Inside a Chinese crane pendant control station.04:33

China seems to be a veritable candy shop for industrial components via eBay. A very common, and visually pleasing device is the pendant style crane control type of unit. These start at just a few pounds/dollars for a two button up/down unit, and just keep getting bigger right up to a ridiculous looking one that is about 600mm / 24″ long monster with an intriguing number of buttons. There are also options for emergency stop buttons and indicator lights.
The units have removable clear button caps for inserting custom function labels, but they also come pre-printed with either traditional arrows or Chinese characters which mean things like up, down, north, south, east and west.
Initially when you look inside it looks a bit minimalist and tacky, but having used expensive hoist controllers in the past I would say that they are very similar. Just a common device engineered to keep costs down.
I’m not sure if alternative diameter glans are available for the cable entry, as the one supplied is quite generous, but it may be to allow the use of a standard size of multicore cable. There’s also an attachment point for a chain or lanyard to take the strain off the cable.
It’s actually quite an appealing unit. Functional and easy to wire.
The set of buttons at the top are a latching on/off facility, possibly to act as a secondary kill switch in case of control circuit issues.
Each pair of directional buttons has a mechanical interlock to prevent both being pressed at once. It’s basically a see-saw / teeter totter arrangement under the buttons and can be removed.