Ken's Payphone Thread

Thanks a lot! I picked one up today. I have a really dumb question though. The phone had cut wires, so I know where things were hooked up. Can I run the ground from the existing location inside the housing right to the cord and ground it that way?

Ok. additional dumb question. the output side has the 3 wires two yellow and one black (in the middle).. per the package for the transformer, one yellow wire+ one black wire = 12.6volts. one yellow wire + one yellow wire = 25.2volts.

I have 4 wires coming from the power supply: red and yellow are tied together at CT, green is at L1 and black is at L2. If i tie the three to the transformer, would green go to one yellow , black to the other yellow and the red/yellow to the black wire on the transformer?
 
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cueball said:
Thanks a lot! I picked one up today. I have a really dumb question though. The phone had cut wires, so I know where things were hooked up. Can I run the ground from the existing location inside the housing right to the cord and ground it that way?

Ok. Additional dumb question. The output side has the 3 wires two yellow and one black (in the middle).. per the package for the transformer, one yellow wire + one black wire = 12.6volts. One yellow wire + one yellow wire = 25.2volts.

I have 4 wires coming from the power supply: red and yellow are tied together at CT, green is at L1 and black is at L2. If I tie the three to the transformer, would green go to one yellow , black to the other yellow and the red/yellow to the black wire on the transformer?
Click to expand...

Yes to the first two paragraphs. Yes to the third paragraph provided those wires are going to the power supply board in the phone.
 
thanks Ken!!! i tried it out and bam!, it works. now i just need to go through the manual and figue out how to reprogram it. it wanted$2 to call my parents 6 miles away :D

Edit: it looks like I need the CoinSoft program for my pc to program it.. I can't even dial my cell phone from it.
 
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On the standard AT&T Private, programming was done on the board's own keypad. Does the Plus model have an internal keypad for programming?
 
It does have the keypad. When I turned it on it only gave me a few options to look at diagnostics, coin totals, etc. There was a programming option bur that only had me reset the password. I will mess around with it more, as it didn't seem like I was viewing everything. But I was able to see everything the manual references
 
You should have a programming option to create a "local calling zone" where you type in all your local prefixes and assign the calling price and time limits (if limiting is desired).
 
Update: I have run into many roadblocks with this darn phone, but I did find some promising links.. NTCI.net was one site where I saw they had an ATT model 36A chassis mentioned. Sure enough, i checked my chassis and that is what it is. So I emailed the webmaste for that site and he got back to me with contact info for:
1. Universal Communication - I called the contact and left a voice message.
2. Tele Source - I called and spoke to someone. He told me that I needed to swap out the chassis and have a 32-C put in there. I told him that the phone worked fine as-is but i just wanted the rates updated and add some area codes. I really dont think he knew much about what I was doing with it - although I explained it several times.
3. North Atlantic -www.naicomm.com - sent them an email via their website.

I will pay someone to do this if necessary, but dang, why do i have to find the obscure models? But believe me, if i do find someone to tell me or I figure something out - then i will definitely write it up for others to use.
 
The AT&T Private Payphone was not obscure when it came out in 1988. We had a dozen of them on our route, but they were a headache to program. Alot of payphone operators had some AT&T Privates on their routes. We never did buy the Plus model. We went to straight Elcotel conversion kits and installed them in the AT&T cases. I remember my boss throwing all the AT&T circuit boards right into the garbage cans about 7 years ago. It's possible he might still have a manual in that old filing cabinet he had. Next time I run into him, I'll ask if he might still have that manual.
 
I found a possible lead on a programming Manual, but it doesn't sound too reassuring. To be honest, I have been keeping an eye out for another phone- perhaps with an Elcotel programmable board. I haven't wasted too much energy on it as there is nothing I can do without the coinsoft software or the manual- both of which are not readily available o line.
 
Elcotel programing software and manuals dirt cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Elcotel-Payphon...283?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41540d6d1b

Elcotel "Olympian" (a.k.a. the 5501 model) smart board to fit in Western Electric (AT&T) cases:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ELCOTEL-OLYMPIA...712?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf2ba7df8

Elcotel series 5 smart boards for GTE/Quadrum/Palco cases:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-2-Elcotel-S...404?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f047c114c

Here's an ad for the AT&T Private Payphone Plus:

http://www.porticus.org/bell/images/att_payphone_ad.jpg

Evidently, the original AT&T payphone software came on a total of SEVEN 5.25" floppies.
 
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I just talked to my old boss about the AT&T payphone manual and the Williams payphone manual. He's going to look around his filing cabinets to see if they got saved or not.

I'm hoping they both got saved. If one or both did get saved, I'm going to scan them!
 
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It's a no go. He said he looked all over and they were not there. He found some Elcotel manuals though. So it looks like the AT&T and the Williams manuals must have been thrown away.
 
Awww crap... I really appreciate him looking.. As much as I would love to find a manual to reprogram the phone, I may just look for another phone with an elcotel board that can be programmed cheap
 
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thanks for the heads up... I am watching the auctions and am going to contact the seller tonight. However, I do have that same manual - but there is next to nothing for how to program it.
 
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