Elevator WTF



  • <FONT face=Tahoma>This one really made me say WTF?!

    So I'm heading my way home last friday, onboard one of the building's elevator.
    Unfortunately I pressed the wrong button, the one just next to my intended floor (ground floor). But fortunately, elevators here can let you "unpress" the buttons that are pressed, just press the button twice and it will be desselected. So I desellect that floor (2nd) and pressed the ground floor button.

    Ok, that's fine says I. But suddenly the elevator opens on the 2nd floor and a guy came in and pressed the top most floor (17th). I thought to myself, ok cool, the elevator's heading down anyway.

    So I patiently wait for the elevator to open on the ground floor, not looking at the display. Then I realized it's taking a while for the door to open. And when I look at the display, WTF! I'm on the 4th floor and the elevator is on it's way up to the 17th floor!

    What seems to be just another floor to descend to actually took me 31 floors! WTF?!



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  • I guess you should be thankful that it wasn't an infinity-overflow - the solid fuel booster rockets under the elevator might have put you in orbit!



  • Perhaps the guy read how to hack your elevator.

    Just take the stairs. You'll get more exercise. ;)



  • Well if I were you, I'd have leant against the control panel, and sneakily deselected the 17th floor, pressed 5, chucked him out of the elevator, and went straight back down! Anyway, yes, that is a bit stupid. Obviously some WTF in the code there.

    My best elevator/lift WTF is more of a labelling one. I'd checked into a hotel for a week so had a fairly hefty bag with me. Entering the lift was quite a struggle. I barely fit in there with my bag, which had to stand on end to fit in next to me quite snugly. Now I'm slightly larger than average, but that doesn't change the fact that this lift had the capacity for a snug trip for 2 people, or 3 anorexic dwarves if you had them to hand.

    Imagine my mirth at reading the sign on my journey upwards... "maximum capacity 6 people, 1 ton" (or thereabouts). I'd have taken a photo if either my phone or pda at the time had the capability.



  • @snoofle said:

    I guess you should be thankful that it wasn't an infinity-overflow - the solid fuel booster rockets under the elevator might have put you in orbit!
    I just hope that I'm never in one when the display turns to "Floor NaN".



  • The elevator for my flat for about two years used to say "Level 2" when it got to my floor..  Which would have been fine, but I live on the 4th Floor (the reason I think for not saying the correct floor was the lift doesn't stop on the 1st and 2nd floors)....   I had to meet people at the top of the lift otherwise they ended up getting really confused.....   Somebody must have complained forcefully enough at the managing agents though as now it just stays quiet.... 



  • Reminds me of a time many years ago when I was working in London and living out of a hotel (also know as Fawlty Towers; yes it was that bad at times).

    Was in the lift one day with about 5 or 6 other people already when this overly large american woman gets in. Of course the lift fails to get off the ground, but rather than get out and wait for the next lift the woman starts shouting at the poeple outside to stop pressing the buttons. This goes on for several mintues until eventually she gives up and gets out where upon the lift works normally (well for this place). I considered explaining that maybe the lift was "over loaded" but like everyone else in there didn't quite have the nerve. :P



  • Well; since you pressed the 1 after you 'deselected' floor 2, you put the elevator into the 'null' state where it was neither 'up' nor 'down' -- at that exact time the guy on floor 2 pressed 'up'; this put the elevator in the 'servicing-up-request' state (differentiated from 'up' in that the elevator is actually travelling down); at which time you pressed '1'.  Having the elevator go from 'servicing-up-request' to 'up' is the exact right thing to do.  The same thing would have happened if you had gotten in the elevator at the same time as the other guy, having only pressed the 'up' button, and tried to go down.


    Solution: next time select '1' before de-selecting '2'; this will keep the elevator in the 'down' state, where it is proper to respond to 'down request's, but not proper to respond to 'up request's.

    Incedentally, what happens when you select a floor then de-select it?  Does the elevator simply come to a stop?  Does it continue to the original floor then stop?  Does it go to the original floor then open the doors?  If the latter, what is the direction indicator when the doors open?



