Anyone ever had that issue? It’s a first for me…the PDM said batteries need changed, but when I changed the batteries suddenly I received a POD error ringing and the PDM basically reset…asking me for date/time configuration again. All the insulin information, including the current IOB, also disappeared.
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This may be related to what @Eric discussed a while back:
Before then I changed my batteries whenever the display showed they were getting low, but since that warning I’ve superstitiously changed them only after deactivating a pod.
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Definitely a lesson learned!
@ClaudnDaye,
A few things to mention here!
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The PDM has an internal battery, and should be able to keep the time/date for many minutes. Certainly enough time to change the batteries. If it is under warranty, you can get a new PDM from Insulet for free. (I did not get a new one, I like my history with this PDM, so I am keeping mine!)
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The clock on mine does not always reset. I have done many battery changes without losing the time. It’s a bit of a crap-shoot, but I do my battery changes as fast as I can, and only occasionally does the clock reset. Doing the battery swap very quickly might help.
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The battery lasts a while past the time when you see the low indicator. After you see the battery indicator showing as low, the next thing will be when it is blinking. Once the battery indicator is blinking, that is when it is seriously time for a new battery! If it isn’t blinking, you have some time left.
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Changing the battery when doing a new pod is ideal. If you can’t do it that way, try to do the battery swap quickly. If the pod bombs out, you can always get the pod replaced.
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Did your pod automatically deactivate? It should only deactivate when you choose that. The PDM will tell you that you need to deactivate and replace the pod after you do the clock reset, but I found that I didn’t really need to right away. On one previous occasion, after resetting my PDM clock, it said to deactivate the pod, but I was in the middle of something so I ignored the message. I was not able to bolus, because I could not get past the PDM warning screen urging me to deactivate, but the pod remained alive and active. I could hear it still clicking as it delivered basal. So I just stayed with it for many hours and kept the basal going until I was ready to activate a new one.
Anyway, you should be able to get the pod and PDM replaced.
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We have had our PDM also since he was diagnosed and we’ve never had this issue. I think I know what caused it. I knew about the internal battery; however, in the past, I’ve always waited until the PDM “died” -aka-, we see the blinking, and we tell each other “We need to be on the lookout because the PDM is going to die soon and we’ll need to change the batteries.” This time; however, we noticed the blinking last night and the PDM was still blinking this morning after breakfast. The PDM was left sitting for a couple hours and I believe somewhere during that time the PDM power actually crapped out and because it was sitting to long w/o batteries being changed, that caused this to happen.
Yes, it did stay on, but I wasn’t able to do anything with it other than click confirm for the message that the battery needed changed. As soon as I confirmed, it did shut off immediately. After I changed the batteries, then the POD alarmed.
So, I’m only speculating, but I think the problem is that I should have changed the batteries either last night or this morning before it actually came to push that final message out. We’ve never had a problem in the past, but from now on, to avoid it, we are definitely going to make 2 changes.
Change 1) Change once the “blinking STARTS” or shortly thereafter…don’t wait too long on it.
Change 2) We’ll change them out (if at all possible) between POD changes.
We’ve been doing battery change outs w/o a problem for going on 2 years now with our method, but I see that problems can arise from it, so we’ll definitely be looking at improving our processes. (shooting for CMMI level 5 maturity. lol)
I think you have a good point about waiting too long after it was blinking. I don’t generally push it too much beyond that!
Doing the battery swap is best at pod change because you don’t risk anything.
But most times I just forget, and then it’s like, “Oops…I forgot. Now will it make it another 3 days with the current batteries???”
Maybe putting your pack of batteries in the box of pods would be a good reminder. Because I just always forget it!
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I always keep a change-out of AAA batteries in one of the film cannisers inside our kit, so they’re always readily available…we just thought we had longer. Lesson learned. From now on, it’ll be done much sooner and, if possible, during changeouts when the old pod has been deactivated but before the new one is activated.
After a “reset”, the bolus calculations aren’t possible for X number of hours afterward…that sucks the most about the reset. lol. I’ve had to bolus him twice now but IOB is –
I had my PDM ask for a battery change when I was sitting down w my family at qdoba. So I changed the batteries. Then we suddenly had to get our food to-go bc my PDM died and my Pod flipped out. Got a new PDM from Insulet.
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When I was using the Animas Vibe, my battery died overnight and the pump overheated. I had to get a replacement pump from Animas. Ever since then I am very careful about never letting my batteries die on my devices. I change my batteries on my PDM as soon as the battery indicator is low (before it starts to flash) and I have never had a problem. I don’t feel the need to suck every last bit of juice from my batteries. I have greater peace of mind when I have fresh batteries rather then waiting for an indicator to start blinking.
