Inside a Chinese crane pendant control station.
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- China seems to be a veritable candy shop for industrial components via eBay. A very common, and visually pleasing device is the pendant style crane control type of unit. These start at just a few pounds/dollars for a two button up/down unit, and just keep getting bigger right up to a ridiculous looking one that is about 600mm / 24" long monster with an intriguing number of buttons. There are also options for emergency stop buttons and indicator lights.
The units have removable clear button caps for inserting custom function labels, but they also come pre-printed with either traditional arrows or Chinese characters which mean things like up, down, north, south, east and west.
Initially when you look inside it looks a bit minimalist and tacky, but having used expensive hoist controllers in the past I would say that they are very similar. Just a common device engineered to keep costs down.
I'm not sure if alternative diameter glans are available for the cable entry, as the one supplied is quite generous, but it may be to allow the use of a standard size of multicore cable. There's also an attachment point for a chain or lanyard to take the strain off the cable.
It's actually quite an appealing unit. Functional and easy to wire.
The set of buttons at the top are a latching on/off facility, possibly to act as a secondary kill switch in case of control circuit issues.
Each pair of directional buttons has a mechanical interlock to prevent both being pressed at once. It's basically a see-saw / teeter totter arrangement under the buttons and can be removed.
上: up
下: down
左: left
右: right
前: forward
后: backward
倒塌起重机。
平坦的人们。
wangl601 👌
I love listening to your descriptions and explanations. You are like my electronics Bob Ross.
Happy little LEDs?
now you have to buy crane off ebay
He may need a bigger work bench for taking that apart
上 = up, 下 = down, 左 = left, 右 = right, 前 = forward, 后 = backward
Im a crane engineer in the UK and although this is a very cheap remote, the busbar system is a lot more practical than linking the control voltage all the way through the functions (UDLR) like we do, the See-saw interlock is also very common. Usually an electrical one too as if you try to take a crane Up and down at the same time youre not going to have a great deal of fun
My wife's Saab has similar contact switches for the mechanism that adjusts the seat forward/backward, up/down, and rain got in the window for some time (previous owner), made it past the thin rubber seal overtop of the buttons, and corroded those contacts enough that I had to take it apart and lightly sand them. There was some galvanic corrosion on the contacts, so I decided to put a touch of dielectric great on each set of pins making contact to hopefully keep moisture off them in the future. I live in Florida, so once something has started to corrode the moisture in the air will keep that corrosion going unfortunately.
Clive is probably going to draw inappropriate symbols on each of the buttons and then connect them to some of his "creations" such as the flamethrower doll.
when people said you where the Scott manley of electronics they where right!
Tntiscool54 oh yes.
I almost bought a pendant crane, baby was sweet. Made in Detroit, 4 ton capacity, real good deal too. To bad I have absolutely no reason to own a crane :
I TOTALLY DIDN'T READ THAT AS "Peasant control station"!!! Nope!! Didn't happen!! 😆
rayman1113 hey, China would gladly buy such technology if it existed.
Agree with that, the one we bought through RS for a hoist, the construction of the case was similar, though the buttons were more like the industrial type.
The notch thing on the gland is for a steel wire support cable that's normally in the control cable
I don't see a problem with using glued lined heatshrink, they use it on modern underground joint kits for 415 3 phase, self amalgamating could leave a gap where the second turn laps over the first.
But yeah, that face seal should have a gap at the bottom, in fact we used to make sure there was a way for water to drain out, had some problems with condensation on the inside of sockets etc, so we did the same for everything that dangled :P
When using the clear glue lined heatshrink sleeving in the past I've noticed that the glue doesn't bond onto dome plastics, and you can see islands of air that can wick water in by capillary action. I have a tendency to put drain holes in outdoor enclosures. It just saves so much grief in the long run.
+bigclivedotcom That's surprising, the stuff we used you would heat from the middle of the joint working out to the ends, plenty of heat, usually with a blowtorch, once we got to the end there was a complete ring of glue oozing out.
+bigclivedotcom Agree with you about drain holes in outdoor enclosures - water will always find a way in so make sure it can get out without causing any trouble. Only problem is spiders always find them.
+Sparky Projects We got the oozing glue at the end too, but when it had cooled down again and set. When there was any movement of the area you could see the glue detaching from the cable inside. (clear heatshrink). It may just have been the nature of the cables and materials we were using.
