Started with a dead payphone and somehow ended up learning a ton and having a blast along the way. 😂
This thing now lives in my house beside my bar and is fully functional… minus the coin operation.
The project started when I picked up an old payphone that was locked up with no keys. So the first step was buying carbide bits and Dremel tools and spending a couple hours carefully removing the locks just to get inside of it. 😅
Once I finally got it open, I discovered why it didn’t work…
The onboard battery had leaked acid all over the original Ernest Telecom board and basically cooked the electronics. I replaced the battery hoping for a miracle… but nope. Still dead.
That’s when the project went completely off the rails.
Naturally I decided:
“Why repair it the easy way when I can completely over-engineer it?” 😂
So I bought a modern red Amazon phone for the guts and started figuring out how to transplant the modern electronics into the original payphone housing.
That turned into:
• Mapping the keypad matrix manually so the original metal keypad would talk to the modern phone board
• Figuring out ATA/VoIP programming with the Obihai box so it could make real calls
• Rewiring switches and hooks
• Adapting old-school pulse style hardware to modern electronics
• Using a radiator clamp and zip ties to trigger the hook switch because sometimes engineering becomes caveman engineering
• Hours of continuity testing, connector measuring, soldering, trial and error, and questioning my life choices
But now:
✔ Original keypad works
✔ Original handset works
✔ Mechanical bells work
✔ Lights work
✔ Incoming and outgoing calls work
✔ Fully functional payphone in the house
I eventually found a backplate and wall mounted booth on Marketplace which really completed the whole setup.
Honestly this project was way more fun than I expected. I learned a ton about old telecom hardware, keypad matrices, VoIP systems, and just how insanely overbuilt these old payphones were.
I absolutely love the way it turned out. I even bought dry erase markers so friends and family can graffiti the booth when they come over. 😂
Definitely one of the coolest things in my bar/game room now. ☎️🍻.