So I wanted to drop a pinned comment in here to acknowledge and share some of the really helpful messages I've gotten from folk clarifying Sabbath rules to me. I nearly married someone who was Jewish, so I'm very familiar with the hurdles of keeping a kosher kitchen, etc, but never having been Jewish myself I wasn't familiar with some of this and I have been interested to hear these details. 👍 Here's what I've learned, thanks to folk like Indora and others who have reached out to me: * On the Sabbath the prevailing rule is that you shouldn't make *new* work or have others make new work for you. * With Sabbath Mode on elevators, the elevator is going to do the same thing we see it doing, regardless of whether or not it has any passengers. (Similarly, many observant folk believe that on the Sabbath you can step onto a moving escalator, but you can't make the escalator move if it was stopped.) * Many of the rules regarding power usage (even with modern electronic devices) are derived from the original Sabbath rule about fire: striking a fire is not allowed. (And most modern interpretations treat "turning on a switch" as "striking a fire") * But the Sabbath rules make distinction between striking/kindling a new fire versus maintaining a fire that was already going. So, again, making use of or somehow supporting the operation of an electronic device on the Sabbath may be seen as permissible as long as it was started before the Sabbath began. In conversations with folk, I pointed out that much of what Howard and I said during this section of the talk was regarding things like Beam-Break sensors and whether the presence of a human could be seen as "flipping a switch" in the elevator controller. But I did begin to understand more about not "making new work" etc etc. It was explained to me that things like the elevator's internal adjustments due to the presence of a person are secondary to the main work it was already doing: going from floor to floor. And also (I found this the most interesting, and I like how it is pragmatic and practical) "one can argue that the actions the elevator is taking are OK because they are *safety* actions. Nearly every Sabbath rule can be set aside for these. I know several observant Jews who use continuous glucose monitors and such to manage diabetes on the sabbath. Health and safety trumps everything else." (again, credit there to Indora) I like that and I appreciate all of you who have reached out to help me learn, on this and in comments on other videos, as well! 👍😁👍
Not to be that guy, but who the hell cares? They are all made up arbitrary rules from a made up nonsensical religion. You should not be forced to change your behavior, just because your wife, friend, ect is religious. If it were the other way around, they would cry about you forcing your beliefs on them. Call me an ahole all you want, but I don't get this craziness at all. BTW, I am not talking about you specifically, but rather others that I have seen, especially as of late. This isn't directed at you so much as it is to everyone and no one.
@@ripley4601 I just want to point out here how insensitive you are being at the moment. "made up arbitrary rules from a made up nonsensical religion." This line right here tells me all I need to know about you. You change your behaviour because of a little thing called "Respect". Something which you seem to be sorely lacking. And it's your choice to change your behaviour, nobody else's.
IIRC at least in come cases the beams are deactivated (but pressure sensors are not) when "shabbat mode" is activated, and so many of these secondary systems are also not fully active. Regardless there is still much debate whether use of a shabbat elevator is allowed, and by whom. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews do not use them at all, while some people hold that only those who need it (for accessibility reasons) should use one. The pragmatic side - which I liked you found interesting - is often the framework that guides the rules in Judaism. Safety and life above all else - even at the expense of the sabbath, then observance of the rules between you and your fellow person, then observance of the rules between you and God. edit: BTW - the use of a "sabbath goy" isn't as permissible or straightforward as pop culture has lead people to think it is. I can't just ask someone who isn't Jewish to do anything I want for any reason on Shabbat.
Your last point about safety is actually quite interesting and relevant to something my Dad told me. He is Jewish(he converted to Judaism as an adult) and I quite often quiz him about the rules of being Kosher and Shabbat etc. His brand is what's called Progressive Judaism, in contrast to the very strict Orthodox Judaism they take a more pragmatic approach to the rules. He mentioned a time where he went to a social dinner of some sort and the food was about as far from kosher as could be, something along the lines of a dish with ham/bacon and cheese in it. I can't exactly remember his words verbatim but he said something similar to "Sometimes it's better to be nice than right." That yes eating that food was not kosher, however eating that food was being a good neighbor and appreciating the efforts of a friend's hard work in the kitchen, in essence being a good guest, which I believe is touched upon in the Torah. I believe a lot of the interpretation of 'breaking the rules' has to do with intent, of course that judgement changes by the individual. On the other hand however he did tell me a story of when he visited an Orthodox Synagogue where one Friday evening the automatic lights had forgot to be set there was a crisis cause nobody could turn them on until my Dad offered to and one of the worshippers literally used my Dad's hand to turn all the switches on as if it 'wasn't him' who turned the switches on. That attitude is incredibly off putting and incredibly hypocritical since of course that worshipper drove to and from the Synagogue in his car. The difference I believe is the attitude behind it and the pragmatism. Of course it doesn't matter to me, I spend most of my friday nights happily eating ham and cheese toasties whilst using most of my electronic devices!
@@artyboy92 I would say that Orthodox Jews would probably politely avoid the not kosher food. There are ways of being a good neighbor without having to eat not kosher. If this was a life of death situation (let's say, he was stranded on a desert isle) then eating not kosher would probably be ok. When one needs to break the rules a lot of the emphasis is about the "why" and "how" - if it can be done in a way that is different than normal, better that way. If it's to save lives, that's permitted. In regards to your second story, I am very confused. If this was an Orthodox synagogue, they wouldn't be ok with your dad flipping a switch - since he is Jewish too, and definitely wouldn't use his arm to flip a switch. They also wouldn't have driven to synagogue, and if they did they would likely be ok with flipping a switch themselves. Either that person was trying to hide their "lesser" level of observance from the rest of the community, or something is missing from the story.
I was once walking thru downtown Portland Oregon with my honey, when I saw across the street a very old brick building that had a cornice of granite around the top that said “Otis Elevator Company” and I stopped to stare at it and started laughing softly. “What’s so funny? “ asked my girl. “That used to be the Otis elevator company building”. And she looked and said, “ yeah, but why is that funny? “. And I replied, “Its only one story tall.”
The best part about talks like this is that for the rest of your life anytime you take an elevator you will watch it's mechanics and analyse them. 99% of people won't even think twice but after watching deviant you ascended to 1% who have nothing better to do than learn about elevator haking
Not just analyse them but also appreciate the complexity of it all. Even if it's just "relays and switches". The fact that it works like it does is amazing. I loved the recordings of the mechanical controllers moving around. It reminds me of those mechanical jukeboxes and I've always loved those.
Dev, just to add on for the pet mode in Japan. What it also does is to bump up the air filtration level inside the cabin and clean it up so that when the next user (who may be allergic to the fur) will not get affected by the previous user (aka the prev occupant and the pet)
As a twelve-year-old kid in the 1960's, I would spend hours playing in the elevator machine room at the hotel where we lived. It was fascinating to watch the equipment operating, and I eventually figured out how to manipulate the relays on the control board to make it do whatever I wanted. For example, when a passenger entered the elevator and selected floor 6, I could cancel the call and send them to floor 7. Other times, I'd send the elevator to the floor they selected but keep the door from opening, and then immediately return the car to the floor they started from. Things like that. Such fun!
@@drink15 Well, as much fun as it was to play with the elevators, I had even more fun playing with the hotel's telephone switchboard. So indeed, engineering and servicing phone systems became my primary career.
And you reminded me about the Lift/Elevator in a shop in bridlington (uk) which used to have a mind of its own One time many many years ago, when i was young, i was with my dad, and we got in it on floor 3, pressed G, and it took us to either floor 1 or floor 2 (can’t remember which floor out of those two as it was so long ago)
So, I work hospital security and after watching a bunch of these videos, I decided to buy some elevator keys, picks, and bypass tools for the lulz. It just so happens that we had an attempted kidnapping, so a code pink was called, but the elevators were still running because our contractor was a POS who didn't do his job correctly. While the nurses were upstairs chasing the crazy woman, I was able to use my feok1 key to shut down the elevators while my team responded.
Isn't it dangerous to shut down the elevators completely rather than stopping them from opening on a floor. Don't hospitals have emergencies that require transporting patients?
@@petergerdes1094I mean if you’re sitting there with the feo-k1 you can probably facilitate the use of elevators for emergency transportation if you need to using the key.
Hey, in almost every talk you mention "ask him(us) about the crazy stories we don't have time to talk about here!". _Can we have those stories, here on UA-cam?_ I'm sure everyone would love a 3-hour story time video about the craziest things that happened throughout your job(s).
I have absolutely cut a key from a picture my buddy posted on Facebook. I went to the new tattoo shop, of which he was (justifiably) proud of having secured a lease. I proceeded to open his front door for him with my key, handed them over to him, and then explained the dangers of posting such details online. (Especially bad that he had named business in same post as the key photo.... 🙄)
I went to a school that had half floor numbers. The cab had doors on both sides and one side had whole numbers and the other side was half numbers. The elevator was essentially built in between two different buildings with different floor heights.
+1 for using footage from the Secret Life of Machines. Side note, Tim Hunkin has a youtube channel and just uploaded all the remastered old videos with new commentary at the end! Definitely worth going back and watching them! RIP Rex! Never forgotten!
