Getting hypo alerts with libre, blucon and xDrip+

[Scott-C]

Hey Scott, thanks for this thread, it's been very informative and helpful.

How long does the Fossil battery charge last when used with a watchface like Nightwatch (Which I assume you're using by the picture you provided)?

Hi, Damon, I recharge the watch battery each night and it generally has about 40% to 50% charge remaining when I attach the charger.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure if it's Nightwatch or not! I think that's maybe more an xdrip thing whereas I'm using xdrip+. It's certainly the same style watchface, but after installing xdrip+ on my phone I just followed the instructions at the link below which told me to install the "wear component" from the Play-Store - didn't have a clue what that was (my first venture into smart watches!) but after lots of random button pressing got it to work.

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/blob/master/Documentation/WatchGuide.md

If you're tempted to try the blucon route, a word of caution - the makers, Ambrosia, are a small start up company, well meaning but fairly shambolic, and there's been reports of people having to chase them up about delays in delivery, the company has recently reported on twitter that they had underestimated demand and had sold out of stock but were getting on top of it. I suppose there's always the worry with small start up companies that they will go out of business for cash flow reasons or whatever, so ordering one is not 100% risk free.

By the way, I note this was your first post, so welcome to the club!

 

[Damon_]

Hi Scott,

Thank you for the information, after that I went on facebook and saw their post. I already read that some people had problems with delivery, so I went a different route.

I decided to go and order one off of ebay in the US from a medsupply reseller, who seems to be in stock and delivering. As luck would have it, I had just found a coupon code to use on ebay, so the price broke down to more or less the same (+/- 10 bucks)

What is your take on the accuracy of readings with calibrations after (assumed) usage of over a few weeks?

How often do you (or feel you have to) calibrate now?

By the way, I note this was your first post, so welcome to the club!

Thank you!

 

[Scott-C]

What is your take on the accuracy of readings with calibrations after (assumed) usage of over a few weeks?

How often do you (or feel you have to) calibrate now?

I calibrate it normally a couple of times a day, try to do it when levels are relatively stable.

I've not kept written records of accuracy against meter but over the 6 or 7 weeks I've been using it, the accuracy has been surprisingly good. On many ocassions, we're talking only about 0.1 to 0.4 difference and it'll hold that level for hours on end.

There's only been a couple of fliers where it's been about 1 to 1.5 out.

 

[WillHellens]

Hi,

Wish I'd seen this post prior to ordering the BluCon from Ambrosia. I placed the order a couple of weeks ago, have e-mailed them twice and have yet to receive a reply! Does anyone have any idea on current shipping times.

 

[MPM]

Hi all,
I have had the ambrosia BluCon for a while and stopped using it as it was so unreliable so when I read this post I thought I would give this X drip a go. 2 1/2 hours later and I am ready to put it back in the box again I just can't get this X drip app to read the BluCon, I know the BluCon is working as it is sending its readings to the LinkBluCon app on my phone. Has anyone had similar difficulties and found a solution? I am using a Samsung S5.

Thanks

Michael

 

[Scott-C]

Hi all,
I have had the ambrosia BluCon for a while and stopped using it as it was so unreliable so when I read this post I thought I would give this X drip a go. 2 1/2 hours later and I am ready to put it back in the box again I just can't get this X drip app to read the BluCon, I know the BluCon is working as it is sending its readings to the LinkBluCon app on my phone. Has anyone had similar difficulties and found a solution? I am using a Samsung S5.

Thanks

Michael

Hi, Michael, seeing as I started the thread, I suppose I better have a go at seeing if this can be sorted!

First, which nightly build of xDrip+ are you using? My understanding is that the ability to take data from blucon was only introduced from the 6 September 2017 build, so if you've got an earlier version, it won't work, because it wasn't designed to, so update to 6 Sep build or thereafter. Mine is using the 6 Sep one, works fine, I've deliberately not auto-loaded later versions in case something breaks.