  • @beltorak said:

    Well; since you pressed the 1 after you 'deselected' floor 2, you put the elevator into the 'null' state where it was neither 'up' nor 'down' -- at that exact time the guy on floor 2 pressed 'up'; this put the elevator in the 'servicing-up-request' state (differentiated from 'up' in that the elevator is actually travelling down); at which time you pressed '1'.  Having the elevator go from 'servicing-up-request' to 'up' is the exact right thing to do.  The same thing would have happened if you had gotten in the elevator at the same time as the other guy, having only pressed the 'up' button, and tried to go down.


    Solution: next time select '1' before de-selecting '2'; this will keep the elevator in the 'down' state, where it is proper to respond to 'down request's, but not proper to respond to 'up request's.

    Incedentally, what happens when you select a floor then de-select it?  Does the elevator simply come to a stop?  Does it continue to the original floor then stop?  Does it go to the original floor then open the doors?  If the latter, what is the direction indicator when the doors open?

    <FONT face=Tahoma>That would be a valid explanation... Actually that was what I thought after thinking it over a few times and wondering how did it happen...

    Hmmm... next time I'll check it out what happens if I deselected the only button that was pressed... probably on a non-busy hour of the day to prevent other people from pressing a button...



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  • @beltorak said:


    Incedentally, what happens when you select a floor then de-select it?  Does the elevator simply come to a stop?  Does it continue to the original floor then stop?  Does it go to the original floor then open the doors?  If the latter, what is the direction indicator when the doors open?

    <FONT face=Tahoma>Either I'm just way too bored or I'm really curious, but I tried this out and the elevator stopped on the nearest* floor and opened the door...

    * - By nearest I mean the next floor that is yet to be passed after it started to move up/down



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  • @Carnildo said:

    The elevator for my apartment has a placard that reads:

    "Maximum capacity: 2000 pounds or persons"



    In Germany, there is a sign in front of many elevator doors that reads "Im Brandfalle nicht benutzen." ("Do not use in case of a fire.")

    Whenever I see this, I'm tempted to take a thick marker and strike out the first word.  The result would translate to "Fire trap - do not use"... There would be less ambiguous and even shorter ways to put the intended message, too, like simply "Bei Brand nicht benutzen."



  • The elevators at my college had the most screwed up control logic.  When on the second floor of the building, which is actually the main floor and pressing the down button, the elevators on the first floor would not come directly up to get you.  Instead they would go all the way to the top (5th) floor and then back down to the 2nd.  The reverse was true of elevators above you if you are going up. They would go down to the 1st floor before beginning their ascent.  It was very baffling to watch the number lights above the elevator doors when waiting.



  • Thats probably only because that kind of control logic is easier to implement; you press 'down' and an elevator below you in the null state is dispatched to service the down-request, so it moves up.  If during that time, someone on a higher floor presses the down button, the elevator is re-dispatched to service the down-request, and so it continues up.  When the highest floor with a down-request is actively being serviced, the state transitions from servicing-down (which implies upward movement) to down.  On the way down it will service all down-requests on the lower floors.  However, given the same initial state and triggers, having the controller just go to the topmost possible floor before servicing down-requests is much easier to program a controller for in terms of states and possible state transitions; simply because the elevator can only transition from up to down on the top floor, and down to up on the bottom.



  • @xrT said:

    @beltorak said:

    Incedentally, what happens when you select a floor then de-select it?  Does the elevator simply come to a stop?  Does it continue to the original floor then stop?  Does it go to the original floor then open the doors?  If the latter, what is the direction indicator when the doors open?

    <font face="Tahoma">Either I'm just way too bored or I'm really curious, but I tried this out and the elevator stopped on the nearest* floor and opened the door...

    * - By nearest I mean the next floor that is yet to be passed after it started to move up/down
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    I had almost added that as a suggesstion too -- all possibilities make sense in one scenario or another.  That is a facinating state machine; from this we can assume that if the elevator transitions from a travelling state (up or down) to the null state, it must first open the doors (at the nearest convenient floor) to ensure that it reaches the null state.... perhaps;  this could either be a side effect of trying to maintain consistent state, or could even be a designed feature!  Think about it, if you got in the elevator accidentally, then realized your mistake, you could simply hit the lit button and get off on the next floor, thereby saving you the inconvenience of completing the trip which you had decided to abort! lol;

    I'm going to be thinking about that one for a while....

    and yes, i think about these kinds of things way too much.

