Help light for exam room

Thread Starter

drjsp

Joined Jul 7, 2014
29
What comes to my mind first is a wireless door bell ringer. A bell has the advantage of calling someone without looking: I can hear things behind me, but I have to turn around to see them.

Systems exist with different chimes for front & back doors, which helps for 2 of the 3 rooms. You can put the button into your pocket; they may have to search which room you are in but help would be on the way.
I thought about a tone too...something fairly quiet. Could I have both at once i.e. the tone goes off, they look up and see which room to go to?

We had a very obnoxious buzzer at our old hospital. One of the doctors would push down and hold it. Very effective to get people's attention, but I don't want anything loud or obnoxious as our present clinic is much smaller and I don't want clients irritated by the noise.

Maybe an LED indicator at the reception desk, a tone and LED in the lab/pharmacy and in the back would work real well.
 

Thread Starter

drjsp

Joined Jul 7, 2014
29
That looks pretty cool. I'm assuming I'd have to get three, one for each exam room and would be able to set the receivers to the same channel, so that a push on button 1 would light up or buzz any receivers (I'd need 3) set to button 1.

Thinking about it more, I think three transmitters and three receivers would do it; LED up front, LED + buzz in back of the clinic.
 

inwo

Joined Nov 7, 2013
2,419
Yes, and you need a receiver in any location that you transmit from.

The reason being, a toggle function output is unknown with out looking at a receiver.

It is still possible to get out of step if one receiver missed a signal.

I'll keep looking for the 6 button just in case.

This might do it. In the Latched/ Interlock mode.

Put leds right in the case. Use a wall wart supply.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-6CH-...ion_Controls_Touchscreens&hash=item56670783cf

"Momentary/ Jog--Press and hold -> On; Release -> Off
Toggle/ Self-lock--Press -> On; Press again -> Off
Latched/ Interlock--Press -> On; Press other button -> Off"
 

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inwo

Joined Nov 7, 2013
2,419
That looks pretty cool. I'm assuming I'd have to get three, one for each exam room and would be able to set the receivers to the same channel, so that a push on button 1 would light up or buzz any receivers (I'd need 3) set to button 1.

Thinking about it more, I think three transmitters and three receivers would do it; LED up front, LED + buzz in back of the clinic.
Still need to select one of three rooms though?
 

Thread Starter

drjsp

Joined Jul 7, 2014
29
Come to think of it, I suppose to make it really easy we could have a doorbell arrangement with a nice, quiet buzz or beep. One buzz for room one, two for two, three for three.

I'd guess a doorbell circuit would suffice for that, although I'm not sure where to go about finding an electronic doorbell chime that suits my needs; quiet (or volume adjustable) and one tone "ding", not "ding-dong".

What would be REALLY cool is to have a voice alert: "assistance needed in room 1" with a HAL 9000 voice. :)
 

elec_mech

Joined Nov 12, 2008
1,500
I'm trying to follow the thread, but this appears to be a moving target.

As I understood it previously, there will be three rooms and the OP would like three buttons and three LED's in each room. Once a button is pressed in any of the rooms, the corresponding LED will light up in all three rooms and remain lit until the corresponding button is pressed again (from any room).

Is this still correct or do we need more stations such as a lab, reception desk, etc.? How many stations are needed altogether? No more than four would be ideal as this is commonly available on eBay.

Now it sounds like the OP would like to add sound in addition to or instead of the LEDs. Is this correct?

The major item to keep in mind, again as I see it at the moment, is cost. You'll need a transmitter and receiver pair in every area you want to put these. If you use a single sound module, you'll need three (or more) per room and this adds up quickly.

If you opt for sound, I'd suggest something like this. It will allow you to add up to five different sounds via five buttons which could easily be connected to a module similar to the one inwo first posted. This module also allows you to add sound via USB, so you don't have to do your best robot voice impression. Ah, but where to get a robot-like voice to say exactly what you like? One option involves programming a text-to-speech module with a microcontroller (for others who find this topic of interest), but a cheaper solution is to use a converter online such as this. You can then download the file and load it into the UCB module. I think this combination along with a momentary only device similar to inwo's first link will work.

OP, what country are you located in? This will help us better tailor a solution and where to buy things.
 

Thread Starter

drjsp

Joined Jul 7, 2014
29
I'm trying to follow the thread, but this appears to be a moving target.

As I understood it previously, there will be three rooms and the OP would like three buttons and three LED's in each room. Once a button is pressed in any of the rooms, the corresponding LED will light up in all three rooms and remain lit until the corresponding button is pressed again (from any room).

Is this still correct or do we need more stations such as a lab, reception desk, etc.? How many stations are needed altogether? No more than four would be ideal as this is commonly available on eBay.

Now it sounds like the OP would like to add sound in addition to or instead of the LEDs. Is this correct?

The major item to keep in mind, again as I see it at the moment, is cost. You'll need a transmitter and receiver pair in every area you want to put these. If you use a single sound module, you'll need three (or more) per room and this adds up quickly.

If you opt for sound, I'd suggest something like this. It will allow you to add up to five different sounds via five buttons which could easily be connected to a module similar to the one inwo first posted. This module also allows you to add sound via USB, so you don't have to do your best robot voice impression. Ah, but where to get a robot-like voice to say exactly what you like? One option involves programming a text-to-speech module with a microcontroller (for others who find this topic of interest), but a cheaper solution is to use a converter online such as this. You can then download the file and load it into the UCB module. I think this combination along with a momentary only device similar to inwo's first link will work.

OP, what country are you located in? This will help us better tailor a solution and where to buy things.
Hi, thanks for the reply, I'm in the USA.