Second, are you certain you've paired the blucon transmitter with xDrip+? There are some notes on how to do this at post #5 further up this thread. One of the things which foxed me on initial set up was that after selecting Libre Bluetooth as the hardware source and then doing the scan, when it found the blucon, I didn't realise that I had to click the found blucon to bring up a new screen where I could then type in the last six numbers on the side of the blucon to pair them. If you don't do that then they're not paired and they might as well be ships passing in the night. Also make sure blucon is actually on - if the scan doesn't find it, plip it with a cocktail stick again until you get the red flash. That routine might sound troublesome but I've only needed to do it once at initial setup.

Third, you say you know blucon is working because it's sending to linkblucon. It'll screw it up if you're trying to run both linkblucon and xdrip+ at the same time, so close linkblucon and try again. I ended up deleting it. Others have had problems running the two together and solved it by getting rid of linkblucon:
https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/issues/175

Fourth, I know nada about phones - maybe there's just an issue with S5 and xDrip+. If you can't get it to work after checking the above, maybe scroll through the open and closed issues at this link to see if S5 issues have come up:
https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/issues?q=is:open+is:issue

Fifth, might sound too obvious to considet, but have you definitely got bluetooth switched on?!


Have a stab at all of the above, and if it still isn't working, maybe post back and explain what steps you've taken, particularly in relation to pairing the blucon with xDrip+ through the settings/hardware data source set up. I was just about to throw it back in the box as well till I realised I'd missed that bit - seems obvious now, but wasn't at the time, that I had to click it to bring up the entry screen for the transmitter number.

All of the above is based on the 6/9/17 build - might have changed since then.

Good luck with it - once you start getting those 5 min blue dots appearing, it's sweet as!

 

[Damon_]

Has anyone had similar difficulties and found a solution? I am using a Samsung S5.

Hi Michael,

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5, I will post detailed updates as soon as I get my blucon. Try everything Scott said and report back!

I placed the order a couple of weeks ago, have e-mailed them twice and have yet to receive a reply!

Try contacting them on facebook. They replied to me within a few hours.


@Scott-C
Do you have any problems with the Fossil Q Explorist so far? I've read a ton of reviews and quite a few people have troubles with accidentally clicking the watchbuttons when they move their wrist during daily activities.

What's your take?

 

[Scott-C]

Do you have any problems with the Fossil Q Explorist so far? I've read a ton of reviews and quite a few people have troubles with accidentally clicking the watchbuttons when they move their wrist during daily activities.

What's your take?

The watch has been working fine for me.

I've worn it with short sleeves, long sleeves, formal shirts, informal shirts, jumpers on top of both, formal suits. I've never had a problem with accidentally pressing buttons.

 

[MPM]

Thanks for your reply Scott-C I will have a go at that tomorrow and post how things went

Mike

 

[Damon_]

And we are live!

I can't for the life of me get the cap unscrewed however. I've already damaged the groove by applying so much force, but it wouldn't budge.

Got any tips for the cap?

The Ambrosia facebook support gave me this video, but I still can't get the **** thing open!

 

[Scott-C]

And we are live!

Yay! It's great when those first few blue dots appear for the first time!

Had a look at the video. Mine doesn't have that black rubber sealing ring. I had pre-ordered mine ages back so must have got an earlier version. It looks like they might have decided to 'improve" later versions by adding the rubber ring to make it water proof but have got the tolerances wrong making the cap difficult to shift without removing the ring. Obviously puts you in a bit of a catch-22 though if you can't remove the cap to remove the ring. On twitter there's a post on 26 October saying that they would send replacement caps as some caps are too tight (but still doesn't solve the problem of removing it in the first place). Maybe just a case of gently easing it to and fro for a while to see if it eventually gives. It's always the same with new products - they make an "improvement" and it makes it more awkward.

