RARE duplex 'Express Lift' machines - how it works with animations

[@don1857]

As a building electrician in a large complex, I used to watch the relay panel of our 1950's Otis controller. By watching and listening I was able to determine the purpose of the majority of them. Most of the other lifts were modernized and did not have the open racks. Great video!

[@PaulFisher]

The clacking of the relays is extremely satisfying.

[@RobR386]

Wait until you see one arc over, it's quite something 😁

[@TimPerfetto]

Please give me your hair

[@RobR386]

@@TimPerfetto takes years to grow 😊

[@pantherplatform]

I was an elevator mechanic for 40 years. You explained this really well!

[@cal28kim]

Since I found this channel my wife said I've become obsessed with lifts! She said it's odd on so many levels 🤦❗ Great work keep it up.

[@Aawsomeguy]

I have always appreciated the work you put into your elevator machine room videos. Thank you so much for uploading them to everyone in You Tube land.

[@Vakcoh]

That is some brilliant engineering for that old mechanical lift. You always do exceptional research and editing for your videos, my compliments to you!

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thank you very much!

[@VicVal]

I simply love the level of details, examinations and descriptions in these videos. I often nerd things in to low level details myself, but I would never have the stamina to produce the content you do. Thank you SO MUCH, it's awesome!

[@RODALCO2007]

Awesome very detailed video with the operation of this interesting lift system. The sounds of the contactors and motors are awesome. The editing of your video must have taken a massive amount of time as you mentioned. Keep up the excellent quality video's . Thanks.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thanks very much Radalco2007 - I wouldn't edit them anyother way, it's just they take months to do and in the end I have to "stop tweaking" and just upload it!

[@StrawberrySunday212]

Your attention to detail is excellent, Mr Matt. The time you take to create the videos, then the animations explaining it all is very appreciated.

[@AintBigAintClever]

The attention to detail in the edits alone just got a thumbs up. Moving annotations to match a live shot, such as at 2:38 is something which takes a lot of tweaking, sometimes frame-by-frame.

[@YYYValentine]

These animations synced with the real sounds and real videos made me subscribed

[@a62dave]

I finally found a nice video with the heart of a teacher, the way it used to be before KZbin algorithms got stupid. Thanks for the animation combined with real video. I love it.

[@YourLocalGP]

Fantastic. It's clear to see how you are learning new editing and graphics techniques as the channel expands. But I'm glad the music hasn't changed - it's perfect.

[@SedatedByLife]

Quite amazing how they figured out how to make this complex system work with just some relays, inductors and motors.

[@peterjszerszen]

I live in the US and have been in hundreds of buildings and high-rises and mechanical rooms nationwide as an inspector and I have to say my favorite period of building is 1967-1973. There is just something about era, they all look and smell the same (those that are left) and it was an era of brute engineering force with focus being on function rather than form (as it should be). Those long basement corridors are always grungy from the buzz of transformers and motors and fluorescent lighting with magnetic ballasts, the whole basement would resonate at 60Hz and you could feel it. I love those buildings. So many of them were "overbuilt". Once you got into the later '70s, energy efficiency mandates really changed everything about how large buildings were designed and the building guts didn't feel so "raw" anymore.

[@Damien.D]

Designing and building complex electromechanical system like this is a lost art.

[@PaulFisher]

The relay logic on these old systems is incredible. I can hardly imagine what it must have looked like in a true high-rise, with more floors than you could count on your fingers and toes. Thanks for the in depth tour of the guts of an old elevator!

[@Lift.Tracker]

Absolutely! The best example for an ‘Express Lifts’ version would be the DMR system shown here. And even this would’ve probably been quite minimalist compared to some! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nquaf6mdj8aieq8si=E10J5SJ7-Kzy1xPp

[@nos9784]

Wait til you see a railroad shunting yard's interlock😅

[@user-kp6xf4gf7t]

Take a look at the Westinghouse service lifts in the Sears/Willis Tower! There are some videos showing the 2-story high controller!

[@suchcone]

That's some fabulous explaining, you take something that looks complex and indeed is, and make it very simple and understandable. Pure quality every time.

[@mushroomcraft]

I love a classic express. Definitely my favorite. SUPER rare to find any lift with original logic these days, I'm glad to see the logic of this lift in detail. Thank you for this video!

[@olthepol8103]

Absolutely fantastic video with some great in-depth explanation and supporting animations. Amazing that something so complex is still working, amazing engineering

[@poprawa]

Engineering in system like this is impressive, and then i realize, that almost every wear part failure is designed to not cause major problems - this is ridiculous how clever people where in charge of projects like this.

