I can't believe TH-cam just randomly recommended a two-hour lecture about elevators to everybody and people are actually watching it. And I am one of them.
I have already known some secrets in Deviant's videos, but this was way too fascinating considering that I live in an area where elevators are largely for ADA compliance and freight because tall buildings are scarce. The tallest building in my city contains the alphabet agencies of the government and has tremendous levels of security that would turn these activities into vacation packages to Club Fed.
"Stop me if this is getting weird" Dude I'm watching a 2 hour video on elevator hacking from 2014 and you are talking about elevator part manufacturers mixing up their products. It got weird a long time ago and I love it.
As a kid (12-16) we loved to go terrorize the local college . With a 8 floor library, elevator tag was a must. The 8th floor was a open floor plan room they rented out for events and weddings and such. With 4 elevators in this building, all went to the 8th floor, but a key was needed to activate the button. Well wanting to win at tag or hide and seek, I cheated, no exploited a loophole where i would hop in the elevator and not press any buttons. I noticed that after a few minutes the elevator would be recalled to the lobby, off limits for the game because the front desk was in front of the elevators and we would be kicked out for playing. So to prolong the amount of time I could spend in the elevator without pressing a button I went to the 7th floor to use this exploit, however the car did not get recalled to the lobby, but instead was recalled to the 8th floor. I now had the perfect hiding place. It occured to me one day, alone , bored, and nothing else to do in there, to press the door open button. Much to my surprise the doors opened and I was greeted with a beautiful ballroom with the best view in town. JACKPOT!!!!! After some "exploration" I discovered a soda fountain, full bar, kegs of beer, and often left over snacks and swag from events. Well until I was old enough to get in real trouble, we used this floor as a clubhouse, occasionally be caught we would never reveal how we were getting up there. I tried this trick recently just to see if they had figured it out, nope still worked, but my fingers are no longer "sticky" so i closed the door and left, but it brought back so many memories. I love the 90's.
This is amazing hah One thing i don’t get is how you could get to the 7th floor but not the 8th, did the stairs not go up to that floor? Other than that you just made me wanna go play hide & seek lol
Funny you should mention, I actually paused right there to go watch a video of LockPickingLawyer pick a tubular lock so I could understand how easy it was.
@@flailmail7069 Why? These conferences are all about security. The point of buying all of the keys and being able to narrow it down to that small handful was to show your elevator isn't as secure as you think it is. Remember, these guys are professional pen testers... why pick a lock when you have the key? It's faster that way! :v
I used to work in industrial water treatment (boilers, cooling towers) so I have been to areas in buildings that most people never get to see. I can tell you that the best and easiest way to "hack" into a building is to dress like a contractor. A t-shirt with some sort of company name on it (or a reflective vest), a hard hat, a tool bag, and an ID card around your neck (I made my own with my company's logo on it) will go a long way. Also, it's important to always look like you know where you are going, or what you are supposed to be doing. If you can't get access to a certain area, just ask someone - chances are they will gladly help if you explain "why you are there"! Many times I've heard "Oh, are you here to fix the elevator?" when I was wearing a shirt that said Water Treatment. Access to restricted areas of office buildings, hospitals, manufacturing plants, even data centers and Verizon central offices, no problem! If the public knew how easy it is for bad guys to get into our infrastructure, they'd shit themselves.
@@AstroKitty16 Sad....my brother used to live in Fairbanks, now in Anchorage. My motto is "don't trust anyone on face value", and ask lots of questions. Legit people will have no problem with that.
@Ti Ri That's actually mandatory in some countries, which is how right wing protesters in France could easily get yellow hi-vis wests as their protest uniform. Not being part of those riots, yet still living in Europe meant seeking out a different colour west for regular use.
As young teens, a friend of mine and i were stuck in an elevator that refused to open doors, in a small shopping mall. We pushed the emergency ringer and waited. Pushed again, several times during the approximately 30min we spent in that box. Nobody cared, no emergency phone existed, nobody even called the elevator to the other floor (yes, it ran between two floors, serving as elevator for disabled persons to bypass stairs). Then as a last effort - nobody had cell phones back then - i tried to pull the doors open forcibly, having some physical characteristics... Turned out that the doors had unlocked but the machine forgot to open them. Doors slid open with some effort and we were free from eternal forgottenness... Imagine this happening to someone with disabilities taking a ride alone.
I can't believe I watched this whole video... but, it was incredibly interesting.... And, I'm not really interested in elevators... or, at least, I wasn't before this video.... Very well done...
It's funny my dad was an elevator mechanic for 23 years and throughout the 80's and 90's I rode on top of a large number of the elevators in downtown San Diego. He was a single father and one week a month he was "On call" where if there was a problem at 2 am he had to go which is why I was with him quite a bit. My favorite story he told me was he got a call that an elevator wasn't working and when he got there the entire elevator was filled with boxes of dot matrix printer paper with just enough room for 1 person by the panel. My dad told the guy hey the elevator is overloaded to which the guy replied "But it's only paper". 😂 The coolest story was from my grandfather who was also an elevator mechanic. The El Cortez hotel for quite some time had the tallest hydro elevator in the world. It was also the second glass elevator ever installed anywhere. It had 3 stops the bottom 2 floors and the top floor (15th) which was the hotel restaurant. So the problem was it had a hydro tank the size of a small swimming pool. During peak hours when the restaurant was busy that hydro oil would overheat from having to basically run so hard so my grandpa had the brilliant idea to run the hydro oil through pipes that were cooled with water from the swimming pool which served 2 purposes. It cooled the hydro oil and it heated the swimming pool.
Heh, reusing that energy for something, which might have made the swimming pool boiling hot on a REALLY busy day. Not something i'd see being allowed to happen normally, but aight, good story!
Another tidbit about fire service: Modern elevators more often than not have a secondary recall floor, usually the 2nd, sometimes the 3rd if you have an atrium. If the alarm came from the first floor landing it'll send you to the secondary so you can get to a stairwell from a floor that's NOT on fire (yet). Also, the heat detectors are usually in the machine room and either end of the hoistway, not the landing, and trip just before the sprinkler does to trip a shunt, the idea being you're better off stationary in a concrete hoistway in a metal box with no power than in an elevator going haywire from electronics and other equipment getting wet. Not an expert by any stretch, I did testing on fire alarm systems at one point but didn't really stick with it. Interesting stuff, but take my word with a grain of salt. And yes, being on top of an elevator car with a can of smoke and a heat gun standing next to an elevator tech (the guy who actually knows what the hell he's doing, because I sure don't) is a really weird experience the first time around.
Here in NC the elevator superintendent is Cherrie Berry (sp?) so every elevator has her name on a certificate posted in the cab: 🎼 che🎶rr🎶y 🎵 ber🎶ry 🎵 cherry ber🎶ry 🎵
About a month ago we learnt here that there's another gruesome way an elevator could kill you. The underground parking floor got flooded by rainwater and a young couple took an elevator there and drowned inside it :(
@@Misha-dr9rh Yes, it gives me goosebumps thinking of it. There was no maintenance hatch at the top. The firefighters tried to cut the roof but ended up using divers to get them. www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1578154737-tel-aviv-inundations-see-two-drown-in-flooded-elevators
@@Misha-dr9rh According to the 2 hr video we just watched, there usually isn't one, and if there is, it's locked from the topside. Getting out the trap on top is hollywood fiction.
