233G payphone arrived today

[KeithB]

Here are photos of the coin vault and the phone shell with their finish coats of glossy black lacquer.  I received my package from Phoneco today, including a 21B lock and key, a coiled handset cord, and a vinyl overlay for the numbers daisy around the dial.  I re-installed the original dial card holder, the new upper body lock, and the Ace/Chicago security lock before taking these pictures. 

The dial isn't attached yet, because the vinyl overlay decal for the numbers daisy around the dial was not acceptable.  With regards to size/fit and initial appearance, it was very good.  When I peeled off the backing, the notch near the finger stop tore through the decal.  When I placed that half of the decal over the original daisy, I could still see the original numbers through it.  The new decal isn't 100% opaque.   I sent e-mail to Phoneco explaining the problem and hopefully they can help me out.  Otherwise, I'll have to clean up the original daisy and re-paint it solid white, then apply another semi-translucent decal. 

[KeithB]

I spoke with Mary at Phoneco this afternoon, and she's sending out another decal because of the split/cut problem.  I mentioned painting the original daisy wheel white to prevent the show-through, and she seemed to remember that's what they do when they rebuild payphones using these.   

It certainly would have been helpful if they had put that suggestion on their product web page.

[john snapp]

You have done a grat job on your phone. 

I also bought a 233G a few months ago.  I got lucky.  I knew nothing about these phones and this was my first old phone.  The inside was is great shape and fairly original.  It was missing the locks and coin relay.  I was able to buy those.  I bead blasted the outside of the case and painted it with an automotive semi-gloss paint.  It came out great.  I have always been interested in older phones but this was my first jump into antique phones.  It will not be my last.  I also recently got a WE 202.

I then decided that I really wanted to make it work.  I had seen a coin controller out there that someone was selling  but I did not like the idea of a timer determining when the coin was returned.  I also had the problem (soon to discover it was an opportunity) that I only had VoIP in my house and did not have a traditional phone line that supported Pulse Dialing.

After searchingfor a while, I discovered this site and a post that told about the Grandstream HT-502 that supports pulse dialing (even though no where in the manual did it say it did).  I purchased one of the HT-502 for $50 and it worked great.  Now on to the coin contoller.  I wanted the operation to be as authentic as possible.  I built several circuits.  a 100V DC power supply, Ring detector, off-hook detector, answer detector (more on that later), and ground start emulator.  All of this is controlled by a small micro controller.

Here is how it all works.  WHen you first pick up the receiver, there is no dial tone.  I have a relay that disconnects the ATA from the phone.  When you put in a a dime or two coins, it shorts the coin hopper which grounds the line.  I pick this up in my circuit which looks like a "ground start phone line" and a energize the relay and provide dial tone to the phone.  The coin also un-shorts the dial so dialing will break dial-tone. The line voltage also energized the relay in the uppe housing so that nickles will not be held after dial tone is given.
Once the ground start circuit energizes the phone relay and enables dial tone, I monitor the state of the on-hook/off-hook.  If the phone goes on-hook before it detects an answer on the far end, I remove dial tone and energize the coin return relay with 100V DC.  I give some delay between the on-hook and the return like the phones used to do.  Now here is how I detect answer on the far end.  VoIP ATAs often have a feature you can not get on a standard POTS line.  It will give line reversal on far end answer.  SO if the line voltage is -48V when the far end line is ringing, it will reverse to +48V when the line answers.  I use a circuit to detect this.  Now when the far end has answered and the phone goes back on-hook, the circuit sends -100V DC to collect the money.
I also wanted to be able to answer calls on the phone.  FOr this I look for ring voltage on the line.  WHen this happens, I energize the phone relay for 4 seconds or unit the phone goes off hook.  This allows the phone to be answered.  All of these operations are controlled by a small embeded micro controller.
BTW.  There are some VERY inexpensive ways for folks to use VoIP to get new numbers for their old phones.  The Grandstream ATA is about $50. I run a home VoIP PBX that is free (just needs a old PC).  I use two VoIP carriers.  Vitelity is a pre-pay wholesale (they also have a more expensive retail service) service where phone numbers are $1.50 a month and inboud/outbound calls are about $0.012 a minute.   There is no monthly minimum.  I use a different outbound SIP trunk provider for lower rates but they have a $10 minimum fee.
With Vitelity, you can use just an ATA to connect to them.  Each ATA has 2 POTS lines.  They could each have different numbers so you can call from one phone to the other.  You are only limited to the number of phones on each port by the ringers.
VoIP is a very inexpensive way to make you rotary phones work and potentially have different phone numbers.  Also you can have the phone number be anywere in the US.