[@poprawa]

Many clever guys where spending days messing with stuff to cause problems in testing phase, that's for sure

[@TheLiftDragon]

You did an absolutely great job in providing this in-depth look into these Express lifts! Great work! I have never seen this approach to serving landing calls, that's very interesting. I'm only familiar to the way Schindler's relay controllers do group dispatching. Their solution is to use a separate central unit that does the dispatching, while the controllers of the single lifts only hold car calls. The same applies for Aconic.

[@davidperry4013]

Vane readers are also used in modern PLC controlled elevators.

[@notmuch_23]

Wow, no wonder automatic elevators were such a major innovation, and human operators were needed before them!

[@Techno-Universal]

The next evolution of that duel winding system was to use a similar resistor bank driven system like what was in trains which allowed for many different speeds that could be rapidly cycled through to achieve almost perfect levelling! That system was generally first used in high rise lifts in the 1970s but did become a lot easier to do in the 1980s with DC pulse drives and microcontroller logics! :)

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Beautiful relay logic cabinet. Thank you for sharing this!

[@ChoxyTV]

You got my sub for this video. This is super interesting to watch and see how it all goes together. Keep up the amazing work love this so much.

[@compu85]

Nice to see an old lift that looks to be well maintained.

[@yellowcrescent]

Very cool to see. There's so much that can be done with Relay Logic and special types of relays (Timers, Delays, etc.). I worked as a Controls Tech for a while (with PLCs & industrial automation), and noticed that old Relay Logic diagrams were basically what modern Ladder Logic is emulating (seems obvious, but the UI in Allen-Bradley and MELSEC software even looks like a schematic). I imagine back in the day they would draw out a function/control diagram and state machines, then translate that into Relay Logic diagrams as part of the schematic creation.

[@Josh.Davidson]

Amazing video, Express DMR is fascinating.

[@neosstuff]

its insane how such a simple machine is turned into such a complex logic system

[@Lift.Tracker]

And this is only just scratching the surface of how complex some of these systems could get! Imagine a high rise, high speed set of 4, for example!

[@toddhunter3137]

The lifts here in my tower block are express lifts, they're old and really need to be replaced lol.. it's interesting watching your video to see how it all works. Also the lift cars don't always match the floor that well it can be a few inches out at times. Lift B when it arrives at the ground floor it can be a bit of a clunk stop. I've lived here for years so I'm used to it however when I have guests they're a little bit unnerved by it.

[@wideyxyz2271]

Fascinating stuff. many thanks for sharing this.

[@_DML_]

Excellent detail in the video as always. It's amazing how many moving parts are in the electro-mechanical control systems. It goes to show why it's so important to keep unauthorised personnel out of the shaft and control rooms.

[@ZZ9ProductionsOFFICIAL]

another fascinating video, these are always excellent for deepening the appreciation for the time and effort that went in to designing these old systems and figuring out how to make them work with just relays like this

[@rose-ey6ct]

Serviced Express lifts circa 55 years ago. Brings back memories. One Express lift had a Bull Slipring motor but was not a super tandem. It was, however, 2 speed. Lift accelerated up to speed just like any other slipring motor. To slow down, resistance banks wer re-engaged, and an eddy current brake brought the speed down to a slow crawl to a stop. This lift was circa 50 metres a minute at high speed. It had full loadsense weighing to detemine the acceleration and braking required.

[@TonyVRailfanning]

A great job once again, AC one or two speed elevators are not nearly as common here in Canada it seems. most elevators (lifts) here are DC generator to DC motor or of course now just AC logic

[@joseph1407]

Complimenti per la realizzazione dei video, grande passione e realismo, ho lavorato per tanti anni su questo tipo di ascensori. I tuoi video sono fatti veramente bene. Sono molto legato al funzionamento elettromeccanico, ho fatto molta esperienza e il fascino di queste macchine è intramontabile e tu riesci a comunicarlo molto bene. Se puoi fare un video sugli ascensori OTIS con selettore e moto generazione in locale macchine. C'è molto da imparare. Grazie ancora complimenti

[@mctechswitch]

GREAT JOB! You put so much effort into your videos and i appreciate that. :)

[@38911bytefree]

Great Vid Matt, a WORK OF ART.

[@hythesailor]

Jeez, it stops pretty abruptly, doesn't it?! Thank goodness for more modern lifts. Interesting that it has been preserved in what seems to be good condition though.

[@godlugner5327]

15:20 (on the left side) nobody is safe from mislabeling.... Not even if there's only two 😂😂😂

[@ADHJkvsNgsMBbTQe]

Thank you for sharing.