These guys would be happy to know I was on top of my elevator game when I was in downtown Houston high rise security. Checked the phones every weekend, learned the elevators and helped so much during fire calls that the responding captain told my property manager she needed to hang onto me for as long as she could because I was gonna keep her out of trouble some day. That was an interesting job. And we wore suits not ugly uniforms :D
I thought this was an album from an artist named Elevator Hacking and I was excited for some weird electronic/ambient tones based on the cover that spanned a long time. Pleasantly surprised.
Yeah, I watched the whole thing, too. I was an electrician at a high-rise in Omaha and was tasked with taking readings in the elevator machine rooms (8 Westinghouse hoists and one Dover hydro). I was night shift, and loved just watching the machines go, esp. in the AM when people started coming to work. It was spooking looking down through the cableway into the shafts, which had fluorescent lights, plus the incandescents on the car tops. The senior electricians could fix door jams with their drop keys. This video verified that the elevator-related killing I created in my novel would work.
Your expression on the last question made me cry in laughter even after everything in that presentation. Meanwhile Howard's unimpressed face shows that this is nearly an everyday thing, which it probably disturbingly is.
I also imagine that having the elevator at the top during a seismic event would serve another purpose: The elevator could "ride" the rubble down if the building collapses. Instead of the cab being buried under the weight of the building, it would be nearer to the top of the demo heap. Easier to recover people trapped inside.
I've watched this talk multiple times. A few months before writing this I visited the US for the first time, spending a few nights in Vegas in Excalibur and a week in an Airbnb in Hollywood for a few days. I couldn't help notice the fire service key switch, and I was instantly reminded of this talk.
We have Schindler lifts at the dorm. Guess how many times this pun has been used? (Spoiler: too much) But jokes aside, they're really good lifts (esp compared to the ~20 yrs old ones on campus lol).
@@DanBowkley apprently it's not. Schindler Group was founded 1874 ind Switzerland, Oskar Schindler was born 1908 in the Czech Republic (Austria-Hungary at that time) and his father was owner of farm machinery business. I found no connection between Oskar and Schindler Group.
Very good. Surprised I stuck at it for 2 hours as it was very watchable. BTW: The British bloke is Tim Hunkin (he is an inventor) and the programme is called The Secret Life Of Machines.
I'm a Finnish guy =) And Live in the shadow of KONE the elevator company, the home town of it. There was an incident when we where doing stuff in the factory. Nothing bad, but there was an elevator that didn't want to cooperate with us, and the situation moved to a place where there was an elevator service guy sitting in the machine room operating the elevator for us... =D It was funny as hell.. we just yelled at the guy floor 3.. It was 4 floor elevator. =)
A few years ago, I used to work in a building with a haunted elevator. If you blocked the light barrier a few seconds to keep the door open for colleagues, the door closed immediately when the light barrier was released and bumped into the next person who tried to enter the cabin. Then when the door felt something blocking its way, it quickly opened again, but apparently only to take a run-up and then - if you weren't quick enough - hit you again with a little more momentum. I always wondered what the programmer of this "feature" was thinking... If you made it past the aggressive door, sometimes it was also a game of chance to which floor the elevator took you. For example, you pressed the ground floor, the light in the elevator went out while the elevator was moving and a short time later you found yourself in the basement or any other floor. I got stuck more than once and in the evening I usually took the stairs to avoid spending the night in the elevator. Since this was in Germany, this elevator was inspected at least every two years. For the next four years I worked in a building whose elevator liked to took you on small business trips. You want to go from the ground floor to the second floor? Then let's go to the fifth floor first, because someone wants to go down from there!
Was it an Otis by any chance because my old work (a bank) had the worst one that did the same. You could never guarantee that it would take you where you wanted and just had to hope that you got there or someone else pressed the Hall Call button on that floor. That's not even taking into account the time you ended up stood there not moving anywhere because it wouldn't register any buttons when you entered and wouldn't reopen the doors.
@@0r3ll all my issues have been with Otis machines no matter how big or small they were. Such a terrible experience tbh. I've been stuck between floors with one too and had to force the doors open to climb out after an hour because No-one could hear the emergency buzzer 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ felt like I was in a horror film and I was going to be chopped in half climbing out. I'm a big guy and there wasn't much space 😂 😂 😂
I remember there was one in a shop in Bridlington in the UK which had a mind of its own sometimes you would press a floor, and it would take you to another floor
I had something like that happen twice. Tried to get to my room in a Saskatoon hotel, elevator went up as normal, but on the second floor, the door kept opening and closing probably about 3 or 4 times until it finally went to my floor. (Same hotel that had a fire alarm go off in the middle of the night because of a drop in water pressure, same day too.) The other instance was a Shindler on the Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship. Door just wouldn't close until I held the button down, 5th floor I belive. Also got stuck on the third floor of a hospital in an elevator because of klutzy construction workers putting shot crete in the wrong spot. Let's hope none of that happens in college this year.
VERY INTERESTING! I stumbled upon this because I couldn't get a CLEAR answer on whether the "Door Close" Hack actually worked... BUT this video answered all my questions about elevators and EVERY question I could ever imagine to ask. VERY INFORMATIVE!
2 hours, I never thought I'd make it when I started to watch - in fact I only clicked on the vid at first because it was unusually long! One of the best vids I've watched, *ever*, so many phys-axx issues with this kit and a very interesting perspective into an overlooked axx playfield.
+DeviantOllam i wish you could teach me mate im so scared off elevators i even got a £8 hospital parking ticket because i dardent ride the lift which reminds me cant you guys make the parking ticket machines go mental lol love u guys i wish i was a geek i might get someone to baseball bat my head because people say sometimes u wack your head n become brainy
I didn't even know that I had an interest in this until I found myself needing to finish a 2-hour video that I ended up on randomly. Super interesting stuff. Thanks!
This was a great presentation. Love learning. Used to manage a large complex and had to call elevator specialists a lot for that cranky hydraulic system, since we had two that went out on tandem order. Needed full rebuilding of the system and eventually got it. Otis was one of the companies I used among others. And learned a bit from each service call. This was the rest of the cookie for me.Thanks so much. Now learning about PEN on my own. The lock part was hilarious though. Some security...LOL Thanks again. Life is learning.
Brought back some memories. We used to have to bring huge sheets of glass/ mirrors up on top of the elevator cab, because they wouldn't fit inside the elevator, or up the stairs. Usually we had to have the elevator tech stop it in between floors to pitch them on and off the top of the cab to the next floor. Very sketchy shit in so many ways!
27:22 "and then there is... Southern California" _camera immediately shakes._ pretty good timing, I like to think there was a camera operator having a good laugh
So glad they used that clip from Secret Life Of Machines (amazing British show for any budding engineers/designers to watch) @13:59. That patented Otis rail gripper safety mechanism is one I always show people when they ask about elevator safety, even though it's probably outdated and no longer used, because it's such a clever yet simple idea and the perfect proof of a redundant safety system.