I was so excited when I found his channel. I remember seeing his Secret life program on local public TV as a kid on the weekends when they played British imports like Fawlty towers, Are you being served and the like.. His remastered episodes are so wonderful
Funny you should say you won't run out of air. I was stuck on an elevator at Cleveland State U while delivering a 300 lb load of dry ice to one of the labs. Luckily the phone did work and they got us out in about 10 min. or so but the air was getting a bit thin in there.
I work at a university in the UK and there's a strict "nobody rides with the liquid nitrogen dewars" rule for exactly this reason. Not sure whether it's a local rule or UK health and safety law.
@@IDieForPie if someone in an intermediate floor hits a call button, you might still have a non ideal situation. Without some type of special mode, it seems like that would be hard to avoid, though.
I come from the land of expedition level cave exploration. Bad air is almost never a problem in the limestone caves of Kentucky: the air is good and flowing. But I know of accidents in caving where rebreathers were used, leftover from WWII. If you run out of O2 you don't notice because there's no CO2, which is what tells your body you need to take another breath. So you die not knowing anything's wrong. Another danger is open air cave pits (open to the sky) in southern Indiana. Dead leaves both plug the airflow, and generate CO2. Tragically, one person will rappel in and asphyxiate, and worse, not knowing the danger, their buddies die by rappelling down to save them.
When I was a carpenter, working in a refinery, I got trapped inside an old Ottis elevator for five hours with a guy who was claustrophobic. Bad thing was, this elevator was on a running processing unit and the whole superstructure shook. So here we are, not able to get out, stuck between the 8th and 9th floor (industrial floors, 25’-30’), being slammed from wall to wall like being in a washing machine, not knowing if the “emergency call” button was connected to anything and it’s too loud to yell for help. Come to find out, the “emergency call” button wasn’t connected to anything and/or the light had burned out. No one knew we were in there until the elevator repair team showed up. The guy that was in there with me never rode that elevator again. He would always take the stairs…..
@ The next group of carpenters who needed to take scaffolding up several floors couldn’t get the elevator to come down so they could use it. So the maintenance director called the repair people out. That elevator had a habit of tripping the overload limit even if there were just people in it, not to mention a whole cartload of scaffolding too…..
30:08 - the place you'll see Riot Mode is all the major bank buildings in London. It was installed en masse after the 2011 riots (I am told the escalators also have riot mode, which sets them into overdrive going down and must be hilarious to watch). I dunno if Wall Street is the same, but that's the kind of customer they were selling to.
@@DeviantOllam This was a "cover everything elevator" talk but you did not cover pushing the Call button, waiting, having doors open and no elevator only a shaft. I had heard of this but also; it DID happen to me. I don't scare easily. I did for that.
@@arcanondrum6543 I cannot imagine a situation which that is possible to happen. Simply because the hoistway doors have no motor... The only way to hoistway doors can be powered open is if the cab is present. What you are describing sounds like the most edge of edge cases in a manner which I couldn't begin to explain.
@@DeviantOllam Thanks for your reply. From your video, I also did not spot a reason why. One difference might be because the elevator in my case was a cylinder style with a round staircase surrounding it and an exposed landing on each floor. (The elevator had no glass.) It was definitely a retro fit in an office building across Boston Common from Beacon Hill. I tried to report it. I was in that building only occasionally but when I reported it to the office of the building owner I was either not believed or it was not something she wanted to admit. I think it was the former. After your reply, I Googled and searched UA-cam briefly but there was one video I didn't want to finish watching. All other incidents that I DID view were careless, deliberate damage or were manual doors. I don't know if there are incidents like mine
46:10 has all the type of Elevators. 47:00 another good picture. 48:30 login page. 50:16 bitting code. 52:42 more fire keys. 53:12 better picture of key. (NY. Bitting: 6420) 53:59 another good picture of a key. (4 states. The 3502 key.) 55:03 Another key. (Tennessee) 55:57 and 56:26 Key (Indiana) 57:18 (Kentucky) 57:40 (Florida Zone 4) 57:44 (Florida Zone 6) 57:47 (Florida Zone 7) 57:54 (Louisiana) 57:56 (Virginia) 58:33 (4 more different states) 1:01:22
I love stuff like this. I love when you open the curtain and show us these tactics that you use for pen testing. It is so so fascinating to me, the Average Joe. Things I'd never imagine, like spraying whisky through a door to trigger a R.T.E. sensor, or using that right angle pick to open latches, or using the spring loaded hinge buster to pop hinge pins and open doors from the opposite side. I want you to know that you have fundamentally changed my mind, Dev. You flipped a switch in my mind that has changed me into the "one step ahead of you" mode with things in general in life. When I do something security wise, I try to attack it myself and think of all the vulnerabilities and how to secure them. I will watch EVERY minute of EVERY 1-2 hour talk like this that you share with us. The information within them applies to so much more than just security. Like wearing an elevator repairman uniform to fool security into just ignoring protocol and trusting you on a whim. Brilliant, and exposing how lazy humans actually are.
There is this video of a guy being fed up with the icecream machines and McD's being always out of service. He showed up at a restaurant with a repairman outfit and a tool chest and they let him into the kitchen without asking any questions. He hit the icecream machine a couple times with a wrench and walked out. As someone who's had to train people for jobs in different positions, people get incredibly intelectually lazy at an astounding speed when it comes to anything related to work.
@@SeraphimKnight Wow, that's incredibly scary. He could have dumped bodily fluids with hepatitis and other shit into that ice cream machine or other areas and compromised the whole customer base. They let him walk right in... People don't care when it isn't their own thing. If it was their restaurant they'd be asking for ID and saying "I never called a repairman, who TF are you?"
@@mannys9130 the spread would require the already broken machine to work, which often requires use of secret menus only described in the manufacturers own service manuals that they keep for their technicians, so it wouldn't change anything
Thanks yt algorithm, loved this video! Some years ago as a teenager I'd roll around with an auctioneer during summer when I was out of school. There was an auction in one of the old downtown buildings that had these ancient elevators that had the pull down doors. A bunch of us piled in one and hit the up button.....well it didn't go up, it went down and felt like it was a free fall.. it stopped halfway where the building floor level was chest high so we had to crawl out. Apparently the motor started the wrong way due to being overloaded and it went fast enough the emergency brakes activated. The floor we crawled out on was a haunted house so lots of blood and gore , it was great !
Waiting for the fire department makes me laugh. Myself and another rescue paramedic that happened to work in the emergency department with me, and who both have elevator rescue as certifications, nearly got fired, because we got asked to deal with a critical patient stuck in the main elevators. Turns out the elevators were functioning properly, the wheels on the patient beds were just narrow enough to fit between the car and the threshold if perfectly aligned. My coworker and I assessed the situation and lifted the bed up about 1cm with the sick patient on it and we gave each wheel a quick kick while we lifted. This critical patient and 6 staff had been stuck in an elevator at floor level with the doors open for 30 minutes before someone stepped out walked 70m to the ER to ask for help. I appreciate how many times you told people not to do stupid stuff, because so many people have no sense. But we people can't function in the other direction either, ie "something is wrong, but I've heard so much doom and gloom that I can't function if things work less than perfectly."
According to the tech support guy, "I can't function if things are working less than perfectly" seems to be very common in users. Some will freeze up and call tech support if anything unexpected happens, such as any message box.
@@user2C47 I wish it weren't true, but it is. Guy sitting next to me hit accidentally hit the key combo that rotates the monitor display 90⁰. Generates call to tech support. Meanwhile I've been writing my reports using a keyboard that has a broken "M" key for 2 months.
On the section about being behind the times on security, and running on old windows versions, that’s so true. I’ve seen a badge system running on server 2008 r2, but the kicker was that we couldn’t upgrade the server because it needed the badge system licensing, and it was old enough that new licenses weren’t available, but the physical panels were too old and didn’t work with newer software. So they were stuck on ancient windows server, with old software, until they spent ~$15k to replace working badge panels
I used to be employed as the operator of a geriatric industrial elevator in an old factory in Quebec. I always thought of my job as being on-par with someone who manually operates canal locks or switches railroad tracks from an old control tower by pulling on levers.
27:30 Huh, something weird from one of your videos I've seen before, or at least something akin to it. There's an oddball elevator near me in a building that is an old building and a new building merged together, that has doors on both sides of the elevator. The floors are half a floor apart because the foundations are at different heights, so you have a Lobby level, 1 Left, 1 Right, and so on.
The first place I encountered an elevator like that was a hospital. Rather than dealing with different floor heights, it was just about restricting/speeding access: the front door faced the areas the public was meant to access, the rear doors led to places that only staff should go, and there was no (visable) way inside the elevator to select those stops.
@@spyone4828 yeah my local hospital has that too! ...and patients will enter the elevator and lean against the back "wall" then a couple of stops later it will open and almost dump the person onto a lab tech coming from one of the lab only floors
Many years ago I managed hotels and at one of them we had an elevator with a window in it and at each landing there was a window. I had the idea to sell advertising space between the floors to local businesses. One of my favorite jobs was to change out the advertising posters during the annual inspection. We had a really cool elevator tech that would let me go with in on the car top in order to change the posters… so much fun.
