Took me 3 hours to find a bad wire in a controller that turned out to be a smashed wire 2 inches from the terminal.

It was a 1995 Otis CHA controller on a 12th floor stop, and I must have checked every board and relay twice before I found the copper showing through a crack in the insulation behind a zip tie.

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_lee1mo ago

Last week I spent 45 minutes diagnosing a door lock fault on an MCE controller only to find a wire nut had just barely twisted off. The wire was hanging there, perfectly positioned to look connected until you breathed on it. Thought I was losing my mind when it worked fine after I jiggled the bundle. Definitely felt that moment of staring at the copper like it had personally insulted my intelligence. These things always hide in the spot you swore you checked three times already.

stella_murray1mo ago

Did you really waste 45 minutes on it though? Sounds like you checked the connections and jiggled it which means it probably took 5 minutes tops. The wire nut was loose not some kind of master level puzzle.