Thank you again for putting all the effort together to make such a thorough and detailed video on these truly remarkable lifts and the really interesting building in which they're located! I am glad that I was able to help you on the subject of the Aconic controller and it has been a very interesting journey for me as well so far, studying all the old manuals and reading into what the engineers of Schlieren invented here in the 1950s. I am looking forward to creating part 3 with you and to dive deeper into the subject. Also thank you again for linking my video of the Aconics, timing has been a good coincidence and I'm really glad that I was able to film this extremely rare group of lifts.
The video style, effort that has gone into it, the music, they add so much anemoia type of nostalgia honestly. Something about places which were cared for and then just forgotten for ever, but still exist... broken, but exists.
I spent a lot of time in (working) elevator rooms a few years ago on a contract job. We audited about 500 elevators throughout a government agency, including some that were over 80 years old. It was really cool to see this and it brings back some memories of opening up a machine room not knowing what decade the actual equipment would be from. In some cases they modernized 1950s elevators to 80s standards and left the old electro-mechanical cabinets and motor-generators behind. I’m not sure what the maintenance standards are like in the UK but in North America the elevator contractors are focused on new builds and modernization and do not care about service and maintenance contracts. In some cases one technician will be responsible for 150 elevators all over the city, each needing about 5-6 hours a month in code-required service. Well you do the math, they simply aren’t getting the service and not one of those 500 elevators was even close to meeting the A17/B44 code standards for North America. Even though it’s required by law! Thanks for the videos!
Yes, I had 2 lifts, and both got the correct service, such so that Schindler used the one as part of the annual review from the Swiss parent, as it was a good example of the era lift, and was in good order. Even went and painted the motor room floor, and put all the warning yellow paint on moving parts as well. Had a stack of spares for the unit in the one corner, especially vision panels, with the pig glass wire in them, as those were kind of expensive to order each, but not so when you bought 5 at a time cut to size.
Meanwhile in my country some landlords award their lift/elevator maintenance contract to a 3rd party company e.g. 9G that's different from the lift manufacturer, maybe because its cheaper. We also had a shortage of lift technicians to service all my country's lifts maybe because such a career is seen as more menial here
I appreciate the fact that you are making the effort to put it all back together when you could have literally thrown it on the floor (especially since it is already broken and beyond repair).
This channel hits all my love of electromechanical, love the effort that is going into documenting these old lift systems, the attention to technical detail is absolutely outstanding.
2 pigeons casually living in the lift motor lol, cool vid honestly. the editing put into this is insane, I know how darn hard it is to edit a video. I like how in depth they go into the lift motors and control boxes, checking every detail, love this kind of content
I love the quality and effort that is put to your videos. As an engineer myself (but from another field than lifts), I'm the type of person who is always curious and seeking for the answers. I don't need to do that here, because your videos are so detailed that my curiosity is well satisfied. You're doing outstanding job here. Your videos and explanations helped me to overcome my fear of lifts long, long time ago.
As someone who has been fascinated by machines of all kinds since before I can remember, these elev-excuse me, lift videos are absolutely fascinating. And imagining the history behind the unused buildings as you walk through is kind of fun. Thanks for work you put into making and sharing them.
This must have been cutting edge back in their days. By early 70s transistors proved to be reliable for any application. They struggled a bit with power applications up to late 60s. But for signal control this was the way to go. They can swtich millions of times without deteriorating, and this reduce maintenance. You will still see relays where high voltage or power need to be controlled. But for logic control this was the perfect choice. I imagine that back on this era, we weren't so sure about solid state yet and many other companies just stuck to the safe an proven relay logic. And because all the engeneering was used to it, while moving to solid state would require another different set of skills.
in TheLiftDragon's video where he shows an original Aconic lift, he says the technology appeared in 1959 and was first used publicly in 1961, so it was even more incredible back then.
And yet again, MrMatt has the answer. I came across this exact controller in the Agfa Gevaert plant here in Antwerp. I always wondered what it was, because in the 17 years i'm into the buisness this was the only time i've seen this controller. Turns out it's the elusive Aconic. Sadly, this lift was decomissioned in the late '90s. The freight elevator in the same motor room, that probably had the same controller, was modernised by us KONE with an LCE cpu and KDM drive unit.
Having found your channel a few weeks ago I am truly hooked! The attention to detail in your explanations and graphics is fascinating and I’m learning a lot already. You capture the feeling inside these buildings beautifully as well, the music and filming make you feel like you’re in the room with these beautiful machines, their quietness now all that’s left of a once bustling and full of life building. Having never really paid much attention to lifts in the pass I can see the incredible work that goes into them and how they become almost their own being in a building. Keep it up and I can’t wait to see more.
Best thing about these videos (besides the absolutely geek-out over obsolete technology) is that all you need is a giant gun center-screen, and it could be real-life Doom. The music absolutely rocks. :-)
I still prefer mechanical contacts and relays over motherboards, cards and solid state controllers because of the reliability! On another channel, a working example of a 1957 masterpiece is still in operation today! I left a referral to your channel on purpose in the hopes that he will network, or share his work with you! I will review my history and give the precise video I am mentioning here! I am also a subscriber to your channel, because you really work hard for the quality and thorough explanation in detail about everything. YOUR COMPASSION TO THIS SUBJECT REALLY SHINES,
This is so intriguing... the atmosphere of the video makes it somewhat spooky, but it's interesting to see what's left inside abandoned places like these! I've personally seen abandoned towers like these in person, but I'd never dare to venture into one, haha
The topology of the transistor blocks and the (apparent) passive component "grid arrays" they plug into (the BLUE blocks) is very reminiscent of the short-lived 1953 NIST "Tinkertoy" project. I suppose this was both a reliability idea (active components are fully modular and can be replaced by yanking a plug module) and a construction flexibility idea (the logic of a "BLUE BOX" segment is defined by the passive component connections within the "grid"). The fact there's a full grid array in there feels like they're presaging the internal construction of FPGAs or "burnable" memory devices. Never saw anything quite like this in production. The topology seems very "dated", even for the era, but is very beefy and beautifully overbuilt. 1960s integrated circuits were a reality, and by the 1970s they were in commercial use in all sorts of higher-end tech. It's a guess, but I can only imagine this was a move to assure the buyers that the system had a lot of redundancy and deep safety factors. Honestly, if I had been a repair tech back in the day, and I had the drawings, fixing a system like this would have been a dream. Failed resistors were probably pretty uncommon. And if a transistor, or cluster of them, failed or were destroyed, it'd be a fairly simple matter to pull a block, take the thing to a bench, and yank and replace the failed silicon. None of the usual rework tools to desolder and pull parts from a fragile PCB, less risk of damaging a trace or having to put in a shunt wire etc. Takes up more space, but had to be easier to maintain when it went wrong.