I love the work you do, Deviant. You're good people. I'm glad to see your giveaways required a more structured website infrastructure, it means that you're getting more exposure to new viewers! I'm just glad I was able to win a prize back when it was easier! Thanks for that and for everything you do!
I used to be a construction supervisor for a company that owned high-rise buildings in Montreal, and they had that old relay kind of elevator controller in one of their buildings. Being in that room while the elevator was functioning and listening to all the clicks and watching the machinery work was fascinating to say the very least.
This video just randomly popped up in my feed. I just wanted to comment, thank you for posting this talk; lots of super interesting details and depth. Incredibly interesting and captivating! What interested me the most was the safety systems that were described to keep the carts and passengers safe. Truly amazing, thank you
I used to do maintenance for a wireless ISP in a fairly large city. Can't tell you how many high-rise buildings had our antennas on the outside of the machine rooms and the racks inside because they were the best spot on the roof for that stuff. So of course I had the keys.
Met someone at work who had been in elevators that fell down a number of stairs TWICE. One day she didn't show up at work for a few days, later we found out about the accident: elevator fell down. She takes the stairs when possible, but that time wasn't possible. Had another friend that called the elevator in his building, then had a thought and decided to go back out, only to come back to a building full of police. Elevator came crashing with a guy inside from a high floor, guy didn't make it. These accidents are not common so it's weird I know these people? city ain't THAT big, i suspect no one takes proper care of their elevators. Mine is always off-floor and when fixed it stays fixed for a month.
The hospital in the town where I grew up was built on a sloped site and expanded over the years. As a result, two different parts of the hospital share an elevator that has half-floor buttons and front and back doors.
I once got caught in an elevator with some buddies when drunk. We were jumping so obviously hit a failsafe and the thing just stopped dead. Emergency call button rang somewhere but no-one answered. Eventually we got hold of the fire dept (cell phone) and they did exactly what you said not to above. That is we climbed out with the elevator not level with the floor. Afterwards I believe they just 'turned it off and on again' and all was good. This got my thinking this should have been done with us still in the cab!
This video popped up in my feed a few months ago, and I skipped through a bit, expecting a video essay, just to see a bunch of PPT sides and went, "Well this'll be boring," then clicked off. Now, here I am, after actually watching the whole video. I fell asleep (granted, watching this in bed) during the part with the leaky hydro valve body, but was able to seek right back to that part because I was paying so much attention to the video I had previously dismissed. Great video 👏
I've watched the elevator talk and variations thereof so many times, but I never get tired of it. I just love id'ing things that get talked about, like "Oh, that's the Independent switch" or, "Oh, FEO-K1" (Yeah, that's up north as well 🇨🇦). Also do the same stuff with your pen testing talk, just id'ing all the potential security flaws. Always fun to see these.
there is a type of elevator once present in europe called a paternoster lift, almost all of them are gone but i was lucky enough to ride one a few years back. it is a continuously moving circulating loop like a giant chain. each floor has two openings, one for up, the other for down. the cars you ride are open, you can see each floor as you pass through and just step off at your desired level. really fascinating and well worth a look.
Another good video Ollam. Elevators are fascinating. Been in/around a couple of the hoist rooms while working for a card access/camera company. The super old relays for elevators are loud af. Also big beefy boys. Up at the very top of sky scrapers are a really amazing place too. Lots of things going on behind the scenes.
I have a friend who does social engineering training for...unmentionable agencies. He had a student who had been an elevator inspector before. Lots of cool stories of sneaking around using the elevators.
The first one I rode on the top didn't have the ropes fixed to the car - they went round pulleys and back up the shaft. So yeah, when the lift moved you had a pair of pulleys you could trap your fingers in !
Dev, you’re literally the only guy i’d ever actually trust to convince me a 1.5 hour video about crazy obscure elevator tech/security stuff is going to somehow hold my attention and that i’m gonna watch the entire thing without realizing it. you’re awesome. question though: i’ve often wondered this, but how would an interested individual go about getting a foot in the door of the pen testing industry and related industries?
I wondered why a small elevator had a chair in it. Then I realised, as it was in a small town in the North of Iceland, if you got trapped you were stuck for at least 5 hours! Took the stairs back down!
We recently visited Tokyo and went to the top of a high rise that had a viewing area. The elevator had an emergency toilet! I guess they figure if a serious enough quake occurred, you could be there a while.
That half-floor panel I've seen very similar before. There was a facility I worked in where each floor was 30-40 feet or so high because they did design and testing on very large equipment. The half floors were the catwalk level. So 3 was the main floor of the third floor, and 3½ was the catwalk level of the 3rd floor, and so on.
I programmed a miniature elevator in high school and actually had to make the cab do a correction run every time the elevator sat idle for a certain amount of time becsuse of how inaccurate the encoder was.
I spent many years outfitting government buildings and top security facilities. One of the stranger ones was a four story building that had an elevator panel that went: 1,2,3,4, then a big gap then a 7 down in the bottom corner of the panel near the floor and a key next to it. The one time i saw 7 used it was by a guy in full biohazard suit with a cylinder on a trolley. I came around the corner and went to walk in the elevator and he just looked up at us from the ground with his key turned and finger hovering over 7. "I'll get the next one mate no worries." Why does a four story building have 1234 and 7? wheres 5 and 6!! This particular building has a one kilometre long probe driven into the earth underneath it for seismic reading. Geoscience Canberra
Being from the elevator field most of this information is very accurate. One thing you could do different then buying the key boxes and cutting the keys is get an elevator license then order the keys from a distributor lol
Elevator license is usually not always enough. For example here in sweden, if you want to order access credentials to building sites, you BOTH need a license (credential that you have gone through the certification course) AND you also need a permission paper from your employer with his signature (to show that you are acting for a company, not acting "privately"). And usually these credentials have to be paid by the company too, you can't pay them yourself. This to prevent people from "black-ordering" these in some company's name - by having it so the accounting will notice the bill if the credentials wasn't legitimately ordered by the company.
The keyboxes weren't for elevator keys, these guys already are licensed, those boxes are FIRE keyboxes, you must be a first responder to get those, and even then, those are supposed to be daily check-in check-out logged in with the fire truck and supervisor you're assigned to, don't just get to keep the keys or take home.
Or call Howard :-) (odds are, we _all_ have one of those fire keys. they aren't anything special, and have been used in other things. sometimes many other things.)
I did see this talk, or one very similar in another venue, a while back, and it was still cool to watch it again. When I saw it the first time, the biggest "WTF?!?" moment (among many) was seeing the Windows XP logo. Thanks for sharing again, Olaf!
I recently returned to my workplace after being remote for over a year, and while I was gone all the elevators had Code Blue switches installed on the basement hall panels. Not a hospital or medical facility of any kind, so it's curious why they added it and why only on one floor. The fire service switch is still on the ground floor.
Maybe if it's a basement, maybe there was a risk (either a real risk or one believed to exist by the building management or local regulations) of someone getting an injury from exhaust fumes of cars or trucks at parking spaces or loading docks, or electrocuted in a substation room, or something like that?
Have seen it before, watched it again. Full of great information presented in an entertaining way. Love it. ... A part two with more fun stories about obscure elevator stuff you guys found out there might be nice some day.
There was a fire at Dusseldorf airport (Germany) 1996 when smoke caused the elevators not to close the doors. The door sensors were obstructed by smoke and passengers died by smoke inhalation trapped at that floor level.
i caught that tim hunkin bit! practical demonstrations are a lost art and the funny bit, i watched the commentary back and forth between dev and tim when it actually happened! :D
I really enjoy your OG talks and the elevator one is a really solid one. Having a bit of a variation will be great. I doubt I will manage to watch all of it today as I have to get up early tomorrow
I was trapped in an elevator in a new building after an earthquake in the mid 80s. When I pressed the autodial emergency button, I got "You must first dial a 1 before dialing this number. Please try again." On a weekend. In an empty building. The sprinkler system had gone off due to the shaking (not due to a fire) and water was running down the shaft from the upper floors. They had contaminated the sensors so the hydraulic ram wasn't moving, it was just "jumping" a few inches every 20 seconds. I was hoping it would just settle to the ground floor. It didn't. I was able to get the doors open as it was almost at the bottom floor and crawled out.
One of the most memorable elevator rides was on top with the elevator tech during installation. 27 floor, twin high rise towers and a large retail area project. I was checking out the card access interface to Dover elevators. Elevator mechanic and I took a ride at full speed. It's impressive and scarry watching how fast these cars actually move when you are on top!!!
There was a situation where the elevator door opened but there was no cab sadly the person stepped into the elevator shaft and fell 15 floors and died. Why did this happen? I thought safety measures are in place so something like this never happens?
