Does anyone know if Gray Western's Payphone Controller will work with a GTE 120B

[olePigeon]

I emailed Gray Western from his PayPal page.  He said he doesn't have a GTE 120B, so he doesn't know if his payphone controller will work.

Does anyone here have one of his controllers and know if it will work?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/306581271445

I know it's a bit pricey, but I don't have the skills to build one of the open source ones.  Sure would be cool to be able to utilize the coin slot.

[5415551212]

My understanding is ( forgive me if you know this ) there are two general categories of North American payphones each with sub types;

1) Original Pay phones; fully controlled by a Central Office 'switch'; I think the payphone would need to go with the line card in the phone switch. I think in Western electric this was called Operator Services Position System (OSPS) based on #5ESS and or Automated Coin Toll System (ACTS) based on #1 ESS, or Northern Telecom's (Nortel) Toll Operator Position Station (TOPS) based on DMS-200 switch, GTE would have been a GTD-5-EAX I am not sure how their payphones, like your GTE 120B worked.

2) Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone (COCOT); I think there were a few diferent ways these could operate, here in Century link territory the payphone company would order a Retail Public Access Line (PAL) service, that provides access to the Local Switched Network, the Toll Network, 911 Emergency Service, Directory Assistance/Operator Services, 800/877/888 type services and N11 Services (e.g., 311, 811) etc. It may be possible to run these  COCOT phones off other types of lines.

Pre 1984 payphones would exclusively be one of the first types.
Gray Western's controller seems to emulate a sub type of the first type , I am not 100% sure exactly if all the features are implemented. His ebay page has a nice explanation, yet I am not clear what line cards the controller emulates, he details modifications needed.
I am not aware of any of the open source projects.
Hopefully some of the  more knowledgeable payphone guru's on here can chime in and add to or correct this

[TelePlay]

A very expensive "solution" would be to pay for shipment of the phone to and from Grey Western's location, if he would be willing to "play" with your phone and his controller, to see if he could determine if his controller would or would not work with your pay phone.

That would probably be about $200 for shipping and $300 for a controller if it would work, plus maybe a charge for his time.

That is, of course, if he would be willing to do that for you, it's his call. Just a suggestion to explore.

[5415551212]

I did some research and from what I can tell (I am no expert so correct me if I am wrong) the GTE/AE payphone with the *original* 120B chassis board will operate a coin relay the same way that the WE phones did, +130v/-130v across tip and ground to collect/return coins and +48v/-48v for coin stuck/initial rate test etc.
Here is a older thread on the payphone controller, I believe the brains behind these controllers is  forum member Stan S
https://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8522.15

And here is a video member sxsphil made on the 120B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw3hzpaFfgc&t=8s

[olePigeon]

I did some research and from what I can tell (I am no expert so correct me if I am wrong) the GTE/AE payphone with the *original* 120B chassis board will operate a coin relay the same way that the WE phones did, +130v/-130v across tip and ground to collect/return coins and +48v/-48v for coin stuck/initial rate test etc.
Here is a older thread on the payphone controller, I believe the brains behind these controllers is  forum member Stan S
https://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8522.15

And here is a video member sxsphil made on the 120B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw3hzpaFfgc&t=8s

Sysphil appears to have the same 120B that I have.  At least it looks identical.  If you think it'd work with it, then I might risk buying one.

[5415551212]

Sysphil appears to have the same 120B that I have.  At least it looks identical.  If you think it'd work with it, then I might risk buying one.

I am not an expert on payphones as many on here are, including Stan who is the developer,  but the central office signaling that was used 'across the wire' for "coin line" service appears to be the same or similar in the GTE and WE central offices.
The signaling if I am not mistaken requires both positive 130VDC (coin collect) and negative 130VDC (coin refund) as well as a lower  DC (~24?) positive for the "stuck coin" test and negative for the "initial rate" test.
I don't think the central office Phil filmed the video at was a GTE, and clearly the phone worked.
Reading thru that ebay listing he states however:

since the Central Office and my
controllers never spoke the same language, a few simple changes have to be
 made to your single slot for it to communicate with the controller.

Simple modifications must be made to your payphone
for it to function correctly with the controller.

Below are photos of the modifications for the various payphone chassis.

These changes are well documented and not difficult to do.
 
However, you must know how to solder.

I'd be curious to know what the differences in 'language' are and
what are the modifications doing?
Does this controller not generate a 130VDC rail? If not then you'd be modifying the phone to use a lower voltage, I am just guessing perhaps he can elaborate?
He also says this version is not a plug and play device, I think he made a early version over a decade ago that did not require modifying the phone.
Whatever mods you need to do are not documented for your phone, if you order one you'll need help figuring that out.

He also has demonstration video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6shRhuDF2A&t=1s

It seems from his past posts he's pretty open about how it all works, and if I recall posted how to make your own at one point but that was some years ago and perhaps a different project.

[HarrySmith]

We do have a member who is a payphone expert. His member name Payphoneinstaller. You might try messaging him. That's where I go when I have a payphone question. It sometimes take him a few days to respond but he always does.