Heyyy, I'm an old washed up electronic security professional turned washed up physical security professional turned current building manager. I manage a very very old temple from america yesteryear. Constantly have problems with the elevator. This video has been a total godsend. Thanks for that bud
I'm an elevator enthusiast and found this very interesting, learned several things. Also love how you nade the section titles look like a Dover Impulse hall position indicator.
As someone always fascinated by elevators and infosec, of course I had to watch this through to the end. It left me with a couple questions for anybody who can answer. First question: At the university I attended, I had a couple classes in one of our newest buildings (built in 2014). Of course because it was new, it had brand new elevators. They were traction elevators, I believe Westinghouse. You could hear the three-phase drives of the motors from the top floor, but you could also hear what sounded like a ton of relays clicking as the elevators operated. I would have to assume any building that new would have solid-state control and not relay logic like mentioned at the start of this video; I would assume there are still interlock relays though. Is that what I was hearing? Second question: At the same university but a different building, we had a bank of three traction elevators (these were the kind that verbally announce the floor in a creepy female voice). All three stopped at all floors, which included a Mezzanine floor that was in between 1 and 2 (and was a much shorter travel distance than the other floors, short enough that the elevator couldn't accelerate fully before needing to stop). The first elevator, every time it had to stop at Mezzanine, would stall for about 20 seconds after the doors closed before moving again. During this time it would announce "We are experiencing MINOR technical difficulties" and then resume operation. "Every time" is not an exaggeration; I never saw it stop at M without doing this. What was going on?
To answer question 1: you probably didn't hear relays but a metal feeler that touched measuring points in the hoistway or a metal bar unlocking the outer doors while the elevator passed them.
@@floriantischner8850 the sound always came from the machine room doors on the top floor and only happened as the elevator started or stopped, or when the doors opened or closed. I suppose it may have been brake related?
I've been in elevator pits before for EHS inspections and compliance inspections (at ground level with the spring and climbing a wall ladder out of the pit), performed call inspections, verified compliance records, bypassed elevators, etc. I learned a lot on maintenance and operations of various types also. Primary functions was EHS which included training, ER, administrative, security, auditing, facilities/maintenance, and weird operations. It was a great experience and I was lucky enough to of experienced so much in my career! So finding this video....priceless. Wow...Mind blown! Thank you so much. TOP NOTCH 🎉 If it was up to me..... I'd require this video as a training requirement for ALL EHS, IT, Security, ER, Risk group, and Facilities/Maintenance/Operations staff in the U.S. 👍
This was surprisingly interesting! I find elevators interesting, but not professionally. Never thought I would watch the full 2 hours without a stop on this video.
In case anyone's interested, the British elevator video they showed was Tin Hunkin's 'The Secret Life Of Machines' - well worth a watch. Every episode on a different gadget and how they work.
Agree with the rest of the comments....I clicked on this video because it stood out but could not believe I watched the whole thing. Very well presented!
holy crap, I sat through the entire thing. Interesting stuff, especially the governor fail toward the end focusing on the importance of having the equipment tested. And super secure tubular keys, the one for an old computer that also operated my friends garage door manual override LOL :P
For anybody in Detroit...the old Ameritech building downtown on Michigan Ave across from the FBI building has hidden floors. There's 3 or 4 floors between the other floors. There's also 1 or 2 top floors only accessible by the stairs. The hidden floors can be accessed from the service elevator. Not sure if they can be accessed by the lobby elevators by keymode, as there are no buttons for them.
I watched their other presentation on DEFCON's channel. It is very informative. I consider myself an expert on elevators, as I have been studying them for years, but even I learned something from this! Great work!
Elevation Station Productions In the video what they mostly showed for the main fire key was the Yale Y1 and Y2 keys, but all I ever see are the Chicago CG1 keyways in elevators for most, if not all of the controls.
it varies by region and by manufacturer. CG1 is common on Dover Impulse (typically low-rise) fixtures. tubular keys are common for Innovation Fixtures, not to mention anywhere that uses the FEO-K1. NYC and other places in the northeast (NJ, and much of New England) use Yale 8 keyway locks. often this is dictated by code.
So if you want informatio about elevator keys, check out this page: tinyurl(dot)com/elevatorkeys ! This database of keys was put together by myself and many other elevator enthusiasts, and is pretty accurate (most accurate reference I know of.) Just remember: Elevator keys are tools and not toys! Do not use elevator keys without permission or in the furtherance of a crime. None of the creators of this chart or myself will take responsibility for your actions.
I'd just like to say Thank You both, for your info in the Final Tips section just saved myself and another person (General public). We got into an elevator and the doors closed but it didn't move. Then the doors opened about 4 inches, she was going to try to pry them all the way open but I suddenly remembered the tips here and told her not to because it could damage the elevator. It closed, reopened to the same 4-ish inch gap and closed again activating Nudge mode. We tried Door Close, Door Open, other floors but those didn't work so that's when we hit the Emergency phone and that's when the elevator finally decided to move. Must have been a glitch in the controller. Both of us stayed completely calm throughout this entire ordeal.
This was super informative, i remember the first time i got stuck in an elevator. i was stuck with a little old lady and she panicked - boy that was a long 10 minutes. the second time was at a hospital where the outer door shut but inner one didnt and it scared me because around here (philly) elevators aren't exactly in the greatest shape.
The code pink lockout at the hospital that I went to visit a relative in was set to where if a arm band bracelet passed by a sensor on the elevator it completely shut down, I even think the lights went out and the door remained open on the platform, it was really quite annoying as there was several sick children that would get up out of their rooms and walk the halls with a parent and it would take all the elevators on that floor offline
@17:42 Technically speaking, "Don't be that *other* guy". That damn counterweight! Interesting talk, I was an elevator mech back in the 80's and we replaced one in the old apartments next to the arcade in Manitou Springs, Colo that was an operator run elevator that the apartment wanted automated. The motor starter that we replaced dated back to around 1915 and was an open frame design with fixed carbon pads and copper pads on swing arm. The pads were about the size of an old school silver dollar, with the copper pads being around the size of a half dollar. The one at a plant near Portland, Colo used 120 VDC control voltage and used resistors and capacitors across the coils to act as timers, and a "Bedspring" setup to drive the slow speed for the AC motor. As for running the cab from the top of it, it really sucks when you get to the penthouse just to find out that the contacts on the "Down" button/relay don't work. Been there. Removing a 4S cover from a box and then holding over the down leveling magnetic switch got the cab to "level down" to where I could pop out of the damn shaft at the top floor.
1:12:00 haha... I once had a PC with a tubular lock and it got stuck and I lost the key. This stopped me turning the PC on. I managed to unlock it by sticking a piece of stiff paper made into a circle inside the lock and pressing it and turning.... so secure xD
I started working in heavy industry a few months ago. I learned that equipment is key to like. Every manufacturer is key to like and some different manufacturers are the same.