[KeithB]

I'm still on a POTS line, but have a decent knowledge of electronics.  Would you please share example schematics from your controller circuits with us all?  What type of microprocessor are you using, PIC, ATmel, Arduino, Propeller, other?  Thanks! 

[KeithB]

It was a miscellaneous clean-up and fix-up weekend at my house.  Friday night I sanded and repainted the drips/runs on the coin box and top of the phone behind the three-slot chrome coin slots. Sunday night I soldered two new tan wires on the coin mechanism to replace those cut off some time in the past.  Darned if I know what happened to my Radio Shack crimp-on spade connectors, though It seems they grew legs and walked off since last weekend.  I'm expecting they'll appear immediately after I return from buying new ones. 

Saturday evening I re-assembled the top of the coin vault where the coin box slides in. The coin tube was reattached atop the coin vault, the new coin trap, trap lever, and retaining pin were all installed into the tube, and the 1A coin relay slid into place.  The cam lever on the bottom of the relay must be aligned with the plastic diverter built inside the coin tube.  This is the paddle that directs the coins toward either the coin box or the coin return.

On the backboard, I re-installed the terminal strip on top, then the switchhook and switch stack.  I stripped an extra inch of insulation off the end of the new coiled handset cord and routed it through the backboard to the terminal strip and switch stack.  The coiled cord looks immensely better than the armored handset cord installed during the 1975 refurbishment.  A G3 handset from a 1962 WE500 was attached to the cord.  This allows removing the transmitter and receiver, unlike the armored handset that was permanently glued together to resist vandalism.

The 425B network and ringer from that 62/500 are going inside a vintage metal subset box I stripped and re-painted Sunday.  I didn't want a smaller plastic-covered 685 subset beneath my phone, and the older 634E metal box seemed more appropriate.  I made a new mounting plate from a metal panel, using a hacksaw blade on the jigsaw, a 1/4-inch drill bit for the corners, and a file and polishing stone to smooth the rough edges. The hinge cutouts were rougher than I'd have liked, but I'm not exactly a skilled metal-worker.    It's all being painted satin black and hidden inside the subset box anyway.

Pictures coming this evening, when I have a bit more time to use the camera.

[KeithB]

The replacement dial overlay arrived from Phoneco today.  Over the weekend I discovered you cannot strip or sand away the finish on the original number daisy.  The daisy's image appears to be baked into the porcelain.  I primed it and painted it white so nothing would show through the overlay.  Tonight I re-assembled the dial, housing, and number daisy, then re-instaleld it to the phone body.  This allowed re-installing the coin mechanism.  I finished soldering the replacement wires on the mechanism, and found the crimp-on spade lugs, fortunately before buying any more.

It's starting to look like a real pay phone again, but now I have to get the wiring worked out.  Most of it involves the 100V coin relay.  I'm still waiting on a vault door from Rod Lanthier to arrive, and I have to strip and re-paint the dial-card ring.  I have a chrome one I could use, but don't think it would look right.

[john snapp]

Here is a WE 233G that I restored a month or so ago.  The phone was in OK shape but was missingthe upper and lower locks and the coin relay.  I purchased these from Rod Lanthier.

I bead blasted the outside of the upper housing, back and bottom.  I then primmed with a good quality automotive black sanding primmer then painted it with a Sherwin Williams Dimension automotive enamel with a flattening agent to make it semigloss.  I also off all the stainless pieces and polished them and then put them back on after I painted it.

