Been going back and forth on whether to swap my old Otis relay panels for a microcontroller retrofit

Last month I spent 8 hours troubleshooting a sticky door lock on a 1980s Dover in Dallas that could've been fixed in 20 minutes with a modern controller, but then three years ago I had a microcontroller board fry mid-shift on a busy Friday afternoon and the whole building was down for two days while we waited on parts, so which side are you on for older elevators keep the relays or go digital?

2 comments

2 Comments

leerobinson5d agoMost Upvoted

My building super buddy in Chicago swapped all his Otis relays for PLCs last year and now the tenants complain about phantom door nudges that the old mechanical timers never had. It's like the whole push to digitize everything forgets that old stuff was built for the real world, not some perfect lab test. Same thing with my neighbor's smart thermostat versus the old mercury switch one - the digital one updates firmware at the worst possible times.

janab825d ago

@leerobinson So is it the digital logic that's causing the ghost nudges, or something about how the PLCs handle timing differently from the old relays?