Old Otis vs new Thyssen on a hospital job last month

We had to swap out a 20-year-old Otis traction unit for a new ThyssenKrupp machine in a hospital basement. The old Otis was a tank, clunky as hell but easy to work on with basic tools. The new one had all these proprietary boards and a controller that needed a laptop just to level the car. I spent 3 days chasing a soft fault that turned out to be a bad solder joint on a circuit board. The old unit never had those kinds of gremlins. Has anyone else run into this where newer gear just feels more fragile?

2 comments

2 Comments

leep891mo ago

bad solder joint on a circuit board" - bro I feel your pain. New stuff makes me feel like a caveman trying to fix a spaceship with a rock and some duct tape. I swear techs my age just stand there staring at the screen hoping the elevator fixes itself.

shah.ben1mo ago

Buddy of mine works maintenance at a hospital. They got a new HVAC control board last month, thing has no test points, no LEDs, nothing. He spent two hours with a multimeter poking random pins like he was trying to wake a sleeping cat. Finally called the manufacturer, and the guy on the phone said "oh yeah, you have to hold the reset button for exactly 4.7 seconds while the board is powered down." My friend just hung up and went to smoke a cigarette. Tech is getting dumber every year.