It always surprises me where UA-cam's recommendations lead me. At first I thought this was just another Lost Places channel, but than I realized it is mainly about lifts. I didn't even know that there were people interested in these enough to make a UA-cam channel about them, but in the meantime I found out there seem to be quite a few. Until now I was actually happy to see a lift being modernized. I don't find old lifts scary, but I didn't like them, being old and run down, rumbling and shaking. while I found newer ones much nicer, moving smoothly from one floor to the next, with modern looking buttons and floor indicators. However now that I know the elaborate relay technology behind the older lifts build before modern electronics were available, and especially the electromechanical floor selectors, I'm fascinated by them. So much effort and engineering just to move a lift car up and down! Now I feel said about every one of these replaced by modern technology, despite knowing that they aren't museums pieces, but part of a building's infrastructure, so sooner or later they will have to be modernized or replaced either for economical or for safety reasons.
Every time I see one of your videos... WOW! It is undoubtedly quality over quantity and I LOVE IT! Also amazing how you got all of this and put together. Thank you very much for sharing all of this with us!
I imagine fault tracing and troubleshooting on one of these lifts would have been quite daunting for any technician accustomed to working with relay logic. Having to trace a signal instead of hearing an audible click of a relay and being able to readily see the position and condition of the contacts, even with the tech at the time they could have had a bunch of status LEDs to guide a technician as to what the I/O of a particular cad was doing. Electronic enough to [hopefully] increase reliability but still antiquated to be unable to run self-diagnostics.
I have never seen any thing like the , cooling grid resistor set up. I call it hat because I have no idea what to call the thing that the transistors plug into. Over all I am surprised to see so few capacitors. Such a lovely lay out on boards. I worked with transistor PLC controllers.
these videos never cease to amaze, the editing is always on another level every time. Never heard of this type of lift logic before seeing this, very much looking forward to seeing more in the next part. Also very curious to see what the inside of those lift cars look like. I hope those pigeons appreciate those old lift motors lol
The copper thieves must take heavy tools with them to take out those field windings. You were lucky that the vandals haven't smashed all those circuit boards up. Beautifully made circuit boards from the 1970's. Thanks for making the video.
You should have visited the tower in the late 2000s it was completely intact and still had lighting and power. The lifts probably still worked back then. There's photos as late as 2009 showing it lit up at night looking just like a normal office building.
This lift appears to be a true example of technology on the cusp of change. Some of the elements use 1963 "cordwood" technology, some are old style (1970s) pcbs. Thank you for bringing that to us, and so sad it's derelict now, it triggers, in me, an impulse that wants to fix it. I fear the chance to do that is long gone. The blue units seem to be "cordwood" style resistor networks mapping input signals available in that column to transistor bases, the transistors being mounted on pluggable modules because in those days, they were quite quick to blow. I know, I've blown a lot, being from that time :) I cringe a bit at the sight of those beautiful crossed rails being bent and torn away, though. The blue boxes are a bit like the contact wiring on Schindler wheels of the olden times. Some of the modules on the card edge connectors seem to be corresponding output amplifier boards. Wonderful tech, I love it.
The Aconic controller looks like an Analogue computer to me. Interesting design with those plugin modules. The circuitboards look very artisan, a bit like my father’s hobby electronics projects from the 70’s. Definitely a hand drawn layout.
Very much digital DTL logic there, with likely 24VDC power rails, and a few bias voltages as well for the logic. not all that complex, basically emulating the old relay based controller, just with transistors instead of relays, so that they would last longer, and remain operating with minimal care other than clean air and dusting. Likely faults were still in things like interface, switches and lamps, but the core logic likely was mostly fault free.
Nice work mate. Them old transistorised control must have cost a bomb back in the 70s. Shame to see all the old gear go to ruins like that but just like the rest of the building it has served its purpose. All the best.
i cant wait for part three, was worth waiting this long for this video to come. its a big shame how such advanced tech (and rather interesting building) was abandoned after only roughly 25 years. as for the building itself, its said that the structure itself is in great shape, but due to the sick building syndrome, its not known if it will be demolished or undergo severe rebuilding.
11:00 I think, copper scavengers were already active in the building. The motors are opened and the field coils are missing. Maybe also cables in the building.
Transistors as plug in modules, on the assumption that they, along with diodes, are the more failure prone items, so put them into plug in modules that are mostly identical, so that you can simply keep a half dozen spares in the room, and quickly plug in a replacement, and send the faulty one to be repaired.
Thanks for the comment and yes, fascinating system and plug-in transistors. I'm not sure that I'd like to fault find this though - imagine randomly swapping out transistor boards until the lift starts working properly again! The know-how must have been very specialised! Did you notice that some of them say 'do not swap'? Wonder why, as TheLiftDragon says that the resistor blocks are the same, just newer design.
@@mrmattandmrchay Well, they would have a few variants of the transistor blocks, so fault find to a board area, then swap out the transistor blocks with the spares one at a time, and see if fault clears. No worse than in any industrial control unit, where you isolate to a region of the controller, then put known good boards in, or swap from an identical good unit, and see if the fault moves. Saying do not swap is just those might have been a later modification, with slightly different internal wiring, so you have to swap the transistor block along with the blue block, as the old and new do not intermix, though the interface to the rest of the unit is the same. Plenty of times i did board swaps in avionics to see what was faulty, then take the now known faulty board, and fix later on after sending the unit back out as serviceable.That way you get the urgent job fixed fast, and can troubleshoot the fault, often a known fault you have marked down for that card, and fix at leisure, being able to do a good job.
Cool channel, nice vids, I like to relax and watch your vids. Now, maybe the 6th lift engine is placed higher and maybe even installed first so this lift could raise all other equipment into place. So no external companies would be needed to get the materials to their position. Also when parts would have been needed to replace, they could do it all internal (except for lift 6 🤓. For the boards: you should not waggle them out, but pull them straight out, in order to not damage the side sliders. Like sliding them in: straight, not waggle. Same for the transistor blocks. Interesting are the matrix resistor blocks. I am curious what they were used for, since it is plenty of them. I am used to work with matrix board with diodes. Good idea of having the steel wires going “around”, also on the bottom of the lift, do there is no need for a compensation chain which makes spooky noises. AC to DC, yeah, thats what I worked with too, DC motors can be very powerful and easy to regulate. Did they use DC or half DC? When using half DC (in fact: from AC to DC using only 1 diode) makes the motor even more powerfull. Many greetings from the Netherlands ❤
Superb video, graphics, commentary and music again. I'm qualified in electronics and am intrigued by the blue modules and the transistor packs. Even the numbers on the transistors are not standard. Looking forward to more and will check out the LiftDragon
Motorola house numbers, though, looking at the case style, it was likely all plain regular 2N2219A and 2N2907A transistors, house coded from the Motorols JAN TX production line, using the transistors that had failed the more rigorous JAN TX elevated temperature cycling, but still passed the more relaxed industrial testing cycle. To pass the JAN TX in the military and aerospace certification you had to have zero failures in a batch of 100k devices, but commercial and industrial you could have up to 10. All passed at room temp, especially in the mid 1970's, where Motorola had dialled in production on those lines to be consistent batch to batch, and could have 99 out of every 100 batches pass the full space certification without issue. House coding so that the repair centre can only get them from the approved source, not just go out and buy them, but pay the price for the "right" devices. Vendor lock in for sure, and likely they had to send those back for repair to factory, despite them being commercial parts otherwise.