I don't know if it's still being used but back in the 70s my grandfather was a elevator operator in the original Singer sewing machine factory in Elizabeth NJ , I remember him showing me how he started it up each morning they had a huge generator inside a cage the thing was the size of a small box truck, the elevator was 100% manual with a metal handle and a wood grip the doors were also manual on counter weights he used to let me level it at stops when the call bell rang.
Oh, it's the video that led me to find you in the first place! Amazing. There's always too much information to remember...especially when it might matter! Rewatch = good
The original video has about 62k views, one of them is mine :) I'll still watch it again here, it was a great talk. I have a question: Do you think there will be some new exploits with the new-ish Sharry lift / office access software? Or will you just go straight to the hardware behind it as usual, since that will probably remain mostly the same?
Oh wow! I didn't realize that it was so highly viewed! There was a time when the con changed hands and the UA-cam channel was going away or something, and all the views were going to reset. Glad to see they kept their original channel! 👍😁
Last time I nearly got stuck in an elevator was because of an issue with the 3-phase supply, caused the motor to burn out and filled all floors of the office building with smoke.
Aww, I told you I'm bingeing. This was a great video and actually the 2nd of yours I watched a long time ago. The dude with you was like an encyclopedia of El knowledge, it was pretty fascinating. I think? that dude is the not so civil engineer, though I'm probably wrong. He's cool too, greta ideas and efficiency in all things UDT. Anywho, a good watch again.
12:35 “There are buffers in the pit. The pit is designed to accept the full weight of the elevator at full normal travel speed.” And what happens at unnormal speed (free fall)?
There is a now-deleted video where they disabled the brakes and cut the cables and just let one fall in a building that was being demolished. There was not much left of it after it hit the bottom.
Ooh, elevator content! Nice! I like the elevator content! That said, I like most of the content that crops up here, but elevator content is still rather nice to have more of
Did not think I would watch the entire thing, but damn. You make some seriously interesting content. Also thanks for the sheet folding tip the other day!
Okay so I have a question. I was linked this video on reddit. Today the elevator I was in was going to the 3rd floor of parking garage. Near the 3rd floor it made a loud noise, like a bang, and I felt the elevator fall down like 1 meter or so. Then for the next 10 to 15 minutes the elevator was shocking, until it eventually stopped. About 15 minutes later we got out and we were near the ground floor. Had to jump out 1,5 meter. What do you think happened? Did a cable snap? Was is the counterweight that made the shocking happen as we slowly descended? Would love to know more.
Ahh just when I needed a "Lift" a new vid comes out... ;) BTW did you see that Tom Scott vid from 2017 about the multi-directional cable-less elevator? Looks amazing!
Being obliquely connected to the construction industry I recently found that the deadliest trade on a construction site is the elevator installer/tech. due to falls. It’s also one of the most lucrative; hundreds per hour, 2 man crew minimum, and 4 hour minimum time per call out. The elevator industry is also the hardest to get into for the average guy; it seems to be all ‘sown up’ by male family members; brothers, uncles, fathers and sons.
@@DeviantOllam I'm very interested in phreaking but I haven't seen the exact device shown at 1:12:44 do you have the name of the device, or know where I could find more information about. I hope this isn't something I should already know, you mentioned it like it's something every pentester owns. Thanks though amazing video.
I've also confused one lift. Going up, I opened the car doors. Got them closed again and the lift started going down - but the floor indication carried on counting upwards! Got down to about the third floor before indicating the correct floor again !
From the security point of view, no lock is ever safe but elevators could do one thing you don't ever mention here and that is to report potential security breaches. Meaning if security is a focus, there's going to be someone on guard and if someone turns the elevator to firefighter mode, it could sound an alarm on that person's desk leaving it up to them to decide if someone should go check it or if it's fine because the building is on fire. If that's not already being done, I'm surprised.
In his other talks about elevators this is actually mentioned as a function of most elevator controllers. They often have extra dry contacts which you can wire into your monitoring system to indicate if it's gone into independent or fire mode. Modern ones I'd presume can do this all over network with the right integration.
18:42 about cancelling, I worked in a building once where doubleclicking in the cab would indeed cancel the floor. Not to get somewhere faster, but just as a prank, some of the people, especially those in suit-n-tie, would stand with their back to the buttons and sneakily randomly cancel a floor behind their back XD
The Secret Life of Machines is one of the best shows to teach how everyday things work. He has a whole new YT channel that deals with more modern things.
I once worked in an old 4 story building. The only elevator was a freight elevator. It had just two buttons - UP & DOWN, and you had to hold one in. The motor had two speeds - ON & OFF. It had only two cables (ropes). If we had a heavy load, it would bounce up & down when the button was pressed. There was a crude overspeed brake that made use of a separate hemp rope.
Do any elevator management systems have alerts that can be sent when special modes are activated? Like, a red light at the security desk for fire, blue or pink lights is a hosptial, etc.? Seems like a simple alert could have helped in that back-of-house elevator access scenario.
I remember me and a friend were in an elevator that got stuck. We popped open the phone panel and called the number it said in case of emergency. I called on my cell. The phone in the evelvator started ringing, me and my friend both looked at it and slowly looked at each other with that look of 'are you f*ckin serious'. We were in that elevator for 5 hours even AFTER calling fire and rescue.
@deviantOllam I used to work at Schindler. In the 80s I was on the software development team working on the first microcontroller-controlled lift system (Miconic VX). I was responsible for the proprietary communication system between the floor, cabin, and control room (the lift bus), the group bus (between lifts working in a group), and the building bus (from all groups to the main security desk or emergency outside control centre). I inserted an Easter Egg into the code that would intercept a particular sequence of floor calls made within two seconds inside the cabin that would inject a call reset (all floor service requests would be cancelled) and put the cabin into independent mode. The next floor to be selected (mine) would then be in express mode with security override. After I had exited the cabin, normal service resumed for the other bewildered travellers (who would need to select their floors again)! This would only work on installations with more than 4 or more floors. The software was actually part of the communication protocol and not in the controller logic!
So I wanted to drop a pinned comment in here to acknowledge and share some of the really helpful messages I've gotten from folk clarifying Sabbath rules to me. I nearly married someone who was Jewish, so I'm very familiar with the hurdles of keeping a kosher kitchen, etc, but never having been Jewish myself I wasn't familiar with some of this and I have been interested to hear these details. 👍
Here's what I've learned, thanks to folk like Indora and others who have reached out to me:
* On the Sabbath the prevailing rule is that you shouldn't make *new* work or have others make new work for you.
* With Sabbath Mode on elevators, the elevator is going to do the same thing we see it doing, regardless of whether or not it has any passengers. (Similarly, many observant folk believe that on the Sabbath you can step onto a moving escalator, but you can't make the escalator move if it was stopped.)
* Many of the rules regarding power usage (even with modern electronic devices) are derived from the original Sabbath rule about fire: striking a fire is not allowed. (And most modern interpretations treat "turning on a switch" as "striking a fire")
* But the Sabbath rules make distinction between striking/kindling a new fire versus maintaining a fire that was already going. So, again, making use of or somehow supporting the operation of an electronic device on the Sabbath may be seen as permissible as long as it was started before the Sabbath began.
In conversations with folk, I pointed out that much of what Howard and I said during this section of the talk was regarding things like Beam-Break sensors and whether the presence of a human could be seen as "flipping a switch" in the elevator controller. But I did begin to understand more about not "making new work" etc etc.
It was explained to me that things like the elevator's internal adjustments due to the presence of a person are secondary to the main work it was already doing: going from floor to floor. And also (I found this the most interesting, and I like how it is pragmatic and practical) "one can argue that the actions the elevator is taking are OK because they are *safety* actions. Nearly every Sabbath rule can be set aside for these. I know several observant Jews who use continuous glucose monitors and such to manage diabetes on the sabbath. Health and safety trumps everything else." (again, credit there to Indora)
I like that and I appreciate all of you who have reached out to help me learn, on this and in comments on other videos, as well! 👍😁👍
Not to be that guy, but who the hell cares? They are all made up arbitrary rules from a made up nonsensical religion. You should not be forced to change your behavior, just because your wife, friend, ect is religious. If it were the other way around, they would cry about you forcing your beliefs on them.
Call me an ahole all you want, but I don't get this craziness at all.
BTW, I am not talking about you specifically, but rather others that I have seen, especially as of late. This isn't directed at you so much as it is to everyone and no one.
@@ripley4601 I just want to point out here how insensitive you are being at the moment. "made up arbitrary rules from a made up nonsensical religion." This line right here tells me all I need to know about you.
You change your behaviour because of a little thing called "Respect". Something which you seem to be sorely lacking. And it's your choice to change your behaviour, nobody else's.
IIRC at least in come cases the beams are deactivated (but pressure sensors are not) when "shabbat mode" is activated, and so many of these secondary systems are also not fully active. Regardless there is still much debate whether use of a shabbat elevator is allowed, and by whom. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews do not use them at all, while some people hold that only those who need it (for accessibility reasons) should use one.
The pragmatic side - which I liked you found interesting - is often the framework that guides the rules in Judaism. Safety and life above all else - even at the expense of the sabbath, then observance of the rules between you and your fellow person, then observance of the rules between you and God.
edit: BTW - the use of a "sabbath goy" isn't as permissible or straightforward as pop culture has lead people to think it is. I can't just ask someone who isn't Jewish to do anything I want for any reason on Shabbat.
