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Took me 6 hours to find a bad relay on a 1994 Otis elevator

Honestly, I spent an entire Saturday chasing a ghost in an old Otis in a building downtown. The car kept stopping between floors, no error codes, nothing. I swapped boards, checked wiring, did all the usual stuff. After 6 hours I finally found a single stuck relay in the machine room that was only failing when it got warm. I felt like an idiot but also kind of proud. Has anyone else wasted a whole day on a stupid simple component like that?
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2 Comments
sanchez.blake
Back in 2018 I had a 92 Otis that would randomly lose its floor position after running for about 45 minutes. Turned out to be a crusty old capacitor on the main controller board that only failed when it heated up. Swapped that one tiny part for a ten dollar replacement and it ran perfect for years after that. That feeling of finding the dumbest possible fix after a full day of work is honestly better than any trophy.
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finleyl55
finleyl551mo ago
Gotta love intermittent thermal failures, always the last thing you check.
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