Western Electric Payphone

[ckucera]

Does anyone out there know how to modify a Western Electric payphone to work on a normal phone line?  I have a complete phone and want to make it work for my hobby/game room.

[Beretta]

not i, but sounds really cool, check google on "phreaking", you should find more guides and faqs on phones then you could possibly want.

[King Nerd]

I've always wanted to do something like that.
I hope you keep this thread updated with all the information and work you do

When I moved out I wanted to have a free payphone as my home phone.
I ended up not getting home phone at all and just a mobile, but I'll eventually get a home phone and I plan on getting a payphone to do it.

There must be some sort of common wiring between a home and pay phone. I hope you figure it out.

Good luck.

[drventure]

This might help

http://reviews.ebay.com/Converting-a-payphone-for-home-use_W0QQugidZ10000000006247533?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:LISTINGS:4

[King Nerd]

This might help

http://reviews.ebay.com/Converting-a-payphone-for-home-use_W0QQugidZ10000000006247533?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:LISTINGS:4

Thanks drventure. I'll be bookmarking that baby.

Go Team Venture!

[EwJ]

If you're lucky, Ken Layton will see this thread and pop in with a comment or two.
Meanwhile, maybe you can extract some useful info from this thread.

[Ken Layton]

Most "dumb" Western Electric payphones that came from the local Bell Telephone operating companies will work on ordinary phone lines "as-is". Just connect your red and green phone wires to the Tip and Ring terminals on the phone chassis board. You can make and receive calls. The problem will come if you put coins in it. Without the "collect" and "refund" signals that the phone company provides on "coin lines", the inserted coins will pile up in the coin relay/hopper and jam. This holds a couple of switches closed which shorts you phone line into a constant busy signal.

So just don't put any coins into the coin slot.

This forum is very helpful for payphone wiring/conversion information:

http://www.sundance-communications.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/forum/f/45.html

[SavannahLion]

Most "dumb" Western Electric payphones that came from the local Bell Telephone operating companies will work on ordinary phone lines "as-is". Just connect your red and green phone wires to the Tip and Ring terminals on the phone chassis board. You can make and receive calls. The problem will come if you put coins in it. Without the "collect" and "refund" signals that the phone company provides on "coin lines", the inserted coins will pile up in the coin relay/hopper and jam. This holds a couple of switches closed which shorts you phone line into a constant busy signal.

So just don't put any coins into the coin slot.

This forum is very helpful for payphone wiring/conversion information:

http://www.sundance-communications.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/forum/f/45.html

I'm too exhausted to digest technical info ATM so forgive me if this has been answered already but....

Couldn't one just modify the coin slot circuitry to fake the incoming signals or to manage the coins by itself?

[Ken Layton]

Couldn't one just modify the coin slot circuitry to fake the incoming signals or to manage the coins by itself?

This is what a private payphone "smart" board does and why it costs so much. All the functions of what the telephone company's "central office" equipment does is put into one circuit board.

[SavannahLion]

OK, so it's not simple solution then.

Has there been any attempts to craft a custom PCB in the amateur community to solve that then? A sort of Groovy Phone Gear kind of thing?

[Ken Layton]

From my thread over at KLOV:

There are several sites that sell or show how to build a payphone controller box to make "dumb" phones work on coins again.

http://oldphoneguy.net/images/WordConv2PDF2.pdf

http://oldphoneguy.com/images/Post%20Pay%20Payphone%20Controller%201APDF.pdf

http://atcaonline.com/controller.html

http://atcaonline.com/controller2.html

http://mysite.verizon.net/dalderdi/phones/payphone.htm

Videos showing a payphone controller in operation:







Installation and repair of Western Electric payphones (large files, 20 to 46 mb in size):

http://wedophones.com/TheBellSystem/pdf/bsp/coin/PublicServices2.pdf

http://wedophones.com/TheBellSystem/pdf/bsp/coin/PublicServices1.pdf

[Ken Layton]

Here is a website showing and describing the inside of a modern Western Electric/AT&T payphone:

http://www.porticus.org/bell/telephones-payphones-modern.html