Your last point about safety is actually quite interesting and relevant to something my Dad told me. He is Jewish(he converted to Judaism as an adult) and I quite often quiz him about the rules of being Kosher and Shabbat etc. His brand is what's called Progressive Judaism, in contrast to the very strict Orthodox Judaism they take a more pragmatic approach to the rules. He mentioned a time where he went to a social dinner of some sort and the food was about as far from kosher as could be, something along the lines of a dish with ham/bacon and cheese in it. I can't exactly remember his words verbatim but he said something similar to "Sometimes it's better to be nice than right." That yes eating that food was not kosher, however eating that food was being a good neighbor and appreciating the efforts of a friend's hard work in the kitchen, in essence being a good guest, which I believe is touched upon in the Torah. I believe a lot of the interpretation of 'breaking the rules' has to do with intent, of course that judgement changes by the individual.
On the other hand however he did tell me a story of when he visited an Orthodox Synagogue where one Friday evening the automatic lights had forgot to be set there was a crisis cause nobody could turn them on until my Dad offered to and one of the worshippers literally used my Dad's hand to turn all the switches on as if it 'wasn't him' who turned the switches on. That attitude is incredibly off putting and incredibly hypocritical since of course that worshipper drove to and from the Synagogue in his car. The difference I believe is the attitude behind it and the pragmatism.
Of course it doesn't matter to me, I spend most of my friday nights happily eating ham and cheese toasties whilst using most of my electronic devices!
@@artyboy92 I would say that Orthodox Jews would probably politely avoid the not kosher food. There are ways of being a good neighbor without having to eat not kosher. If this was a life of death situation (let's say, he was stranded on a desert isle) then eating not kosher would probably be ok. When one needs to break the rules a lot of the emphasis is about the "why" and "how" - if it can be done in a way that is different than normal, better that way. If it's to save lives, that's permitted.
In regards to your second story, I am very confused. If this was an Orthodox synagogue, they wouldn't be ok with your dad flipping a switch - since he is Jewish too, and definitely wouldn't use his arm to flip a switch. They also wouldn't have driven to synagogue, and if they did they would likely be ok with flipping a switch themselves. Either that person was trying to hide their "lesser" level of observance from the rest of the community, or something is missing from the story.
I was once walking thru downtown Portland Oregon with my honey, when I saw across the street a very old brick building that had a cornice of granite around the top that said “Otis Elevator Company” and I stopped to stare at it and started laughing softly. “What’s so funny? “ asked my girl. “That used to be the Otis elevator company building”. And she looked and said, “ yeah, but why is that funny? “. And I replied, “Its only one story tall.”
lmao that's pretty good lol
There's an Otis building in Albany, NY as well and it is also only a single level.
@@patrickthomas9006 doesn’t show a lot of faith in their own product, now does it?
Ba dum tiss
a, so it goes down, now i get it.
The best part about talks like this is that for the rest of your life anytime you take an elevator you will watch it's mechanics and analyse them. 99% of people won't even think twice but after watching deviant you ascended to 1% who have nothing better to do than learn about elevator haking
Not just analyse them but also appreciate the complexity of it all. Even if it's just "relays and switches". The fact that it works like it does is amazing.
I loved the recordings of the mechanical controllers moving around. It reminds me of those mechanical jukeboxes and I've always loved those.
Especially when you notice things that shouldn't happen.
Elevator haking is ❤️
Elevator haking is life
And it ruins a lot of movies for you!
I watched a couple of his vids on elevators and now every time I ride an elevator with someone I have all sorts of fun facts to spit out.
Dev, just to add on for the pet mode in Japan. What it also does is to bump up the air filtration level inside the cabin and clean it up so that when the next user (who may be allergic to the fur) will not get affected by the previous user (aka the prev occupant and the pet)
As a twelve-year-old kid in the 1960's, I would spend hours playing in the elevator machine room at the hotel where we lived. It was fascinating to watch the equipment operating, and I eventually figured out how to manipulate the relays on the control board to make it do whatever I wanted. For example, when a passenger entered the elevator and selected floor 6, I could cancel the call and send them to floor 7. Other times, I'd send the elevator to the floor they selected but keep the door from opening, and then immediately return the car to the floor they started from. Things like that. Such fun!
surely your work on elevators now right?
@@drink15 Well, as much fun as it was to play with the elevators, I had even more fun playing with the hotel's telephone switchboard. So indeed, engineering and servicing phone systems became my primary career.
@@ElmerCat Nice, a much safer career path. I would have likely did the same.
I like to think there is someone out there who thinks about the one day the elevator didn't do what they instructed it to
And you reminded me about the Lift/Elevator in a shop in bridlington (uk) which used to have a mind of its own
One time many many years ago, when i was young, i was with my dad, and we got in it on floor 3, pressed G, and it took us to either floor 1 or floor 2 (can’t remember which floor out of those two as it was so long ago)
So, I work hospital security and after watching a bunch of these videos, I decided to buy some elevator keys, picks, and bypass tools for the lulz. It just so happens that we had an attempted kidnapping, so a code pink was called, but the elevators were still running because our contractor was a POS who didn't do his job correctly. While the nurses were upstairs chasing the crazy woman, I was able to use my feok1 key to shut down the elevators while my team responded.
and I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me!
Isn't it dangerous to shut down the elevators completely rather than stopping them from opening on a floor. Don't hospitals have emergencies that require transporting patients?
@petergerdes1094 be a lot more dangerous to let the crazy lady abscond with a kidnapped baby
@@petergerdes1094I mean if you’re sitting there with the feo-k1 you can probably facilitate the use of elevators for emergency transportation if you need to using the key.
Hey, in almost every talk you mention "ask him(us) about the crazy stories we don't have time to talk about here!".
_Can we have those stories, here on UA-cam?_ I'm sure everyone would love a 3-hour story time video about the craziest things that happened throughout your job(s).
The stories that Dieviant would speak off, I'm sure require the following things.. 1) Libations and 2) You didn't hear this from me but......
Seconding this. I LOVE stories.
What if, vinwiki car stories but red teaming
Oooo that's some good stuff, I'm down for these stores :)
please do this
11:20pm time for sleep
UA-cam: Here's an hour 30 presentation on elevators.
I have absolutely cut a key from a picture my buddy posted on Facebook. I went to the new tattoo shop, of which he was (justifiably) proud of having secured a lease. I proceeded to open his front door for him with my key, handed them over to him, and then explained the dangers of posting such details online. (Especially bad that he had named business in same post as the key photo.... 🙄)
I went to a school that had half floor numbers. The cab had doors on both sides and one side had whole numbers and the other side was half numbers. The elevator was essentially built in between two different buildings with different floor heights.
Lmao my school had a building a bit like that but worse
I lived in a building that had this but the floors lined up. You had to input floor 2 left or 2 right
+1 for using footage from the Secret Life of Machines. Side note, Tim Hunkin has a youtube channel and just uploaded all the remastered old videos with new commentary at the end! Definitely worth going back and watching them! RIP Rex! Never forgotten!
Yes, he even mentions our Elevator Hacking talk at the end of his remastered video!
Tim Hunkin's chanel:
ua-cam.com/users/timhunkin1
Talk about nostalgia.
@@DeviantOllam that's right! I forgot about that haha
Tim's the reason that, decades later, I've ended up here!
I was so excited when I found his channel. I remember seeing his Secret life program on local public TV as a kid on the weekends when they played British imports like Fawlty towers, Are you being served and the like.. His remastered episodes are so wonderful
Funny you should say you won't run out of air. I was stuck on an elevator at Cleveland State U while delivering a 300 lb load of dry ice to one of the labs. Luckily the phone did work and they got us out in about 10 min. or so but the air was getting a bit thin in there.
I work at a university in the UK and there's a strict "nobody rides with the liquid nitrogen dewars" rule for exactly this reason. Not sure whether it's a local rule or UK health and safety law.
Should probably send it up separately
@@IDieForPie if someone in an intermediate floor hits a call button, you might still have a non ideal situation. Without some type of special mode, it seems like that would be hard to avoid, though.
@@doctorbobstone just do it after normal opening hours and you'll probably be fine.
I come from the land of expedition level cave exploration. Bad air is almost never a problem in the limestone caves of Kentucky: the air is good and flowing. But I know of accidents in caving where rebreathers were used, leftover from WWII. If you run out of O2 you don't notice because there's no CO2, which is what tells your body you need to take another breath. So you die not knowing anything's wrong.
Another danger is open air cave pits (open to the sky) in southern Indiana. Dead leaves both plug the airflow, and generate CO2. Tragically, one person will rappel in and asphyxiate, and worse, not knowing the danger, their buddies die by rappelling down to save them.
