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Had a controller board fry mid-service on a 20-year-old Otis in a downtown Chicago high-rise last Friday

I was doing a routine inspection on the 14th floor when I heard a pop and smelled burning plastic, then the car stopped between floors with a passenger inside. I had to override the brakes manually to lower it to the next landing, but now the board is toast and I can't find a replacement part anywhere local. Has anyone dealt with sourcing old Otis controller boards, or is retrofitting the whole panel the better move here?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.robin7d ago

Just slap a generic VFD in there and call it a day.

julia_anderson7d ago

Oh absolutely, I love when people act like swapping out a whole elevator control system is the same as changing a lightbulb. I helped a buddy wire up a "simple" VFD swap on an old Dover unit once. We spent three weekends chasing ghost faults because the new drive hated the hall call logic and kept dropping the car mid-floor with the doors open. Ended up having to install a separate signal converter box that was almost as expensive as the drive itself. So yeah, "just slap in a generic VFD" is a great plan if you enjoy crying into your multimeter at 2 AM.

ivanross7d ago

Yeah that "just slap a generic VFD" advice is how you end up with an elevator that drops like a rock on the first power surge. Those old Otis boards have weird proprietary safety logic that modern drives don't speak without a translator module. Retrofitting the whole panel sucks but at least you'll get parts for the next 5 years instead of scrounging eBay for another 20 year old time bomb.