That is an incredible looking logic system. As you are looking through those control cabinets I can help but wonder, what was the benefit to such a system in the late 70's? Reprogrammability? Less moving parts? There are so many small components in that system, i have to believe it was a nightmare dealing with just one failing.
Fascinating video, well done! 26:00 I wonder why they use those blue+yellow plug-in modules in that way - I expected them to be different, but visually they look the same with those arrays of transistors, etc. Or perhaps they're wired differently internally as a way of encoding a floor number or somesuch.
Interesting, many things are written in German (Iam German) The video is just as interesting as all others and you explain everithing perfect. 19:35 Actually my first thougt was that if i was there i would try that potentiometer and just when i was thinking that you grabbed it. Keep up making these great videos with incredible quality and knowlege Greetings from Bavaria (Germany) (Did i wright everything correct?)
That's really cool, The green colour reminds me a lot of the DMS100 telephony switch, which is from mid/late 70's and is more digital. That specific shade must have been in style back then lol.
For some reason I can picture someone like Dave Jones of the EEVBlog UA-cam channel going gaga over this amazing 70s era electronics. Double sided hand-drawn PCBs. 70s era metal can transistors. Funky plug-in modules. Hand-wrapped wiring. I wonder what sort of capacitors a system like this would be using and how they avoided the "capacitor plague" that 70s era electronics (e.g. old CRT TVs) are known for.
14:15 What a beauty those hand-drawn circuit boards. 18:08 Some kind of memory, or decision board? Can I recommend bringing BigClive one day? 19:31 Okay. Now I want this panel to hang in my living, replacing a painting I never really liked.
Thanks for the comments. High rise buildings where the lifts are used a lot, normally the lifts are kept up to date. I was very surprised to see these lift still original. They were about 25 years old when the building shut. Fascinating light bulb panel isn't it! :)
As you already know my father worked for Express until mid 1980's and I can not remember him mentioning this make of lift. Thankfully they remained down south as they look a complete nightmare. Dad was having to learn about electronic control in his last few years and to give him his dues he did it but that lot looked like a road to nowhere. Thankfully most of the machinery was left in the hands of proper engineers. Thank you for another really interesting video.
26:00 The swiss engineers of Schindler in the time were very careful with transistors as active electronic parts in a lift control system. They made them changeable like electronic valves.
Thanks for the comment and yes, fascinating system and plug-in transistors. I'm not sure that I'd like to fault find this though - imagine randomly swapping out transistor boards until the lift starts working properly again! The know-how must have been very specialised!
Can I ask a stupid question? I am not an expert. If your converting from AC to DC can't you use a Voltage regulator? attaching two motors seems a little ridiculous and wasteful to me.
So, where wondering if you can explain something in term of elevators that was come-on portrayted in animations or games? ive seen that sort of double door type doing some of 2 chime tone, what are they typically based on? that people is taking inspiration from.
I'm wondering if this Aconic system used TTL - transistor-transistor logic - as its stepping stone from fully analogue relay control to full digital programmable logic control?
You're probably spot on Eddie. It's a very interesting concept, but wonder how much of a nightmare it would have been to fault find! Swap this transistor block out, does it work, no, how about this one! I bet there were more logic methods to do this, but it would have required a unique skillset and experience with working with this controller type.
I believe it is RTL. Possibly dtl but I don't see enough diodes. The interesting thing is how remarkably primitive it is given the age. RTL was 60s tech.
As a trekkie, them orange doors are so very reminiscent of those used on the sets for TNG, it's be fun to be able to salvage some and dress them up as such, but, it's a niche thing I'm sure and not many people would want to have such things, never mind working out how to remove them safely... :\
Fun fact - those round silver components that look like components are actually shift registers - they each store 512 bits of information, like a tiny RAM chip, each 0.5 Kilobits in capacity. You would need 16 of these transistor-looking components to make up 1 Kilobyte of RAM. Damn strange each module only contains 15 of these 512-bit shift registers, I guess the word length in the logic must have been seven bits? Who knows, but each yellow or blue plug in module is just shy of 1Kbyte RAM.
I choose analog relay systems over electronic circuit systems anytime, because capacitors always seem to be the weal link as they often fail first! I have heard often enough about mother board failures to convince me that old school is better for dependability!
Awesome! You should save the parts. I went to San Francisco (south area). I saw the building was demolition down. I entered there and I got the parts Press 2, 1, G, Door closed, Door open and Alarm. And pull "Stop" in the Red button. Great video. Thumbs up! Cheers!
Hi John. I know what you're saying, and all these "one day" will probably end up in land-fill. But on the other hand, I personally look but don't take anything. Being caught taking something out of a building is classed as theft. Providing you do not 'break and enter' (FYI, we walked in through pre-made openings), then doing what we're doing today is not classed as a criminal act. I'm very sure that urban explorers are a constant frustration and time resource for the police to attend to, and really being caught with something taken from the building will be something the police WOULD take action against. So for me - I don't take anything. You'll see an example of this in part 3. Thanks for the comment.
At 10:28 There was a Pigeon Nesting In the Motor Lol. That's just Funny. And The Reason was they didn't really fly away is because they where Harf asleep so They don't Fully Think of What a Threat is. Usually it would fly away but because it was kind of sleeping you did not scare them. But I found it Very cute.
Yes I am. I have about 5 videos on the go at once, each one has a complicated part which takes a little time to finish. Time that I'm find hard to find! Next video should be up within the next 1-2 weeks.
It’s a real shame these lists aren’t still running and after seeing The Lift Dragons video even more so, as the two lifts in his video have motor/gearbox units as normal and possible due to only being 10 stores, these ones in your vid are direct and would have been good to see the speed and control over 20 odd floors.
Was the third lift a different size to the other two hence the raised lift machine platform ? if it was a smaller car then the rope suspension center's would be over towards the other lifts and causing the machine to over hang the other two.
Never seen wire wrapping before, that's quite interesting. I'm guessing there were no electrical drawings on the walls? I guess LiftDragon found some! Presumably the panel with all the bulbs behind it is a floor position display? Edit: Answered at 22:55! A very rare system indeed, but I'm not sure how it works. I don't even know what a transistor is, so I suppose I'll start with learning what they do, lol!
it's easy to see why so many buildings have broken lifts. an intermittent problem would be almost impossible to troubleshoot. if you "shotgun" the modules, what about all the backplane contacts?