When I was a carpenter, working in a refinery, I got trapped inside an old Ottis elevator for five hours with a guy who was claustrophobic. Bad thing was, this elevator was on a running processing unit and the whole superstructure shook. So here we are, not able to get out, stuck between the 8th and 9th floor (industrial floors, 25’-30’), being slammed from wall to wall like being in a washing machine, not knowing if the “emergency call” button was connected to anything and it’s too loud to yell for help. Come to find out, the “emergency call” button wasn’t connected to anything and/or the light had burned out. No one knew we were in there until the elevator repair team showed up. The guy that was in there with me never rode that elevator again. He would always take the stairs…..
How did the elevator repair team know to show up?
@ The next group of carpenters who needed to take scaffolding up several floors couldn’t get the elevator to come down so they could use it. So the maintenance director called the repair people out. That elevator had a habit of tripping the overload limit even if there were just people in it, not to mention a whole cartload of scaffolding too…..
I can't believe how much I like a talk about elevators, but it lifts me up to a whole new level.
LMAO good one
Got a bit of a rise out of that one? Like taking people for a ride? Guess we can show the kids the ropes about a good Dad joke..
It's okay. Has its ups and downs.
“We need another 20 minutes tops”…40 minutes left in the video. Love it.
30:08 - the place you'll see Riot Mode is all the major bank buildings in London. It was installed en masse after the 2011 riots (I am told the escalators also have riot mode, which sets them into overdrive going down and must be hilarious to watch). I dunno if Wall Street is the same, but that's the kind of customer they were selling to.
I would love to see an escalator in riot mode in action. lol
@@famousamoso7 ua-cam.com/video/Dhw_foEIFUE/v-deo.html
The elevator talks are some of my favorites. Just you and Howard yucking it up and blowing people's minds.
Thanks! I have learned so very very much from him 👍
@@DeviantOllam This was a "cover everything elevator" talk but you did not cover pushing the Call button, waiting, having doors open and no elevator only a shaft. I had heard of this but also; it DID happen to me. I don't scare easily. I did for that.
@@arcanondrum6543 I cannot imagine a situation which that is possible to happen. Simply because the hoistway doors have no motor... The only way to hoistway doors can be powered open is if the cab is present.
What you are describing sounds like the most edge of edge cases in a manner which I couldn't begin to explain.
@@DeviantOllam Thanks for your reply. From your video, I also did not spot a reason why. One difference might be because the elevator in my case was a cylinder style with a round staircase surrounding it and an exposed landing on each floor. (The elevator had no glass.) It was definitely a retro fit in an office building across Boston Common from Beacon Hill. I tried to report it. I was in that building only occasionally but when I reported it to the office of the building owner I was either not believed or it was not something she wanted to admit. I think it was the former.
After your reply, I Googled and searched UA-cam briefly but there was one video I didn't want to finish watching. All other incidents that I DID view were careless, deliberate damage or were manual doors. I don't know if there are incidents like mine
@@arcanondrum6543 sounds like an amazing building, wish I could see it 👍
"Elevators want you to live."
My best takeaway. When I'm down and depressed I know where to go
46:10 has all the type of Elevators.
47:00 another good picture.
48:30 login page.
50:16 bitting code.
52:42 more fire keys.
53:12 better picture of key. (NY. Bitting: 6420)
53:59 another good picture of a key. (4 states. The 3502 key.)
55:03 Another key. (Tennessee)
55:57 and 56:26 Key (Indiana)
57:18 (Kentucky)
57:40 (Florida Zone 4)
57:44 (Florida Zone 6)
57:47 (Florida Zone 7)
57:54 (Louisiana)
57:56 (Virginia)
58:33 (4 more different states)
1:01:22
I love stuff like this. I love when you open the curtain and show us these tactics that you use for pen testing. It is so so fascinating to me, the Average Joe. Things I'd never imagine, like spraying whisky through a door to trigger a R.T.E. sensor, or using that right angle pick to open latches, or using the spring loaded hinge buster to pop hinge pins and open doors from the opposite side. I want you to know that you have fundamentally changed my mind, Dev. You flipped a switch in my mind that has changed me into the "one step ahead of you" mode with things in general in life. When I do something security wise, I try to attack it myself and think of all the vulnerabilities and how to secure them. I will watch EVERY minute of EVERY 1-2 hour talk like this that you share with us. The information within them applies to so much more than just security. Like wearing an elevator repairman uniform to fool security into just ignoring protocol and trusting you on a whim. Brilliant, and exposing how lazy humans actually are.
There is this video of a guy being fed up with the icecream machines and McD's being always out of service. He showed up at a restaurant with a repairman outfit and a tool chest and they let him into the kitchen without asking any questions. He hit the icecream machine a couple times with a wrench and walked out.
As someone who's had to train people for jobs in different positions, people get incredibly intelectually lazy at an astounding speed when it comes to anything related to work.
@@SeraphimKnight Wow, that's incredibly scary. He could have dumped bodily fluids with hepatitis and other shit into that ice cream machine or other areas and compromised the whole customer base. They let him walk right in... People don't care when it isn't their own thing. If it was their restaurant they'd be asking for ID and saying "I never called a repairman, who TF are you?"
@@mannys9130 the spread would require the already broken machine to work, which often requires use of secret menus only described in the manufacturers own service manuals that they keep for their technicians, so it wouldn't change anything
Thanks yt algorithm, loved this video!
Some years ago as a teenager I'd roll around with an auctioneer during summer when I was out of school. There was an auction in one of the old downtown buildings that had these ancient elevators that had the pull down doors. A bunch of us piled in one and hit the up button.....well it didn't go up, it went down and felt like it was a free fall.. it stopped halfway where the building floor level was chest high so we had to crawl out. Apparently the motor started the wrong way due to being overloaded and it went fast enough the emergency brakes activated.
The floor we crawled out on was a haunted house so lots of blood and gore , it was great !
Waiting for the fire department makes me laugh. Myself and another rescue paramedic that happened to work in the emergency department with me, and who both have elevator rescue as certifications, nearly got fired, because we got asked to deal with a critical patient stuck in the main elevators. Turns out the elevators were functioning properly, the wheels on the patient beds were just narrow enough to fit between the car and the threshold if perfectly aligned. My coworker and I assessed the situation and lifted the bed up about 1cm with the sick patient on it and we gave each wheel a quick kick while we lifted. This critical patient and 6 staff had been stuck in an elevator at floor level with the doors open for 30 minutes before someone stepped out walked 70m to the ER to ask for help.
I appreciate how many times you told people not to do stupid stuff, because so many people have no sense. But we people can't function in the other direction either, ie "something is wrong, but I've heard so much doom and gloom that I can't function if things work less than perfectly."
According to the tech support guy, "I can't function if things are working less than perfectly" seems to be very common in users. Some will freeze up and call tech support if anything unexpected happens, such as any message box.
@@user2C47 I wish it weren't true, but it is. Guy sitting next to me hit accidentally hit the key combo that rotates the monitor display 90⁰. Generates call to tech support. Meanwhile I've been writing my reports using a keyboard that has a broken "M" key for 2 months.
@@jozak78 I must admit I've hit the 90° key combination when I _was_ the tech support. I didn't realise it, so both I and the user were very confused.
On the section about being behind the times on security, and running on old windows versions, that’s so true.
I’ve seen a badge system running on server 2008 r2, but the kicker was that we couldn’t upgrade the server because it needed the badge system licensing, and it was old enough that new licenses weren’t available, but the physical panels were too old and didn’t work with newer software.
So they were stuck on ancient windows server, with old software, until they spent ~$15k to replace working badge panels
Elevators at the last job got spam calls. Emergency phone called the front desk, but a real outside line could call in.
I used to be employed as the operator of a geriatric industrial elevator in an old factory in Quebec. I always thought of my job as being on-par with someone who manually operates canal locks or switches railroad tracks from an old control tower by pulling on levers.
27:30 Huh, something weird from one of your videos I've seen before, or at least something akin to it. There's an oddball elevator near me in a building that is an old building and a new building merged together, that has doors on both sides of the elevator. The floors are half a floor apart because the foundations are at different heights, so you have a Lobby level, 1 Left, 1 Right, and so on.
The first place I encountered an elevator like that was a hospital. Rather than dealing with different floor heights, it was just about restricting/speeding access: the front door faced the areas the public was meant to access, the rear doors led to places that only staff should go, and there was no (visable) way inside the elevator to select those stops.
@@spyone4828 yeah my local hospital has that too! ...and patients will enter the elevator and lean against the back "wall" then a couple of stops later it will open and almost dump the person onto a lab tech coming from one of the lab only floors
common with mezzanine floors too
I started in the Elevator Trade 6 months ago. I pursued this career largely because of you and your videos! Thank You!
Proby
@@IonVladutu you sir are not wrong.
Many years ago I managed hotels and at one of them we had an elevator with a window in it and at each landing there was a window. I had the idea to sell advertising space between the floors to local businesses. One of my favorite jobs was to change out the advertising posters during the annual inspection. We had a really cool elevator tech that would let me go with in on the car top in order to change the posters… so much fun.
I love the work you do, Deviant. You're good people. I'm glad to see your giveaways required a more structured website infrastructure, it means that you're getting more exposure to new viewers! I'm just glad I was able to win a prize back when it was easier! Thanks for that and for everything you do!