As I mentioned above, I also built a coin controller that makes the phone work as close as possible to the original.  I am building a final version and I will post more about it (schematics, parts list, code, etc) when I finish.  BTW I uses a propeller MCU in the circuit.

- john

[JorgeAmely]

propeller MCU? What is that? 

[KeithB]

Propeller is a micro-processor family from Parallax Inc.

[KeithB]

Two weeks ago I started cleaning all the contacts and leaf springs in the switch pile-up that bolts onto the backboard.  I was being careful to clean only a single piece at a time, and then re-stack them as I went.     Wanna guess what happened?  No, you don't?.     Oh, you already know.  My impatience gets the better of me far too often, and I didn't take detailed pictures of the switch pile-up before I started.  BIG mistake on my part.    Bill Geurts was kind enough to take some very detailed pictures of his 233G switch pile, and also to write some VERY detailed descriptions of the individual elements in the pile, and their proper orientation.  With his permission, I'll post it all here a bit later.

In other progress, I made a dial card on heavy card stock this week, using the 1964 Bell System logo.  Office Depot has card stock in different colors and tones, but at 250 sheets per package, it was a TINY bit more than I really needed.  The cashier was nice enough to inform me their copy center would sell me individual sheets.  The price was obviously higher per sheet, but I only bought ten sheets, so I still saved several dollars over the cost of the package.

I received the replica instruction cards you see in the photos below from eBay seller 'janedennis'.  I didn't realize this seller is Dennis Owens and his wife Jane until their package arrived with a return address of Owens Telecom.  The cards were printed on heavy card stock and laminated, so there's no worry about them fading, smearing, or smudging.  They both say Southern Bell Telephone Company, appropriate for the 1962 vintage of this phone.  The metal frame on the phone face is original, but the frame on top came from adele0823.  Only three of the four mounting screws could be used on my 233G phone, but Adele includes four mounting bolts, sprocket washers, and nuts for mounting the frame to the phone.  The quality from both of these vendors is nothing short of EXCELLENT.

I'm still working on polishing the 1962 G3 handset, so it's not yet attached in these pictures.  With a little more wiring assistance from Bill Geurts, all I'm waiting on is the vault door from Rod Lanthier.  (It seems he had some delays with his shipping agent last week.)

[Phonesrfun]

Keith:

You have done a beautiful and professional job on that restoration.  I really felt your pain when you described the perdicament you were in with the switch pile-up.  Believe me, it has happened to many of us!  They are deceiving.  They look so simple, but when it comes down to re-assembly, they can be downright nasty.  All I did was take some photos, and take the switch out, and I used a method someone else had taught me and that is to thread a wire through the holes, so you can actually "unleaf" it, but they stay in order so it can be put back together.

Your refurbish job is as good as any I have seen out there by a couple of guys that do this on e-Bay and get top Dollar for their work.  Yours is in that league.

Adele0823 is an excellent source for parts.  She is very nice, and I have talked to her on the phone before.  Her dad is Paul Vaverchak, a long time phone collector, and several others here, like Dennis Markham have also been very appreciative of some of the seemingly nickel-dime parts she has. 

Let me know if there is anything else I can provide.

[KeithB]

Thanks Bill, but you're going to make me blush

I mentioned my impatience precisely because it's always been a personal weakness. As I've grown older I've learned better, but I still don't always use common sense.  Maybe the younger collectors can benefit from the obvious lesson of my mistake.  Or, in someone else's words, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." 

I wondered if there might be a connection between Paul V and Adele, ever since I noticed one of the phones she was selling was listed as being located in Pillow, PA.  I spoke with Paul just last week, and he is quite the character.  I wish I knew more people like him these days.

[Phonesrfun]

Believe me, Adele is just as much a gem as Paul.  Good people.

[HarrySmith]

Awesome job Keith

[Dennis Markham]

Keith, I echo what Bill so eloquently wrote about your phone and your work.   What an outstanding job you did in refurbishing that phone!  I for one am envious and would love a telephone such as yours hanging on my wall.  The job you did on that telephone is something to be proud of to say the least.  It will bring you many years of enjoyment.  Thanks for sharing your progress with all of us here on the Forum.  Congratulations!