I worked for an elevator controller manufacturing company for seven years. This is great. Thank you! ... edit... wow, TKE bought Dover, I didn't know that. I left the industry in '09. The company I worked for was also purchased by TKE a few years earlier. EDIT 2 YES, YOU TALKED ABOUT DESTINATION DISPATCH. I worked on original DD, REMON and CampusView systems. 53:46 those are my icons, although someone else did that layout with the non-OCD fonts....2006 called, they want their icons back.
I worked in a hotel where the basement was not meant to be accessed by guests. However, getting the elevator to the basement was very simple. Just push two buttons at the same time and down you go.
14:08 From a TV programme called The Secret life of the: Lift/Elevator, Tim Hunkin (on the lift), and Rex Garrod (cutting the rope) - Loved this series as a kid, they're all on youtube, check them out. Tim also did a Secret Life Of The Machines installation in the basement at the Science Museum, London - which I believe is still in service and is still me favourite exhibit due to the number of hands-on exhibits.
This is fascinating, im here idk why but neat! 1:16:16 lol this comes up in some 40k games notes on adhered slips on paper with strange invocations to the machine spirits! XD ' Pump actuator 3 is fussy reroute at junction 3 to clear 30 seconds' or ' press green button to start' nothing with sacred oils or polishes how odd.
I'm really hoping that nema 7 fixture enclosures/gumball machine story involves Howard going to a property and finding explosion proof enclosures and 25¢ gumball machines locked/keyed the same way since they were all ordered from a single supplier. But that would just be too perfect.
overloaded elevators? I got a story (pun intended) for you! a while ago we have to move a load of wooden desk tops with the elevator, getting it in there wasnt a problem, the elevator didnt struggle at all, but getting it out... that was some work... the load was so heavy that the elevator hang a few centimeters lower than the floor, in the end we needed like 6 or 7 people to get the thing out of there, a couple as counterbalance, a couple pushing from inside the elevator and a few pulling outside...
1:34:52 Riding the counterweight on a traction elevator is insane. 1. The weight may be near the top of the machinery room and you could become squashed when the car goes to its lowest level. 2. You have few places to get off the counterweight once you are on it. 3. You have to hope someone will travel to a floor that allows the counterweight to be positioned for you to get off of it. 4. The cable holding the counterweight is greasy, and you could easily loose your grip. 5. When the counterweight passes by the car in mid-shaft halfway up the building, you could be squashed or knocked off by the passing car.
When i was in a work release building, the phone in the elevator rang. The inmates werent allowed cell phones and phone calls were collect only. some smart inmate somehow got the phone number for that elevator and his girlfriend would call him on it and he'd pull the emergency stop between floors. The phone had no way to dial out though, only an emergency button.
As a kid I used to ride in operator-driven elevators. Otis Microdrive systems with the large brass wheel and crank handle. They were fast and smooth. Later in life, when elevator operatos and all but a few of these operator-driven systems disappeared, I went around to apartment houses, and office buildings and paid elevator operators $20 so I could drive the elevators up and down. It was the best investment ever in joy riding these quickly disappearing vertical vehicles. Fast, smooth and really fun, with open front door so you could watch the floors wiz by.
17:50 UK public information film because youths were riding on top of cars in apartment buildings. Drop keys are used by UK fire to control the fire service.
I can't believe TH-cam just randomly recommended a two-hour lecture about elevators to everybody and people are actually watching it. And I am one of them.
Valeria Vagapova I totally get that, 3 weeks later and here I am lol. Showed up in my recommendations while I was watching an airline pilots channel.
this is what got me interested in elevators.
check out my profile pic.
and still the same thing 1 year after
I mean, there is, indeed, an elevator rabbit hole on youtube
I have already known some secrets in Deviant's videos, but this was way too fascinating considering that I live in an area where elevators are largely for ADA compliance and freight because tall buildings are scarce. The tallest building in my city contains the alphabet agencies of the government and has tremendous levels of security that would turn these activities into vacation packages to Club Fed.
"Stop me if this is getting weird" Dude I'm watching a 2 hour video on elevator hacking from 2014 and you are talking about elevator part manufacturers mixing up their products. It got weird a long time ago and I love it.
As a kid (12-16) we loved to go terrorize the local college . With a 8 floor library, elevator tag was a must. The 8th floor was a open floor plan room they rented out for events and weddings and such. With 4 elevators in this building, all went to the 8th floor, but a key was needed to activate the button. Well wanting to win at tag or hide and seek, I cheated, no exploited a loophole where i would hop in the elevator and not press any buttons. I noticed that after a few minutes the elevator would be recalled to the lobby, off limits for the game because the front desk was in front of the elevators and we would be kicked out for playing. So to prolong the amount of time I could spend in the elevator without pressing a button I went to the 7th floor to use this exploit, however the car did not get recalled to the lobby, but instead was recalled to the 8th floor. I now had the perfect hiding place. It occured to me one day, alone , bored, and nothing else to do in there, to press the door open button. Much to my surprise the doors opened and I was greeted with a beautiful ballroom with the best view in town. JACKPOT!!!!! After some "exploration" I discovered a soda fountain, full bar, kegs of beer, and often left over snacks and swag from events. Well until I was old enough to get in real trouble, we used this floor as a clubhouse, occasionally be caught we would never reveal how we were getting up there. I tried this trick recently just to see if they had figured it out, nope still worked, but my fingers are no longer "sticky" so i closed the door and left, but it brought back so many memories. I love the 90's.
This is amazing hah
One thing i don’t get is how you could get to the 7th floor but not the 8th, did the stairs not go up to that floor? Other than that you just made me wanna go play hide & seek lol
@@erazn9077 Door to the 8th floor was locked and required a numeric code
my dumbass would have died from alchohol poisoning
55:00 "This is the Lock Picking Lawyer and today we have the unpickable tubular elevator key lock..."
Funny you should mention, I actually paused right there to go watch a video of LockPickingLawyer pick a tubular lock so I could understand how easy it was.
i actually just got recommended here from a LPL video 🤔
Yeah I feel bad for them buying all those keys..
@@flailmail7069 Why? These conferences are all about security. The point of buying all of the keys and being able to narrow it down to that small handful was to show your elevator isn't as secure as you think it is. Remember, these guys are professional pen testers... why pick a lock when you have the key? It's faster that way! :v
Nothing 1, 2 is binding....
I used to work in industrial water treatment (boilers, cooling towers) so I have been to areas in buildings that most people never get to see. I can tell you that the best and easiest way to "hack" into a building is to dress like a contractor. A t-shirt with some sort of company name on it (or a reflective vest), a hard hat, a tool bag, and an ID card around your neck (I made my own with my company's logo on it) will go a long way. Also, it's important to always look like you know where you are going, or what you are supposed to be doing. If you can't get access to a certain area, just ask someone - chances are they will gladly help if you explain "why you are there"! Many times I've heard "Oh, are you here to fix the elevator?" when I was wearing a shirt that said Water Treatment. Access to restricted areas of office buildings, hospitals, manufacturing plants, even data centers and Verizon central offices, no problem! If the public knew how easy it is for bad guys to get into our infrastructure, they'd shit themselves.
Social engineering has always been and will always be a very effective technique for penetrating secure areas, digital or physical.
