Connecting CE position indicators to elevator controllers

CE needs four things: the type of floor outputs (binary or line-per-floor), their voltage, their polarity, and the floor markings. Have this list ready whenever a new controller tie-in comes up.

1. Output type – Are the floor outputs binary (BN1, BN2, BN4…) or discrete line-per-floor (PI1, PI2, PI3… or 1P, 2P, 3P…)? Serial outputs cannot be used; see the Kone Resolve 20 question below.
2. Voltage of the floor signals – for example 24 VDC or 120 VAC. Do not confuse this with the controller’s supply voltage (a 230 V figure on a build sheet is the power feed, not the floor signal).
3. Polarity (DC only) – Do the outputs go positive when active, or do they go to ground (negative) when active? Ask the controller manufacturer whether the “common” is the feed for the binary outputs or the return.
4. Floor markings – the exact designation for each landing, bottom to top. If the controller is binary, standard binary is not a problem and you do not have to work out hexadecimal addresses yourself.
5. Driver supply voltage – so CE can set up the driver’s power input correctly.

Elite PI displays do not care about any of this. They get all their information from the driver over the CE serial connection, so the controller questions only concern the driver.

Not directly. The MCCA driver needs binary or discrete (line-per-floor) floor outputs, and the Kone Resolve 20 drawings CE has reviewed only show serial outputs, which the MCCA cannot read.

What to know:

• The controller’s hoistway board is not an interface board and does not provide the discrete or binary floor outputs the CE driver needs.
• Kone offers a relay converter board (referred to as AM 757640G11; the board itself is etched 757643H02 and carries eight relays with a 2×2 and a 2×3 header on the ends) that converts the Kone serial signal to binary. With that board in place the MCCA can take the binary outputs. CE does not have a pinout or wiring diagram for this converter board; the drawing must come from Kone, and Kone documentation tells you to cross-reference the Kone wiring diagram.
• The CE “FAI-001” interface is for Fujitec Millennium and Veridian controllers only; it is not compatible with Kone Resolve.
• CE’s Kone-specific MicroComm interface takes 24 V, latch, clock, data and common; none of those signals appeared on the Resolve 20 drawings.

Before ordering, give CE the output type, voltage, polarity and floor markings listed in the previous question.

Verify with CE support.

Wire the CE board’s common to the controller’s 2PI terminal and each floor wire to the matching 1P/2P/3P/4P output, and make sure the board is programmed for discrete (line-per-floor) signals, not binary.

For a car PI on an MCE controller that labels its outputs PI1–PI4 with 2PI as the common, use this harness mapping:

Checks if the display is still blank:

1. Programming – the small U4 chip on the PI board holds the floor programming. A board set up for binary will not display discrete 120 V signals; it has to be reprogrammed or replaced. Never throw away the original board: its U4 chip usually carries the correct programming and can be moved to the replacement board.
2. Harness colors – some older harnesses had the wire colors punched in reverse order. Check which colors from the original harness actually land on 1P, 2P, 3P and 4P at the controller rather than trusting color-for-color.
3. Car calls are not PI signals – terminals such as 1C/2C/3C/4C with common 2CC are car calls. Use only the position indicator outputs.

Verify with CE support.

No. On an MCE 4000 (“red board”) controller the CE 2849C with its piggyback board is the driver: it is tied directly to the controller, takes in all the controller information and converts it to the MicroComm 3-wire link. There is no way to connect an MCCA-X to that controller.

• The CE 3384 next to it is only a translator board that converts the newer 3-wire “language” for older PIs that would not otherwise understand it. It does not typically fail.
• If the driver or piggyback board is suspected, the replacement driver and piggyback board have to come through MCE; they are not available any other way.
• A PI that goes blank or shows “- -” (dash dash) is not failing for no reason. Before replacing displays, call CE support so the actual cause (driver, translator, wiring or controller output) can be found.

The floor markings live in a small 8-pin chip in a socket on the driver board, so you either have MCE reprogram the board or order a programmed chip from CE.

1. The large M194 chip is the processor and is the same on every board; the M194 software is the newest for that board vintage and works with new displays. The little 8-legged chip in the removable socket is the one with your floor table.
2. Because MCE programs these boards originally, CE will ask how the car is set up before supplying a chip: single simplex car or part of a group, and the full list of floor designations (for example BL, 1–5).
3. The display itself has no field-changeable floor settings; everything shown comes from the driver chip.
4. When a floor is added to an existing job and the PI digit for a floor is wrong, CE does not email EPROM binary files for you to burn yourself; the reprogrammed part is handled through CE support. Have the serial number from the white label on the driver board ready.