Oh hey yeah... Maybe you'll even win again! 👍😁👍
I used to be a construction supervisor for a company that owned high-rise buildings in Montreal, and they had that old relay kind of elevator controller in one of their buildings. Being in that room while the elevator was functioning and listening to all the clicks and watching the machinery work was fascinating to say the very least.
This video just randomly popped up in my feed.
I just wanted to comment, thank you for posting this talk; lots of super interesting details and depth. Incredibly interesting and captivating!
What interested me the most was the safety systems that were described to keep the carts and passengers safe. Truly amazing, thank you
I used to do maintenance for a wireless ISP in a fairly large city. Can't tell you how many high-rise buildings had our antennas on the outside of the machine rooms and the racks inside because they were the best spot on the roof for that stuff. So of course I had the keys.
Met someone at work who had been in elevators that fell down a number of stairs TWICE.
One day she didn't show up at work for a few days, later we found out about the accident: elevator fell down.
She takes the stairs when possible, but that time wasn't possible.
Had another friend that called the elevator in his building, then had a thought and decided to go back out, only to come back to a building full of police. Elevator came crashing with a guy inside from a high floor, guy didn't make it.
These accidents are not common so it's weird I know these people? city ain't THAT big, i suspect no one takes proper care of their elevators. Mine is always off-floor and when fixed it stays fixed for a month.
Trust your gut instinct
@@Eurotoolyeah, it’ll eventually be correct 😂
As someone having been trapped in an elevator between floors with a non-working telephone i really appreciate this video.
The hospital in the town where I grew up was built on a sloped site and expanded over the years. As a result, two different parts of the hospital share an elevator that has half-floor buttons and front and back doors.
I once got caught in an elevator with some buddies when drunk. We were jumping so obviously hit a failsafe and the thing just stopped dead. Emergency call button rang somewhere but no-one answered. Eventually we got hold of the fire dept (cell phone) and they did exactly what you said not to above. That is we climbed out with the elevator not level with the floor. Afterwards I believe they just 'turned it off and on again' and all was good. This got my thinking this should have been done with us still in the cab!
I think so too!
This video popped up in my feed a few months ago, and I skipped through a bit, expecting a video essay, just to see a bunch of PPT sides and went, "Well this'll be boring," then clicked off.
Now, here I am, after actually watching the whole video. I fell asleep (granted, watching this in bed) during the part with the leaky hydro valve body, but was able to seek right back to that part because I was paying so much attention to the video I had previously dismissed.
Great video 👏
I've watched the elevator talk and variations thereof so many times, but I never get tired of it. I just love id'ing things that get talked about, like "Oh, that's the Independent switch" or, "Oh, FEO-K1" (Yeah, that's up north as well 🇨🇦). Also do the same stuff with your pen testing talk, just id'ing all the potential security flaws. Always fun to see these.
Never thought I would spend an hour and a half watching a video on elevators 😂 interesting stuff and great engaging speakers.
there is a type of elevator once present in europe called a paternoster lift, almost all of them are gone but i was lucky enough to ride one a few years back. it is a continuously moving circulating loop like a giant chain. each floor has two openings, one for up, the other for down. the cars you ride are open, you can see each floor as you pass through and just step off at your desired level. really fascinating and well worth a look.
Always a pleasure to listen to someone that actually knows what they are talking about… Well, you guys anyway…
Thanks! You uploaded this while I happen to be stuck in an elevator!
I made it out this morning! Great video!
I've watched other versions of "the elevator talk" many times, but there was still some stuff in this one I haven't seen before! :D
My favourite company is Schindler, I particularly like the "Schindler's lift" model.
Didn’t know Itzhak Perlman was picked up by Muzak.
good one m8
Another good video Ollam. Elevators are fascinating. Been in/around a couple of the hoist rooms while working for a card access/camera company. The super old relays for elevators are loud af. Also big beefy boys. Up at the very top of sky scrapers are a really amazing place too. Lots of things going on behind the scenes.
I have a friend who does social engineering training for...unmentionable agencies. He had a student who had been an elevator inspector before. Lots of cool stories of sneaking around using the elevators.
The first one I rode on the top didn't have the ropes fixed to the car - they went round pulleys and back up the shaft. So yeah, when the lift moved you had a pair of pulleys you could trap your fingers in !
Dev, you’re literally the only guy i’d ever actually trust to convince me a 1.5 hour video about crazy obscure elevator tech/security stuff is going to somehow hold my attention and that i’m gonna watch the entire thing without realizing it. you’re awesome.
question though: i’ve often wondered this, but how would an interested individual go about getting a foot in the door of the pen testing industry and related industries?
I wondered why a small elevator had a chair in it. Then I realised, as it was in a small town in the North of Iceland, if you got trapped you were stuck for at least 5 hours! Took the stairs back down!
Hey my building has that in the middle of a national capital in Europe
We recently visited Tokyo and went to the top of a high rise that had a viewing area. The elevator had an emergency toilet! I guess they figure if a serious enough quake occurred, you could be there a while.
That half-floor panel I've seen very similar before. There was a facility I worked in where each floor was 30-40 feet or so high because they did design and testing on very large equipment. The half floors were the catwalk level.
So 3 was the main floor of the third floor, and 3½ was the catwalk level of the 3rd floor, and so on.
That was *extremely* interesting, thanks for sharing it! I knew almost nothing about those random bits of elevator trivia.
I programmed a miniature elevator in high school and actually had to make the cab do a correction run every time the elevator sat idle for a certain amount of time becsuse of how inaccurate the encoder was.
One of those great talks where they ask for a few more minutes and everyone wants the next hour
I spent many years outfitting government buildings and top security facilities. One of the stranger ones was a four story building that had an elevator panel that went: 1,2,3,4, then a big gap then a 7 down in the bottom corner of the panel near the floor and a key next to it.
The one time i saw 7 used it was by a guy in full biohazard suit with a cylinder on a trolley. I came around the corner and went to walk in the elevator and he just looked up at us from the ground with his key turned and finger hovering over 7. "I'll get the next one mate no worries." Why does a four story building have 1234 and 7? wheres 5 and 6!! This particular building has a one kilometre long probe driven into the earth underneath it for seismic reading. Geoscience Canberra
That's the floor where they fake all the death certificates to say "Covid".
Being from the elevator field most of this information is very accurate. One thing you could do different then buying the key boxes and cutting the keys is get an elevator license then order the keys from a distributor lol
Elevator license is usually not always enough. For example here in sweden, if you want to order access credentials to building sites, you BOTH need a license (credential that you have gone through the certification course) AND you also need a permission paper from your employer with his signature (to show that you are acting for a company, not acting "privately").
And usually these credentials have to be paid by the company too, you can't pay them yourself. This to prevent people from "black-ordering" these in some company's name - by having it so the accounting will notice the bill if the credentials wasn't legitimately ordered by the company.
The keyboxes weren't for elevator keys, these guys already are licensed, those boxes are FIRE keyboxes, you must be a first responder to get those, and even then, those are supposed to be daily check-in check-out logged in with the fire truck and supervisor you're assigned to, don't just get to keep the keys or take home.
Or call Howard :-) (odds are, we _all_ have one of those fire keys. they aren't anything special, and have been used in other things. sometimes many other things.)
I did see this talk, or one very similar in another venue, a while back, and it was still cool to watch it again. When I saw it the first time, the biggest "WTF?!?" moment (among many) was seeing the Windows XP logo. Thanks for sharing again, Olaf!
I recently returned to my workplace after being remote for over a year, and while I was gone all the elevators had Code Blue switches installed on the basement hall panels. Not a hospital or medical facility of any kind, so it's curious why they added it and why only on one floor. The fire service switch is still on the ground floor.
What industry do you preform your duty in if you don't mind me asking? Just curious if I can add some perspective.
Maybe if it's a basement, maybe there was a risk (either a real risk or one believed to exist by the building management or local regulations) of someone getting an injury from exhaust fumes of cars or trucks at parking spaces or loading docks, or electrocuted in a substation room, or something like that?
This is the greatest video I've ever seen. Much love brother.
Have seen it before, watched it again. Full of great information presented in an entertaining way. Love it. ... A part two with more fun stories about obscure elevator stuff you guys found out there might be nice some day.
Life has its ups and downs. And sometimes you leave the control room door unlocked....
There was a fire at Dusseldorf airport (Germany) 1996 when smoke caused the elevators not to close the doors. The door sensors were obstructed by smoke and passengers died by smoke inhalation trapped at that floor level.
I love Tim Hunkins' "Secret Life of Machines" - he has two arcades with machines he made himself.
@@csours I've seen many of them... He mentions our HOPE talk at the end of his remastered elevator episode
@@DeviantOllam The circle of life.
i caught that tim hunkin bit! practical demonstrations are a lost art and the funny bit, i watched the commentary back and forth between dev and tim when it actually happened! :D
Never in my life have I ever thought I'd watch an almost 1:30 minute video about elevators , yet here I am. Pretty entertaining I'll say.
