OpenPayphone
open-source guts for a 1996 coin payphone (Pi and SIP)
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HN · launched Jun 7, 2026 · 23 upvotes (top 23%) · 0 views
Niche: open-source hardware and maker electronics · 180 launches, 3 in the last 7 days ▼ -73% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Hardware & robotics
- Prosumer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 180 launches in open-source hardware and maker electronics →
Could you build this?
No The project involves physical hardware hacking, reverse-engineering 1990s coin mechanism pulses and hook switches, and integrating them via GPIO into a Raspberry Pi SIP telephony stack.
What it would actually take: Requires an electrical interface board (custom PCB or optocouplers) to read mechanical switch closures, pulse dialers, and coin validator signals from vintage payphone hardware safely into Raspberry Pi GPIO. The software stack uses Linux with Asterisk or a lightweight SIP client (like PJSIP) wired to a Python or C daemon handling state transitions (dial tone, coin accumulation, call routing). This requires embedded electronics expertise, soldering/circuit design, and telecoms protocol knowledge.
Discussion
1 comment analyzed.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 1860 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #415 of 1861 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 220 days after the earliest competitor.
- Crate · hn · 2026-07-20 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.60
- RP-Toolbox · github · 2026-09-11 · 18 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- flipper-mtools · github · 2026-10-06 · 15 upvotes · similarity 0.55
- Emula · github · 2026-10-20 · 15 upvotes · similarity 0.55
- slot-for-kpa · github · 2026-10-16 · 16 upvotes · similarity 0.55
- ai-phone · github · 2026-10-27 · 347 upvotes · similarity 0.55
- crypto-payment · github · 2026-09-20 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.54
- pokelinux · github · 2026-10-12 · 26 upvotes · similarity 0.54
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