 

[MPM]

Hi Scott-C,
Had another go at this today after I uninstalled the LinkBluCon from phone and with a bit of fiddling I got this to work have done the calibration and will be interested to see how it goes.
Thanks for your help and advice it was greatly appreciated

Mike

 

[Scott-C]

Hi Scott-C,
Had another go at this today after I uninstalled the LinkBluCon from phone and with a bit of fiddling I got this to work have done the calibration and will be interested to see how it goes.
Thanks for your help and advice it was greatly appreciated

Mike

Great, Mike, good to hear you got it working.

 

[laciapu]

Dear All,
First post here as father of a 6y old girl who was diagnosed with T1DM in mid-September this year. She is wearing the Libre sensor and we are trying to put the Blucon NightRider and xDrip+ app to work and get back some sleep. Installed latest version of xDrip+ on a Samsung A3 (2017) and it recognizes the Blucon, asks for the 6 digit serial number then goes into a never-ending collection cycle of the first two readings. It appears something is wrong with the BT pairing, it doesn't want to connect, see screenshots below. I've tried everything suggested within this thread to no avail. What else to try, is there a compatibility issue between the Samsung A3/xDrip+ and the Blucon? Thanks for your help,
Best regards,
laciapu

 

[wrobin]

Dear All,
First post here as father of a 6y old girl who was diagnosed with T1DM in mid-September this year. She is wearing the Libre sensor and we are trying to put the Blucon NightRider and xDrip+ app to work and get back some sleep. Installed latest version of xDrip+ on a Samsung A3 (2017) and it recognizes the Blucon, asks for the 6 digit serial number then goes into a never-ending collection cycle of the first two readings. It appears something is wrong with the BT pairing, it doesn't want to connect, see screenshots below. I've tried everything suggested within this thread to no avail. What else to try, is there a compatibility issue between the Samsung A3/xDrip+ and the Blucon? Thanks for your help,
Best regards,
laciapu
View attachment 24820 View attachment 24821

I don't really know what I'm doing as I've only been using this system since Christmas Eve, but did you set the hardware data source to be Libre Bluetooth? It's off the settings menu

When I look at the system status screen it says Data Source: Bluecon and in the photo above yours says LimTTer

Hope you get it working

 

[Scott-C]

Dear All,
First post here as father of a 6y old girl who was diagnosed with T1DM in mid-September this year. She is wearing the Libre sensor and we are trying to put the Blucon NightRider and xDrip+ app to work and get back some sleep. Installed latest version of xDrip+ on a Samsung A3 (2017) and it recognizes the Blucon, asks for the 6 digit serial number then goes into a never-ending collection cycle of the first two readings. It appears something is wrong with the BT pairing, it doesn't want to connect, see screenshots below. I've tried everything suggested within this thread to no avail. What else to try, is there a compatibility issue between the Samsung A3/xDrip+ and the Blucon? Thanks for your help,
Best regards,
laciapu
View attachment 24820 View attachment 24821

The bit on the screenshot saying "Buggy Samsung using workaround" suggests it's maybe an unresolved issue with the specific phone model.

The developer, jamorham, will probably be able to throw some light on it, you can sign up on github to ask questions, link below.

Issues page is at link below, can't see a way to search it for samsung to see if there's a solution but maybe worth having a browse to see if it's been raised as an issue.

A recurring problem seems to be the phone having "location" switched off. Don't know if that'll sort it but maybe worth checking location is on.

I had a problem with it hanging on initial set up, but just switching phone off and on again got it sorted. However, the "buggy samsung" bit suggests something more fundamental.

If it just won't play with your model of phone, it runs fine on an LG K8 4G which was a reasonable 95 quid.

Hope you get it sorted - it's a nice piece of kit.

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/issues

 

[Scott-C]

I don't really know what I'm doing as I've only been using this system since Christmas Eve, but did you set the hardware data source to be Libre Bluetooth? It's off the settings menu

When I look at the system status screen it says Data Source: Bluecon and in the photo above yours says LimTTer

Hope you get it working

Nah, I don't think it's that. I'm running the 6 September build with blucon and it's saying it's connected to limiTTer.