Just wanted to mention that the “grid” in the blue box with the transistors plugged in ( 15:42 ) looks like some ROM memory (read only memory) but I’m no computer or lift expert so don’t rely on me
The only thing I could see in the blue boxes were resistors. It would have been unwise to connect power directly to a transistor, so each transistor had a resistor in-line. Depending on the function of each transistor and the 'load' it was switching it's voltage to, this would have made the resistors warm, hence the large box with ventilation above and below. Fascinating system though, and the only part that could really go wrong were the transistors, which were "swap-out-able".
IHi there, I have a quick question. What type of lifts had the relays/logic on the ground floor? Where I lived as a child there was a room on the ground floor that had the lifts relays/?logic inside. Also, there was no motor room per se, it was just massive cupboard doors on the top floor that opened and it had a huge wheel in a cage that made the lifts move while the wheel turned. Sorry for a vague description, but I was a child at the time when I saw the "wheel in a cage" as the lift engineer forgot to lock the doors, thus curious kids, me included opened it to see inside. 😱And I *think* I could see right down the lift shaft watching the lift move. I remember a time when the lift got stuck between floors and the caretaker of the building used a big winding handle on the wheel to move it a floor so he could then open the doors and release those inside. ( I was always hovering around when it was anything to do with the lift as it fascinated me) I remember the engineers another time, in the logic/relay room. The door was opened while he was working away so I stood outside the door to watch and I remember seeing a box on the wall and whatever was inside made sparks (this I have now learned was the lift logic/relay) I always remember there was was a sign on the door of tht room warning of "high voltage" and to" keep out". The lifts were installed in the late 60s when the flats were built.
Hi Panthere, I believe you're talking about a bottom drive machine, where the rope are driven from below, then go all the way up to the top of the shaft. I have a couple of examples for you: ua-cam.com/video/8gZaQzdtJwY/v-deo.html Then look at ua-cam.com/video/8gZaQzdtJwY/v-deo.html (10:15) and this is the bottom drive motor room. It might be that this resembled a cupboard in the lift that you're talking about. Whether a lift is top or bottom drive all depends on the building design (i.e. where they had room for it). Bottom drive is more expensive as you need more divertor wheels to get the cables to the top of the shaft before they come back down. Everything else you mention about the wheel in the cage, and hand winding the motor is true. This is someone else's video of a lift being hand driven: ua-cam.com/video/mnV4MXmAOPU/v-deo.html Hope that helps :)
@@mrmattandmrchayHi. Thanks for replying and sharing the links. Looking at the links, our flats didn't have a basement, but there could have been a trap door in the pit of the shaft that housed the machinery, I do remember seeing the shaft pit, and seeing 2 springs/dampeners but that is all I can remember. I recall The lift shaft was very narrow, as my brother who was full of mischief, used to scare me when in the lift as he could push his arms out and push the walls of the lift and they would scrape off the lift shaft as we moved! The levelling on it was awful as many a time I tripped coming out the lift as the step was sometimes 5/6 inches higher. Do you know what companies made those bottom drive lifts? I have Kone in my head for some reason, but as I say it was that long ago my memory is very vague. Thanks again.
Looking at the state of some of those equipment cabinets. I'm not sure if they're in their current state from vandalism, or if someone was paid to go around with a sledgehammer and "decommission" the electronics/electrical bits when the lifts were taken out of use. Either way, sad.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think those banks of plug-in transistors may have been forming very early versions of logic gates. So one plug may have been an AND gate, and another an OR gate etc.
Yes, I'm sure you're right there. The resistors cannot really fail, but in case the transistors do they can be unplugged and a new set plugged in. Imagine trying to fault find this..!!
That's what I'm thinking too, it almost looks like it was a matrix of resistors, these would have been used as pull up/pull down for the transistor bases, at least that's my guess. Probably designed in such a way that they were easy to manufacture in grids and just stacked.
Emergency access by the fire department, in case no key can be found to access the motor room (in this case it's the generator room, but both should have same hatch access from beneath).
That looks like it was a very stylish and attractive building when it was in good repair. Too bad someone can't buy it and renovate it, keeping the exposed brick everywhere and other stylish features. The lifts/elevators will probably have to be modernized, though. The electronics and motors look beyond repair.
Problem is, it was the design that was the problem. I had someone comment in part 1, about the distance from desks to the windows with little natural light. And bringing natural light into the middle of a building must be an issue. But designers from the 1970s probably didn't realise, but it ended up being classed with "sick building syndrome".
@@mrmattandmrchay Yes, I agree that is a problem. The reason we have so many ugly boxy glass skyscrapers these days is because laws require that nobody sit farther than a certain distance from a window. I guess that's a good thing in some way for people's health and well being, but it makes for some ugly buildings.
Thank you again for putting all the effort together to make such a thorough and detailed video on these truly remarkable lifts and the really interesting building in which they're located! I am glad that I was able to help you on the subject of the Aconic controller and it has been a very interesting journey for me as well so far, studying all the old manuals and reading into what the engineers of Schlieren invented here in the 1950s.
I am looking forward to creating part 3 with you and to dive deeper into the subject. Also thank you again for linking my video of the Aconics, timing has been a good coincidence and I'm really glad that I was able to film this extremely rare group of lifts.
The video style, effort that has gone into it, the music, they add so much anemoia type of nostalgia honestly. Something about places which were cared for and then just forgotten for ever, but still exist... broken, but exists.
Precisely the comment that I like, and it makes all the effort and 'attention to detail' worth it! Thanks very much for the nice comment :)
So true!
Ancient Elevator (lift) Kingdom music!
I spent a lot of time in (working) elevator rooms a few years ago on a contract job. We audited about 500 elevators throughout a government agency, including some that were over 80 years old. It was really cool to see this and it brings back some memories of opening up a machine room not knowing what decade the actual equipment would be from. In some cases they modernized 1950s elevators to 80s standards and left the old electro-mechanical cabinets and motor-generators behind.
I’m not sure what the maintenance standards are like in the UK but in North America the elevator contractors are focused on new builds and modernization and do not care about service and maintenance contracts. In some cases one technician will be responsible for 150 elevators all over the city, each needing about 5-6 hours a month in code-required service. Well you do the math, they simply aren’t getting the service and not one of those 500 elevators was even close to meeting the A17/B44 code standards for North America. Even though it’s required by law!
Thanks for the videos!
Yes, I had 2 lifts, and both got the correct service, such so that Schindler used the one as part of the annual review from the Swiss parent, as it was a good example of the era lift, and was in good order. Even went and painted the motor room floor, and put all the warning yellow paint on moving parts as well. Had a stack of spares for the unit in the one corner, especially vision panels, with the pig glass wire in them, as those were kind of expensive to order each, but not so when you bought 5 at a time cut to size.
@@SeanBZA it's cool when the old machinery is still being used in the modern era.