[@sportblatz6129]

near god tier editing in this👍

[@markifi]

RARE example of when the editing actually makes the source footage better as opposed to just cutting it up into a million small pieces for dramatic effect leaving you with something much worse then what you started with (99% of the stuff edited by most other people)

[@Petertronic]

Amazing detail and explanation, I love the sight and sounds of the relays, contactors and motors all working together like a well conducted orchestra! Are these lifts remaining in operation, or scheduled for modernisation?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thanks Petertronic. As far as I know, no plans for them to be modernised yet.

[@ronwade5646]

You should see the one at Sun Valley from 1936! Big Selenium rectifiers and Relays a plenty, truly unobtainable parts now.

[@KutWrite]

Well done, sir(s)! Maybe it dependson country, but here red indicates "down" and green indicates "up."

[@iO-Sci]

Wow ! this machine looks unique and kind of serene. 우와 ! 독특하고 차분한 느낌이에요

[@tony359]

making some videos myself I can only imagine the time invested in making this video! Amazing!

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thanks for the compliment Tony! Sometimes I think they're never going to be finished, but I would never do it anyother way. As I've said a few times, if "I" don't find my video interesting then I don't upload it.

[@666Anonymous0]

Very informative on how the position indicator works, i have a 90s ile display ive been playing around with but wasnt fully sure how it works

[@BlackWolf42-]

I was wondering if there was an intermittent or damaged inductor and it caused the floor selector to jump a 'notch or two'. What would happen in this case?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

In short, when the floor selector reaches it's 'terminal floor', if the correct floor switch is not pushed then the selector is assumed to be 'out of step'. The selector advances around rapidly until the selector pushes the correct floor, thus resetting it's position. I do have a video of this, and it's one of my videos to be edited and explained.

[@sirensoftheunitedkingdom]

​@@mrmattandmrchayI'm subscribed to you §übßçrïbë

[@hariranormal5584]

very cool! but i hope your future video also includes a bit more on how the logic works. You see, to me, just a bunch of relays being able to "work out, act like a logic, a brain" just doesn't feed enough to my mind at least. I always wanted more detailed explanations on *how* a function works. I have made Lift logics in minecraft even using gates (my designs were different than others, i was using modded so i had more logic control), but i just can't understand how bunch of relays can imitate this haha. Regardless amazing video with detail, like I said before too, they leave more than just information. Something nice, eerie, a lot to ponder about old equipment that probably is going to see its last years soon. Remember the DMR lift video? Oh hell I'd love a explanation on how they work....

[@keith800]

Great video , and admiration for the amount of work you put into these video's👍.

[@ClivePenfold]

Q. in some lift motor rooms I've been in, there has been a tool for manually takng the brake off. If you do this with an un-powered empty lift, will it move. Q2. I've seen a video of a lift accident where the car has gone upwards uncontrollably. Should the emergency brake operate in these circumstances. Keep up the interesting videos.

[@VintageLiftLad]

Beautiful set, I actually know where these are as it happens, shame they're pretty far from me to visit, although I'll definitely make a detour if I'm ever in the area! Long may these live

[@nul1fe]

Who would of thought lifts would be interesting.

[@pcuser80]

Perfect video, what a nice edit. All those details. learned a lot thank you.

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

Woah nice video! Keep up the good work!

[@dna9179]

its mind blowing

[@NicholasAndre1]

Wow thank you for this. I love these sorts of control systems.

[@guineagirl5078]

Amazing as usual. Extremely interesting and informative ❤

[@craigthepony6259]

i just find it fascinating how a human was able to get something super complex to work all mechanically

[@juandasilva9226]

Amazing yours videos! Fenomenal Quality. Amazing controls and how before computer and microprocesors this lifts working together.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thank you very much for the compliment!

[@Tuberuser187]

Just to think a single microchip can replace this entire electromechanical system, this is incredibly fascinating though and the video does a good job explaining it.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Yep, lift machinery is mainly circuit boards and software these days, not as fun as watching these in action.

[@liamemmaairraidsiren9046]

@mrmattandmrchay how are matt I'm trying to recruit a secomak cs8 siren.

[@brunoais]

Another amazing&awesome work from you. Thank you very very much!

[@mrmattandmrchay]

And thank you also Brunoais for the compliment :)

[@Skalekul]

My guess at what the device is at 16:45, I think it's some sort of interlock device for the gate/door? Has some link to that cable that it is pulling?

[@pizzablender]

What an elegant controller.

[@mauromazzoncini5711]

Our engineers of the past were simply incredible

[@Phoen1x883]

Matt, the link to part one doesn't seem to be in the description.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thank you very much for your observation... I've added it now :)

[@stabilini]

Amazing complex machine !!

[@Capturing-Memories]

The CANBUS protocols and modern SoC (System on the Chip) simplified all these mechanical devices, The entire physical wiring schematic is mimicked by firmware programmed into an FPGA chip that controls all the functions of the system using few wires and digital codes and messages instead of an analog voltage on each dedicated wire for one function only.

