: Northern Electric Centurion Semi-Postpay Question
Post by: compubit on January 04, 2018, 09:41:39 PM
I'm out of town right now, but will post when I get back.

Thanks,
Jim
Title: Re: Northern Electric Centurion Semi-Postpay Question
Post by: rcourtney on July 03, 2019, 08:23:52 PM
Responding for anyone searching the forum.

Semipostpay did use a line polarity reversal to cause the set to block the mouthpiece until the base rate is deposited usually on local numbers.
The central office did not change polarity on certain FREE numbers..911 0-Operator  Repair etc. 

The VoIP ATA reverses polarity upon call completion (free or not).  Toll free 800 for example will still reverse polarity and require coins.
In the future, SIP response message 402 "Payment required" may provide the correct action.