Elevator/Lift Control Room (Over 30 years old!)

[pomonabill220]

HOLD THE DAMN CAMERA STILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[electrovlog]

Great components!

You can easily inspect and fix them, and you need not replace the entire contactor if a contact fails.

[danielrichardbond]

@andel74 Can you video it and put it up here?

[express777100]

definately an express controller, i remember the old contacts,

[mrcelica4589]

This control unit is powered by the Zilog Z80 microprocessor, same as the C-64 homecomputer.

[johnnv11]

OLD EXPRESS CONTOL PANEL WITH A NEW ELECTRONIC FLOOR SELECTOR,VERY DANGEROUS TO WORK ON AS IF YOU TOUCH ANYTHING INSIDE THE PANEL YOU WILL GET A SHOCK/ELECTOCUTED.

[andel74]

i inspect a lift with an arc rectifier (google it) still in use, its from the 1930's!!

[Vanishbug]

Amazing

[michelinman8592]

FABULOUS!!!!!

[Turbolad995]

Awesome! It's another example of older technology being simpler and outlasting today's modern and over-complicated cheap rubbish! I don't think today's electronic ones would last over 30 years and still work fine??

[cenzo188]

Wow, those relays are entertaining.

[NEXPAR]

In 1978, when I was still a kid, I got to go up in a building while it was still under construction and got to see the elevator equipment with the controller in operation. Since the elevator was being hand-operated, the selector was not yet hooked up with the tape is attatached to the car and weight and would spool over the wheel and and make the selector move up and down when the car does thus tracking.

[douro20]

30 years is not old for an elevator.

[Tambako]

In the house where I grew up there is a 50 years old system still in use and it has a mechanical method to tell in which direction the motor has to turn depending on the current floor and the desired floor. I have pics on my flickr account, message me if you want the specific urls.

[mrmattandmrchay]

Wow, nearly 15'000 views! What's you secret!! I only get about 500 max on mine!

[willowinone]

This is an old express two speed a.c. lift, the old floor selector has been replaced with an electronic type, really good old lift, express were a great old English lift company from Northampton, taken over by Otis, sadly the express name has gone {i've been a lift engineer for 35 years}

[TheMCMXXL]

I saw nearly the same type of control of the German company "Haushahn", guess around 1974.

[UrbexNW]

I could immediately tell you're in Europe from the 100Hz hum. It sounds distinctively different from our 120Hz hum in North America.

[steeeven1]

just to let you know, its actually 50 and 60, but i can see how you would think its 100 and 120, because its double XD

[AG3304]

Pop,bang,flash,click,clunk.The way electrics should be.And far more dependable than the electronic crap made now.

[marsamprepair]

AGREED

[stef546]

The thing is, that it is -too- reliable, as like most old electronics. We had a old Nordmende Colour TV Set, which lasted over 25 only with one new line transformator, as like one dishwasher from 1982, which still works. -That- is -quality- and, i´m sorry, but quality is not any longer the interest of the manufacturers.

[AG3304]

Yup-they want you to bin it and buy another.Who cares about the mountains of rubbish they then moan about having to get shot of!

[Elhombresombra]

AGREE!

[figamarsa]

Esatto!!!! (I agree)

[AG3304]

They just don't get it,do they?!

[pahvi67]

nowdays they only want to make things small..

[AG3304]

Small,too complicated,and if possible,to use more juice to do the same job.

[UrbexNW]

VFD system is more efficient and the smoother control gives a much nicer ride and provides smoother start. They're both important, because kVA demand as well as energy usage both cost money.

[Elhombresombra]

Yes, DEFINITELY!

[orangie84]

WOW!!! I never would have thought all that is in an (old) elevator control room..

I almost feel like screaming...

IT"S ALIVE!!!!

lol.. This was cool..

And really interesting .)

Thanks for the post

[DutchFord86]

I see a hell of a lot "Asbestos Warning" stickers in there :P But its still great to work on this kind of old equipment.

[djkwas88]

zajebisty filmik

[Rbnqss]

gotta love the sounds of the relays

[nesnul]

A lot of asbestose there !!!

[isaacu]

This is all done by PLC now.. I had to work on one in a hospital from the 40's BAD DEAL... Very nice video.

[BarneySaysHi]

Have you ever seen the movie "The lift"? Now THAT was a bad ass ellevator!

[mrmattandmrchay]

I prefered 'out of order'...

w ww. timeout . c om/film /chicago/reviews/66292/out-of-­order.html  (remove spaces)

This was fairly realistic as lift movies go, of course the lift fell at the end, but nothing blew up at the end (like US movies) and attention to detail was good.

I think it was a French movie that was dubbed into English.

Was 'the lift' the one where the bank robbert went wrong when... (continues)

[mrmattandmrchay]

...they got stuck with other passengers in the lift, or the one when circuit boards (with lights!) started appearing and start taking over the 3 lifts - then the cables came alive and hung that bloke at the bend (that movie was crap!)

May be I will post a few clips of 'out of order' on youtube if anyone is interested?

[BarneySaysHi]

It was the latter. It is a Dutch movie with a script that has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese but it was spooky.

[NEXPAR]

@mrmattandmrchay There were no bank robbers in "The Lift" or the "The Shaft". I think "The Lift" was a German film as the elevator repair van and newspapers were in German but it was dubbed in English. The Shaft, I believe is French but it's set in New York City but basically it's a remake of "The Lift".  I believe it's called Le Asensur.

