Hi..I hope I am in the right forum. I got this payphone recently and would like to get it to work to my landline if possible. I have no clue on anything about this phone or how to wire it. Any info would be appreciated even if it can't be done. Thanks
If you want it to work like a regular phone and not take money then you need a Western Electric 32C Board.
All you to do it hook up ring and tip and off you go.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AT-T-Western-Electric-Payphone-32C-Chassis-Board/202153636232
?hash=item2f114bb188:g:O6AAAOSwmudaMFKq
Hi. I do not care if the coin stuff works. I just want it to work like a regular phone. So it's really that east to hook up? Does it have a tip & ring or L1 & L2 to hook up to? Thanks for that info. I will have to get one.
What is in it now is a Protel COCOT board. This is a programable payphone. Meaning it will need to be programmed to rate table and needs coins to work. It might work as is. Just hook up TIP and Ring. These can be fun to play with, but get annoying after awhile.
Itherwise, get the board that was linked to in the thread. That will work without coins by connecting tip and ring also.
So if I am just interested in it working as a phone and don't care about the coins working is it easy to hook up? I've never messed with this newer type of payphone before. Thanks.
Quote from: Jf510 on December 29, 2017, 02:32:58 PM
Hi. I do not care if the coin stuff works. I just want it to work like a regular phone. So it's really that east to hook up? Does it have a tip & ring or L1 & L2 to hook up to? Thanks for that info. I will have to get one.
Yep just ring and tip. Not sure why the photo on ebay has the other cables attached.
I had an SBC payphone just like yours and that's all I had to do.
It worked just fine but ended up selling it later on.
Thanks for that info. I will keep this one unless I find a Western Electric or Pacific Bell which I worked for both..I don't mind having one of these one slot machines but I prefer the old 3 slots..again thanks to all for your help.
When you say other cables attached to the one in the ebay link, do you mean the yellow and black wire? Those go to the coin relay.
Oh ok..thanks for that info.
Quote from: trainman on December 29, 2017, 09:01:09 PM
When you say other cables attached to the one in the ebay link, do you mean the yellow and black wire? Those go to the coin relay.
Yes I was talking about the yellow and black wires. I don't get why they left them attached while the other wires have been removed.
I just bought that 32C chassis board on ebay so hopefully it's easy to set up. One question though and does the dial, switch and handset all hook up once I plug that big plug from the front housing to the main phone when I am closing the phone up together? Of course I have to connect a line cord to it. I want to make sure there is no other connection to be made. Thanks.
Phone should work when you plug in the upper housing. A Protel chassis used a dial wired for DTF (dial tone first) so replacing the smart chassis with a D set chassis should work.
Great thanks.
I got the chassis board today and just hooked it up. It dials and rings fine. I do however hear some static that I know it's not my landline. I am not sure what to do now unless I have to get use to the static. Any suggestions?
Are you sure its not the handset making the sound?
Hi..I was going to try another handset but I am use to the old two white wires, one red and one black. This phone's handset has a red, green, yellow and black. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?
before you take it apart, note where this handset is connected. Just in case you order a new one. new ones sometimes come with the yellow and green wire. the white-white-red-black is original Western electric color code.
W 4
R 3
BK 6
W 8
Thanks for that handset wiring info. I put it in my folder for future reference. I am not noticing the static today for some reason but I switched the handset anyway because the dial tone also sounded a little distant like hearing it through a sea shell. My replacement handset sounded the same so maybe it's a characteristic of this payphone. I put the origional back on. I will try again later to see if the static comes back.
it should sound like any normal phone. could be lose or dirty connections. id make sure the plug into the control board is seated and clean. how is it connected to the outside word? if you have boradband or dsl internet that requires phones to have a dsl filter on them, make sure the payphones does as well.
since you are not using the protel board that was in it when you got it , you cannot connect the volume control with the current control board. if you want to, you need a seperate amplifier board. make sure the loud button is not connected. although you probably cant anyway, as it should have a plug on it to plug into the removed protel board.
Hi...to explain better the dial tone is not distance but when dialing and the dial tone goes off I can hear a hissing sound so not clean and quiet like my other phones. I have the original landline and not service through a internet. It's not bad at all but I was curious on why it wasn't quiet.
Hello,
I have a payphone that's identical to the original poster's phone. My goal is also to make it work with the home line with no coins required. The only Western 32C board I can find for sale now has an inoperative ringer and no assurance it works. Is there any other board I can use? Trying to make the protel board work sounds like much more hassle than I'm looking for. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ken
The Protel board can be programmed for free calling as well assuming you want to for in the house or whatever.
But you need to:
A. Have a POTS phone line (VoIP lines tend to not work well)
B. Make sure the Lithium battery and NiCad coin relay batteries are in good charged working order.
C. Know someone with the programming software and the time to walk you through programming.
A & B are on you but C can be done by a few people on here.
Thanks for the reply. There's a few reasons why I don't want to use the protel. I have VOIP service. Also the phone is going in my barn and I understand you need to use the phone at least weekly to keep the battery charged. I'm not always out there that often. Finally I know the protel board can answer a call on its own which I don't trust. It did that in testing it. I'm on call for work and can't afford to miss calls at home.
Quote from: kenb on August 03, 2018, 08:56:08 AM
Thanks for the reply. There's a few reasons why I don't want to use the protel. I have VOIP service. Also the phone is going in my barn and I understand you need to use the phone at least weekly to keep the battery charged. I'm not always out there that often. Finally I know the protel board can answer a call on its own which I don't trust. It did that in testing it. I'm on call for work and can't afford to miss calls at home.
Your Protel 8000 chassis can be programmed to let it ring without it answering the call on its own. Mine did the same thing with its default programming (it answered the call after just one ring if I remember right), but it didn't after I had it programmed (I told the guy who did the programming that I didn't want the phone to answer calls on its own).
As for the battery issue, that only applies to crappy batteries (i.e., the NiCDs that come in the premade battery packs that are marketed for payphones). Use Sanyo/Panasonic Eneloops (the best rechargeable AA batteries you can buy) and you can leave them in there for a year or more without using the payphone and they will be fine, and you can recharge them in a regular battery charger. You can get the 4 batteries you need plus a charger bundled with it for $18 - link (https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-K-KJ17MCA4BA-Individual-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00JHKSMJU/ref=dp_ob_title_ce). It's best to have 8 batteries though, so you can immediately swap in freshly charged ones while you're recharging the 4 you just removed. You'll need a 4-position battery holder and the right type of Molex connector. See my post here (http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7631.msg214876#msg214876) for more details.
However, if you don't care about coin functionality at all, a "dumb" chassis has a lot less initial setup hassle, has no batteries to worry about at all, and is probably a good deal more bulletproof in the long run.