Otis Autotronic Annunciator
For this project, I took an old Otis lobby panel and turned it into a fully working simulator! This panel came from an old Otis Autotronic system that was recently modernized. The panel displayed the current location of each car, the direction, any hall calls, and other information. It also contains the key switches to control the mode and behavior of the system. My goal for this project was to use the existing things on the panel and design my own microcontroller system to simulate all four cars moving. There were many bumps and issues I ran into in the build process, but the end result is awesome!
I made three videos covering the build process and functionality of the completed project. Be sure to watch them all to see what this panel can do and what I did to get it to where it is!
Part 1: Overview, Repairs, and Basic Wiring
The first steps of this project involved fixing and setting up the things already on the panel. These include: the clock, mode select key, and other indicator lights. I decided that each of these elements would use 120V since it allowed me to use the original incandescent bulbs. Wiring up the mode select and indicator lights were easy enough, the biggest challenge for this part was the clock. The original motor that ran the clock did not work, and it uses a specific clock motor. I luckily was able to find one at an electronics store, and with a bit of time, I was able to use that motor on the clock!
Part 2: Custom Microcontroller System
After completing the basic cleaning and wiring from part 1, it was time to begin making the panel into a simulator, which required a few things I had to consider when designing: Each car needed to run independently, the user needed a way to control the cars and behavior of the cars, and minimal wires between the two pieces. The solution was to use 5 microcontrollers. One for each car and one as the main controller. The main controller would communicate with the car controllers via serial. This allowed the use of only three wires between the main controller and car controllers. I also made a control panel to hold a small screen, keypad, and switches to control the entire system.
Part 3: Finished Project
After a lot of hard work, the panel is finally finished, and I am super happy with how it came out. Watch this video to see all of the features this panel has to offer and see it in action!