Meanwhile in my country some landlords award their lift/elevator maintenance contract to a 3rd party company e.g. 9G that's different from the lift manufacturer, maybe because its cheaper. We also had a shortage of lift technicians to service all my country's lifts maybe because such a career is seen as more menial here
I appreciate the fact that you are making the effort to put it all back together when you could have literally thrown it on the floor (especially since it is already broken and beyond repair).
Came for the "Iconic" lift controller, stayed for the Aconic lift controller, said "Alright mate" to the pigeons. 11/10.
This channel hits all my love of electromechanical, love the effort that is going into documenting these old lift systems, the attention to technical detail is absolutely outstanding.
2 pigeons casually living in the lift motor lol, cool vid honestly. the editing put into this is insane, I know how darn hard it is to edit a video. I like how in depth they go into the lift motors and control boxes, checking every detail, love this kind of content
I love the quality and effort that is put to your videos. As an engineer myself (but from another field than lifts), I'm the type of person who is always curious and seeking for the answers. I don't need to do that here, because your videos are so detailed that my curiosity is well satisfied. You're doing outstanding job here. Your videos and explanations helped me to overcome my fear of lifts long, long time ago.
As someone who has been fascinated by machines of all kinds since before I can remember, these elev-excuse me, lift videos are absolutely fascinating. And imagining the history behind the unused buildings as you walk through is kind of fun. Thanks for work you put into making and sharing them.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 Ah, I always thought that was their proper name lol!
This must have been cutting edge back in their days. By early 70s transistors proved to be reliable for any application. They struggled a bit with power applications up to late 60s. But for signal control this was the way to go. They can swtich millions of times without deteriorating, and this reduce maintenance. You will still see relays where high voltage or power need to be controlled. But for logic control this was the perfect choice. I imagine that back on this era, we weren't so sure about solid state yet and many other companies just stuck to the safe an proven relay logic. And because all the engeneering was used to it, while moving to solid state would require another different set of skills.
in TheLiftDragon's video where he shows an original Aconic lift, he says the technology appeared in 1959 and was first used publicly in 1961, so it was even more incredible back then.
And yet again, MrMatt has the answer.
I came across this exact controller in the Agfa Gevaert plant here in Antwerp. I always wondered what it was, because in the 17 years i'm into the buisness this was the only time i've seen this controller. Turns out it's the elusive Aconic. Sadly, this lift was decomissioned in the late '90s. The freight elevator in the same motor room, that probably had the same controller, was modernised by us KONE with an LCE cpu and KDM drive unit.
Having found your channel a few weeks ago I am truly hooked! The attention to detail in your explanations and graphics is fascinating and I’m learning a lot already.
You capture the feeling inside these buildings beautifully as well, the music and filming make you feel like you’re in the room with these beautiful machines, their quietness now all that’s left of a once bustling and full of life building. Having never really paid much attention to lifts in the pass I can see the incredible work that goes into them and how they become almost their own being in a building. Keep it up and I can’t wait to see more.
Wow!! What an amazing job of engineering. Excellent and fascinating video. Very nice work. Thank you for your expertise producing these for us.
Best quality videos ever.
“Videos” is perhaps too basic.
These are more documentaries.
Excellent
Best thing about these videos (besides the absolutely geek-out over obsolete technology) is that all you need is a giant gun center-screen, and it could be real-life Doom.
The music absolutely rocks. :-)
I still prefer mechanical contacts and relays over motherboards, cards and solid state controllers because of the reliability!
On another channel, a working example of a 1957 masterpiece is still in operation today!
I left a referral to your channel on purpose in the hopes that he will network, or share his work with you!
I will review my history and give the precise video I am mentioning here! I am also a subscriber to your channel, because you really work hard for the quality and thorough explanation in detail about everything.
YOUR COMPASSION TO THIS SUBJECT REALLY SHINES,
This is so intriguing... the atmosphere of the video makes it somewhat spooky, but it's interesting to see what's left inside abandoned places like these!
I've personally seen abandoned towers like these in person, but I'd never dare to venture into one, haha
The topology of the transistor blocks and the (apparent) passive component "grid arrays" they plug into (the BLUE blocks) is very reminiscent of the short-lived 1953 NIST "Tinkertoy" project. I suppose this was both a reliability idea (active components are fully modular and can be replaced by yanking a plug module) and a construction flexibility idea (the logic of a "BLUE BOX" segment is defined by the passive component connections within the "grid"). The fact there's a full grid array in there feels like they're presaging the internal construction of FPGAs or "burnable" memory devices.
Never saw anything quite like this in production. The topology seems very "dated", even for the era, but is very beefy and beautifully overbuilt. 1960s integrated circuits were a reality, and by the 1970s they were in commercial use in all sorts of higher-end tech. It's a guess, but I can only imagine this was a move to assure the buyers that the system had a lot of redundancy and deep safety factors.
Honestly, if I had been a repair tech back in the day, and I had the drawings, fixing a system like this would have been a dream. Failed resistors were probably pretty uncommon. And if a transistor, or cluster of them, failed or were destroyed, it'd be a fairly simple matter to pull a block, take the thing to a bench, and yank and replace the failed silicon. None of the usual rework tools to desolder and pull parts from a fragile PCB, less risk of damaging a trace or having to put in a shunt wire etc. Takes up more space, but had to be easier to maintain when it went wrong.
Very interesting comment and thank you for that.
It always surprises me where UA-cam's recommendations lead me. At first I thought this was just another Lost Places channel, but than I realized it is mainly about lifts. I didn't even know that there were people interested in these enough to make a UA-cam channel about them, but in the meantime I found out there seem to be quite a few.
Until now I was actually happy to see a lift being modernized. I don't find old lifts scary, but I didn't like them, being old and run down, rumbling and shaking. while I found newer ones much nicer, moving smoothly from one floor to the next, with modern looking buttons and floor indicators.
However now that I know the elaborate relay technology behind the older lifts build before modern electronics were available, and especially the electromechanical floor selectors, I'm fascinated by them. So much effort and engineering just to move a lift car up and down!
Now I feel said about every one of these replaced by modern technology, despite knowing that they aren't museums pieces, but part of a building's infrastructure, so sooner or later they will have to be modernized or replaced either for economical or for safety reasons.
Every time I see one of your videos... WOW!
It is undoubtedly quality over quantity and I LOVE IT!
Also amazing how you got all of this and put together. Thank you very much for sharing all of this with us!
I imagine fault tracing and troubleshooting on one of these lifts would have been quite daunting for any technician accustomed to working with relay logic. Having to trace a signal instead of hearing an audible click of a relay and being able to readily see the position and condition of the contacts, even with the tech at the time they could have had a bunch of status LEDs to guide a technician as to what the I/O of a particular cad was doing. Electronic enough to [hopefully] increase reliability but still antiquated to be unable to run self-diagnostics.