Chip-ordering and EPROM details – verify with CE support.

Measure DC volts on the driver’s 1-2-3 output with the black lead on terminal 1 (the square pad). You should read about 24–31 VDC from 1 to 2 and a bouncing 1.8–2.1 V from 1 to 3; if the readings are on the wrong terminals, the three wires are crossed.

Steps to follow on an older MCE driver after new fixtures are installed:

1. Along the bottom edge of the driver board is a bank of DIP switches; they can all be OFF (switch 6 is only used when driving a CE speech board). The board’s power input at the bottom right is 16 V (18 V maximum), and the 1-2-3 output is directly above it.
2. Check 1-2 and 1-3 at the board, at the RD1/RD2/RD3 terminal strip, and at the display end. Re-tag until every point reads 24 V on wire 2 and ~2 V data on wire 3.
3. The resistor in series with terminal 3 only protects the board from voltage coming back on the data wire; the small data voltage is the only thing that goes through it.
4. Once wires 1, 2 and 3 are landed correctly at the hall and car PIs, the displays come up with the correct floor and the passing chime works.

SmartRise supplies its own interface board (the SR 2020 board, built around a CE chip) that converts their data line to the CE MicroComm link; CE no longer makes a separate SmartRise interface.

1. The SR 2020 is a small, narrow board in the controller. SmartRise sends a data wire down and you reference the common back to it. If you cannot find the board in the controller, contact SmartRise – it may not have been included.
2. On a controller changeout for an old job (digital PIs from the 1990s), the old-vintage displays may not understand the new driver and will show “OK” all the time or random values. The solution is to replace them with the current MicroComm display, MH222-RRX (red characters, red arrow); order MH222-RRR if you also want a red lens. These have 2.2 in. characters and a 2.5 in. arrow, the same as the originals.

Turn DIP switches 2, 3 and 5 ON on the GAL interface board in the COP (GAL’s board, not the CE display or speech board), and make sure DIP switch 2 is OFF on the CE display itself.

• Voice announcer saying “fire service” on inspection or “emergency power” on independent/access: this is a common issue on a Galaxy (typically Galaxy 4). The GAL interface board driving the CE speech board is normally in the COP; its DIP switches are very small. Setting 2, 3 and 5 ON fixes it – the unit immediately announces the correct service mode.
• PI going out completely during fire service (no flashing message, just blank): this points to DIP switch 2 being ON on the CE display. Turn 2, 3 and 5 OFF on the display and ON on the Galaxy interface board. Verify with CE support.

“2V” means the display is not receiving the data it expects. The LO220-WG hall PI is built for the older Otis clock/data/return output (terminals E9, E10, E11), not for the RSL L1/L2 serial link, so it stays lit and shows “2V”.

1. For a standard Otis RSL link CE makes the OV220-WG, a two-digit PI that plugs straight into V+, common, L2 and L1 with a standard plug-in connector. The board is about 4¼ in. square with both horizontal and vertical stud placements (about 2¼ in. apart horizontally and 3⅞ in. vertically) designed for typical Otis mounting; it comes with a gray lens (“G”).
2. The LO220 board is wider and shorter, has only horizontal studs and screw-type terminals, which is why the “wrong” board needs extra jumpers and wiring to fit.
3. Neither PI can be run from the CAN bus.
4. A 3-wire MicroComm PI (for example an MSV21-RRX with common, 24 V and data terminals) cannot be landed on a 4-wire RSL link either. It needs a CE interface board between RSL and the 3-wire link (such as the MCRSL-1 Otis interface card); CE sales/support can identify the right part for the display you have. Verify with CE support.

The THY02 interface board (THY02-X, CE board number CE30650; the assembly drawing labels it “RS485 TO MICROCOMM”). It is not a display or a touchscreen product: it is an interface/driver board that converts the controller’s RS-485, CAN or serial data into the MicroComm 3-wire link that drives the PI and the gong/lantern driver. It plugs into the TAC controller and talks to it over the CAN bus.

