• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Getting hypo alerts with libre, blucon and xDrip+

Scot C.-Your explanations on how to use the Bluecon were perfect. I got mine up and running with no problem by just following what you wrote very carefully. Thanks so much for posting this. Now I have everything that the Dexcom does for one tenth of the price, thanks to you!

 
Anyone seen/used Spike-app?? An alternative to XDrip. Still waiting for my Bluecon to arrive so haven't tested either yet.
 
queenofit said:
Anyone seen/used Spike-app?? An alternative to XDrip. Still waiting for my Bluecon to arrive so haven't tested either yet.
Click to expand...

I hadn't heard of spike-app before. I couldn't find much on the internet about it apart from their website https://spike-app.com/#

Were you able to download it?

Don't know anything at all about iphones (most I've ever paid for a phone is 95 quid!), but the site says it's for ios and is a beta version, open source, copyright date on the webpage is 2018 so seems to be a new entrant at development stage.

Not sure if it's just vapour-ware (mind you, people were saying that about blucon when the launch date kept on being pushed back..and..back..and...back...!).

Am slightly cautious about other searches for "spike" bringing up the remarkably similarly named "spike app" minus the hyphen at https://www.thespikeapp.com , apparently based in Beirut, offering some sort of "diabetes assistant". The wording on their site just doesn't "chime".

It seems strange that there's two remarkably simarly named apps appearing about the same time but doing different things.

The spike-app site mentions rather vaguely, getting the most out of your cgm transmitter".

Which transmitters? Sure, there's a graphic on the home page showing screenshots of settings pages, and the one on the bottom mentions a "data source" option. xDrip+ has that too, which is how you can tell it to take data from a variety of sources such as g5, g4, librealarm, and now "libre bluetooth" for blucon. So, I suppose if you download spike-app, it would be a case of looking through it's data source options to see if there is one which caters for blucon. If not, it's highly unlikely to work with blucon.

Couple of screenshots to show what I'm blethering about, first us the graphic from spike-app, second is the data source options page from xdrip+.



 

Cheers, it's a surprise anyone has been able to follow them as they mainly involved sitting in the pub for an afternoon randomly pressing buttons on xdrip to see what they did!

I've had an interesting time with it, coming up for about five months now.

Not really had any glitches with it all - xdrip is a really solid app: the lead developer, jamorham, and his co-developers are geniuses in my humble opinion.

The blucon transmitter is doing it's bit as well - I was worried when I first got it that it might break after a while being a new product, but it's been working away quite happily for about 8 or 9 months now, first with Ambrosia's inhouse app, then with xdrip since September. Don't know if it will just pack up after a while but there's not really anything to break, it's just some electronics.
 
i haven’t installed it as you need to be invited through TestFlight and I thought I’d ask on here whether it’s any good before doing that. The group on fb is reporting good things and it does appear to be compatible with the blucon. Will watch and learn...!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Only issue I am having is if I have been inside for a while, and suddenly get up to go for a small walk or even a long walk outside, it now seems to tend to miss signals while outside a lot, which with nightime, is pretty much where I would want to use it. I just changed the battery in the Blucon last night, so we'll see if that helps.
 
Out of curiosity, what discrepancies have you noticed in terms of the hba1c calculated by xDrip+ and actual hba1c from blood?
My son's been type one for a year now, and his hba1c were 5.8; 5.9 and 6. xDrip now suggesting his current hba1c is 7 (two weeks on blucon and xdrip). I have observed that the past couple of months his BS have not been as steady as earlier, but I was certainly not happy to see the xDrip estimate at 7%.

Thanx for all you info.
 

Joe, don't know if you got that sorted out or not, but I have a sketch at the xdrip+ issues page from time to time and noticed a recent one at link below about it recently hanging when used with watches, and a commentator saying there's been issues since January. Now that I think about it, I've got a vague recollection of others posting on other fora about missed readings since January.

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/issues/313

Might be worthwhile switching the Wear Integration off as suggested by the poster to see if it makes a difference to missed readings.

I suppose this is the thing with using open source research apps - way better than "official" stuff feature-wise, but so much rapid prototyping flying around, they fix one thing and it inadvertently glitches another, although I suppose you can say that about any software updates.

I've been quite conservative with it: am still running the 6/9/17 nightly I originally downloaded and, as it worked, have deliberately not updated to later versions in case it breaks.

If the problem persists, might be worthwhile considering deleting current version and reverting to an earlier pre-January nightly.
 

