Classic Rotary Phones Forum

Telephone Talk => Pay Station Telephones => Automatic Electric Pay Phones => Topic started by: dsk on May 11, 2014, 09:04:02 AM

Title: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on May 11, 2014, 09:04:02 AM
After counting up and down, and really not knowing what I want... I bought this NIB BIN payphone.
It is a Palco 120B which I guess are pretty like the AE 120B's

I'm just waiting for it to arrive.

$200 Feels pretty expensive but it is NIB.

Now I need help to make it work, and hopefully collect/return money.

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: AE_Collector on May 11, 2014, 12:15:50 PM
Yes an AE 120B or some possibility of it being the earlier 120A. We need pictures inside to know for sure. Most likely not brand new but refurbished I would think. Palco made lots of phone parts for refurbishing telephones and I believe that they ran refurbishing centres somewhere as well. Others will know more about Palco. AE eventually sold their Payphone line to Quadrum.

Terry

Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: rdelius on May 11, 2014, 12:25:34 PM
I thought Palco bought AEs paystation line.and was in Huntsville Ala.
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: AE_Collector on May 11, 2014, 12:46:18 PM
I do see that Palco is in Huntsville and wondered if they had acquired the AE Payphone line. But I recall lots of payphone parts being branded Quadrum here in the 1990's and maybe just assumed that Quadrum had wound up with AE's Payphone line when AE went under. All I can come up with for a location for Quadrum is Nashville and that says "since 2009" so maybe Quadrum has been acquired by someone else now.

I'm confused,
Terry
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on May 19, 2014, 03:01:11 PM
 :) It has arrived  :D

I do not know how to connect it right. Just connecting line to red and green gives dial tone, but no function of the dial pad.

Enclosed some pictures and scan of the documentation.

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on May 19, 2014, 03:13:08 PM
And some pictures:
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: poplar1 on May 19, 2014, 04:02:15 PM
Your paperwork says it is a 120B wired for prepay service from the factory. Also, says refer to GTE Practices 476-201 for the 120B:

TCI Library links:

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/1735-gsp-476-201-101-i2-120b-testset-tl

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/317-gsp-476-000-000-index-plus-ae-paystation-practices-ocr-se

Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: AE_Collector on May 19, 2014, 07:29:40 PM
Looks to be all the proper AE boards and pieces, no newer aftermarket stuff. I think that you should be able to get dial tone and make a call with the touchpad. Check all of those options on the main circuit board "Chassis" that are selected by moving wires to different pins.

Terry
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: mentalstampede on May 19, 2014, 10:44:10 PM
Nice phone! Looks just like the payphones of my childhood growing up in GTE territory.
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on May 21, 2014, 04:58:30 AM
Yes it is working as a prepay.
(manually pulsing 100V DC to the relay)
Norwegian 10 KR  (NOK 10 ~$1.7) works as 25 cents, and a krone works as 5 cents.

Now I have to get my fingers into some locks and the coin box, and of-course make a controller.  ;D

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on June 01, 2014, 10:04:51 AM
Here are the labels I got with it:
dsk


Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on June 01, 2014, 10:16:57 AM
Now I  have got my 120B in working condition ;D
But how should I set up to work like this?
(http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11846.0;attach=102048;image)

As I have it by now, it is dial tone first. - Deposit the right amount 25 cents or a (Norwegian 10 krone. )
Then the dial works. 

My prototype controller returns when hanging up, or collects if my timer has counted 50 sec before hang up.

I do not understand how it should be made to remember the amount deposited before going off hook, and then allow dialing.

DSK's Controller: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11987.0

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: poplar1 on June 01, 2014, 06:06:06 PM
On GTE (Automatic Electric) multi-slot prepay phones I recall, you indeed had a dial tone before depositing coins ("dial tone first"), but you could not dial out until you inserted money. One advantage of this setup, rather than the "coin first" set up, was that the user could verify that the phone was "working"--i.e. had dial tone--before attempting a call.

Starting in the 1970s many WE prepay phones--whether single slot or multi-slot-- were converted from "coin first" (ground start) to "dial tone first" (loop start). This allowed emergency calls to be made without coins. The first instruction card in your other post seems to suggest that the AE 120B also allowed emergency calls ("Prepay  Tone First or Emergency HD-53007A.")

Perhaps Terry can tell us which way 120Bs were usually furnished for prepay--"coin first" or "dial tone first." I would also like to know whether the "dial shorting" on the multi-slots was done inside the AE phone, or in the central office.
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: mentalstampede on June 01, 2014, 07:14:39 PM
I would set it up for dial tone first.  That's how all the AE120s were around my hometown in the 1980s.  I've never seen an AE single slot in actual service set up for coin-first service.
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: AE_Collector on June 01, 2014, 11:16:55 PM
Those yellow cards are the standard AE cards that come with AE Payphones. Did it have the clear plastic covers as well?

Terry
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: AE_Collector on June 02, 2014, 12:56:22 AM
Quote from: poplar1 on June 01, 2014, 06:06:06 PM

Perhaps Terry can tell us which way 120Bs were usually furnished for prepay--"coin first" or "dial tone first." I would also like to know whether the "dial shorting" on the multi-slots was done inside the AE phone, or in the central office.


When I worked coin I was in major metropolitan areas and it was late 1990's and early 2000's so all CO's were electronic. All were Dial Tone First. Of course we also rehabbed our own Payphones so anything I saw then had been through our shops rather than being new from AE.

Sorry, no idea about the dial shorting.

Terry
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on June 05, 2014, 02:50:05 AM
Now it is on the wall, working!  :D
My prototype controller works, but just with a 1 min timer for changing from return to collect.
Now its working the right way, collecting on answer, and returning if no answer. A short delay after hanging up, and the coin relay does what it are supposed to. (Edited June 13 2014)

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on July 16, 2014, 07:56:30 AM
All connectors I can see are in position for just hooking it up, and use it without money.
Remember this phone are polarity sensitive, so if the dial doesent work switch ring and tip.

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: mentalstampede on September 21, 2014, 11:59:41 AM
Quote from: dsk on June 05, 2014, 02:50:05 AM

[/s]Now its working the right way, collecting on answer, and returning if no answer. A short delay after hanging up, and the coin relay does what it are supposed to. (Edited June 13 2014)[/color]

dsk

Just out of curiosity, what method are you using in your controller to detect answer?
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: dsk on September 21, 2014, 04:52:25 PM
 >:( That's absolutely impossible on a normal POTS line, so I chose to detect reverse polarity, and connect it to a PAP2T ATA. This may reverse on answer, so the signal are there, I just could not figure out any other way around. ;)

Its working when other party's answering, emergency numbers too 8)

More about the controller:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11987.0 (http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11987.0)

dsk
Title: Re: Setting up an 120 B the right way?
Post by: NikeTelephone on February 23, 2018, 12:22:03 AM

     Got this Today, Thanks to your guys Info the reverse Polarity took care of my Funky Noises and squeaks when trying to dial... Now she works great! Thanks for the Info!
:)