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Poking a little fun at you, but if you frequently change how you Batter your PDM, I suspect you will find many failure points. 
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Look how responsible I’m being by searching for a topic before I post! I’m learning! Slowly.
My Omnipod PDM battery icon started flashing me today about 30 minutes before I was leaving the office for the day. I had a thought flash through my head that maybe I shouldn’t change the batteries right now. But then I ignored my thought and changed them. And then my PDM asked for date and time and wanted me to deactivate my pod.
So I took the new AAA’s out of it and just left my basal running in my pod until I got home an hour later. I went ahead and programmed my back up PDM that I bought out of pocket a few months ago and then I started a new pod. It was just as well bc my Day 2 numbers on this pod were totally different than my Day 1 numbers, and there was blood in the cannula when I removed the pod. Maybe something else was causing the resistance today, but my numbers are behaving better on this fresh pod already.
I’m going to call Insulet tomorrow and see whether I’m still in warranty to get a replacement or if I’m out of warranty and insurance will assist with getting another one. I know I can still use this PDM, but I like to replenish supplies as often as feasible.
Question: Will pods continue to run your complete basal program? Or will they stay on whatever hourly rate you were on when the PDM died? I had just ended a +5% temp basal, and the PDM died before my afternoon basal stairstep up from 0.3 to 0.4. Just curious if anyone knows. My inkling was that it would run your basal program but I wasn’t sure enough to stick it out with the pod for more than an hour or two.
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A few things.
As you probably know, the internal battery on the PDM which keeps date and time when you swap batteries is dead. If your PDM is under warranty, you can get a new PDM. And you can also get that pod replaced. You know this, just posting it for people who read this thread and may not know.
You can keep using your PDM. Mine does this too. I just swap batteries when I do a pod change and it’s no big deal, I just have to put in the date when I do that, and it;s only once a month or so. So I live with it (because I don’t feel like reprogramming everything and losing my PDM history).
Your pod will absolutely run whatever basal program was currently set when the PDM died. Same for extended boluses and temp basals and whatever was running at the time. It will be the exact same. The pod doesn’t know the PDM is dead. It only communicates when you turn the PDM on and are in range.
You can activate a pod, throw your PDM in the river, and that pod will run your basal program for 3 days the same as if you had the PDM in your pocket. It makes no difference.
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Do you know if they changed the tech on the second generation (? black, current version) PDMs? This is a known issue for Insulet and customer service will ask for the PDM serial number. When it happened to me I assumed that they had changed from using a battery to using a capacitor, but thinking about it I suspect that would make them liable for FDA re-certification so the CSR was probably just checking how old my PDM was. (I was way out of warranty of course, heh, I’m a T1D!)
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If they replace the PDM though they ask for the old PDM back. At least that was our experience.
Assuming you are in the US:
- Wait until it is out of warranty.
- Start from scratch; get the doc to prescribe an Omnipod.
Edgepark will participate in this (they make money). The assumption is that you will be OOPMax, so the cost is a non-issue.
Yes, this makes sense. When a company has a device failure getting it back to do destructive testing and determine why is part of their quality plan.
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The most annoying part of this for me was the fact that without a functioning PDM, I was without a bg meter until I got home later. I don’t carry a spare meter in my purse.
Granted, I had my Dexcom, and I had recently tested and knew the validity of my Dexcom numbers, but still. Just something for me to think about for future contingency planning.
ETA: Turns out that I’ve only been using this PDM since last January and it was warrantied until 2022. Interesting that the internal battery already went wonky.
If you can hold the PDM far enough away from your pod so it can’t communicate, or hold it on the opposite side of your body, you can set the PDM clock and still use it for BG tests without actually deactivating the pod.
It will tell you that you must deactivate the pod, but you hold it far enough away so it can’t communicate (or better yet, have someone else hold it and press the button). You press the deactivate button. It tries to deactivate but since it can’t communicate with the pod it will tell you (or tell the person pressing the buttons for you) it can’t communicate and then you just choose “discard”.
That pod will still be pushing out basal for you. You can’t bolus off it, but everything else with the pod will still be functional. Including extended bolus or temp basals.
Try it at home when you have a pod about to expire. Take the pod off, put it in another room, and then remove the PDM batteries and go through the steps.
After you are done, go over to the pod and listen to it. You can still hear it clicking, delivering basal.
So in that scenario, your pod would still be good for basal, and you’d have your BG meter back. 
See this link for details about the deactivating without actually deactivating steps:
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Hummmm. We kept ours. And got a new one via warranty when our old one flipped out a while back (of course at 3am when we were visiting family out of town). I can see why they’d want it back, but we didn’t send ours in.
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They’re sending me a box to send mine back to them. Was yours out of warranty? Nm. You already answered that part.