Basically, I want to be able to press a button in the exam room to summon a staff member when I need assistance. Our layout is such that the clinic is divided into a "back" and a "front". The front has a small lab, pharmacy and reception area. I don't mind having a tone in the back, but it would have to be discreet in the front, since our reception area is open to the lab/pharmacy, and it would have to indicate which room needs assistance since we often have two doctors working at the same time and I don't want staff "barging" in to the wrong room...it's not professional.

I'd like to be able to indicate, the easiest way possible, which exam room needs assistance; Room 1, Room 2 or Room 3, whether that be by tone or by a light indicator.

You are correct in that this is a moving target. ;) I know what I need but there are a number of good ideas of how I can get there. Simple is best, but cool is good too. I'm not in a hurry to find a solution and am open to any other suggestions on how I get from A to B.
 

elec_mech

Joined Nov 12, 2008
1,500
So that is four stations total then, correct? Three for the rooms and one for reception/lab/pharmacy - is this correct?

I'll have to give this some thought, but tentatively, I think you could go with a 4-channel latching TX/RX pair and use a simple edge-trigger circuit (two resistors and a capacitor) with the sound module. This would allow you to use a sound module and LED's for the room units and just the LED's for the reception area. The sound modules would only sound once but the LED's would stay on until the button was pressed again. Would this work for you?
 

inwo

Joined Nov 7, 2013
2,419
Sounds great.

Only thing I would add, it's important to have status lights at all transmit locations.

To see if toggle is on or off!

If that's not practical then use two buttons for each channel. On & off.
 

Thread Starter

drjsp

Joined Jul 7, 2014
29
So that is four stations total then, correct? Three for the rooms and one for reception/lab/pharmacy - is this correct?

I'll have to give this some thought, but tentatively, I think you could go with a 4-channel latching TX/RX pair and use a simple edge-trigger circuit (two resistors and a capacitor) with the sound module. This would allow you to use a sound module and LED's for the room units and just the LED's for the reception area. The sound modules would only sound once but the LED's would stay on until the button was pressed again. Would this work for you?
One sending unit/button in each of 3 exam rooms. One indicator auditory/visual in "back", One indicator in the middle of the clinic (auditory/visual), and possible one visual in front of the clinic.

Yes, it would be OK for the tone to sound once and the indicator light to stay on until turned off in the exam room.
 
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elec_mech

Joined Nov 12, 2008
1,500
Only thing I would add, it's important to have status lights at all transmit locations.

To see if toggle is on or off!
Inwo, so do you mean LED's at all locations so when one presses a button they immediately "see" the button press was recognized? Makes sense and it sounds like the OP is good with having LED's on all the receivers as well.

OP, so a total of six stations, three in the rooms with buttons, three outside the rooms with no buttons. Five units with the audio announcement and one without. All six with LED's. So far so good?

Yes, it would be OK for the tone to sound once and the indicator light to stay on until turned off in the exam room.
I take it by your statement this would be acceptable but perhaps not what you had in mind? Would this perform as you envision or do you have something else in mind? It will be much easier to make changes now in the design stage than later.

Thus far, we're looking at six transmitter/receiver pairs on the same frequency with a minimum of three buttons and a total of five sound modules each capable of playing three sounds. Will you want a fourth button in the future for some other function?

Would a flashing LED be better than one that stays lit? Flashing should help get people's attention, but I don't know if this would also become a distraction in the rooms with customers. Just a thought.
 

williamj

Joined Sep 3, 2009
180
If memory serves, (some time back) I read about transmitting higher frequency signal (higher than 60 Hertz) through 110/220V house wiring by just pugging in a transmitter in a wall outlet in one room and a receiver in a wall outlet another room. Just attach a signal light to the receiver and you have no wire installation.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
If memory serves, (some time back) I read about transmitting higher frequency signal (higher than 60 Hertz) through 110/220V house wiring by just pugging in a transmitter in a wall outlet in one room and a receiver in a wall outlet another room. Just attach a signal light to the receiver and you have no wire installation.
Check out the X10 protocol on Wikipedia.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard)

Could be an expensive solution though.
 
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Thread Starter

drjsp

Joined Jul 7, 2014
29
Inwo, so do you mean LED's at all locations so when one presses a button they immediately "see" the button press was recognized? Makes sense and it sounds like the OP is good with having LED's on all the receivers as well.

OP, so a total of six stations, three in the rooms with buttons, three outside the rooms with no buttons. Five units with the audio announcement and one without. All six with LED's. So far so good?



I take it by your statement this would be acceptable but perhaps not what you had in mind? Would this perform as you envision or do you have something else in mind? It will be much easier to make changes now in the design stage than later.

Thus far, we're looking at six transmitter/receiver pairs on the same frequency with a minimum of three buttons and a total of five sound modules each capable of playing three sounds. Will you want a fourth button in the future for some other function?

Would a flashing LED be better than one that stays lit? Flashing should help get people's attention, but I don't know if this would also become a distraction in the rooms with customers. Just a thought.
Good idea on the flashing light, I like that. No, will not ever need any more than three sending locations and three receiving locations. The only receiving station would be behind a counter in the "front", where clients could not see it.
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
In most of modern vessels, when underway, the engine room is unatended but there is always one engineer from the staff, designed as "on duty".

There are several alarm panels, in the bridge, messrooms, and engineers' cabins.

Whenever an alarm is raised in the engine room, it is displayed on all panels. It is up to the one "on duty" to stop the alarm and run to see what is going on.

I fail to recall how that system is called.
 

inwo

Joined Nov 7, 2013
2,419
I still like the first link.

One of three and a reset button.

Still not sure if one of three is acceptable to OP.

Have not found the ideal that would select 1-3 or combinations of 1-3 with a reset.

OP may have problems with complexity of modifications, so off the shelf is best.
 
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