Tried using a car battery charger on a stuck elevator in a St. Louis parking garage

Got a call for a stalled car at level 3, but the controller was completely dead, no lights at all. I figured maybe the backup battery was just totally flat, so I hooked up my 12v car jumper to the terminals for a quick boost. The whole panel lit up like a Christmas tree for about two seconds, then every alarm in the shaft started blaring and the main breaker tripped. Learned real quick that elevator DC systems do not like random voltage spikes. Anyone ever fried a board doing something similar?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_cora2mo ago

Yeah, fried a board that way once.

the_jesse2mo ago

Learned my lesson the hard way too, @the_cora. Swapped a power supply without checking the voltage switch. That magic smoke smell is unforgettable. Now I triple-check every connection before I hit the power. A cheap multimeter from the hardware store saved me a few times after that.

nora_barnes23d ago

Overthinking it just wastes time when a quick swap usually works fine.