@@AstroKitty16 Sad....my brother used to live in Fairbanks, now in Anchorage. My motto is "don't trust anyone on face value", and ask lots of questions. Legit people will have no problem with that.
@@themagus5906 Tbh most people just don't care.
@Ti Ri That's actually mandatory in some countries, which is how right wing protesters in France could easily get yellow hi-vis wests as their protest uniform. Not being part of those riots, yet still living in Europe meant seeking out a different colour west for regular use.
If the public knew how easy it is for bad guys to get into our infrastructure, they'd SHIRT themselves.
As young teens, a friend of mine and i were stuck in an elevator that refused to open doors, in a small shopping mall. We pushed the emergency ringer and waited. Pushed again, several times during the approximately 30min we spent in that box. Nobody cared, no emergency phone existed, nobody even called the elevator to the other floor (yes, it ran between two floors, serving as elevator for disabled persons to bypass stairs). Then as a last effort - nobody had cell phones back then - i tried to pull the doors open forcibly, having some physical characteristics...
Turned out that the doors had unlocked but the machine forgot to open them. Doors slid open with some effort and we were free from eternal forgottenness...
Imagine this happening to someone with disabilities taking a ride alone.
@Eric Miret Assuming the phone actually works in the elevator.
You learned not to play with elevators!
@@helgethaysen7830 How is using an elevator playing with it?
@@privateger If he wasn't disabled, it was play.
@@helgethaysen7830 Him not being disabled does not change a thing in this story.
I can't believe I watched this whole video... but, it was incredibly interesting.... And, I'm not really interested in elevators... or, at least, I wasn't before this video.... Very well done...
thanks!
+breezyjr
Seconded here I thought "1:55" - well - I'll just see a little bit ;-)
+breezyjr Yeah it was a remarkably good talk, especially for how long it is.
They are very good at presenting
me too lol
This talk was...ok. It had its ups....and downs.
It's funny my dad was an elevator mechanic for 23 years and throughout the 80's and 90's I rode on top of a large number of the elevators in downtown San Diego. He was a single father and one week a month he was "On call" where if there was a problem at 2 am he had to go which is why I was with him quite a bit. My favorite story he told me was he got a call that an elevator wasn't working and when he got there the entire elevator was filled with boxes of dot matrix printer paper with just enough room for 1 person by the panel. My dad told the guy hey the elevator is overloaded to which the guy replied "But it's only paper". 😂
The coolest story was from my grandfather who was also an elevator mechanic. The El Cortez hotel for quite some time had the tallest hydro elevator in the world. It was also the second glass elevator ever installed anywhere. It had 3 stops the bottom 2 floors and the top floor (15th) which was the hotel restaurant. So the problem was it had a hydro tank the size of a small swimming pool. During peak hours when the restaurant was busy that hydro oil would overheat from having to basically run so hard so my grandpa had the brilliant idea to run the hydro oil through pipes that were cooled with water from the swimming pool which served 2 purposes. It cooled the hydro oil and it heated the swimming pool.
Liar basted
@@abc-ni9uw Why on earth would he lie about this?
Heh, reusing that energy for something, which might have made the swimming pool boiling hot on a REALLY busy day.
Not something i'd see being allowed to happen normally, but aight, good story!
GashimahironChl fuck gotta be literal right? no exaggeration allowed?
@@GashimahironChl you dont realize how water circulation works do you...
This could be interesting, but there’s no way I’m watching the whole thing. -Me... 2hrs ago
2x
@@Nicholas-f5 This is my second time watching it too
Can third that lol
As a firefighter that doesn't deal with elevators often this greatly increased my comfort level in case of a more vertical emergency.
Spot on, sir.
Another tidbit about fire service: Modern elevators more often than not have a secondary recall floor, usually the 2nd, sometimes the 3rd if you have an atrium. If the alarm came from the first floor landing it'll send you to the secondary so you can get to a stairwell from a floor that's NOT on fire (yet). Also, the heat detectors are usually in the machine room and either end of the hoistway, not the landing, and trip just before the sprinkler does to trip a shunt, the idea being you're better off stationary in a concrete hoistway in a metal box with no power than in an elevator going haywire from electronics and other equipment getting wet.
Not an expert by any stretch, I did testing on fire alarm systems at one point but didn't really stick with it. Interesting stuff, but take my word with a grain of salt. And yes, being on top of an elevator car with a can of smoke and a heat gun standing next to an elevator tech (the guy who actually knows what the hell he's doing, because I sure don't) is a really weird experience the first time around.
I am disappointed that you failed to discuss elevator music
Garyjamin That's too mainstream
That's the best part of elevators, getting to places you aren't allowed to be is meh in comparison.
Here in NC the elevator superintendent is Cherrie Berry (sp?) so every elevator has her name on a certificate posted in the cab: 🎼 che🎶rr🎶y 🎵 ber🎶ry 🎵 cherry ber🎶ry 🎵
The less said about elevator music the better
Pump some AC/DC in?
7 years later, this is still an awesomely informative talk. Thanks for all of the work you put in to this, keep doing what you do!
About a month ago we learnt here that there's another gruesome way an elevator could kill you.
The underground parking floor got flooded by rainwater and a young couple took an elevator there and drowned inside it :(
Damn, that's a terrible way to go. But couldn't they open the maintenance hatch thing and swim up into the hoistway?
@@Misha-dr9rh Yes, it gives me goosebumps thinking of it. There was no maintenance hatch at the top. The firefighters tried to cut the roof but ended up using divers to get them. www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1578154737-tel-aviv-inundations-see-two-drown-in-flooded-elevators
@@Misha-dr9rh According to the 2 hr video we just watched, there usually isn't one, and if there is, it's locked from the topside. Getting out the trap on top is hollywood fiction.
The same thing happened at a nursing home during a flood in my hometown about 40 years ago.
@Joseph Bloe Do you have something useful to say, Joe?
An elevator is a room that moves people safely between floors, by relocating all the danger into the shaft and machine room.
I already knew that elevator maintenance and inspections were a brutally serious thing but now I understand more about why.
These guys would be happy to know I was on top of my elevator game when I was in downtown Houston high rise security. Checked the phones every weekend, learned the elevators and helped so much during fire calls that the responding captain told my property manager she needed to hang onto me for as long as she could because I was gonna keep her out of trouble some day. That was an interesting job. And we wore suits not ugly uniforms :D
I thought this was an album from an artist named Elevator Hacking and I was excited for some weird electronic/ambient tones based on the cover that spanned a long time. Pleasantly surprised.
Yeah, I watched the whole thing, too. I was an electrician at a high-rise in Omaha and was tasked with taking readings in the elevator machine rooms (8 Westinghouse hoists and one Dover hydro). I was night shift, and loved just watching the machines go, esp. in the AM when people started coming to work. It was spooking looking down through the cableway into the shafts, which had fluorescent lights, plus the incandescents on the car tops. The senior electricians could fix door jams with their drop keys.
This video verified that the elevator-related killing I created in my novel would work.
Omaha, NE? Which building, one in downtown or midtown? I currently live here?
Your expression on the last question made me cry in laughter even after everything in that presentation. Meanwhile Howard's unimpressed face shows that this is nearly an everyday thing, which it probably disturbingly is.
