If it aint broke...

JeepGoesBeep

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...fix it until it is. That seems to be one of my biggest problems when working on projects.

So to keep from breaking the Donkey Kong machine I have been working on I found something to keep me busy in between coats of paint, sanding, etc... it seems that anything I could possibly over think I will so I gotta set my mind on something else...


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I've had this payphone since the early 80's and never really did much with it. It's been sitting out in the storage building for the past 10 years or so and it was starting to get into pretty bad shape so I decided to save it. I took it in and cleaned it up a little then I rewired it to make it work in the home. Once I knew it was working, I tore into it to do a real good cleaning on it:

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I didnt have the lock for the upper section and the key for the coin vault had been lost years ago so I had no way of getting into it other than to drill. The whole assembly comes off with a few screws from the back other than two that screwed in from the inside. I drilled those two from the back so when the drill bit got down in a little ways and caught it just screwed them right on out like a bolt extractor. Luckily the actual coin box was missing from the vault so I didnt have to feel bad and smash it to get the screws out of the lock. I found new locks and keys for it so I will order those when I get payed this week. I also found this on Ebay to make it work like an actual payphone using just a regular POTS line:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coin-Controller-Your-Antique-3-Slot-Payphone-/300711109098#ht_36924wt_1139

I'm wanting to build a phone booth that would fit into my gameroom that would match the era of the phone...does anyone have any leads on plans or photos or any info on anything like that? Thanks for looking!

tommy
 
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Well that would be cool in a game room. I like to see it when you get the phone done? That would now be something I will have to hang on my game room wall now an old but working phone!!!
 
I've heard good reviews on that payphone controller unit. His ebay auctions have detailed instructions for it. Especially pertaining to your GTE/automatc Electric 3 slot payphone.

In the era that payphone was made, there were really only two mountings:

Plain old hang it on the wall without any enclosure.

Put it inside a full sized wooden or aluminum phone booth.
 
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Since I'm waiting on a bunch of parts to come in on my DK project I decided to work on my phone a little tonight. I cleaned it up a bunch using aluminum foil with a little water (that does wonders for polishing chrome btw). After I got it cleaned up and wiped down I polished it up with some chrome polish just to give it some protection from rust and then put it back together. I'm still looking for a 10-L lock and key to go back in the vault, if I dont find one soon I may just stick a 29-S in there just so I can put the door back on:

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It's all wired back up and working on the VOIP here in the house.

I have this old 684A ringer box that I'm thinking about mounting with it, if the ATA adapter will actually ring it (this is someone elses pic, I dont have one of mine handy):

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Now that is pretty cool. Very good looking phone. Very cool device to make it work with coins on modern phone lines too.
Since a lot of us here are handy with things like this, here is a link to build a pay phone controller.

http://atcaonline.com/controller.html

I want a pay phone for my arcade, but I haven't found one for the right price yet.
 
No Donkey Kong parts came in the last few days so today was another phone day.

I had this old shelf from work that was made of oak so I decided it would make a decent enough backboard for my phone so I cut it down to a reasonable size and trimmed it out with some corner molding that I got from Lowes. I set some 1/4 t-nuts into the back of it to bolt the phone onto it and gave it a test run...boy is this thing freaking heavy. I figured I had better hit a stud with this so I sunk 3 1/4 x 2-1/2" lag bolts into it and then ran the wiring to it through the wall and mounted the phone:

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The GTE emblem is from my dad's 30 year service plaque that was out in storage along with the old phones. I think it turned out OK and still has a sort of old time feel to it...and has a small tribute to my dad as well (he passed away 4th of July last year)

I had a slight snafu on the hookup. I didnt notice that my ATA (which also has an FXO port) was unregistered when I tested the other day. When it isnt registered with my Asterisk server it locks the FXS port over to the FXO port so that it's straight through to the CO...sort of a fail safe in case of lost power etc...well...when I tested again today I found out that my ATA doesnt support pulse dialing (most dont) so I had to order one that does and it will be here soon. Until then, it is wired straight to the demarc...

Hope you guys like it and thanks for checking it out!
 
Thats a pretty sweet looking payphone you got there. I did something similar to a 1985 Bell payphone. But since I don't have POTS/landline i just connected it to a cell phone.
I direct you to my quick video for posterity purposes
http://youtu.be/v5cOkETPqIU

I wish I knew how to embed.
 
If you want to go cell phone, go to Sparkfun.com and look at their port-o-rotary project. They sell a GSM module that they embedded into an old rotary phone.
 
There's really no reason for me to go cellular since I have to keep DSL anyway (there is no other service out where I live) and cell service is very spotty in my house. It wont work at all sitting in my recliner in the living room (!!!) My internal phone system is also my intercom system so that I can intercom from room to room or whole house page and I have some home automation announcements that get sent over certain page groups depending on who they are for etc etc. I do have a trunk on my asterisk box that works over bluetooth to my cell phone though, and it works very well for receiving and sending calls over cellular but I hardly ever use it...

I got the ATA adapter in the mail the first of this week and I got it up and working pretty easily. The hardest part was figuring out it's internal dial plan to make it do what I wanted it to do.

Back in the day we only had to dial 5 digits to reach someone where I live so I spent a little time today setting up a dial plan that mimics that behavior. When you pick up a phone and dial, say, 3XXXX it prepends the rest of the digits needed to make calls on the 10 digit dialing needed today.

So now I have my rotary dial working and it works the same way it did back when I was growing up! Too sweet....
 
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