Home Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Access Elevator Problem

Hey guys, I am an above-average homeowner with mechanical and electrical skills who is struggling to fix his elevator.

I have been through the wringer a bunch on my elevator. I had it up and running and some people were testing the replacement of my curtains (I ordered new ones from woodfold) while I was away. Apparently, a zip tie broke and a line of MC with the front curtain safety switch, the top of car E-stop, and a cat 5 we ran to move the battery to the top of the car for easy replacement were snagged and froze up the elevator.

We replaced the wiring and I am to the point where the safety circuit is entirely whole. A fuse (the 2amp slow blow I think is 24v line) was blown and I replaced this as well. We re-routed the MC that was enasing the wires and we zip-tied it. We have tested everything and I have gotten the elevator to show that everything is "normal".

The problem I am running into is the elevator car will not move. We have cranked it manually and it will move up and down. I don't believe that mechanically it is bound. With my pendant, I cannot get the car to move in either direction. It will start to move and then fail stopping its whine. It will maybe move 1/4" or less. My thought is that the electronic brake isn't letting up. When in Auto mode the contactor for the brake is pulling in. When I go in Remote mode and use the pendant I press the safety and up or down and the contactor also does pull in - but the behavior is still as if the brake is engaged. How this is related to the incident where the MC with those wires were torn is unclear to me but things were functioning properly prior to this incident.

I am under pressure because my father-in-law lives in our basement and he can not climb the steps. The only way he can get to the main living area is via this elevator.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be very appreciated. I follow all safety standards and I take it very seriously. I don't want to get hurt or injured working on this so I am very careful and I realize any suggestions here are at my own risk. I am just up the creek without a paddle at this point and struggling to find a solution and concerned I have a major motor issue which I pray is not the case.

Thanks in advance and for reading this far!

Neil

I would advise you to call a local elevator service company and request an elevator service call. You can look up all of your local elevator service companies on the internet.

I had a company and they said after my last crash they were no longer comfortable touching my elevator so I am now on my own. It wasn't for a lack of trying. My painter was painting the shaft and tied the wiring harness to the underneath of my car and the car came down and got stuck but they reset the slack sensor and the sling was deformed. I contacted them and he said I am not touching it. I had my steel man rebuild the sling and it worked perfectly (that's the reason I have been through the wringer with this darn elevator). People are working around it when I am not around. NO MORE.

I agree with Montana, let a professional handle this. Not worth the risk of getting yourself or others hurt. You have checked the basics and taken it as far or further than you should.

I'm all for "Right to repair" but I would never suggest a homeowner do their own major repairs or any repairs Involving the safety circuit on an elevator. Like anything, you don't know what you don't know. You could be following all the proper safety procedures from another industry and still do something that gets you or another person killed because of an unknown variable to you. I've seen an electrical engineer add his own soft starter to an elevator and tie both sides of the top final together. And that guy designed things that went into space.

I am with you guys - I am not the average homeowner. I have an enormous amount of experience and I tried to hire the local guy but he refused.

i don't want to try to argue credentials or qualifications. I understand I am on my own safety-wise and whatnot but I am looking for some suggestions or recommendations

I have checked the voltage leading to the contactor on port 13 and 14 for the brake. I have power on the brake - before the contactor is engaged 107 volts. When I engaged the elevator I saw it drop to 70v. I checked the resistance of the brake and it came out at .3 ohms.

I tried to operate the elevator today and the contactor engages and it starts I see the the output on the VFD move up and then it showed FLU then .1 .3 .5 .4 1.6 then dCb and then back to rdY. when I go down FLU 0.0 .1 rUn rdY.

Is this a LEV? You had said Access Elevator. If yes, approximately how old? Does it have a PLC and a VFD, or a single board with the VFD built in?

How many stops does it have?

When you said that you could move it manually, How did you release the brake too move it manually? and how did you move it manually? What tools did you use?

Thanks for the questions this is a 4 stop elevator - it is very interesting because it has 2 doors where on one level the door is perpendicular to all the other stops.

It is an Access Lev installed around 2007 the PLC was replaced in 2013. There is a PLC separate from the VFD.


We cranked the motor manually with the handwheel - it was NOT easy to do. I assume there might have been an easier way?

You can see my setup here:

https://imgur.com/a/jT397oB

Thanks!

Please post a picture of the brake and motor where you used the handwheel

Is your controller mounted remote to the powerhead? I didn't see the machine in your picture.

The motor and brake are at the top of the shaft where the controller is on the other side of the wall in the attic.

https://imgur.com/a/tPcrmcp

This is the motor and on the end of it we can insert the hand wheel and crank.

I sent you a private message

just want to update everyone I had a PLC failure. Ultimately I determined outputs 2, 3 and 4 were losing power instantly. I found a local shop who performed a repair to the PLC and everything appears to be functioning as expected! Thanks for the direction, assistance and wisdom from many of you guys along the way. Much appreciated!

Thanks for the update, it'll seem like nobody replies on the fix here.

Oh my. You need to move your father in law out of the basement. Having to rely on the elevator or he cant get out is a poor decision.

This thread was good entertainment but honestly horrifying to read.

He can get out of the house - he can not come to the living space with the rest of the family

yeah I was shocked and excited to get it working again. The big problem with these lev elevators is Access2Parts doesn't have a guy to work on making new ones and the software is pretty locked up.

Good job!