PSA: Tensioning cables by ear is a bad habit I had to break

For years I did the old pluck-and-listen method like my mentor taught me in 2012. After 3 callback jobs last month on the same Otis elevator, I finally bought a tensiometer and realized I was off by nearly 15 pounds. Has anyone else had to unlearn an old-timer's trick that just doesn't hold up?

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3 Comments

david_rivera45mo ago

Wait, you're telling me my highly scientific "ping it and pray" method isn't good enough for modern elevators? 15 pounds off though, that's rough.

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the_charlie5mo ago

You've never had to shim a door sensor with a piece of cardboard until the dumb thing stays closed? That's the REAL science right there. But 15 pounds is a LOT man, that's like a whole bag of groceries worth of weight. In a modern setup that can throw the whole load cell calibration way off and then you get those random "full car" slowdowns on a half empty cab. Better to just get a certified scale in there once a year than chase phantom faults all month trust me.

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james_kim5mo ago

Idk man, I've got to push back a little here. If you calibrate it right to the tenth of a pound and a guy drops a heavy backpack in there, your fancy system is gonna freak out and stop anyway, which is worse than 15 pounds throwing it off. Real world loads are never perfect, a scale every year feels like overkill unless you're literally hauling gold bars or something. Sometimes chasing a phantom fault is faster than chasing a certified guy with a whole kit, especially on an older controller where you're just swapping parts. Maybe the cardboard fix is more honest about how these things actually run.

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