09 June, 2009

Elevator, Elevator where have you been?

My office is in the fifth floor and I generally use the stairs to go up and come down. I have been suffering from back ache for sometime and I was told by my doc to avoid using the stairs. I hate waiting for the elevators, but here I was desperately waiting for my turn to get into one particular elevator. One fine day, the elevator was in the 6th floor and coming down towards the 5th floor. I observed that the ‘Down Arrow’ I had pressed on the 5th floor had got switched off all of a sudden and the elevator did not stop at 5th floor! I just wondered what the reason could be. The next day, I repeated the same thing. Pressed the ‘Down Arrow’ again. The elevator came down from 8, 7, 6, 5………. Alas! It stopped by at the 5th floor. I was disappointed. The issue was JUST NOT Reproducible :-(

On the same day in the evening, the elevator did not stop at the 5th floor yet again(Inconsistent Behaviour??). However, this time, I found the root cause of the problem. The issue is as follows: If the elevator stops at the 6th floor for less than 30 seconds(approximately), the elevator stops by at the 5th floor. If the elevator stops at the 6th floor for more than 30 seconds(if there are too many people getting in hence keeping the elevator doors open), the ‘Down Arrow’ button gets switched off at the 5th floor and there is no stopping the elevator on the 5th floor.

Regards,
Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com

8 comments:

  1. What a tested eh!! :) Good observation..Hope its right and not that sometimes you forget to press the right button ;) :P


    Cheers,
    Netra

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  2. I did press the right button buddy :-)

    Regards,
    Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com

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  3. A very interesting observation Pari, but do you really feel you have found the root cause? or could there be more variables, which you might have to consider?

    -Sharath.B
    http://testtotester.blogspot.com/

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  4. Hmmmmm. Interesting Question Sharath.

    The only variable I observed was the delay in closing the door. I literally ran between the floors to check what was happening :-). There could be more to it technically though.

    If you have any that you think could be causing this, please share with me.

    I am blogging this with an effort to learning new things. I am glad you pointed it out.

    Thanks,
    Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com

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  5. Very good observation..very impressed that you observe things happening around..actually I think everybody is curious to know about all this but don't observe things.
    Actually one day I also noticed that sometimes lift does not stop at 5ht Floor but I didn't find the reason :).. and yes there could be any other reason too as Sharath has mentioned

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  6. I like to added that few reasons why that elevator migh not have stopped at 5th floor could be that:
    1. The ppl inside the elevator might have pressed the "Pass" button post closing the doors at the 6th floor. (Submit of "pass" button would be like skip the next action which in your case was stop at 5th floor.)
    2. The elevator has the maximum load inside and so might no accept requests from outside (in your case, you calling the elevator to stop at 5th floor) and accepts requests only from inside (which in your case, nobody had selected 5th floor for it to stop.)

    Could be more scenarios, but these 2 came to my mind first. :)

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  7. Very good observation Madhu. I personally have not tried a learn much about how elevators work internally. The points you mentioned are good pointers for me to start off.

    Happy Testing,
    Parimala Shankaraiah,
    http://curioustester.blogspot.com

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