CANopen lift - Hamburg church with a view
Source: CAN Newsletter Lift 2005
At the southern end of Hamburg stand the remains of the St. Nikolai church. The gothic style church was built in the 19th century and was an architectural masterpiece of its time. It is one of the few remaining landmarks from prewar Hamburg and after heavy raids by Allied forces in 1943 it was virtually the only structure left standing in the city center. The church was left blackened with soot and partially destroyed; the ruins were left standing in order to serve as a memorial to the victims of persecution in the Third Reich. The third highest church tower in Germany spirals up to an impressive 147-m height. In 2001 the church was restored and a platform in 75-m height was repaired to enable visitors to enjoy the splendid view over the city and port of Hamburg.
The lift that transports visitors up to the platform at a speed of 2,5 m/s is networked completely via the CANopen Lift profile CiA DSP 417. The network consists of two separate CANopen sub-networks. One of them leads into the lift cabin, where a controller evaluates the cabin’s I/Os. The I/O modules provide signal inputs and outputs and calls in the lift cabin and control the display to indicate the lift position. They provide the CiA 417 virtual devices “input panel unit”, “output panel unit”, and “door unit”.