I have never seen any thing like the , cooling grid resistor set up. I call it hat because I have no idea what to call the thing that the transistors plug into. Over all I am surprised to see so few capacitors. Such a lovely lay out on boards. I worked with transistor PLC controllers.
these videos never cease to amaze, the editing is always on another level every time. Never heard of this type of lift logic before seeing this, very much looking forward to seeing more in the next part. Also very curious to see what the inside of those lift cars look like. I hope those pigeons appreciate those old lift motors lol
Great spot for the final showdown in an action film :)
The copper thieves must take heavy tools with them to take out those field windings. You were lucky that the vandals haven't smashed all those circuit boards up. Beautifully made circuit boards from the 1970's. Thanks for making the video.
You should have visited the tower in the late 2000s it was completely intact and still had lighting and power. The lifts probably still worked back then. There's photos as late as 2009 showing it lit up at night looking just like a normal office building.
This lift appears to be a true example of technology on the cusp of change. Some of the elements use 1963 "cordwood" technology, some are old style (1970s) pcbs. Thank you for bringing that to us, and so sad it's derelict now, it triggers, in me, an impulse that wants to fix it. I fear the chance to do that is long gone.
The blue units seem to be "cordwood" style resistor networks mapping input signals available in that column to transistor bases, the transistors being mounted on pluggable modules because in those days, they were quite quick to blow. I know, I've blown a lot, being from that time :) I cringe a bit at the sight of those beautiful crossed rails being bent and torn away, though. The blue boxes are a bit like the contact wiring on Schindler wheels of the olden times. Some of the modules on the card edge connectors seem to be corresponding output amplifier boards. Wonderful tech, I love it.
The Aconic controller looks like an Analogue computer to me. Interesting design with those plugin modules. The circuitboards look very artisan, a bit like my father’s hobby electronics projects from the 70’s. Definitely a hand drawn layout.
Very much digital DTL logic there, with likely 24VDC power rails, and a few bias voltages as well for the logic. not all that complex, basically emulating the old relay based controller, just with transistors instead of relays, so that they would last longer, and remain operating with minimal care other than clean air and dusting. Likely faults were still in things like interface, switches and lamps, but the core logic likely was mostly fault free.
Hand drawn like most of them were back then. But I wonder why there is no silkscreen.
Nice work mate. Them old transistorised control must have cost a bomb back in the 70s. Shame to see all the old gear go to ruins like that but just like the rest of the building it has served its purpose. All the best.
i cant wait for part three, was worth waiting this long for this video to come. its a big shame how such advanced tech (and rather interesting building) was abandoned after only roughly 25 years.
as for the building itself, its said that the structure itself is in great shape, but due to the sick building syndrome, its not known if it will be demolished or undergo severe rebuilding.
11:00 I think, copper scavengers were already active in the building. The motors are opened and the field coils are missing. Maybe also cables in the building.
9:23 that is a really interesting looking PCB!
8:43
“Do not swop”
Love it 😂
Transistors as plug in modules, on the assumption that they, along with diodes, are the more failure prone items, so put them into plug in modules that are mostly identical, so that you can simply keep a half dozen spares in the room, and quickly plug in a replacement, and send the faulty one to be repaired.
Thanks for the comment and yes, fascinating system and plug-in transistors. I'm not sure that I'd like to fault find this though - imagine randomly swapping out transistor boards until the lift starts working properly again! The know-how must have been very specialised! Did you notice that some of them say 'do not swap'? Wonder why, as TheLiftDragon says that the resistor blocks are the same, just newer design.
@@mrmattandmrchay Well, they would have a few variants of the transistor blocks, so fault find to a board area, then swap out the transistor blocks with the spares one at a time, and see if fault clears. No worse than in any industrial control unit, where you isolate to a region of the controller, then put known good boards in, or swap from an identical good unit, and see if the fault moves. Saying do not swap is just those might have been a later modification, with slightly different internal wiring, so you have to swap the transistor block along with the blue block, as the old and new do not intermix, though the interface to the rest of the unit is the same.
Plenty of times i did board swaps in avionics to see what was faulty, then take the now known faulty board, and fix later on after sending the unit back out as serviceable.That way you get the urgent job fixed fast, and can troubleshoot the fault, often a known fault you have marked down for that card, and fix at leisure, being able to do a good job.
Glad to see you're still here Matt
Cool channel, nice vids, I like to relax and watch your vids.
Now, maybe the 6th lift engine is placed higher and maybe even installed first so this lift could raise all other equipment into place. So no external companies would be needed to get the materials to their position. Also when parts would have been needed to replace, they could do it all internal (except for lift 6 🤓.
For the boards: you should not waggle them out, but pull them straight out, in order to not damage the side sliders.
Like sliding them in: straight, not waggle.
Same for the transistor blocks.
Interesting are the matrix resistor blocks. I am curious what they were used for, since it is plenty of them.
I am used to work with matrix board with diodes.
Good idea of having the steel wires going “around”, also on the bottom of the lift, do there is no need for a compensation chain which makes spooky noises.
AC to DC, yeah, thats what I worked with too, DC motors can be very powerful and easy to regulate. Did they use DC or half DC?
When using half DC (in fact: from AC to DC using only 1 diode) makes the motor even more powerfull.
Many greetings from the Netherlands ❤
Superb video, graphics, commentary and music again. I'm qualified in electronics and am intrigued by the blue modules and the transistor packs. Even the numbers on the transistors are not standard. Looking forward to more and will check out the LiftDragon
Thanks very much Petertronic :) appreciate the comment!
Motorola house numbers, though, looking at the case style, it was likely all plain regular 2N2219A and 2N2907A transistors, house coded from the Motorols JAN TX production line, using the transistors that had failed the more rigorous JAN TX elevated temperature cycling, but still passed the more relaxed industrial testing cycle. To pass the JAN TX in the military and aerospace certification you had to have zero failures in a batch of 100k devices, but commercial and industrial you could have up to 10. All passed at room temp, especially in the mid 1970's, where Motorola had dialled in production on those lines to be consistent batch to batch, and could have 99 out of every 100 batches pass the full space certification without issue.
House coding so that the repair centre can only get them from the approved source, not just go out and buy them, but pay the price for the "right" devices. Vendor lock in for sure, and likely they had to send those back for repair to factory, despite them being commercial parts otherwise.
That is an incredible looking logic system. As you are looking through those control cabinets I can help but wonder, what was the benefit to such a system in the late 70's? Reprogrammability? Less moving parts? There are so many small components in that system, i have to believe it was a nightmare dealing with just one failing.
Fascinating video, well done! 26:00 I wonder why they use those blue+yellow plug-in modules in that way - I expected them to be different, but visually they look the same with those arrays of transistors, etc. Or perhaps they're wired differently internally as a way of encoding a floor number or somesuch.
Actually it just struck me that some of those transistors are oriented differently. Maybe that is used to represent a binary number?
Interesting, many things are written in German (Iam German)
The video is just as interesting as all others and you explain everithing perfect.