This was more entertaining to watch than i thought technical details on elevators could be. Props to those guys.
I also imagine that having the elevator at the top during a seismic event would serve another purpose:
The elevator could "ride" the rubble down if the building collapses. Instead of the cab being buried under the weight of the building, it would be nearer to the top of the demo heap. Easier to recover people trapped inside.
I've watched this talk multiple times. A few months before writing this I visited the US for the first time, spending a few nights in Vegas in Excalibur and a week in an Airbnb in Hollywood for a few days. I couldn't help notice the fire service key switch, and I was instantly reminded of this talk.
I love the dedication of wearing two shirts for the entire talk until way near the end for the joke.
We have a Schindler elevator at work. And every day I just think "Schindler's Lift"
I want to believe that whoever started the Schindler elevator company did it specifically for that pun
Morgan Balbert Sounds almost like "Schindler's LISP".
We have Schindler lifts at the dorm. Guess how many times this pun has been used? (Spoiler: too much)
But jokes aside, they're really good lifts (esp compared to the ~20 yrs old ones on campus lol).
It's actually that same company. No joke.
@@DanBowkley apprently it's not. Schindler Group was founded 1874 ind Switzerland, Oskar Schindler was born 1908 in the Czech Republic (Austria-Hungary at that time) and his father was owner of farm machinery business. I found no connection between Oskar and Schindler Group.
Very good. Surprised I stuck at it for 2 hours as it was very watchable. BTW: The British bloke is Tim Hunkin (he is an inventor) and the programme is called The Secret Life Of Machines.
I'm a Finnish guy =) And Live in the shadow of KONE the elevator company, the home town of it. There was an incident when we where doing stuff in the factory. Nothing bad, but there was an elevator that didn't want to cooperate with us, and the situation moved to a place where there was an elevator service guy sitting in the machine room operating the elevator for us... =D It was funny as hell.. we just yelled at the guy floor 3.. It was 4 floor elevator. =)
A few years ago, I used to work in a building with a haunted elevator.
If you blocked the light barrier a few seconds to keep the door open for colleagues, the door closed immediately when the light barrier was released and bumped into the next person who tried to enter the cabin. Then when the door felt something blocking its way, it quickly opened again, but apparently only to take a run-up and then - if you weren't quick enough - hit you again with a little more momentum. I always wondered what the programmer of this "feature" was thinking...
If you made it past the aggressive door, sometimes it was also a game of chance to which floor the elevator took you. For example, you pressed the ground floor, the light in the elevator went out while the elevator was moving and a short time later you found yourself in the basement or any other floor.
I got stuck more than once and in the evening I usually took the stairs to avoid spending the night in the elevator.
Since this was in Germany, this elevator was inspected at least every two years.
For the next four years I worked in a building whose elevator liked to took you on small business trips. You want to go from the ground floor to the second floor? Then let's go to the fifth floor first, because someone wants to go down from there!
Was it an Otis by any chance because my old work (a bank) had the worst one that did the same. You could never guarantee that it would take you where you wanted and just had to hope that you got there or someone else pressed the Hall Call button on that floor. That's not even taking into account the time you ended up stood there not moving anywhere because it wouldn't register any buttons when you entered and wouldn't reopen the doors.
@@TJWhiteStar I'm not sure but I think it was a Schindler.
@@0r3ll all my issues have been with Otis machines no matter how big or small they were. Such a terrible experience tbh. I've been stuck between floors with one too and had to force the doors open to climb out after an hour because No-one could hear the emergency buzzer 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ felt like I was in a horror film and I was going to be chopped in half climbing out. I'm a big guy and there wasn't much space 😂 😂 😂
I remember there was one in a shop in Bridlington in the UK which had a mind of its own
sometimes you would press a floor, and it would take you to another floor
I had something like that happen twice. Tried to get to my room in a Saskatoon hotel, elevator went up as normal, but on the second floor, the door kept opening and closing probably about 3 or 4 times until it finally went to my floor. (Same hotel that had a fire alarm go off in the middle of the night because of a drop in water pressure, same day too.) The other instance was a Shindler on the Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship. Door just wouldn't close until I held the button down, 5th floor I belive. Also got stuck on the third floor of a hospital in an elevator because of klutzy construction workers putting shot crete in the wrong spot. Let's hope none of that happens in college this year.
At the beginning: Elevators are really safe.
At the end: Yeah but owners, maintenance and inspections can be shit.
Disruptive_Innovator
confirmation that most people are totally clueless as to their daily vulnerabilities
Greatest 2 hours I didn't expect to spend with elevators.
2x
VERY INTERESTING! I stumbled upon this because I couldn't get a CLEAR answer on whether the "Door Close" Hack actually worked... BUT this video answered all my questions about elevators and EVERY question I could ever imagine to ask. VERY INFORMATIVE!
2 hours, I never thought I'd make it when I started to watch - in fact I only clicked on the vid at first because it was unusually long! One of the best vids I've watched, *ever*, so many phys-axx issues with this kit and a very interesting perspective into an overlooked axx playfield.
Gord Slater thanks for the nice feedback :-)
+DeviantOllam i wish you could teach me mate im so scared off elevators i even got a £8 hospital parking ticket because i dardent ride the lift which reminds me cant you guys make the parking ticket machines go mental lol love u guys i wish i was a geek i might get someone to baseball bat my head because people say sometimes u wack your head n become brainy
+Gord Slater Make his words mine! The speakers show freehold of the theme all the time. Easily one of the best talks I've watched!
Dont start watching critical role, it's usually 3 hours but ive seen 4+ hours.
"theres seismically stable regions. then theres southern california" *someone smacks the camera* funny guy.
27:20
Thank you Fualkner
came here looking for this comment
Exactly. LOL. I was looking for a comment about that.
@@redlightningwolf183 me too hehe
27:22 Camera shakes when he said Southern California O.o it's like they knew.
+ClassicPork ahahha
I was genuinely wondering if the cameran wasn't actually trolling :D
Knew this comment would be here when I saw that :)
@jason9022 Calm down.
@jason9022 i think they are aware so uno reverse idiota
I didn't even know that I had an interest in this until I found myself needing to finish a 2-hour video that I ended up on randomly.
Super interesting stuff. Thanks!
This was a great presentation. Love learning. Used to manage a large complex and had to call elevator specialists a lot for that cranky hydraulic system, since we had two that went out on tandem order. Needed full rebuilding of the system and eventually got it. Otis was one of the companies I used among others. And learned a bit from each service call. This was the rest of the cookie for me.Thanks so much. Now learning about PEN on my own. The lock part was hilarious though. Some security...LOL Thanks again. Life is learning.
Love the way the operator shook the camera when they started discussing Seismic Mode :-)
I found this talk very up-lifting...
Trimere *rimshot*
AHAHAHAHAHAahahahHhaHHhH&!&!;!
On many levels, too!
Brought back some memories. We used to have to bring huge sheets of glass/ mirrors up on top of the elevator cab, because they wouldn't fit inside the elevator, or up the stairs. Usually we had to have the elevator tech stop it in between floors to pitch them on and off the top of the cab to the next floor. Very sketchy shit in so many ways!
