Payphone problem

[dskansas]

I bought an old Verizon/GTE payphone off of eBay and got it working just fine. I had to buy a new 4.8v battery for it off of payhone.com and for some reason it won't hold a charge. I have the manual and figured out how to program it and even do a quick charge for the battery but it just won't last. So now the phone rings but when I pick it up it just keeps ringing. I was wondering if I could hook up an old Motorola power adapter that is 4.8v 350ma in place of the  battery that is 4.8v 500ma? I know these things are supposed to be line powered and was wondering if maybe since I live in a rural area if there isn't enough power to keep the battery charged up. I think it has the Protel 310 board in it if that helps any.

My other thought is that the hookswitch might be bad but since they are magnetic I was thinking that there wasn't much that could go wrong with them.

Thanks,
Dennis

[Ken Layton]

Suggest checking with tech support at the manufacturer:

http://www.protelinc.com/ProtelWeb/

North Atlantic also repairs Protel & Elcotel Payphone circuit boards regardless of model:

http://www.naicomm.com/Pay%20Phone%20Repair.html

[dskansas]

Thanks Ken, I will look into both of those links. $50 + parts sounds pretty reasonable.

[dskansas]

I've been talking with Alfonso from payphone.com and he pointed out something that I didn't know. Apparently the phone doesn't charge the battery unless it is being used and sometimes I go a month or so without using the payphone in my gameroom. I guess this means I need to spend more time in there using the phone so it will keep the battery charged up.

[Ken Layton]

That is correct! It must be connected to a phone line or the battery will die.

[therylmccoy]

How often would the phone need to be used to charge the battery?