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Wiring a door switch backwards cost me 3 hours on a 14th floor job in Chicago

I was working on an Otis Gen2 last Tuesday in a high rise downtown. Hooked up the hall door switch but mixed the common and normally open terminals. Spent forever scratching my head why the car wouldn't move with the door closed. Finally pulled out my meter and traced the circuit. Felt like an idiot but I triple check color coding now. Anyone else ever chase a simple wire swap for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandra_black17d ago

Man that's the kind of mistake that sticks with you. Three hours on a 14th floor with an Otis Gen2 is brutal, especially when it's just a wire swap. I've been there with a simple relay mix up on a Miconic 10 controller. Took me two hours and a full system power cycle to realize I had the coil wires backwards. Now I always snap a quick phone pic of the terminal block before I disconnect anything. It saves me from that sinking feeling when you trace everything and find your own dumb error.

green.jessica17d ago

Yeah I was one of those guys who thought "I'll remember this, it's simple" and then spent an hour cussing myself out on a Schindler 330a. The terminal blocks were labeled fine but I still swapped two identical-looking brake wires by accident. Now I literally take a picture with my phone before I even touch anything, even if I'm just checking voltage. It's annoying but nothing beats that five minute fix that would have been a two hour headache.