+Graham Langley Yeah, bugs do get in, but they're less of an issue with outdoor electrical enclosures than rain. The bugs tend not to hang about the live bits.
I keep coming back to your channel for wonderful content like this. I hope to see and learn much more in the new year.
I don't think these would last very long in an industrial environment. I used to work in a steel products warehouse and the crane controls were used and abused 24 hours a day, 6 days a week and in 12 years working there I don't remember one of them having to be replaced or repaired. They also had one emergency stop button instead of the green and red on/off buttons. They were eventually replaced by wireless ones shortly before I left that job. Those were awesome, but a bit more fragile.
The ON/OFF buttons could probably also be used to control a electromagnet e.g. at a scrapyard
That is actually the way some of the newer indoor duty crane pendants are made, in the US, except we used the wire "Chinese finger trap" cord grips, with a steel and rubber compression cord fitting. The power on and off is pretty standard, to kill the main line contactor, in case of an emergency. However, ours had s larger e-stop button. The switch contacts don't look as heavy duty as ours. You could use that pendant without a reversing contactor that has a mechanical interlock, as all the buttons have interlocks themselves. That would work well on machinery such as welding positioners, etc.
The ones that I have at work are modular, they have a metal plate with the switches and you slide the actuators onto it from the bottom, each module has 2 interlocked buttons which either actuate 2 switches at once or one when pressed lightly and 2 when you press them fully down depending on the module, they have rubber seals between them and at the bottom there is a key actuated switch for locking it, all the switches are a pair of NO and NC contacts, so with 4 buttons (up down left right) you have 8 NO contacts and 8 NC, they are wired so that the contacts act as interlocks too, in case either the actuators break or the switches, the gromet is also a cone shape, so you cut it at the right mark depending on the cable size, in the end a lift mounted on a rail has interlocks in 3 ways: the actuators like in this one, the switches and as aux contacts on the contactors, you could also add physical interlocks to the contactors but the lifts we have use old style contactors which don't support that (and are spaced quite far apart)
The sealing of the cable can be done with grease. You can add a little tape or hot glue or whatever to hold the grease in, but filling the empty space with grease is what keeps it waterproof.
Happy Christmas, Clive! You didn't add LED backlighting. I'm crushed ;-)
When I first saw this unit I immediately thought 'Oh, a Chinese light saber base' ... can you *imagine* the dodgy electronics in something like that?
Merry Christmas to you and your family Clive. Festive alco-pops for everyone!
hey Big Clive, a Merry Christmas to you and yours and an obligatory Happy New Year. thanks for all your videos, I love them.
you make me laugh - i enjoy your subtile humor very much.
Stands a we bit proud. Hahaha
I've seen one of these used for moving stage lighting up and down so the lights can be changed!
On/off contacts are a safety requirement on all overhead electric cranes, used a small 1970s 3 tonne Demag example, even then it had latching and key lockable off button. All direction buttons including up/down had 2 speed push buttons.
They make them in China. Them things are dangerous enough already wherever they are made.They are fine for small hoists up to a few ton. But they are replacing drivers on Electric Overhead Transfer Cranes with 50+tons SWL with those pendants and only giving them one or two days training. There has been lots of accidents. You can't feel the crane take the weight with the damn things.
I enjoy your videos even though i don't understand all the technical stuff.
7 core control cable will fit there fine, and as the cranes typically use 24/36VAC for the controls ( you got to love the Chinese for inventing non standard control voltages) you will be fine. Yes fit is not the best, but as most of the time the pendant is driving a big contactor that needs 1A to pull in a little leakage is no worry. Bigger worry is them trying to lift too big a load or using dodgy slings, and dumping it all when something fails, or driving past the hard limits (having disabled the electric limits as they failed with abuse) and cruising off the end.
1:00 - Clive is right about the first two buttons being *_Up_* (上) and *_Down_* (下). The others going from the top of the unit to the bottom are, *_Left_* (左), *_Right_* (右), *_Forward_* (前) and *_Reverse_* (后). No, I'm not Chinese but I learned how to speak Mandarin in college and since then have been slowly learning how to read it. Learning to speak it is much easier than learning how to read it, believe me. :)
Merry christmas everyone!!! Awesome vid as always.
That Stanley screwdrive is an old classic.
The single press only switches are pretty standard for these controls. I just wouldn't trust this on the 10 ton crane carrying 6 tons of molten iron and its 2 ton ladle I used to run before finding a quality control job for far more money and far less actual labor.
