New here, but have been reading lots of posts prior to starting with a G6 tonight (we’re in the UK). It’s been super useful.
Our son, James is 9 years old with T1.
We’re using xdrip primarily for two reasons - 1) we had a libre and nightrider previously and 2) our phones won’t run the Dexcom apps anyway…
So, tonight we put on our first g6 sensor and transmitter (9.15pm) and haven’t waited for the 2 hours warm up. Just used the set-up wizard in xdrip to find the transmitter. It has, and we typed in the 6 digit code. Pretty soon after (9.30 ish) it said it had data and wanted us to manunally calibrate…
… now we know we’re supposed to put in th 4 digit sensor code to avoid this but we haven’t had the opportunity yet…
I’ve said no to manual calibration and am waiting…
Will I get an opportunity to put in the sensor code in a couple of hours, or should I have waited for the 2 hours in the first place? If so, is it best to reinstal xdrip around 11.30 and try all of this again?
Welcome, glad you decided to post! It makes everything so much nicer to have new faces. @docslotnick should be along shortly to answer your question. Unfortunately, I am not sure.
Were you able to get the NHS to fund your Dexcom, or did you have to fund out of pocket?
Thanks Chris and good to meet you! You’re doing great work here - thanks so much for setting this all up for everyone.
In answer to your question, we’re getting some sensors per year from NHS, but the rest we’ll be paying for ourselves. Kinda works out similar to the Libre for us in terms of costs. Beyond that we’re just amazed how much great tech there is out there these days. We started on MDI and finger pricks a mere 5 years ago. Now an omnipod and G6. Staggering really.
Anyway… in regard to what we posted earlier… we gave it another go - from scratch - and the wizard offered up the sensor code input window this time so we’ve just got our first readings through without manually calibrating. Cue much rejoicing!
I’ve no idea what happened with the set-up wizard the first time around but we love xDrip so much it would have been hard to go the Dexcom app route if the problems had persisted i think…
So fingers crossed! Another hard fought little victory that’s ended at 2am in the morning (once again)!
@JanetC I can usually answer any xDrip+ question that may be asked, but this one stumps me because I haven’t started my G6 sensors yet (I just started my last G5).
@JanetC You just about had it. The steps for starting a G6 are:
In the set up wizard, choose G4/G5/G6 and then choose G6. You will then enter your transmitter code. Evidently you did this.
Now, choose start a new sensor in settings. You should be asked for your sensor id, but maybe not until the 2 hour warm-up.
From my understanding of your o.p. you didn’t start from the settings dialogue so we’re never offered the opportunity to enter the code for non-calibration.
Also be aware that if you allow a sensor restart in xDrip+ then after 10 days you will need to resume finger stick calibrations.
Yes we got there, thank you! We had a second attempt a couple of hours later and the set-up wizard asked for the sensor code this time around. Not entirely sure we did anything very different from the first time but we got there which is the important bit! Thanks for your help
We’ll watch out for the 10 day rule and manual finger pricks… doesn’t seem too bad a price to pay for free days I guess…
I’ve got another couple of questions that I thought I’d ask… teething problems I suppose - don’t know if anyone can help…
There’s a battery warning level setting in the G5/G6 settings menu and it’s set to 290 as default. I have no idea whether this number is a good treshold value or not but i got a notification that battery had fallen below this and I would need to watch that it didn’t fail (words to that effect). The battery should be brand new because the transmitter is brand new. Am I just getting this warning because the limit is set too high? And if so, what should it be set at?
On Libre and nightrider on the xdrip home page, alongside the minutes elapsed, we used to get a sensor duration in days and hours, it was handy to know how long the sensor had been active for. Don’t seem to have that any more
Nightscout website - couple of things here too - the arrow direction seems to be stuck on horizontal now since the swap to the G6. So, no matter what the blood sugar levels are rising or falling by it stays level - so no down, up or diagonal. And I noticed that nightscout is a version from 2017 - 0.10.0-release-20170922 (I guess when we originally installed it on heroku and set up the Mongolab db?) Is there any way to have updates of nightscout to latest version? Or would I have to go through the process of recompiling a new Nightscout website in Heroku?
Sorry, a lot there, but hopefully it all makes sense. Can repost as new topics if that makes more sense.
The battery warning level on the G6 is quite a bit different than on the G5, and I have heard a lot of problems with this. I think that for the time being you can just ignore it.
If you go into System Status you can see elapsed days since the sensor was started
Sounds like you figured that out.
Glad you got the G6 going. I’ll be asking for your help in about 10 days when I start mine!
Yeah, that battery thing’s a bit odd but just gonna ignore it, as you say.
And yes, good luck with yours when you get it. We’ll all be experts soon enough Gotta say - touch wood - the G6 and xDrip+ have great connectivity so far. No dropped signals at all. Feels very stable. the libre/nightrider/xDrip+ combo could be a bit choppy at times.
Anyway, thanks for all your help so far. it’s great to find kind, knowledgeable people on this journey
That doesn’t happen for me, but then I’m in the US so maybe the coding is different. I’m currently on 13 days and I haven’t calibrated once. I don’t actually much care about the absolute readings though and I’ve noticed they are +/- at least 15mg/dl (this is the US) from my Contour fingerstick; all I really want from the G6 is the trend and some ballpark of where the blood glucose is.
BTW I’m using preemptive restart with xDrip+ and I did notice that it is very easy to get a sensor started without entering the calibration code. IRC what I did was to stop the sensor then start it again in order to enter the code, but I’m not sure about this - just that I fixed it somehow.
I restarted my G6 with xDrip+ using Stop Sensor–Don’t Sop, Just Reset All Calibrations. The sensor restarted, and my Dexcom receiver accepted it, pushing the expiration out ten days. Readings just continued on both devices. No request for calibrations yet after six days, but I do calibrate daily anyway, having seen one 60 point and one 30 point discrepancy.
I’m seeing discrepancies which are consistent with those I’ve seen in the first 10 days: still +/-15 in the range 100-180 mg/dl (US). Outside that range I feel I need to check the readings.
At this moment xDrip+ tells me the sensor start was 24 days ago, I’m at 107 but descending rapidly (I think I overdid dinner) however, solely because I’m typing this, I did a fingerstick (Contour USB) and it came back at 103.
Unlike the fingerstick with the G6 I can watch what happens in real time (well, maybe a few minutes delay) and head off any problems before they happen.
Gotta say - touch wood - the G6 and xDrip+ have great connectivity so far. No dropped signals at all. Feels very stable. the libre/nightrider/xDrip+ combo could be a bit choppy at times.