Eric,
It does work in manual mode almost the same as the Animas did, but there is the lure of AUTO mode…
I have been switching between the two modes.
I also have had “unpredictable” BS with every type of insulin treatment I have had. The pump has controlled the lows for the most part. Highs are hard to fix. My A1C has been low to mid 6’s since diagnosis and treatment 1992.
Is the interface okay in manual mode? I mean, if there was no auto mode, it was just a normal pump, would it be reasonably usable?
I was curious because not only did @drbbennett quit auto mode, he actually returned to using his old pump.
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Now that the question is asked, I also am quite curious.
How long does it take to switch from Manual to Auto? Is it accomplished in two seconds with the push of a button or once the mode is selected does it require xxx amount of time to activate or otherwise be completely online and doing what it is supposed to do?
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For me, and maybe not for you, it was in controlling the lows that auto CAUSED the highs… I traded in my crappy hypos for really crappy highs.
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In theory… in THEORY… it’s a matter of a push of a button or 3. In reality, it’s not the way it works. This is where the sensor problems come in. Auto mode requires a relatively fresh calibration. It also has its own, semi-secret, highly annoying set of rules for calibrations. So although you should be able to just turn it on, if it requires a new calibration, you have it to give it. There’s a 35% rule where your BG has to be within 35% of your SG… which often knocks you out of the running if you’re climbing or falling, but there’s ANOTHER rule that is less clear. It has to do with the calibration factor, and it can create problems even when you have an IDENTICAL MATCH between SG and BG. So I could have a pair of 120s, but auto decides the calibration is no good. If I attempt it a second time, I’m told to change my sensor.
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Great explanation, thanks!
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I meant the animas insulin pump…jury is still out on this 670g. I see hours where there are no micro boluses. Thanks to the honesty group I now know I need to watch this and head off highs. I set the alarm at 150 so I can take action.
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Really? 
You know how to use your graph screen, obviously, to look for minimum delivery, but do you know to add up your micros to look for a reduced rate? I was blown away by minimum delivery in the beginning, but it really turned out that my rates during the times I WAS getting micros were even more mind numbing. There would be stretches of 6, 7, 8 hours where I had received a total of 30% of my hourly basal rate, but if I looked at my screen, I would see a pretty regular delivery of pink dots. I had to learn to add up the dots starting about 5 or so hours before a big high to see what had led up to it.
I think so…and it is really mind numbing. But It has only been a few weeks since I have had this knowledge about the micro boluses.
Plus I see in AM, that there are no real alarms, I can see how this will play out in the end for me I think it will be manual mode too.
Thomas,
It is just a push of a button, plus making sure all of the alarms are set right to go from Auto to Manual Mode.
I learned about the alarms by way of an embarrassing situation at a dance performance where the Alert on High came on when in Manual mode. Later I got the book out and saw how in Auto the alarms for high and low shut off because the Auto is supposed to be smoothing everything out. In Manual, you want the alarms turned on, especially the Suspend On Low! That is what I always wanted when I had the Animas Ping, it it is what every non-Type 1 thinks a pump should be doing.
The switch back to Auto from Manual is usually not a big deal for me but sometimes it does require a bunch of entered BS’s and what not. I do not recommend this pump for a child and I will not get it again when my warranty expires 12/21 unless there is a lot of improvement.
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Sorry for the delayed answer but yes, so I did. Because even in manual the 670 was just so irritating to use. The decision happened one morning a couple of weeks after I quit auto. I’d gone back to using Dexcom because the Guardian sensors were such a PIA to deal with, too, and I wasn’t using the suspend-before-low thing anyway. I was getting ready for my morning shower, when my habit is to suspend my pump for the duration, and I realized I was sick and tired of the ridiculousness of having to do fully 10 clicks (the last one of which is f’rcripesakes “Are you sure you want to do this?”) to accomplish that simple operation, whereas on my old pager-style Paradigm, which I still had, it was just a couple. Bolus wizard was similar, with the extra confirmation screen at the end, announced by the exact same alert tone as the one indicating it was starting bolus delivery, and I lost count of how many times I had to do the whole business over again because I thought I had started a bolus but instead it timed out. And of course it couldn’t just go back to the previous screen or beep again to let you know; it cancels out of the whole excessively-clicky operation. “Why am I using this thing,” I asked myself, “when I have a perfectly good older pump that doesn’t go out of its way to treat me like an idiot six times a day?” I couldn’t come up with a compelling answer.
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Sounds like Windows Vista/7!!!
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I cannot stand how many buttons to do any activity. I love the wrong button pushed almost every time I want to look at something. i don’t think I have a way out though. I do think i will just do the manual mode because AM was okay sometimes, but the catch up if it was not okay is impossible for me without a shot in the arm of Novolog. Thanks for your reply.
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