[VoIP] Questions about payphones (was Re: CAMA and UK billing)

[Jayson Smith]

Hi,

     I had a long chat with Phil tonight, and he does have some available. I
think what I really want is just a standard payphone, not the panel type he
has. He can get one of those for me though. It would save some shipping
charges also!
     I have a few questions. Mark, in your design, do you envision your coin
relay controlling device being used only for that purpose, or also hooking
up to a source of telephone service, and having the payphone entirely hooked
up to your device? If you don't understand, let me say it this way. Would I
have a standard phone connection from the payphone which goes to a Sipura,
IAXy, or other Asterisk-controlled phone service providing device, and extra
wires going from the payphone to your proposed gizmo which would perform
coin relay control? Or would your gizmo hook up to the device providing
phone service, and also hook up to the payphone? The reason I'm asking is,
I'd need to know how to tell Phil to set up the phone. He can put a modular
plug on the phone so it can hook up to a standard phone jack, but there's
the issue of the relay controlling wires to worry about.
     Also, how are you going to handle initial depositing, in the absence of
an initial deposit test? Will you be looking for ground on the phone after
the user dials a number, then returning money, and asking for money, or will
you just ask for money, or return, then ask for money? It seems to me that
if you just ask for money without returning first, anyone who put money in
before dialing would just have that money wasted, or have to hang up in
order to get that money returned. As I understood what Phil told me, the
payphone puts ground on the line when it has received a
dipswitch-configurable amount of money, the initial deposit. This contrasts
with what I'd earlier heard from phone phreak files talking about how you
had to put a nickel in the phone in order to red box, because of the ground
test.
     Sorry for such a long message, but I'd love to get these questions
answered.
Jayson.