Hacker help for Invicare bed

[johncohn]

A friend of mine's husband has ALS and now only has movement in his right thumb. He no longer has the strength to actuate the head and foot controls on his Invicare bed. My friend has asked if I can rig up an easier to actuate switch to control the bed. I am a reasonily experienced maker of things.. so I am planning on building a simple tap controller (2 taps.. raise head, 3 taps lower head 1 tap stop.. etc) .. I have two questions..

1) before I invent something new, does anyone know of an affordable alternative to making an invicare bed controller easier to operate ?

2) before I mess with the bed controller.. does anyone know of the pinout of the cable from the controller to the bed ? The controller has 4 buttons (head up/down. foot up.down) The controller is tied to the bed with a cable that ends in an 8 pin modular connection like that used for a CAT5 ethernet device. I'm hoping that the switches are simple SPST connections, but the CAT5 makes me wonder if it's some sort of fancier signaling (serial or IP). I called invicare, though they are kind and understanding, they are not willing to talk abut this for liability reasons..

Any suggestions appreciated...
-jc in vt

 

[ZenArcher]

As a "modifier" and a PALS I have few thoughts. First, I personally wouldn't use a tap for two reasons. I find tapping is becoming more difficult and if you have two taps to start moving the head how do you specify which way and how do you stop? I think a momentary contact DPDT for each section (head/foot) would be easier to manipulate and build.

I have no knowledge of the Invacare controller other than what I just found on the net. It's feasible that there is only a 5V control voltage going to the controller which a CAT5 cable is more than capable of handling. Sounds like time to open the controller and break out the DVM.

 

[boblandstar1]

I suggest a foot operated control. Mounted on the bed rail. See mount here http://www.ram-mount.com/CatalogRes...82065077045066045049052057090085/Default.aspx UNIVERSAL holder here http://www.ram-mount.com/CatalogRes...65077045072079076045085078049085/Default.aspx

The holder comes in sm med or lg. MEASURE your CONTROL and GET the correct HOLDER .