27:22 "and then there is... Southern California" _camera immediately shakes._ pretty good timing, I like to think there was a camera operator having a good laugh
So glad they used that clip from Secret Life Of Machines (amazing British show for any budding engineers/designers to watch) @13:59. That patented Otis rail gripper safety mechanism is one I always show people when they ask about elevator safety, even though it's probably outdated and no longer used, because it's such a clever yet simple idea and the perfect proof of a redundant safety system.
Heyyy, I'm an old washed up electronic security professional turned washed up physical security professional turned current building manager. I manage a very very old temple from america yesteryear. Constantly have problems with the elevator. This video has been a total godsend. Thanks for that bud
I'm an elevator enthusiast and found this very interesting, learned several things. Also love how you nade the section titles look like a Dover Impulse hall position indicator.
14 years taking care of 46 cars. I enjoyed a good laff. I also worked for MUZAK the elevator music folks
That hypervisor analogy was legitimately awesome
As someone always fascinated by elevators and infosec, of course I had to watch this through to the end. It left me with a couple questions for anybody who can answer.
First question: At the university I attended, I had a couple classes in one of our newest buildings (built in 2014). Of course because it was new, it had brand new elevators. They were traction elevators, I believe Westinghouse. You could hear the three-phase drives of the motors from the top floor, but you could also hear what sounded like a ton of relays clicking as the elevators operated. I would have to assume any building that new would have solid-state control and not relay logic like mentioned at the start of this video; I would assume there are still interlock relays though. Is that what I was hearing?
Second question: At the same university but a different building, we had a bank of three traction elevators (these were the kind that verbally announce the floor in a creepy female voice). All three stopped at all floors, which included a Mezzanine floor that was in between 1 and 2 (and was a much shorter travel distance than the other floors, short enough that the elevator couldn't accelerate fully before needing to stop). The first elevator, every time it had to stop at Mezzanine, would stall for about 20 seconds after the doors closed before moving again. During this time it would announce "We are experiencing MINOR technical difficulties" and then resume operation. "Every time" is not an exaggeration; I never saw it stop at M without doing this. What was going on?
To answer question 1: you probably didn't hear relays but a metal feeler that touched measuring points in the hoistway or a metal bar unlocking the outer doors while the elevator passed them.
@@floriantischner8850 the sound always came from the machine room doors on the top floor and only happened as the elevator started or stopped, or when the doors opened or closed. I suppose it may have been brake related?
At least one of these dudes has with no doubt watched Hackers
"Hacksor the Gibson"
"It's in that place where I put that thing that time"
I'm onto you
I've been in elevator pits before for EHS inspections and compliance inspections (at ground level with the spring and climbing a wall ladder out of the pit), performed call inspections, verified compliance records, bypassed elevators, etc. I learned a lot on maintenance and operations of various types also.
Primary functions was EHS which included training, ER, administrative, security, auditing, facilities/maintenance, and weird operations. It was a great experience and I was lucky enough to of experienced so much in my career! So finding this video....priceless. Wow...Mind blown! Thank you so much. TOP NOTCH 🎉
If it was up to me.....
I'd require this video as a training requirement for ALL EHS, IT, Security, ER, Risk group, and Facilities/Maintenance/Operations staff in the U.S. 👍
Some people pay hundreds to be at Defcon and see confs like this.
And we’re seeing it for free.
ts757arse I am replying to you, so you’ll look back at this and be disappointed in yourself.
@@ts757arse its your hair color on your display picture
It's called the "freemium model" and it's very common
They're paying to meet other people who have the same interests and talk to them IRL, and a chance to ask their questions to the presenters.
Adrien Ragot so true
This was surprisingly interesting! I find elevators interesting, but not professionally. Never thought I would watch the full 2 hours without a stop on this video.
In case anyone's interested, the British elevator video they showed was Tin Hunkin's 'The Secret Life Of Machines' - well worth a watch. Every episode on a different gadget and how they work.
1:32:58 - "there's an interesting history to stop switches" only an elevator nerd would say that.
The old saying of "most physical keys only keep honest people out" still holds true.
That's exactly how I felt when I found out what a bump key was and how they've only recently began to rectify it...
Well, them and stupid or uninformed would-be criminals
RVs are just as bad as those elevators. Only 2 keys to open the hatches and doors on those in the entire industry.
Agree with the rest of the comments....I clicked on this video because it stood out but could not believe I watched the whole thing. Very well presented!
Me: "Whelp, my computer is broken"
TH-cam: Want to hack some elevators?
holy crap, I sat through the entire thing. Interesting stuff, especially the governor fail toward the end focusing on the importance of having the equipment tested. And super secure tubular keys, the one for an old computer that also operated my friends garage door manual override LOL :P
1:36:20 It's a Master lock. I wonder if the security guard has been on TH-cam anything? :-) At least it game me a good laugh.
Let's be real. If that guard was on TH-cam, it would be an Abus or Abloy legit high security lock.
This showed up on my TH-cam feed.. i thought: no f-ing way am i going to watch 2 hours worth. It was completely worth it!
For anybody in Detroit...the old Ameritech building downtown on Michigan Ave across from the FBI building has hidden floors. There's 3 or 4 floors between the other floors. There's also 1 or 2 top floors only accessible by the stairs. The hidden floors can be accessed from the service elevator. Not sure if they can be accessed by the lobby elevators by keymode, as there are no buttons for them.
I watched their other presentation on DEFCON's channel. It is very informative. I consider myself an expert on elevators, as I have been studying them for years, but even I learned something from this! Great work!
What's an elevator btw?
Short answer: Elevator locks are the same across brands.
Elevation Station Productions In the video what they mostly showed for the main fire key was the Yale Y1 and Y2 keys, but all I ever see are the Chicago CG1 keyways in elevators for most, if not all of the controls.
it varies by region and by manufacturer. CG1 is common on Dover Impulse (typically low-rise) fixtures. tubular keys are common for Innovation Fixtures, not to mention anywhere that uses the FEO-K1. NYC and other places in the northeast (NJ, and much of New England) use Yale 8 keyway locks.
often this is dictated by code.
So if you want informatio about elevator keys, check out this page: tinyurl(dot)com/elevatorkeys ! This database of keys was put together by myself and many other elevator enthusiasts, and is pretty accurate (most accurate reference I know of.) Just remember: Elevator keys are tools and not toys! Do not use elevator keys without permission or in the furtherance of a crime. None of the creators of this chart or myself will take responsibility for your actions.
2 freaking hours of depth!!!!
thanks for the share
I learned so much from watching this, thanks for posting it for all to see!
I'd just like to say Thank You both, for your info in the Final Tips section just saved myself and another person (General public). We got into an elevator and the doors closed but it didn't move. Then the doors opened about 4 inches, she was going to try to pry them all the way open but I suddenly remembered the tips here and told her not to because it could damage the elevator. It closed, reopened to the same 4-ish inch gap and closed again activating Nudge mode. We tried Door Close, Door Open, other floors but those didn't work so that's when we hit the Emergency phone and that's when the elevator finally decided to move. Must have been a glitch in the controller. Both of us stayed completely calm throughout this entire ordeal.
