Designing Attendant Call at VA Hospital Using INSTEON

[kevindavis544]

I’m designing a prototype solution for a VA Hospital that has an adjacent facility called CLC (Community Living Center). They are looking for a solution that will allow a paralyzed individual (no upper or lower extremity use) and no voice capability to activate a call for assistance (from his power wheelchair that he drives using chin control and from a manual wheelchair). I thought about a solution that will use the following pieces:

1. ISY994iZw

2. An INSTEON Mini Remote (2342-2) adapted for an Assistive Switch (a Proximity Switch or Micro-Lite Touch Switch). The adaptive switch will most likely be activated using head movement.

3. Several INSTEON On/off Modules to basically function as repeaters for INSTEON RF

4. INSTEON Siren 2868-222

I don’t think I want to attempt to relay the INSTEON signal using Power Line because of the complexity of Power Line equipment in large buildings.

I haven’t yet performed an on-site analysis to determine distance, walls, other barriers, etc. I think it’s going to be all on the same floor of the building. I might be able to use hallways for placement of the INSTEON RF repeaters. I believe this may result in fewer layers of architectural interference for the INSTEON RF.

It seems I recall INSTEON has a limit in the number of “hops” it can perform before reaching the intended target (in this case, I am talking about the distance between the INSTEON Transmitter (Mini Remote) and the INSTEON Siren. I think I recall it is 6 hops(?). I’m wondering if anyone can help jog my memory on this (the number of hops allowed). I think the aspect of limitation of “hops” will apply in this situation. I am imagining they envision something where the sounding device (the Siren) will be located at the Nurse Station and of course the Mini-Remote will be on the wheelchair(s).

I appreciate anyone’s input or advice on this. Thank you in advance.

[Broyd]

Wow! You have picked a tough one. I believe the number of hops is only 3.

Let me ask whether a wired Ethernet connection or WiFi is available in the buildings you mention?

And if so, are the ip addresses all on the same subnet? Are they all in the range 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 for example?

An alert system based on an Ethernet link might be more reliable in your situation. The ISY using the network module can send a suitably constructed ‘link’ to a remote device on the network that could convey that alert.