    I am still curious -- can you 'de-select' the up or down buttons on the outside?  If so, what happens to the elevator?



  • @beltorak said:

    @xrT said:
    @beltorak said:

    Incedentally, what happens when you select a floor then de-select it?  Does the elevator simply come to a stop?  Does it continue to the original floor then stop?  Does it go to the original floor then open the doors?  If the latter, what is the direction indicator when the doors open?

    <FONT face=Tahoma>Either I'm just way too bored or I'm really curious, but I tried this out and the elevator stopped on the nearest* floor and opened the door...

    * - By nearest I mean the next floor that is yet to be passed after it started to move up/down
    </FONT>


    I had almost added that as a suggesstion too -- all possibilities make sense in one scenario or another.  That is a facinating state machine; from this we can assume that if the elevator transitions from a travelling state (up or down) to the null state, it must first open the doors (at the nearest convenient floor) to ensure that it reaches the null state.... perhaps;  this could either be a side effect of trying to maintain consistent state, or could even be a designed feature!  Think about it, if you got in the elevator accidentally, then realized your mistake, you could simply hit the lit button and get off on the next floor, thereby saving you the inconvenience of completing the trip which you had decided to abort! lol;

    I'm going to be thinking about that one for a while....

    and yes, i think about these kinds of things way too much.

    I am still curious -- can you 'de-select' the up or down buttons on the outside?  If so, what happens to the elevator?


    <FONT face=Tahoma>I tried to do that to, but unfortunately you can't de-select them... You just have to tell those inside to "go ahead and close the elevator, I'll pass"...

    I think the reason behind this is, like you said, to stop at the next floor and not complete the trip you wanted to abort... Also, I wouldn't want to remain stuck inside the elevator between the 1st and 2nd floors if I de-select the buttons (though I think it serves me right for not really making up my mind :))

    </FONT><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT color=#ff0000>Elevator</FONT>: What's wrong with you? Asking me to go down then cancelling your request... I won't move unless you clearly specify what you wanted me to do! Make up your mind kid!



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  • Haha,  very funny :|

    And after you changed this I'd happen to come around, look at the sign and think: "Mhh, this could be translated as 'do not use if thirsty' ... what the heck might that mean?"

    Adn what lesson do we learn from this? Natural languages are not context-free and use your brain while you read signs. Yes, a better message might be "in case of fire" (im Fall eines Feuers) ... but we Germans like compound words and normally can cope with them. Congrats: you are the first unable to.



  • So, this brillant elevator strikes again (and again)... I pressed the DOWN button on the lobby on my floor several minutes ago and 1 of the 6 elevators lit up indicating its direction (DOWN, as expected)... Then another employee pressed the UP button and guess what lit up? The same elevator! If only I had a chance to take a picture of that elevator with both its direction signs glowing, it would make a nice addition to our popup collection...

    Oh, and when I went back up and pressed the UP button, 1 of the elevators (not the same as the previous one) lit up its UP sign... Now, that elevator has both its signs lit up...

    Sigh My day is just beginning and that's already 2 WTFs... can't wait to finish my day...





  • I still have this idea of breaking open the button unit by the elevator, and rigging it with a small speaker and a Flash card so that it'll play a silly sound effect whenever you press the button.

    Honk

    Pok

    splatsh

    peep

    blup

    crunch

    Such a juvenile idea.
    But fun. 



  • [quote user="dhromed"]

    I still have this idea of breaking open the button unit by the elevator, and rigging it with a small speaker and a Flash card so that it'll play a silly sound effect whenever you press the button.

    Honk

    Pok

    splatsh

    peep

    blup

    crunch

    Such a juvenile idea.
    But fun. 

    [/quote]
    <font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Brillant!

    I saw this prank scene on TV before: a reception desk (with telephone, papers and stuff) was placed inside the elevator and when it opened, the receptionist would greet the people with the usual "Good Morning! How may I help you?"

    Made my day that time...



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