Normally I'm a big fan of Chinese industrial components, since they are an affordable way for people like us to extend our collection of industrial Lego.
I'm not so keen on this push button station though. There are two things that cheapen it. The use of contact screws that if they had chosen a type with a smooth shaft above the thread would have got rid of the gritty-clicky feel, and the brass-like contact material with dimples as contacts that is unsuited to low voltage use due to scratchy surface resistance and also unsuitable for high current use due to potential pitting and arcing.
Other than that it could have been OK. And when you look at the amount of assembly and work involved in making and assembling the individual components it seems a bit odd.
The reference to the lift/elevator industry is especially interesting with old gear as there are often very simple interlock switches on the shaft doors, sometimes with exposed metalwork at full mains voltage.
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14 thoughts on “Unusually cheap and crappy machine control station.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Spider_Boygamz877 says:

    Now we have something that can only be suitable for low voltage DC
    Edit: where can I buy one? is it on eBay?

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars TheSunExpress says:

    It's probin' time!!1!'

    Side note: I was hit with what turned out to be ~400 volts in an Otis elevator. It was at a newly handed-over Marriott hotel complex. Some Marriott big-wigs were on the scene for the construction company's official hand-over of the property to the hotel chain. Apparently the back-o-the-house service elevator we were in wasn't properly grounded & the stainless steel interior, along with the stainless steel floor level switch, were both in need of a hapless git to complete the circuit. It knocked me off my feet. I've never seen an elevator full of old dodgy executive bastards turn pale white in their faces in such little amount of time. Lucky for them, the property was outside of US territory, so I couldn't sue them for all the money they have.

    Side side note: WHO IN THE HELL WANTS A RECESSED STOP SWITCH AT AN INDUSTRIAL WORK SITE?!?! It needs to be big, obvious & easy to press in an emergency….which s what stop switches are for!!!

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chase DeBoard says:

    I sincerely hope some poor soul doesn’t actually have to use one of these things at their workplace.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Peter8008 says:

    "For Rev Stop" – If you want to rev your engine, press stop(?)

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Safer_7 says:

    that control box WILL get someone killed.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars areyouundoingthat orwhat? says:

    Looks just like the rubbish that was fitted to the tail lifts on my pals fleet of Luton's,not only did they repeatedly fail to make contact but the slightest knock would see them shatter like a boiled sweet!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rust on Wheels says:

    FOR loop.
    REV up your engines!
    STOP! Hammer time.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Bill Martin says:

    Those bare-brass contacts would never be reliable in a humid environment, they'd be "verdi-gris" in no time. I see no attempt was made to make it watertight., and no "wipe", either. Designed by someone with NO experience.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars BlackEternity says:

    Damn that continuity sounds like my Artemide Tizio lamp.
    Crackling and dazzling. I took it to bits because I knew the head was fancy mounted and I wanted to repair it.
    End of story: I got smoke from the head: 12v AC for a H1 halogen lamp through a threaded rod that connects via a metal sleeve to the lamp is making arcs. Not my idea! Original Design!
    Swapped it for a new head with a GY6.35 head now. Might tinker around with the head and see if I can resurrect and Frankenmonster it just like clive does with everything he gets his hands on.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars WineScrounger says:

    That’s pretty crusty. I especially like the sub-flush Stop button that creaks down and doesn’t quite get there without the necessary wiggle. Oh, happy day.
    I get what you’re saying about low voltage control circuits, on the farm machinery I work on it’s routine to use a 24v pendant control with lots of switches for this and that. One of the major bothers is the contacts going crusty and not making properly, and if it’s the emergency stop button, it’s not going to run.
    It doesn’t help that farmers are really hard on electrical stuff.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Play with Junk says:

    Nickel is also magnetic

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Martin Houlton says:

    I don't think the contractors have any steel in them. There maybe a reaction with any copper and the strong magnetism, creating a faint electro-magnetic field.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars aquavius nope says:

    its very similar to our industrial bay door control switches

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars keith king says:

    Iv worked in a few places that had control's like that and loads of machines with similar buttons and I remember getting a shock of some when switching them off. One place we had to use a broom handle to switch it off. Never knew why that happened until now!! It must have been an inductor somewhere in the circuitry.. Can't for the life of me remember where that was where ya need the brush handle🤔

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