It was raised as an issue at link below, it appears to just be a front end gui issue - it is paired with blucon but the coding shows the transmitter in the bit we see as limiTTer.

The thread at the link suggests it was fixed, but the issue is still open, suggesting not, and laciapu's screenshots also suggest not.

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/issues/178

By the way, I see you got it up and running with nightscout - congrats! I had a look at the instructions for that and it looked terrifying!

I've been curious about the Settings/xDrip+ Sync settings, see screenshot below. Can't find much guidance about it, there's a couple of videos. It looks like you might just enable the main phone as a master to following phones, download xDrip+ to another phone, select xDrip+ Sync Follower as data source on the second phone and then enter the sync key from the first phone. I've not got a spare phone to try it out on and don't need to share levels anyway but it would be interesting to know if it can be "plugged into" other phones as easily as that. I'm just wondering, though, whether it would mean the main phone would be making a short phone call every 5 min read to update the following phone - could end up expensive on phone call charges.

 

[Proto]

Nah, I don't think it's that. I'm running the 6 September build with blucon and it's saying it's connected to limiTTer.

It was raised as an issue at link below, it appears to just be a front end gui issue - it is paired with blucon but the coding shows the transmitter in the bit we see as limiTTer.

The thread at the link suggests it was fixed, but the issue is still open, suggesting not, and laciapu's screenshots also suggest not.

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/issues/178

By the way, I see you got it up and running with nightscout - congrats! I had a look at the instructions for that and it looked terrifying!

I've been curious about the Settings/xDrip+ Sync settings, see screenshot below. Can't find much guidance about it, there's a couple of videos. It looks like you might just enable the main phone as a master to following phones, download xDrip+ to another phone, select xDrip+ Sync Follower as data source on the second phone and then enter the sync key from the first phone. I've not got a spare phone to try it out on and don't need to share levels anyway but it would be interesting to know if it can be "plugged into" other phones as easily as that. I'm just wondering, though, whether it would mean the main phone would be making a short phone call every 5 min read to update the following phone - could end up expensive on phone call charges.

View attachment 24834

When I used the Master- Follower settings I had my tablet as the follower and it looked like the phone (as the master) would broadcast the readings over my WiFi. When I left for work the tablet would not update during the day but when I got back home after about 10 minutes the tablet would download the days readings (although only the BG readings would transfer not any dosing or carb info).

Don't need to do that anymore since I set up Nightscout . Setting it up isn't that bad, they've got a script that you just run from your own github account to a Heroku site you set up and since you're already running xdrip you only need to put in you're site URL to upload everything. Its really good having the reports from NS, its gives a more thorough overview of your management.

 

[laciapu]

Dear forum members,

Thanks for the fast replies, much appreciated. As Scott-C noted the "Buggy Samsung-using workaround" message suggest basic problems with this particular phone model or with Samsung phones in general. Hard to be wise in this arena, I've settled with the A3 as our "diabetes-phone" since it can safely be used as a backup reader for the Libre, up-to-date, relatively capable and affordable. Little did I know that it's going to have issues with the Blucon transmitter. Strange thing is that the phone registers the hexadecimal BT dress of the Blucon yet it cannot read its name (= and cannot pair), while other BT-enabled devices in our flat register and connect to the phone without any problem telling me that there might be some BT peculiarity at the Blucon side too. However, it works with the iPhone/LinkBluCon combo adding more to the confusion. Anyway, I'll investigate this further and ask help of jamorham. In the meantime, can you please suggest some cheap tablets that have no issues whatsoever with the Blucon, thanks.

I wish you all and your loved ones in-range BG values for the coming years, no highs neither lows, and let's hope that 2018 will take us closer to the artificial pancreas and a permanent treatment of this disease.
Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Laciapu

 

[Scott-C]

Cheers, @Proto , I might give it a go.