Hello all,
The Northern Nevada Children's Museum was broken into a few days ago, and after forcing an outside door, the perps found themselves in the first floor elevator lobby with no access to the main part of the building. They had probably seen too many movies where the hero tears off a cover plate and bypasses the system with a bobby pin. Apparently, their talents ended at the "tear the cover plate off" part, and after they pried the push button station out, they were stumped. Unfortunately for the folks at the Museum, the box dropped to the end of it's cable and the first floor station (of 3 floors) on this Concord Horizon (I believe) has not worked since.
A local repair company looked at the situation, disconnected a ribbon cable to disable the station and provided a $2550.76 proposal for replacement of the station. I'm a retired EE who ocassionaly volunteers at the Museum and took a look at the panel today. Other than the removed cable, no obvious signs of damage and I was tempted to plug it back in and check for symptoms, but thought better of it.
I'm in no position to make a judgement on the fairness of the repair proposal and certainly don't want to get any Forum members in hot water with a local provider, but would appreciate guidance on how to proceed. The organization that made the proposal also has the service contract and I suppose one place to start would be to get a second opinion. Also tempted to write down all the wire colors, pull the box, do some minor disassembly and inspect for mechanical failures. Hard to believe any electrons got jarred loose and a bad/broken connection would seem more likely. Obviously the service company does not want to go to component level inspection, but the museum simply does not have funds for the repair.
Also, next week, we'll check with the Carson City, the buildings owner to see if there is any insurance coverage.
Any advice from the collective wisdom of Forum Members is appreciated.
Best wishes