19:35 Actually my first thougt was that if i was there i would try that potentiometer and just when i was thinking that you grabbed it.
Keep up making these great videos with incredible quality and knowlege
Greetings from Bavaria (Germany)
(Did i wright everything correct?)
Great video. Thank you so much for making these.
That's really cool, The green colour reminds me a lot of the DMS100 telephony switch, which is from mid/late 70's and is more digital. That specific shade must have been in style back then lol.
For some reason I can picture someone like Dave Jones of the EEVBlog UA-cam channel going gaga over this amazing 70s era electronics. Double sided hand-drawn PCBs. 70s era metal can transistors. Funky plug-in modules. Hand-wrapped wiring.
I wonder what sort of capacitors a system like this would be using and how they avoided the "capacitor plague" that 70s era electronics (e.g. old CRT TVs) are known for.
14:15 What a beauty those hand-drawn circuit boards.
18:08 Some kind of memory, or decision board? Can I recommend bringing BigClive one day?
19:31 Okay. Now I want this panel to hang in my living, replacing a painting I never really liked.
Thanks for the comments. High rise buildings where the lifts are used a lot, normally the lifts are kept up to date. I was very surprised to see these lift still original. They were about 25 years old when the building shut.
Fascinating light bulb panel isn't it! :)
As you already know my father worked for Express until mid 1980's and I can not remember him mentioning this make of lift. Thankfully they remained down south as they look a complete nightmare. Dad was having to learn about electronic control in his last few years and to give him his dues he did it but that lot looked like a road to nowhere. Thankfully most of the machinery was left in the hands of proper engineers. Thank you for another really interesting video.
I wish you still filmed hand dryers lol especially rare ones as I’ve watched the vortice ones for years
The video was almost like going on an expedition below the depths of the sea to search the Titanic or something! Nice!!!
Good lord! I'm knackered watching you walk up them stairs to the roof
Stayin tuned for part 3!
🤠👍
26:00 The swiss engineers of Schindler in the time were very careful with transistors as active electronic parts in a lift control system. They made them changeable like electronic valves.
Engineers of Schlieren not Schindler.
Thanks for the comment and yes, fascinating system and plug-in transistors. I'm not sure that I'd like to fault find this though - imagine randomly swapping out transistor boards until the lift starts working properly again! The know-how must have been very specialised!
10:26 That bird is adorable
Can I ask a stupid question? I am not an expert. If your converting from AC to DC can't you use a Voltage regulator? attaching two motors seems a little ridiculous and wasteful to me.
I like how you paused the music for the pigeon 🐦
So, where wondering if you can explain something in term of elevators that was come-on portrayted in animations or games? ive seen that sort of double door type doing some of 2 chime tone, what are they typically based on? that people is taking inspiration from.
Hey x I really do enjoy watching your content I don't know why
Here before your channel blows up.. remember me!
Sadly, the place is during demolition now is there any update videos coming up?
I'm wondering if this Aconic system used TTL - transistor-transistor logic - as its stepping stone from fully analogue relay control to full digital programmable logic control?
You're probably spot on Eddie. It's a very interesting concept, but wonder how much of a nightmare it would have been to fault find! Swap this transistor block out, does it work, no, how about this one! I bet there were more logic methods to do this, but it would have required a unique skillset and experience with working with this controller type.
I believe it is RTL. Possibly dtl but I don't see enough diodes. The interesting thing is how remarkably primitive it is given the age. RTL was 60s tech.
As a trekkie, them orange doors are so very reminiscent of those used on the sets for TNG, it's be fun to be able to salvage some and dress them up as such, but, it's a niche thing I'm sure and not many people would want to have such things, never mind working out how to remove them safely... :\
Fun fact - those round silver components that look like components are actually shift registers - they each store 512 bits of information, like a tiny RAM chip, each 0.5 Kilobits in capacity. You would need 16 of these transistor-looking components to make up 1 Kilobyte of RAM. Damn strange each module only contains 15 of these 512-bit shift registers, I guess the word length in the logic must have been seven bits? Who knows, but each yellow or blue plug in module is just shy of 1Kbyte RAM.
I choose analog relay systems over electronic circuit systems anytime, because capacitors always seem to be the weal link as they often fail first! I have heard often enough about mother board failures to convince me that old school is better for dependability!
Wow. What a professional videos you do. love them an more please
Awesome! You should save the parts. I went to San Francisco (south area). I saw the building was demolition down. I entered there and I got the parts Press 2, 1, G, Door closed, Door open and Alarm. And pull "Stop" in the Red button. Great video. Thumbs up! Cheers!
Hi John. I know what you're saying, and all these "one day" will probably end up in land-fill. But on the other hand, I personally look but don't take anything. Being caught taking something out of a building is classed as theft. Providing you do not 'break and enter' (FYI, we walked in through pre-made openings), then doing what we're doing today is not classed as a criminal act. I'm very sure that urban explorers are a constant frustration and time resource for the police to attend to, and really being caught with something taken from the building will be something the police WOULD take action against. So for me - I don't take anything. You'll see an example of this in part 3. Thanks for the comment.
@@mrmattandmrchay Hi Thanks for info me know. im me..🙂
Keep up doing these amazing videos!
Thank you very much for the nice comment Luis! :)
@mrmattandmrchay hi Matt how are it's me liam
Brilliant thankyou
At 10:28 There was a Pigeon Nesting In the Motor Lol. That's just Funny. And The Reason was they didn't really fly away is because they where Harf asleep so They don't Fully Think of What a Threat is. Usually it would fly away but because it was kind of sleeping you did not scare them. But I found it Very cute.
Done a good job on posting part 2 on Five Ways Tower good work
Thanks very much!
Hell yes!
I'll say more after I watch this video.
I hope your still making elevator videos. I enjoy them very much.
Yes I am. I have about 5 videos on the go at once, each one has a complicated part which takes a little time to finish. Time that I'm find hard to find! Next video should be up within the next 1-2 weeks.
That control system must have been so expensive and the man hours that went into making it!
I cast videos so on screen links are not visible. Where is this guy's channel? I tried to search and can't find it either
TheLiftDragon as all one word should bring it up.
:-)
Found a german homepage still selling spares for ACONIC Controls.
Hi Felix. Wow! Wonder how much they sell thesedays! Can you post a URL as I'm interesting to take a look, thanks.
incredible lifts!!!!
I commented on another post but didn't realize it was 11 years old lol but I'm curious if you have any clacker relay videos
Hi, not sure what you mean by the term "clacker" relays? Do you mean something like this?: ua-cam.com/video/uK3MzMdkys8/v-deo.html
It’s a real shame these lists aren’t still running and after seeing The Lift Dragons video even more so, as the two lifts in his video have motor/gearbox units as normal and possible due to only being 10 stores, these ones in your vid are direct and would have been good to see the speed and control over 20 odd floors.
