Otis Series 1

Series 1 is a style of fixture created by Otis in the 80s and is quite distinctive to other fixtures in the same time period. These are still fairly common, so chances are, you have seen one before. I've currently only worked on call buttons for series 1, but I do have a car panel that I plan on wiring up when I acquire some of the missing parts on it.

Project Videos

Wiring an Otis Series 1 Lobby Call Station

In this project, I cleaned up and wired this lobby call button. This panel would have been found on the main floor of the elevator as it has keyswitches to control the elevator. This piece came from what I believe was an Elevonic 401, so the button circuit board is the serial one (I can't wire it up easily). I had to create my own circuit for the buttons, and then hook up the keyswitch to activate the status light at the top.

How to wire Series 1

Wiring these fixtures is actually very easy as long as you have the non-serial circuit board (a single board per button). My video shown here shows you how to wire up one of these buttons and create your own low voltage LED (if you want to run your button on a low voltage). My video shows wiring to make the button light up when it's pressed.

In my video, I use the appropriate wire connectors and LED holders. If you do NOT have these items and want to wire these buttons using a less proper, but still working way, see my alternative wiring video here.

Shown here is the connector for one of these circuit boards. In my video, my voltage source was two AA batteries (3v). With that in mind:

  • Pin 1 is + of battery
  • Pin 4 is - of battery
  • Pins 2 and 3 are not used

This configuration when used with a regular LED in the lamp socket will make the lamp illuminate when the button is pressed.

Note: if your button is not working, make sure that the two jumper wires on the board (JW1 and JW2) are present. If not, they will need to be added.