[NEXPAR]

@mrmattandmrchay I saw the movie "Out Of Order" and it was very similar to a 1974 movie called "The Elevator". In OOO, there is someone who robs someone in the building and makes his getaway in the elevator that.... of course, get's stuck. That happened in "The Elevator". The building was closed for the night or weekend, same in the 1974 movie. At the end the lift crashed, same in T.E. ""but nothing blew up....(like US movies). Nothing blew up (like TODAY'S US movies) when the elevator car

[NEXPAR]

crashed.

[produKtNZ]

Ahh, i still like your video ;) just watched it again . . . twice ;p.

Shame i can't find any 'good' help like you had eh :P:P

[peugteobike]

I will

[peugteobike]

I got badly shocked when working on an elevator.that was from the 40s or 50s model

[GinoRc]

Take care next time

[skunkatoras]

nice old express

[Splatzone]

Fascinating, thanks for uploading this!

I'm glad I'm not the only person who has an interest in elevators/lifts... :)

[produKtNZ]

The lift motor room i have in mind (in the 11 floor hotel i work in), has absolutely no safety equipment, no guards for the motor flywheel nor the main cable wheels etc!

There are 3 lift motors up there, 2 being completely electronic and smooth, and the other (being the service lift) looks similar in this vid. Should make for a good comparison and a good vid overall :)

[produKtNZ]

Wow! I may have access to an even older one that this!, its has about 20 rows of smaller switches for the car positioning\ point tripping) about 80 or so in total to service 11 floors)

And then there's the big contactors for each motor direction, doors and brakes but its only the motor contactors that make a huge spark (about 7-15mm of spark!!).

As this stuff fascinates me too, there will be a vid from me up shortly :)

[SomethingUnreal]

That sounds awesome! =D

I look forward to your video! I only hope that it will be recorded at a decent quality, because an amazing number of these elevator videos appear to be done with poor-quality mobile phone cameras, which is a big shame. =/

[produKtNZ]

:) Will try my best, gonna be a couple of weeks tho. Since as you have said about the crappy camcorders. I have a crappy camcorder :S So i'll have to buy a new one.

I am the head concierge at the hotel, i have a single master key that opens 260+ doors :) including the lift motor room :D

[SomethingUnreal]

Good luck. =) I still look forward to it.

To be honest, any camcorder should be better than a phone's built-in 'after-thought' camera. ;)

[produKtNZ]

lol yea. but i do want something decent to record with... Any ideas?

[SomethingUnreal]

Well I use a camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV270E), although it's a pretty old design now (uses those bulky Digital-8 tapes), although it is still a decent machine - stereo, 720x576 video resolution (with 40x optical/990x digital zoom) and pretty good night-vision. I do recommend you check out pixmania dot com. They sell this kind of stuff brand new at decent prices. ;)

[elev8trman]

Its funny you say that sometimes when I'm troubleshooting old controllers I will turn the lights off. I must ask why are you guys fooling around with an elevator controller?

[SomethingUnreal]

The person who I (the person behind the camcorder) am talking to, is a maintenance engineer (I believe that's the correct title...?) who works at the building, and showed me around the place. I found this motor room especially interesting, so I decided to upload just this part. ;)

[DevotedAnimeSharer]

Wow, thats cool how you got to have a look at that, thanks for showing that. ^^

[Rymac91]

that's really cool, I love listening to those things run.

[darrenjohnwatson]

hey, what building was that??? I'll get in there and get some night footage and see if it lights up.

Darren

[johnnyrottenwigan]

I removed an old water hydraulic goods lift out of the strand palace hotel, comletewith the old pop fart plasma rectifier panel and replaced it for a bright shiny new skg goods lift to take the dustbins up to the road level, only problem was after i fitted it they found the bins were too big to go in it...lolololol...i left it with otis to sort out....lololololol....next time take a tape measure wiv ya....lolololol

[Rizzbriff]

It aint Shiny anymore and it stinks! Nearly fell off a ladder on the pavement while checking the controller. Won't be doing that again =D Thanks!!!!

[Rizzbriff]

The lift aint shiny anymore and it stinks. Nearly fell off a ladder on the pavement accessing the controller. Wont be doing that again. Thanks!! =D

[AG3304]

Sounds as bad as the railway when l was on it-they ordered all these plastic crappy new trains and then realised the power supply wouldn't cope!What a bunch of t*****s!

[johnnyrottenwigan]

Why didnt you go all the way and shove them contactors in with yer fingers...lolololol...intresti­ng video but ill give you a price to get shut of the old crappycarbon contact rubbish...

[SomethingUnreal]

Maybe I won't get THAT close =/

[ryan29073]

50 hz?

[SomethingUnreal]

Yep - It's in the UK. ;)

[Ocalaspank]

I like to watch My 1967 model in total darkness.

[SomethingUnreal]

How can you watch it in total darkness?

What 1967 model? Your profile shows nothing.

Does your comment have anything to do with anything?

[mysterymeatgrinder]

Very interesting. That's a lot of contactors!

Old technology is always fascinating.

[farkkis]

heh,thats nearly new :)

[SomethingUnreal]

Well, there are 2 newer parts in it. That board with the column of LEDs, and another board which I didn't get in view, which is for the speech.

But I can see how this is new compared to one you saw from 1928 ;)

[ctxcolormonitor69]

The PCB replaces the old type floor selector from Express Lifts (had an up/down solenoid which pulled a platform up and down a carriage). Would love to see one of them. I videoed one ages ago but accidently recorded over it!

[doraipeich]

nice video!!!!