Protel Pay Phone

[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]

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]

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.