Have a good Christmas Clive.
darn you beat me to it but Merry Christmas Clive!!
Heatshrink with glue lining never seals? Well, that is not true. i work for our cable distributer here, and we connect out cables (underground cables) using special coaxial plugs, and heatshrink the connection together with thick heatshrink tubes. Thats how we seal them from water. Of course sometimes it gets in there, but generally these connections are waterproof.
+muh1h1 It may have been the materials we were using. And the fact that the clear version of the heatshrink we used made the separation optically visible. (And of course the quality of the heatshrink would have played a part too.)
bigclivedotcom we use thick black tubing ( i would say abour 1mm wall thickness), with huge amounds of glue (that feels a bit like hotglue). We shrink it using a gas torch.
BTW: Sorry for my terrible english in my initial comment, someone distracted me when i was writing it, came out terrible as i just noticed :D
+muh1h1 yeah i wondered about that too. Since we also use those for outside light installations and stuff like that. The tubes are really thick.
We use a propane powered hot air gun for it :)
I always use hot glue and heat shrink for my small electronics projects. Especially for re-purposing 3.5mm headphone jacks. It makes for a fairly robust connector. I never need to buy them.
Safety feature? Chinese industrial equipment? LOL!
You continue to amaze with the variety things you tear down. This might a little overkill for turning on/off an LED. ;-)
up, down, left, right, so far the kanji is the same as Japanese so I can read those. the bottom most two I haven't learned yet but I assume they'd be forward and backward. they are not north or east etc. thanks for the video! love your stuff.
Came over from AvE. The entire time I was hoping you were gonna tell us what sort of plastic it was made of.
I use a couple KONE 5 Ton travelling cranes at my work and they don't have the see-saw mechanism to prevent you pushing two different directions at once. If you do it just makes a strange noise. I can't imagine that they would get used outdoors but more likely oil off of operators gloves i would guess.
I quite like it. Gave me ideas for my apartment. :)
Has anyone ever told you that you sound exactly like Scott Manley on UA-cam?
these handles are for control, there is no power on the contacts , this control handle seems well done and as far it is approved by competent organisms, it is OK for use on a lifting equipment.
depending upon the particular machine, the mission of each button can vary
as far as you can affix your particular pictogram , it is OK
I bet the plastic case does not stand up to industry standards nor requirements. It might look sturdy, but it probably would break under stress and pressure
The google translate app for Android allows you to take a photo of text with your phone camera. It attempts to do ocr (optical character recognition) on the picture. You could try that on the button labels, I find that the best way to decipher non-latin script text.
+TheUnnamedGent Incredibly, it seems to work quite well!
This just makes me think of the scene in Terminator 2 when Arnie has to die.
Wow, that looks cheap. I service and repair cranes for a living. This thing wouldn't last 5 seconds in an industrial environment. Telemecanique hand sets are very popular (other makes are available) and have a very simple mechanical interlock. Worth taking a look. They normally have a mechanical and electrical interlock in the hand set and both mechanical and electrical interlocks on the 3 phase contractors. Belt and braces. Also most modern cranes have double depression switches as they are 2 speed motors.
I have a controller with up and down only. I have 4 wires coming from my hoist. I opened the cover and I have a ground terminal and two other terminals. Any chance you have a idea howi wire the control wires ?
not really sure what for, but i just bought one. slightly different arrangement, up/down east/west + emergency stop.
Is there a mount for a strain relief cable to stop the unit hanging on the live power cable?
+Larkhill21 There's a facility for a chain or loop and pin to lock it in place.
Want to play some Fallout 4 before bed but Clive is making it hard on me. :P
Gotta get two monitors brehhh
that will just make people watch 2 clive videos at the same time.
I wonder if that on/off switch was meant to look and feel like a standard motor protection relay, except it doesn't actually trip on overload?
I came across one that's labelled english: UP, DOWN, EAST, WEST, SOUTH, NORTH
Hey, any of you guys have seen the top part of a typical XYZ-hoist?
Specially, the ones I've used have had two speeds, how is that accomplished? Is it something as simple as induction motors with delta-wye switch?
I know induction motors suffice for elevator applications (with robust enough brakes), so that's not a problem but I'm wondering the startup current draw.
+Tanooki100
And at the moment I pressed "Reply", I went "DOH, delta-wye does not work like that at all." Yeah.
