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EPCO (Elevator Parts Corporation) is a manufacturer of elevator fixtures and are very common to find on installs and modernizations in the US. These are many different types of Epco buttons, but luckily for us, they are rather simple to work with! Check out some of my projects/wiring videos for EPCO and some extra wiring information at the bottom.
Restoring and Wiring an Epco SSL Button
For this project, I restored a rather beat up call station from a parking garage. This is the SSL type buttons which are more of a vandal resistant style.
Wiring a Westinghouse (Epco) Call Station
This is a piece that came from a Westinghouse elevator that was installed in the 80s. It was quite common to see these buttons on 80s Westinghouse elevator installs. For this project, I simply wired the buttons to light up and cleaned it up.
Making an Elevator Simulator from an Epco Call button
For this project, I build a simple elevator simulator with this neat Epco call button. This piece has an analog indicator which shows the position of the car and two buttons. I set it up where the simulator randomly selects a floor and moves there. If the call buttons are pressed, the elevator moves down to the call floor which is floor 1 by default. The call floor can be changed so the buttons move the car to a different floor.
How to Wire EPCO
Wiring EPCO is rather easy. My how to video shows an SSL style fixture, but most of the older EPCO buttons have the exact base, so this applies to many other styles. There are a couple of ways to wire these buttons depending on what lamps or LEDs you have.
Method 1: Incandescent Bulbs
This method takes advantage of the already available lamp sockets. You will need some PSB type bulbs. You will need to choose the voltage of your bulbs to match (or closely match) the voltage of your power source. In this video, I used 6PSB bulbs with a 9v battery.
Method 2: LEDs
If you don't have PSB bulbs available, you can always use my classic LED method, however you will need to add a resistor to limit the current from your battery. Use my resistor calculator below to figure out the resistor you will need for your project
Schematics
Note: These schematics apply to any amounts of buttons. For a terminal button, remove the down button and light. For a car panel with more buttons, just add more buttons in the same way shown.
Resistor Calculator
- The general current range for an led is between 12mA to 20mA. The higher the current, the brighter the LED.
- LED voltages vary depending on the color with red being 1.7-2.0V and green being 3-3.3V.
- Check your LED datasheet for official values, though these ranges should be fine.
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