What are these things? I've seen a few around attached to older units we have taken maintenance on. Just curious as to what they actually do?

Would you be referring to the blue REM(remote monitoring)boxes?

yes, these would be on older units as we do not take over any newer equipment.

I suppose the question would be, what capabilities do these units have? Should they be disconected?

You can disconnect them or leave them on, never heard of them causing any problems.

If you are referring to the REM units, they essentially were fixed to lifts to monitor( via phone lines) vital inputs ie (safties), then send that signal to the office. The idea being to be able to send mechanics to broken down lifts ahead of a call out being lodged by the customer to help reduce call back numbers. In my experience they never worked all that well, and don't effect the running of the lift whether they are in service or not. In fact I think the service isn't really working any more in our country.

Thanks for info everybody.

uppo what country are you in

If you Decide to Disconnect the Rem unit.. Remember the Phone line for the Cab Emergency Phone runs Thru The Line Share Device.. I took over a 8 car job with Rem and I did away with the line share device and ran the phone line around the Rem unit completely.. Then just Disconnect the 110v ac going to Rem Box and your Good..

I've had inspectors in our area make us prove they are functional if they are on the job. If you disconnect them I suggest getting them off the job.

...better off disconnecting them if they are not activated.there modem boards when they act up can cause all kinds of phone problems...been there..