+Tanooki100 most 2 speed motors have 2 individual windings (2 pole and 8 pole, for instance). There are other ways to do it, but that's the most common one. Industry is moving towards using VSDs instead nowadays.
Could I get the link to where you got this? I have a good idea in mind for a novelty project that I want to use this exact same controller for
That's the only overhead crane design made by China, it seems almost all useless. They don't even dual speed. I'm also an overhead crane technician here in the Philippines. Even the Gantry unit is only single speed.
Merry Christmas Clive
I always wondered how those buttons work that pop all the others up upon being pushed.
I have seen such configurations in AV switches and old tape decks.
That dont seem bad at all, just some sticky disks to stick over the chineese characters and its all good :-D
I dont think they are waterproof, i would only use low voltage signals, then the user would be safe :-D
Raise, lower, Left, Right, Forwards, Reverse.
There is no stop plunger which is the on/off switch for a pendant in the UK.
No way would I consider using a pendant that wasnt supplied by the crane maker.
What if the crane maker is no longer in business (think small local company that closed down years ago, because their cranes were so good they would just keep working for decades)? Or what if you were the crane maker and needed to lower your price to win a tender, would you use a cheaper control box or a cheaper load bearing part?
Then there would be a company who took over the contract work from the company that no longer exists who would supply a pendent for the crane.
While they are not the same company they would be equal to.
Merry Christmas
3rd and 4th are left and right, 5th and 6th i dont know but they are not east/west/noth/south characters.
Crane timing main 1 batan is folt
This is like americans having "walk" and "dont walk" instead of symbols on their pedestrian traffic lights
up, down,left right, forward, backward,
Now all you need is a crane... :D
"Cable glans." Haha, okay, I haven't heard that particular bit of vocabulary before. Out of curiosity, what does "grommet" mean to you over there? :]
+rhkips Cable gland, not glans, lol.
Das Grinch
...Whoops... LOL
Only the *finest* of McDonalds Happy Meal toy plastic was used in producing this
it would be great for a cnc as xyz on/off controll
I read that as pednt control station.
Why don't you show them working?
What "working" is there to show? It's just switches...
I don't understand how it knows which button you've pressed. I'm a digital man tho :o
I believe these are run in conjunction with contactors at the crane itself. The common side would be live, and one wire would travel up to a contactor for each function. The on/off switch could either be wired to activate the buttons below it, or to run a main contactor at the crane.
+James Taylor each switch has its own dedicated wire, the switches also share a wire which is what is operated by the red and black power to isolate that. so each switch controls a simple circuit of each function, much simpler than digital!
+jusb1066 Yeah, makes sense. I wondered if they were doing some kind of multiplexing or something fancy. Simple is probably better in these kinds of applications :P
I installed a wireless on our bridge crane and also for one of our customers. I'll never install a pendant control again.
Just don't loose the remote in the couch.
Stuffing glands + fp200 = difficulty
Looks fine, except for the cheap plastic.
Am I the only one who is concerned about what might happen if a contact welds on just a bit only on one side?
The spring in the button is actually quite firm.
+bigclivedotcom so it's likely it's failiure modes will be relatively graceful then. As for the seal, I bet it could be turned over to put the gap at the bottom.
+Duncan Gunn Flipping the seal is the first thing I did after the video.
Up Down Left Right Forward Backward
上下左右前后
junk!!,,
try taking apart a liebherr crane controller. Something like the (LR) series, one of the most common ones around.
they are all Radio controlled, but also has the option for cables, like they do in china.
+Eqvaliser - If you send him one, I'm sure he will take it apart.
4:41
I am reporting you to youtube.
That was offensive.
Oh, em. gee.
xD
Make It wireless!
Can someone tell me why I am watching this?!
+DarkPressure Because deep-down you really want a big crane.
Install that on a crane, and you will get some work "accidents".
i have installed these in industrial cranes,they are junk!wear out very fast.
Robbins and Myers last for decades!
Christmyth-Time is take-stuff-to-bits time
Harga nya gan
Absolutly crap. How much current you would switch with this contact mechanism? 20 mA?
Clecko
that control station is so cheap i wouldnt install that in my worst ennemy place its not water prouf but supose to be dust prouf so old way to do thing been 20 years over dont use any mecanicla lock buton its all done electricaly with the contactor botton have normaly open and normaly close that is how you interloc it