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David David is
86 and in a manual wheelchair.
His right leg has been amputated
below the knee. He lives
by himself in a ranch house.
He has health care workers
visiting daily. He is quite
mobile and still drives on
occasion.
However, it takes him at
least 5 minutes to get out of
bed. This single
limitation is what prompted
David to call Custom Automation
Technologies, Inc.
David told us that if he is
in bed when the doorbell rings
that he never knows who rang the
doorbell since no one will wait
around for 5 minutes. All
visitors think he is not home
and just leave. What David
said would solve this problem is
if he could talk to the visitor
at the front door from his bed.
The Solution
Custom Automation
Technologies, Inc. installed a
Doorbell Fon system and electric
door strike. This system
rings all phones with a
distinctive ring when the
doorbell button is pressed.
David has a phone by his bed so
he just answers the phone to
talk to the visitor. If he
wants to let the visitor in,
David presses the '*' key
on the phone and door is
unlocked. David usually
has a cordless phone with him in
his wheelchair. This means
that he can talk to the visitor
and unlock the door from his
wheelchair, no matter where he
is in the house.
The system supports call
waiting, so if David is talking
on the phone and the doorbell
rings, he hears a beep and can
then press the FLASH
button on the phone, talk to the
visitor (and unlock the door if
desired), then press FLASH again
to return to his phone call.
A UPS was installed so that
the entire system (doorbell,
phones ringing, and electric
strike) will still work in the
event of a power failure.
 The electric strike installed
is not the standard strike used
for a doorknob latch.
David's strike works on the
deadbolt. This allows
David to have the added security
of a deadbolt lock.
The manual deadbolt knob on
the inside of the door is still
functional. This allows
for normal, manual operation of
the door, just as it was
operated before the system was
installed.
Finally, a Push-to-Exit
button was installed on the
inside wall next to the front
door. This allows someone,
a health care worker for
example, to let themselves out
and have the deadbolt lock when
they close the door.
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