This was super informative, i remember the first time i got stuck in an elevator. i was stuck with a little old lady and she panicked - boy that was a long 10 minutes. the second time was at a hospital where the outer door shut but inner one didnt and it scared me because around here (philly) elevators aren't exactly in the greatest shape.
So glad I got to watch this, for the first time, in its entirety, before 2020.
The code pink lockout at the hospital that I went to visit a relative in was set to where if a arm band bracelet passed by a sensor on the elevator it completely shut down, I even think the lights went out and the door remained open on the platform, it was really quite annoying as there was several sick children that would get up out of their rooms and walk the halls with a parent and it would take all the elevators on that floor offline
Lmao what an annoyance just to stop kids from being taken.
I’m sorry you had to endure that
@17:42 Technically speaking, "Don't be that *other* guy". That damn counterweight!
Interesting talk, I was an elevator mech back in the 80's and we replaced one in the old apartments next to the arcade in Manitou Springs, Colo that was an operator run elevator that the apartment wanted automated. The motor starter that we replaced dated back to around 1915 and was an open frame design with fixed carbon pads and copper pads on swing arm. The pads were about the size of an old school silver dollar, with the copper pads being around the size of a half dollar.
The one at a plant near Portland, Colo used 120 VDC control voltage and used resistors and capacitors across the coils to act as timers, and a "Bedspring" setup to drive the slow speed for the AC motor.
As for running the cab from the top of it, it really sucks when you get to the penthouse just to find out that the contacts on the "Down" button/relay don't work. Been there. Removing a 4S cover from a box and then holding over the down leveling magnetic switch got the cab to "level down" to where I could pop out of the damn shaft at the top floor.
I watched this months ago ( or a year+ ) and im rewatching because the content is awesome.
Nerd paradise! Top of the list of Stuff you use every day but have no idea how it works. Now we need a 3 hour talk on elevator music.
I love that this is a 2 hour talk and there is so much info on this there are *extra slides* on the wiki
This was one hell of an elevator talk
1:12:00 haha... I once had a PC with a tubular lock and it got stuck and I lost the key. This stopped me turning the PC on.
I managed to unlock it by sticking a piece of stiff paper made into a circle inside the lock and pressing it and turning.... so secure xD
Amazing that the car arrival ding (going up), double-ding (going down) wasn't mentioned in this video!
Technology Connections am I right?
I really liked this video. A lot of curiosities I had with elevators was cleared up - and the side "Documentaries" were cool, too!
I started working in heavy industry a few months ago. I learned that equipment is key to like. Every manufacturer is key to like and some different manufacturers are the same.
I worked for an elevator controller manufacturing company for seven years. This is great. Thank you! ... edit... wow, TKE bought Dover, I didn't know that. I left the industry in '09. The company I worked for was also purchased by TKE a few years earlier. EDIT 2 YES, YOU TALKED ABOUT DESTINATION DISPATCH. I worked on original DD, REMON and CampusView systems. 53:46 those are my icons, although someone else did that layout with the non-OCD fonts....2006 called, they want their icons back.
I worked in a hotel where the basement was not meant to be accessed by guests. However, getting the elevator to the basement was very simple. Just push two buttons at the same time and down you go.
"you probably shouldn't" I've heard this a lot in my life
14:08 From a TV programme called The Secret life of the: Lift/Elevator, Tim Hunkin (on the lift), and Rex Garrod (cutting the rope) - Loved this series as a kid, they're all on youtube, check them out. Tim also did a Secret Life Of The Machines installation in the basement at the Science Museum, London - which I believe is still in service and is still me favourite exhibit due to the number of hands-on exhibits.
This is fascinating, im here idk why but neat!
1:16:16 lol this comes up in some 40k games notes on adhered slips on paper with strange invocations to the machine spirits! XD ' Pump actuator 3 is fussy reroute at junction 3 to clear 30 seconds' or ' press green button to start' nothing with sacred oils or polishes how odd.
That was a very quick 2 hours. I could watch talks like this all day.
I'm randomly recommend this for the second time in many years
the duo synergy made this talk a+
I'm really hoping that nema 7 fixture enclosures/gumball machine story involves Howard going to a property and finding explosion proof enclosures and 25¢ gumball machines locked/keyed the same way since they were all ordered from a single supplier.
But that would just be too perfect.
overloaded elevators? I got a story (pun intended) for you!
a while ago we have to move a load of wooden desk tops with the elevator, getting it in there wasnt a problem, the elevator didnt struggle at all, but getting it out... that was some work...
the load was so heavy that the elevator hang a few centimeters lower than the floor, in the end we needed like 6 or 7 people to get the thing out of there, a couple as counterbalance, a couple pushing from inside the elevator and a few pulling outside...
The firemans key thing is acturally hilarious tbh esp when you said the biting code is litterally the name of the key
1:34:52 Riding the counterweight on a traction elevator is insane. 1. The weight may be near the top of the machinery room and you could become squashed when the car goes to its lowest level. 2. You have few places to get off the counterweight once you are on it. 3. You have to hope someone will travel to a floor that allows the counterweight to be positioned for you to get off of it. 4. The cable holding the counterweight is greasy, and you could easily loose your grip. 5. When the counterweight passes by the car in mid-shaft halfway up the building, you could be squashed or knocked off by the passing car.
HIGHLY informative and captivating presentation guys!
When i was in a work release building, the phone in the elevator rang. The inmates werent allowed cell phones and phone calls were collect only. some smart inmate somehow got the phone number for that elevator and his girlfriend would call him on it and he'd pull the emergency stop between floors. The phone had no way to dial out though, only an emergency button.
Thanks for the advice guys, I have a high priority target to take out next week this really helped.
Mathew Hadder how did it go?
MrHics No response, I assume it did not go well...
Sadly, I'm writing this to you from a jail cell.
Jaimersun you out yet?
@@kasa6468 new account?
whelp, i did not expect to watch this whole thing... nor did i expect to ever have a fascination with elevators. great talk, guys!
very glad you enjoyed it. :-) we had a lot of fun with this talk.
As a kid I used to ride in operator-driven elevators. Otis Microdrive systems with the large brass wheel and crank handle. They were fast and smooth. Later in life, when elevator operatos and all but a few of these operator-driven systems disappeared, I went around to apartment houses, and office buildings and paid elevator operators $20 so I could drive the elevators up and down. It was the best investment ever in joy riding these quickly disappearing vertical vehicles. Fast, smooth and really fun, with open front door so you could watch the floors wiz by.
These guys are so good together. Awesome presentation!
37:07 plot twist: the two options are actually SHUT DOWN and NO
that winamp shirt goes HARD
I never thought that being a LockPickingLawyer fan would lead me to a video talking about Yoot Saito.
1:39:28 This sentence is hilarious in the context of the revelations about Volkswagon.
I just watched the hole thing, one of the best thing I have seen on the tube.
Worked maintenance at Texas A&M for a bit. We had several elevators controlled by relays. Super cool to watch operate.
17:50 UK public information film because youths were riding on top of cars in apartment buildings.
Drop keys are used by UK fire to control the fire service.