I really enjoy your OG talks and the elevator one is a really solid one. Having a bit of a variation will be great. I doubt I will manage to watch all of it today as I have to get up early tomorrow
I was trapped in an elevator in a new building after an earthquake in the mid 80s. When I pressed the autodial emergency button, I got "You must first dial a 1 before dialing this number. Please try again." On a weekend. In an empty building.
The sprinkler system had gone off due to the shaking (not due to a fire) and water was running down the shaft from the upper floors. They had contaminated the sensors so the hydraulic ram wasn't moving, it was just "jumping" a few inches every 20 seconds. I was hoping it would just settle to the ground floor. It didn't.
I was able to get the doors open as it was almost at the bottom floor and crawled out.
Oooof... When I was in charge of the phones in a school with an elevator, I'd make sure the emergency phone worked once a quarter!
One of the most memorable elevator rides was on top with the elevator tech during installation. 27 floor, twin high rise towers and a large retail area project. I was checking out the card access interface to Dover elevators. Elevator mechanic and I took a ride at full speed. It's impressive and scarry watching how fast these cars actually move when you are on top!!!
It may have worked when installed, but any changes to the phone system and ...
Funny thing about the AZFS fire key. A certain fire alarm panel key from a major manufacturer that I work for fits the AZFS lock.
Ex bldg mgmt who dealt with more than my fair share of elevator issues, mishaps and hacks. I really enjoyed this video!
There was a situation where the elevator door opened but there was no cab sadly the person stepped into the elevator shaft and fell 15 floors and died. Why did this happen? I thought safety measures are in place so something like this never happens?
I love this talk every time I see some iteration of it.
Another elevator talk? Score!
I don't know if it's still being used but back in the 70s my grandfather was a elevator operator in the original Singer sewing machine factory in Elizabeth NJ , I remember him showing me how he started it up each morning they had a huge generator inside a cage the thing was the size of a small box truck, the elevator was 100% manual with a metal handle and a wood grip the doors were also manual on counter weights he used to let me level it at stops when the call bell rang.
"The elevator wants the occupants to survive, because who wants squished humans cluttering up one's car interior?"
Oh, it's the video that led me to find you in the first place! Amazing. There's always too much information to remember...especially when it might matter! Rewatch = good
The original video has about 62k views, one of them is mine :) I'll still watch it again here, it was a great talk.
I have a question: Do you think there will be some new exploits with the new-ish Sharry lift / office access software? Or will you just go straight to the hardware behind it as usual, since that will probably remain mostly the same?
Oh wow! I didn't realize that it was so highly viewed! There was a time when the con changed hands and the UA-cam channel was going away or something, and all the views were going to reset.
Glad to see they kept their original channel! 👍😁
Same here.
Last time I nearly got stuck in an elevator was because of an issue with the 3-phase supply, caused the motor to burn out and filled all floors of the office building with smoke.
Aww, I told you I'm bingeing. This was a great video and actually the 2nd of yours I watched a long time ago. The dude with you was like an encyclopedia of El knowledge, it was pretty fascinating. I think? that dude is the not so civil engineer, though I'm probably wrong. He's cool too, greta ideas and efficiency in all things UDT. Anywho, a good watch again.
12:35
“There are buffers in the pit. The pit is designed to accept the full weight of the elevator at full normal travel speed.”
And what happens at unnormal speed (free fall)?
The pit was concrete lined for easy hosing down and cleanup.
There is a now-deleted video where they disabled the brakes and cut the cables and just let one fall in a building that was being demolished. There was not much left of it after it hit the bottom.
@@uzlonewolf the Mythbusters did one of these. Didnt go well for poor Buster.
Ooh, elevator content! Nice! I like the elevator content!
That said, I like most of the content that crops up here, but elevator content is still rather nice to have more of
😂 No way! 😮😮😮 😂 around 20:45 my guy (un)ironically said "SHUT IT DOWN!" while talking about 'SHABBAT' Mode on 😁 Brooklyn Elevators 😅 iykyk
lol was looking for this comment
Can't wait to get my elevators phone number so I can remind my neighbors that their car's extended warranty is about to expire.
I am one of the 12 or so likes and views of the original excellent presentation thanks for representing it again
Did not think I would watch the entire thing, but damn. You make some seriously interesting content. Also thanks for the sheet folding tip the other day!
Interestingly enough, I realised quite soon that I _had_ seen it before, but it was entertaining, so I watched it again :)
Cheers
Okay so I have a question. I was linked this video on reddit.
Today the elevator I was in was going to the 3rd floor of parking garage. Near the 3rd floor it made a loud noise, like a bang, and I felt the elevator fall down like 1 meter or so.
Then for the next 10 to 15 minutes the elevator was shocking, until it eventually stopped. About 15 minutes later we got out and we were near the ground floor. Had to jump out 1,5 meter.
What do you think happened? Did a cable snap? Was is the counterweight that made the shocking happen as we slowly descended?
Would love to know more.
Ahh just when I needed a "Lift" a new vid comes out... ;)
BTW did you see that Tom Scott vid from 2017 about the multi-directional cable-less elevator? Looks amazing!
Yeah, KONE is doing pretty amazing things! 👍
I was in a lift in the uk, as i got in it moved alot, i bounced and it dropped a whole level that needed a key to get to. Was interesting!
Being obliquely connected to the construction industry I recently found that the deadliest trade on a construction site is the elevator installer/tech. due to falls. It’s also one of the most lucrative; hundreds per hour, 2 man crew minimum, and 4 hour minimum time per call out. The elevator industry is also the hardest to get into for the average guy; it seems to be all ‘sown up’ by male family members; brothers, uncles, fathers and sons.
Always enjoy your presentations, enjoyable to watch and I learn a lot of crazy things.
So glad to hear it!
@@DeviantOllam I'm very interested in phreaking but I haven't seen the exact device shown at 1:12:44 do you have the name of the device, or know where I could find more information about. I hope this isn't something I should already know, you mentioned it like it's something every pentester owns. Thanks though amazing video.
Super excited to find out you had a channel. I LOVED your pen test lectures.
Though I've seen the Elevator Hacking talk before, this is still a good video to watch.
I've also confused one lift. Going up, I opened the car doors. Got them closed again and the lift started going down - but the floor indication carried on counting upwards! Got down to about the third floor before indicating the correct floor again !
From the security point of view, no lock is ever safe but elevators could do one thing you don't ever mention here and that is to report potential security breaches. Meaning if security is a focus, there's going to be someone on guard and if someone turns the elevator to firefighter mode, it could sound an alarm on that person's desk leaving it up to them to decide if someone should go check it or if it's fine because the building is on fire. If that's not already being done, I'm surprised.
In his other talks about elevators this is actually mentioned as a function of most elevator controllers. They often have extra dry contacts which you can wire into your monitoring system to indicate if it's gone into independent or fire mode. Modern ones I'd presume can do this all over network with the right integration.
i am growing to enjoy your content more as it goes. keep doing it your own way.
Forget the elevator talk! He's almost disposed of that body!
18:42 about cancelling, I worked in a building once where doubleclicking in the cab would indeed cancel the floor. Not to get somewhere faster, but just as a prank, some of the people, especially those in suit-n-tie, would stand with their back to the buttons and sneakily randomly cancel a floor behind their back XD
The Secret Life of Machines is one of the best shows to teach how everyday things work. He has a whole new YT channel that deals with more modern things.
I once worked in an old 4 story building. The only elevator was a freight elevator. It had just two buttons - UP & DOWN, and you had to hold one in. The motor had two speeds - ON & OFF. It had only two cables (ropes). If we had a heavy load, it would bounce up & down when the button was pressed. There was a crude overspeed brake that made use of a separate hemp rope.
That's so cool, I love these kind of talks, glad you brought it here cus I would have never found it!
Do any elevator management systems have alerts that can be sent when special modes are activated? Like, a red light at the security desk for fire, blue or pink lights is a hosptial, etc.? Seems like a simple alert could have helped in that back-of-house elevator access scenario.
I remember me and a friend were in an elevator that got stuck. We popped open the phone panel and called the number it said in case of emergency. I called on my cell. The phone in the evelvator started ringing, me and my friend both looked at it and slowly looked at each other with that look of 'are you f*ckin serious'.
We were in that elevator for 5 hours even AFTER calling fire and rescue.
@deviantOllam I used to work at Schindler. In the 80s I was on the software development team working on the first microcontroller-controlled lift system (Miconic VX). I was responsible for the proprietary communication system between the floor, cabin, and control room (the lift bus), the group bus (between lifts working in a group), and the building bus (from all groups to the main security desk or emergency outside control centre). I inserted an Easter Egg into the code that would intercept a particular sequence of floor calls made within two seconds inside the cabin that would inject a call reset (all floor service requests would be cancelled) and put the cabin into independent mode. The next floor to be selected (mine) would then be in express mode with security override. After I had exited the cabin, normal service resumed for the other bewildered travellers (who would need to select their floors again)! This would only work on installations with more than 4 or more floors. The software was actually part of the communication protocol and not in the controller logic!