The field windings were replaced with pigeons, a much cheaper alternative that requires no copper
Was the third lift a different size to the other two hence the raised lift machine platform ? if it was a smaller car then the rope suspension center's would be over towards the other lifts and causing the machine to over hang the other two.
there wasn't enough space in the motor room so to save it, the motor was placed higher
Great videos! What happened to part 3?
Fantastic video as always!
Thanks very much Neil! :)
Never seen wire wrapping before, that's quite interesting. I'm guessing there were no electrical drawings on the walls? I guess LiftDragon found some!
Presumably the panel with all the bulbs behind it is a floor position display?
Edit: Answered at 22:55!
A very rare system indeed, but I'm not sure how it works. I don't even know what a transistor is, so I suppose I'll start with learning what they do, lol!
it's easy to see why so many buildings have broken lifts. an intermittent problem would be almost impossible to troubleshoot. if you "shotgun" the modules, what about all the backplane contacts?
Gah, scrappers ruin everything! This should be in a museum!
Should definitely keep it, it's historically significant. The "Get Carter" car park in Gateshead got razed to the ground, an absolute travesty.
I fucking love this stuff❤
12:09, on the left corner , i saw it pooping :D
@ 27:01 Is that core rope memory?
To be perfectly honest, I've spent so much time getting this video finished, I've not looked into it yet, but I have so much info go to through!
Just wanted to mention that the “grid” in the blue box with the transistors plugged in ( 15:42 ) looks like some ROM memory (read only memory) but I’m no computer or lift expert so don’t rely on me
The only thing I could see in the blue boxes were resistors. It would have been unwise to connect power directly to a transistor, so each transistor had a resistor in-line. Depending on the function of each transistor and the 'load' it was switching it's voltage to, this would have made the resistors warm, hence the large box with ventilation above and below.
Fascinating system though, and the only part that could really go wrong were the transistors, which were "swap-out-able".
AD to DC generation is in my world called a Ward Leonard generating set
The Aconic was actually introduced in the 1950s
I don’t think such technology would’ve been possible in the 50s. How do you know?
is there any ifts at this biulding-
Those 3d rat nest module looks like the way Apollo module was built, they was just potted.
Amazing that this used to be considered high tech.
IHi there, I have a quick question. What type of lifts had the relays/logic on the ground floor?
Where I lived as a child there was a room on the ground floor that had the lifts relays/?logic inside. Also, there was no motor room per se, it was just massive cupboard doors on the top floor that opened and it had a huge wheel in a cage that made the lifts move while the wheel turned.
Sorry for a vague description, but I was a child at the time when I saw the "wheel in a cage" as the lift engineer forgot to lock the doors, thus curious kids, me included opened it to see inside. 😱And I *think* I could see right down the lift shaft watching the lift move. I remember a time when the lift got stuck between floors and the caretaker of the building used a big winding handle on the wheel to move it a floor so he could then open the doors and release those inside. ( I was always hovering around when it was anything to do with the lift as it fascinated me)
I remember the engineers another time, in the logic/relay room. The door was opened while he was working away so I stood outside the door to watch and I remember seeing a box on the wall and whatever was inside made sparks (this I have now learned was the lift logic/relay) I always remember there was was a sign on the door of tht room warning of "high voltage" and to" keep out".
The lifts were installed in the late 60s when the flats were built.
Hi Panthere, I believe you're talking about a bottom drive machine, where the rope are driven from below, then go all the way up to the top of the shaft. I have a couple of examples for you: ua-cam.com/video/8gZaQzdtJwY/v-deo.html Then look at ua-cam.com/video/8gZaQzdtJwY/v-deo.html (10:15) and this is the bottom drive motor room. It might be that this resembled a cupboard in the lift that you're talking about.
Whether a lift is top or bottom drive all depends on the building design (i.e. where they had room for it). Bottom drive is more expensive as you need more divertor wheels to get the cables to the top of the shaft before they come back down.
Everything else you mention about the wheel in the cage, and hand winding the motor is true. This is someone else's video of a lift being hand driven: ua-cam.com/video/mnV4MXmAOPU/v-deo.html
Hope that helps :)
@@mrmattandmrchay Perfect, thank you for replying!
@@mrmattandmrchayHi. Thanks for replying and sharing the links. Looking at the links, our flats didn't have a basement, but there could have been a trap door in the pit of the shaft that housed the machinery, I do remember seeing the shaft pit, and seeing 2 springs/dampeners but that is all I can remember.
I recall The lift shaft was very narrow, as my brother who was full of mischief, used to scare me when in the lift as he could push his arms out and push the walls of the lift and they would scrape off the lift shaft as we moved! The levelling on it was awful as many a time I tripped coming out the lift as the step was sometimes 5/6 inches higher. Do you know what companies made those bottom drive lifts? I have Kone in my head for some reason, but as I say it was that long ago my memory is very vague. Thanks again.
awesome video
Looking at the state of some of those equipment cabinets. I'm not sure if they're in their current state from vandalism, or if someone was paid to go around with a sledgehammer and "decommission" the electronics/electrical bits when the lifts were taken out of use. Either way, sad.
That’s a thing? They’ll pay people to sledgehammer good equipment? Why??!
If you look at all the dropped traywork etc, looks like the pikeys have been in to steal all the copper.
The copper thieves had a field day apparently. Must have been like Christmas 😶
I'm not 100% sure, but I think those banks of plug-in transistors may have been forming very early versions of logic gates. So one plug may have been an AND gate, and another an OR gate etc.
Yes, I'm sure you're right there. The resistors cannot really fail, but in case the transistors do they can be unplugged and a new set plugged in. Imagine trying to fault find this..!!
That's what I'm thinking too, it almost looks like it was a matrix of resistors, these would have been used as pull up/pull down for the transistor bases, at least that's my guess. Probably designed in such a way that they were easy to manufacture in grids and just stacked.
Thanks
Wait, why was there a hole in the floor of the Elevator mechanical room?
Emergency access by the fire department, in case no key can be found to access the motor room (in this case it's the generator room, but both should have same hatch access from beneath).
@@mrmattandmrchay Ahhh! Thanks!
That looks like it was a very stylish and attractive building when it was in good repair.
Too bad someone can't buy it and renovate it, keeping the exposed brick everywhere and other stylish features.
The lifts/elevators will probably have to be modernized, though. The electronics and motors look beyond repair.
Problem is, it was the design that was the problem. I had someone comment in part 1, about the distance from desks to the windows with little natural light. And bringing natural light into the middle of a building must be an issue. But designers from the 1970s probably didn't realise, but it ended up being classed with "sick building syndrome".
@@mrmattandmrchay Yes, I agree that is a problem. The reason we have so many ugly boxy glass skyscrapers these days is because laws require that nobody sit farther than a certain distance from a window. I guess that's a good thing in some way for people's health and well being, but it makes for some ugly buildings.