I finally got a peek inside the utility room from my property manager and I found there is an antenna built right on the elevator equipment as well as a metal conduit leading to a outlet labeled " PHONE" The other end goes right inside the elevator system with the attached antenna.

The elevator phone inside the cab is actually built into the cab itself whereas other buildings have 3rd party phones.

This looks like its was built into the system.

Look at the pictures.
Look at these pictures.
Elevator Pictures from Google photos https://goo.gl/photos/cWDAweHHCQRQe3he7

Elevator wireless phone already there?


My question is does this elevator have some kind of cellular wireless phone build as part of the standard equipment for the elevator? If not, what is this antenna for exactly?

Thanks.

It's just a Rath phone built into the COP. The antenna is for remote monitoring and it is cellular. It just dumps data once a day.

I think thyssenkrupp is doing the emergency elevator phone monitoring. Can this cellular antenna be used to call for help if someone is stuck inside the elevator or only this remote data dump?

Thanks.

Are you saying this antenna is part of the " Max" system?

Some sort of internet diagnostic system collecting information about elevators and alerting them to possible problems before they happen?

This thing can't send a " S.O.S" distress call if someone is stuck in the elevator or transmitt 2-way voice from an elevator phone?

Thanks.

No it cannot. Before you ask we cannot do morse code, smoke signals, or sign language either. You have had it explained as many different ways as possible. Want VOIP so badly? Call your service provider and ask them if the phone in the COP can take it. It's really that simple, or you can pay the 16 dollars a month for a landline that has no long distance capability....I probably waste more money than that a week in coffee...

Silly,
I agree, we've tried to help. It seems he has an agenda. One that only benefits him. So far I am seeing little to no value in his postings. Until I see a change I will no longer participate in his posts.

I second that but on MAX I think some clarity would not hurt.
I have put in hundreds of these now. The software that is legal in the US can only transmit, and only does once per day. The truth is we really aren't doing much with it right now, this just rolled out the end of last year with a huge push from corporate. Right now it is just collecting data but predictive maintenance and the ability for tech support to see the logfile for any fault in the system on 32 bit equipment are just some of the future plans. Several companies do this, even TK had an older version called Vista. This is just the first version to use cellular.

MAX is not a phone and cellular is not an acceptable means of communication for the emergency phone. The emergency phone is a life safety device! There is nothing nearly as reliable as a POTS line (Plane Old Telephone Service) This is not the place to save a buck! Thyssen will have no problem putting you on quarterly service. In fact, they may have already done it on their own.

This looks a little like the system that Otis did early 2000, but really didn't work all that well, and mostly got disconnected. Cant quite remember what they called though.

REM

Where are you getting $16 for a phone line? I am paying almost $200 a month for 3 lines. 1 elevator, 1 alarm, 1 fire,

Please tell me how you get $16 a line? What provider? what is the service called. I would love a $16 a month phone line.

Why are you mad that I asked a question? Just because something does not act as a 2-way phone does not mean it can't send a distress signal. When I went out on my yacht, we carried a battery powered device that could send out a SOS signal if your boat was sinking in the middle of the ocean.

Not science fiction to ask if something with a transmitter is able to do a distress call. I honestly don't know why asking about a distress signal is so offensive to you.

Cell phones without phone service are still able to do 911 calls regardless on what network you happen to be in range of being.

I am probably going to get the telguard and do the wireless calls for one building and a VOIP box for the other one.

My agenda is elmiininating almost $200 a month phone bill for an empty building. I am trying to be responsible to asking on this forum the right way to do it. If I was like other people I know, they would just cut the phone lines and be done with it.
A simple No to the answer of a distress call would have been fine.

Makes sense to me to have something like this. In an emergency, anything is better than nothing.

For some strange reason, phone services are tax as much as alcohol or tobacco. Since when do phone lines cause cancer?

Phone lines for this elevator phone, alarms,etc should be except from all these crazy fees.

In fairness I think the upset was caused as you were given advice by some very experienced and knowledgeable persons but then continued to seek validation from others for ignoring said advice.
Also probably best not to start a conversation about money saving exercises with the sentence " when I'm out on my yacht...." . Just a thought.

There was another member on here who told me that OTIS had something like I was talking about in the early 2000 however it was abandoned since it did not work that well.

It was reasonable to think that something with an antenna might also have the same feature that OTIS had but maybe something perfected.

I was really trying to expand on what other member posted

Also, it was not really a yacht but more of a regular size boat with a cabin inside. Very expensive upkeep and I sold it.
However, the point remains that I had a device that allowed you to send a distress call to the coastguard and have them locate the device. I don't know if it used satellite or pings like the Blackbox on airplanes. All I knew if it the boat was sinking, you grabbed the bag with the device in it and inflated the life raft and hoped the coastguard could find you.

Seem like that might be a good idea as a plan B for these elevators.

Thank you once again for explaining and answering my quesiton.

You misunderstood. Otis had and still uses a remote monitoring system for the elevator like other companies have done and as TKE is releasing a new version of now that you see on your TAC-20. These are for monitoring of performance, shutdowns & predictive maintenance. They have never been intended to replace the life safety device in the elevator that allows a trapped passenger to call for help and get that help in the event of an emergency. BTW, a building with low to no occupancy poses the greatest risk. If the phone does not work and no one can hear the alarm, someone could be trapped indefinitely. If you end up with someone stuck in your elevator over a long weekend and have "cut" the line as you suggested, you will be sued. And you will loose! Maybe you didn't hear about the woman who died in an elevator in China last year for this very reason.

Not mad at all. Just wanted to be clear, the elevator phone line is a critical component. As a building owner, it is of course your right to look in the machine room and ask questions. You just wanted to keep asking from different angles, I tried to cover them.

The phone system is actually located inside your elevator. No point in picking around in the elevator machine room, we just patch the line through to the cab there. As I stated, very clearly, ask your elevator contractor about your phones. There ARE systems that can take VOIP. Rath Microtech V and above I believe have this ability. They may be forced to take an alteration permit out though, and upgrade to the newest code, which will have phone fault requirements, so it could be expensive.

As for the 16 dollar phone line, last project manager I discussed this with told me that number. For a simple POTS line it ran him 16 bucks a month, per line.

Our industry overall is not very fond of cutting corners, as you may or may not understand. The very best of us, wants the very best equipment, for you as an owner to have. Again I do not want to imply I would tell you how to run a building, as I am not familiar with it, just remember cheaper is very often times just that, cheaper. It is not as good, not as reliable, and you usually end up paying for it in the end.

I thought it was planted by aliens as a part of their takeover on the planet!!!

Actually my point was Otis had a 'functional' connection back to base, purely so base can monitor when elevators broke down. It had 'no' cellular functionality and in 'no' was a replacement for the emergency phone. My post was only within that context.

Snap.