[@AtulSohan]

What's that thing in the end? A bellows like pump ? What is it ? What does it do ?

[@zuluoscarlima7822]

Greetings from Russia! Our elevators rarely operate for more than a service life of 25 years. At most, the experts extended it for a year or two so that the owner could find a replacement and order the equipment from the manufacturer. How is this organized in your regulations? Working elevators from the 60s, amazing

[@SylvieonPiggyFan29YT]

Hilton park part 5?

[@ArthursLiftAdventures]

Very fascinating video thanks for showing!

[@poprawa]

15:01 Are those timers transistor based?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

No they're not. They're actually quite simple - behind is a big capactor and loads of resistors on the dials. The capacitor charges up, then dumps it's current through the relay next to it. The resistors control the discharge rate. You can see them better here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hovJZ5-XfseYfassi=WGkd2UGDSszyzKXI&t=441 7:26 you can see the back.

[@Plaxton_presidents]

Awesome video

[@GregBouchard-w3i]

U do a great job on here keep up there good work on here am a big supporter of u do a good job on here

[@BeckettsElevatorAdventures]

Another quality video. You inspire me to make better videos.

[@markandsuriyonphanasonkath8768]

DAMN FINE! Thank you 🙂

[@lesmoor001]

looks lethal .is that a Bristol accent ?

[@Albrecht8000]

16:31 Was this spark normal? Greeting from germany

[@TimPerfetto]

Thank you

[@CentiZen]

I have always wondered from the name of the channel, is it a team of two who writes and produces these videos? Or is it just the work of the man we hear narrating? Either way the level of effort is impressive.

[@christopher-2000]

awesome lift video

[@crocoland6330]

Awesome old fascinating and rate lift!!’

[@georgieippolito9924]

Can a otis elevator relays work with household voltage? I found them on Ebay and love your videos! I would love to build a pet elevator using a otis floor selector If I can find one while using the relays. I would have the relays in a glass box that lights up normally using a relay to Activate the light and shut off when the sequence is done. the plexiglas box with the floor selector I'd have it light up with color changing LEDs from the inside. is this possible?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Depends on your household voltage. Here in the UK it's 240volts AC. The Otis relays are likely to be around 110VAC - so the answer would be no, not without a transformer (110V construction site transformer may be ok - search ''110v construction transformer'' on net, the yellow things). However, this is a massive over-kill. If you did build a pet lift then there are plenty of other relays that'd work, and then you could probably use a 12v relay coil (use a 12v power source) and you'd not need to generate 110V. You could also safely connect LEDs to the relays when they switch on.

[@toddhunter3137]

Re parked lifts. Here is 16 floors, when there's no calls lift A resets to floor 8 and lift B resets to ground floor.

[@呵呵呵呵-l6i]

Why are you using a modern lift as all your intro?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Bit of a story to that - about 4/5 years ago I was looking for a new intro, filmed that sequence and the ceiling with the flood lights illuminated it perfectly. Not filmed anything better since that works as well as this one does.

[@petersaunders747]

Why are the engineers faces pixilated out??

[@davidgrisez]

This is definitely an old electromechanical relay control system for this pair of elevators. Modern elevators use a microprocessor based control system. One big problem with an old electromechanical relay system like this is that these old electromechanical relays are not made any more. At some point in the future this pair of elevators will need to be converted to a new elevator control system that is microprocessor based.

[@user2C47]

Fortunately, when they did make them, they made a lot of them, I'm sure there's NOS to be found, even if the box says Western Electric. Edit: This panel probably runs on 415 volts. Relays with 48 volt coils wouldn't work.

[@shanewarnes7339]

Hi, how can I contact you on a personal note please. I have a full working large telephone exchange with many relays and uni-selectors. Cheers Shane

[@Nderak]

wow

[@OLIBAHN475]

ich mag gerne schaltwerkschaltung

[@dopiaza2006]

Bradford University?

[@a.p.2356]

Not sure how I ended up watching a detailed video on the electromechanical logic system of an old British elevator, but I can't say I'm not enjoying it...

[@oliknow]

No, I won't keep out of Lift machine rooms. If I would keep out, I wouldn't get paid and that's no good.

[@jensschroder8214]

a computer built with relays!

[@jigler]

Your watermark is distracting

[@jamesspash5561]

Electromechanical logics are amazing. Learning them and understanding is very interesting. What is lost with so called technicians of today, is, they assume/rely on a plc to do the work. Lost is the ability for basic electrical trouble shooting. I work with some old EM machinery. Our new techs are clueless. They cannot understand how to trouble shoot with no place to interface a PC. They are clueless with basic electrical trouble shooting and simple ohms law. Sad.............