There’s no need to be anxious about GAL’s controllers or the fact that GAL are now part of Vantage (and have been since 2018). The GALaxy IV traction and eHydro products really aren’t “constantly changing” as a result of GAL being under the Vantage umbrella.
Have they been improving in functionality? Definitely! e.g. through support of new A17.1/B44 Code, new features in the controller software and through the latest GALileo releases, and also the addition of Destination Dispatching to GALaxy IV.
Are they addressing obsolescence to ensure longevity of the GAL product? Absolutely! GALaxy III was first sold about 19 years ago and even though it’s no longer sold, there is a newer more-capable processor board available for early-series units, and an upgrade path for now-obsolete Magnetek HPV 900 drives to the KEB F5 drive. That same sort of commitment to long-term software, hardware and technical support should exist for customers using GALaxy IV and eHydro too.
It’s no secret that Vantage has a new NEXUS hydraulic controller - it was on display at the NAEC 2024 Convention in Atlantic City. It’s not a GALaxy or a Pixel, but a new platform with the latest advances in technology.
That future-looking approach is no different than Otis when they moved from relay and elementary digital logic in VIP-260 to microprocessors for the Elevonic 101/401 in the late-70s and early-1980s, which then gave way to a brand new “Modular” platform that resulted in Elevonic 4xx/3xx/2xx through until the early 2000s, and then morphed again into the current GCS product line. If you look at any other controller manufacturer, the story will be similar in the evolution of their product lines - the march of technological change in the elevator industry is constant!