1. Identify the display: a label such as MV122A-WWX or MH122A is a MicroComm PI fed by three wires. A lantern with two small harnesses and an INN3491-24 gong is a MicroComm gong/lantern driver.
2. Run the 3-wire link from the THY02 to the MH122A/MV122A display, then parallel off to the INN3491-24. The INN3491-24 has the chime and can light a discrete 24 V lantern; it gongs once for up and twice for down, and must be addressed for the landing it serves (or as an in-car unit).
3. The THY02 does not have a separate gong output; the gong is driven over the MicroComm link.
4. If the fixture supplier assumed the controller already had the CE interface and it is missing, the elevator contractor must supply the THY02, and parameters must be activated in the TAC controller so it talks to the CE board.

Yes – the THY02-X interfaces with any TAC controller that has a serial or CAN bus output and converts it to standard MicroComm three-wire. The board is supplied through the controller manufacturer rather than directly by CE, and the controller may need parameters activated to talk to it. If a TAC32 or TAC50 car has MicroComm fixtures but no THY02 board, nothing will drive them until the board is added.

Verify with CE support.

A blank display with no blinking decimal point means the board is not receiving data on the CAN link from the controller. When data is arriving, the board shows the floor characters and the right-hand decimal point blinks.

1. The CAN link lands on the three-pin terminal block JP6 at the top of the board: CAN L, CAN H and COM.
2. DIP switch 3 ON is the normal setting; it selects the CAN link speed used by the controller. DIP switch 1 ON puts the board in self-test (the display counts up and down); turn it back OFF for normal operation.
3. Set the meter to DC volts and read COM to CAN L and COM to CAN H with everything connected. About 2.5 V on both, and the same on both, is an idle bus with no data. With data flowing the readings move around and CAN H reads a little higher than CAN L.
4. To power cycle the board, remove the +DC wire from the four-pin screw terminal at the top right (far-right terminal is +DC), wait a few seconds, and reconnect. A brief “TF” flash at power-up followed by a blank display with no decimal point still means no data. All segments lit (“88”) after leaving self-test is also not a running state.
5. If the bus is idle, the controller is not sending. The TAC controller has parameters that must be set to make it talk to the CE board, and they are lost if a technician resets all parameters. CE does not have these parameters; contact the controller manufacturer.

Verify with CE support.

OT is an error generated by an MCE M2000 or M4000 controller; contact MCE support for troubleshooting.

NC means no communication. On an MCE M2000 or M4000 with a built-in CE interface, it generally indicates a communication problem between the controller and interface board even though the remote display connection is working. Contact MCE support. On a TAC20, TAC32 or TAC50 using a THY02 interface, it normally indicates that the controller and THY02 are not communicating; check the controller connection and contact the controller manufacturer.

Usually yes, as long as the controller side can feed a CE driver or interface; the display itself just shows whatever the MicroComm interface sends it.

• EBCO BDRA-8 on an iMotion controller: the BDRA-8 is not a CE display. The standard CE MicroComm display MH222-RRX replaces it, but it needs a MicroComm interface board on the controller; the floors shown are whatever that interface outputs, so the display is not programmed separately.
• Old Schindler PI: no direct part number match exists. Take a stud detail of the opening and send it to CE sales; they can usually match a display to it since the CE drivers are already in place.
• Discrete-input dot-matrix PI (CE 2123 board, DH320 program) on a Northern controller: a board set up for +6 to 20 V AC/DC floor inputs with a negative common will not work when the controller has a positive common and negative (grounded) inputs. Order the “E” version, which is the negative 6–20 VDC input variant, through the distributor you bought from.
• Is it even a CE board? CE boards carry a “CE” board number on the circuit board and a white SN sticker. A board printed with another manufacturer’s name (for example Innovation Industries) is theirs; contact them for support.

The MicroComm 3-wire run from each controller to its displays stays exactly as it is; only the communication from the new main board changes.

1. One twisted pair can be reused from the new main board to each controller in each group; the old 4-wire RS485 (TX/RX) link is replaced by a single twisted pair over the Ethernet-style network.
2. The 3-wire MicroComm link is what gives the display its floor position and is unchanged.
3. The twisted pair runs through the extender board and into the Elite PI screen. The remaining setup is IT work (IP addresses and network settings), so involve CE’s IT support if the network link does not come up.

The replacement OMB16 should still have a 120 VAC input; on the original board it was a small 2- or 3-pin connector, and the old installation may have had a transformer wired ahead of it.

1. Compare the layout: the CE drawing for the OMB16 shows the processor and EPROMs in the middle of the board, so if your new board has the U1/U5 chips at the bottom left, the drawing may not match the revision you received.
2. Send CE support side-by-side photos of the old and new boards together with the serial numbers from the white labels so the correct revision and input wiring can be identified.

Verify with CE support.