Problem: Elevator does not work for the top floor (#3). It goes there and becomes effectively "stuck".

Elevator works well for floors #1 and #2.

Elevator description:
* 3 floor residential elevator, hydraulic cylinder/cable lift
* Installed May 2004, Job 400462
* Concord "Infinity" Model with "Virginia" control, Made in Canada.
* Main control Board: PN 772320 Rev 000
* Hoistway junction board (version kwiklock): 772319 Rev 000 - appears to have four floor capability, wires are connected to #1,#2, and #3. #4 unused (has a couple of jumpered connectors).
* Car Station Junction board: PN 772318 Rev 002
* Sensors
- Each floor has one limit switch, connects to hoistway junction board. I assume this indicates that the car reached a particular floor.
- Bottom and top floor have an overtravel device that trips three limit switch on the car.
- Each floor has magnets on steel ribbon. Interface Products, Product: LCS, Model IP8300, LEDs: IPF,LU,LD,DZ,2FP,4FP. (for a graceful stop at each floor).
- Each floor has a kwiklock door control.
- Inside the car, there are three floor buttons and a display showing the floor number.

Here's what I see.
1) When the car arrives at the third floor, the floor 3 limit switch is "made" but seems to have no effect. The car stops when the car's "overtravel" limit switch is made. The car is an inch or two "too high" relative to the floor.
2) Unlike the other floors, the door does not unlock.
3) Inside the car (after that), "1" is displayed on the panel (it should display "3").
4) On the car junction board, there are LEDs labeled 1S, 2S, 4S. 1S is ON when the car is at the first floor. 2S is ON at the second floor. But, when at the third floor, LED 1S is ON again! I would think it would be 3S but there is no 3S LED so I suspect that 4S should be ON.
5) You are effectively stuck at the third floor. The door is locked. The car pushbuttons do not cause it to go to the 2nd or 1st floor.
6) To get the elevator working again, I manually lower the car to a position between floors, then call it downward. Then, it works again for floors 1 and 2.

I checked the 3rd floor limit switch - it is fine at the switch itself. I don't see any corrosion or wiring issues back to the hoistway junction board. It plugs into connector T15, labeled "Zone Sw".

What can you recommend for me? Thank you for reading this far.

Maybe your top floor slow down switch is not functional?

If you drive on maintenance, does it slow when you hit the switch?

I think you might be leading me in the right direction.

The slowdown device is a Interface Products, Product: LCS, Model IP8300.

It has these LEDs: IPF,LU,LD,DZ,2FP,4FP.

The car does, in fact, slowdown when approaching all floors - even the troublesome top floor.

Here's the new observation though. At the 3rd (top) floor, the 1FP LED is illuminated (same as the first floor!). At rest, the LEDs show 1FP, LD, and DZ (door zone). It does NOT have 4FP illuminated as expected.

I am suspecting that perhaps the magnets were incorrectly put onto the tape at the 3rd floor.

Does anyone have installation info for Interface Products, Product: LCS, Model IP8300, (I have them for the IP8300-PLUS model but that tape has holes in it and a different scheme).

In a private message, I got some information and encouragement to keep focusing on that Interface Products IP8300. One question was about the behavior of the LED lights. They are, indeed, not acting right

The LEDs as the car approaches the 3rd floor are "erratic" as follows.
* car slows
* LU comes on
* DZ comes on
* LU goes off
* LD goes on
* 1FP goes on - car stops with LD, DZ, and 1FP illuminated

I think it should go
* car slows
* LU comes on
* DZ comes on
* LU goes off
* 1FP and 2FP (1+2=3) both go on - car stops with DZ illuminated (and those floor indicators)

The current tape magnets are glued on really tight. I started to try to free the rightmost one to move it up, but it was likely that I was going to break it so I stopped trying that until I was more sure.

I thought I had found some info about the sensor device.at

http://www.jrtinc.com/webroot/uploads/ascenseur/J12-1000_A_07-3.1.pdf

That information almost matches this elevator's IP8300 sensor device. It does, at least, explain the principles of how it works.

I experimented moving a little test magnet around the face of the sensing unit to activate the IP8300 magnetic switches. That told me enough for me to realize that the diagram in that webpage is not identical to this elevator's IP8300. So, I opened up the IP8300 and documented the actual configuration of the magnetic switches.

So, my version of the IP8300 device has three vertical rows of magnet switch sensors -- most of them in the center row. Interestingly, the switches are sensitive to the north vs south pole of the magnet used for testing. {I don't know the polarity of my test magnet so the info about polarity below might be backwards.}

Starting from the top, there's a 4FP magnetic switch in the center, activates with "south". This is 1/4" from the top.

Next, 3 9/16" from top, the LU (level up) switch is in the center, activates with "north".

Next, 6 1/8" from top, the first of two DZ switches is in the center, activates with "north".

Next, 8 3/8" from top, there's no switch in the center. There's 1FP and 2FP to the left and right. (1FP is on the left side of the metal tape). These activate for "south".

Next, 10 3/8" from top, the 2nd of two DZ switches is in the center, activates with "north".

Finally, 13 1/16" from top, the LU (level up) switch. Activates with "north".

So, I put a temporary magnet on the 3rd floor above the existing magnets to "trip" the 4FP switch. I got excited because suddenly the elevator would work for the 3rd floor. With the elevator at DZ (door zone) and 4FP "on", the elevator stops at the third floor, unlocks the door, and displays #3 on the car panel display. In other words, the elevator works fine at the 3rd floor (with that magnet on the tape to trigger 4FP). It was not exactly level though - now the car was 1" high.

While testing, I found that it was not reliable. Most of the time, it worked. Sometimes, not. But if I moved the tape/magnets closer to the sensors, it would suddenly open the door lock. In that case, 1FP and 2FP were both "on". (Note: in binary, 1+2=3 for 3rd floor). That got me thinking that the magnets were weak or not close enough to the IP8300.

So I measured the distance of the metal tape from the shaft wall. At the 1st floor, it was 2 1/2". At the 2nd floor, it was 2 1/8". At the 3rd floor, it was 1 7/8". You would think that the nylon guides on the sensing unit would pull the tape to just the right distance, but apparently this is a place where 1/16" can really matter.

I decided to get the tape to be closer to the sensing unit and vertical. First, I drilled out the four screw holes on the nylon guides so the guide slot was 1/16" closer to the face of the IP8300 sensing unit. Next, I bent the support bracket for the metal tape (at the top of the metal tape, above the 3rd floor). I set the metal tape to 2 3/8" from the wall.

Now the elevator works correctly for the third floor. It levels up nicely too.

Conclusion: The metal tape was not hanging perfectly vertical. At the top floor, it pulled away from the sensing unit ever so slightly. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it would not.

I really appreciate your time, effort and knowledge of everyone's responses.

I've seen where the tape does not have proper tension, the springs at the bottom do this, causing the problem you described. And yes the tape should be plumb, but drilling the guides out is not a good solution. adjust the tape. and you may want to replace guides, they're probably worn

also, if you can access Savaria's web site you can download the manuals