I've only had one a1c in hospital since using it, it was reasonably close: xdrip said 34/5.3 hospital said 32/5.1, using the 90 day option in Statistics, which seems the most likely comparator to a true a1c.

You're maybe comparing apples with pears. Hospital a1c is based on what's happened over 2 to 3 months. Whereas you've been using xdrip for 2 weeks so it's only got that 2 weeks to work with - it's good but can't know what happened in the previous 10 weeks before that!
 
Thanks @Scott-C
Past two weeks on xdrip pretty much the same as past two months on libre and glimp. I now know what to expect from the hospital's hba1c.
Your numbers are exceptional!
Btw, it was a post you wrote, and I read back in November, that made me look into the blucon. Thanks for that too. ☺
 
Hi everyone. I've been reading through the thread, but couldn't find an answer to one question (apologies if it's in the thread and I overlooked). Anyway, I'm wondering what is the best way to connect the blucon to the sensor so that you can easily remove it for a shower, to put it on another sensor etc. Anyone have any suggestions?
 

It's a bit cheap and cheerful, but I ended up just sticking it on with a Molnlycke Mepore 7 x 8 cm plaster, see photo below, most UK chemists sell them for 17p, not on display, they've got a box behind the counter, so you've got to ask.

The padded area is big enough to accomodate the blucon without gumming it up with sticky stuff.

Haven't had any allergic reactions to the plaster adhesive.

Sure, means another 17p every time I shower, but, whatever, it holds it tight against the sensor.

Others have used modified running bands you'd use for jogging with a phone, but I gave up on those as they were too fiddly. Armbands sound good initially, but there's issues with getting the tension right: too little, it falls off, maybe dragging the sensor out of line with it; too much, it's uncomfortable to wear and might cause artificial compression lows.

Some use velcro dots: one bit on the sensor, the other bit on the blucon underside. Not sure, though, about whether pulling the blucon off will dislocate the sensor.

 
Hi, www.freestylelibresticker.de
They sell some plastic caps with rubber bands. You can order bands for replacement in different colours. A bit expensive, but it works. Kids would love this site, as they sell stickers to mask the sensor.
 
Hi,

Today I have been getting the missed signal note on xdrip+. Maybe 6-7 times. Missing signal for like 15-20 minutes, and then the readings will be displayed. Blucon is well secured. Phone is within few meters. Nothing out of the ordinary. My son's phone is the master and he noticed the battery info said 3%. Second time he checked it said 100%. We have been usibg blucon and xdrip for three weeks now, I suspect the battery should be causing this. Any ideas?
 

There's been a few posts on the developer's issues page reporting this sort of thing since January, not just with blucon but also dexcom.

I suppose one of the dangers with using software which is still in development is that they fix one thing and it inadvertently breaks another.

The version I'm running is from 6 September and I've deliberately not upgraded it because it ain't broke, so if it persists, might be an option tp go back and download an earlier pre-January version.

Earlier versions are here:
https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases

Or it could just be the battery! I tend to change mine each two weeks when I'm changing the sensor, although I ran one for about 3 weeks before getting the 3% warning.
 
Thanks for that. I will check the battery more closely then. I was expecting it to last longer than two or three weeks.
 

Found this article about Spike, a screenshot in it shows blucon as a data source.

https://www.mtransmiter.pl/?p=763&lang=en

 
I keep trying to calibrate and it says, "not enough recent sensor data, cancelling." I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Turning off and turning on. Rebooting the sensor's pairing with xdrip and it keeps coming back to the same thing. Any ideas?
 

That's a new one on me. Can't see any hints or tips anywhere. Maybe sign up at the link below and run it past them. The developer of xdrip+, jamorham, always seems to be very responsive to queries.

https://gitter.im/jamorham/xDrip-plus?at=5a997e6a888332ee3aef77c3

Some users have reported some random stuff happening since January so if it persists I suppose it would be an option to install an earlier release. I'm running the 6 September 2017 version and have deliberately decided not to apply the regular upgrades as I there seems little point in risking breaking it when it's working ok as is.
 
I'm finding it a little bit inaccurate when moving and after excercise. For instance, I might calibrate to say i'm 5.7, great, it matches the blood test now. No I go for a 2km walk, nice and brisk, expect it to bring my levels down....perfect it does that. Blucon is telling me now i'm approaching 4.2, maybe even throws in an alarm...again no problem.

However, if I swipe my Libre, it tells me i'm 5.2, and a finger prick tells me i'm 5.3....but Blucon is telling me i'm 4.2 and not going back up if I leave it for half hour plus. This leaves me a little weary after any exercise

Anyone seen this? Would it be calibration issues?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…