Exciting preliminary news in hacking the Omnipod for closed loop

Very exciting!!! Just received this email.

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That is very cool. I will need to find a small and portable RF device that I could use. It’s 433.92 MHz.

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@Bradford, these are incredibly exciting news!

For those who won’t click on the image: it means that it has now essentially become possible to use the Omnipod system to do OPenAPS! This is truly a banner day!

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SUPER EXCITED!!!

:+1:

I have been playing with AndriodAPS lately and this would be so awesome.

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Easy peasy.

Raspberry PI zero-w to control and talk Bluetooth to your smartphone.

And for the 433.92 MHz something like
Adafruit Feather 32u4 RFM96 LoRa Radio - 433MHz [RadioFruit] : ID 3079 : $34.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits ?

Throw in a LiPo and some programming and - Let’s go!

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The good thing about AndroidAPS, is that you could adapt Omnipod to it by plugging in Omni specific drivers.

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Yes - I guess you could go the “riley link” / Loop method of just doing a Bluetooth / RF bridge with the software on the phone. I think that is probably the quicker route.

But it opens up the whole debate of - dedicated APS device (openAPS) versus smart phone based (Loop, AndrioidAPS).

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Could you guys open a thread on that? This is really timely and I think it would be of interest to a lot of people!

Also - FUD is starting to have a lot of visibility on Google: this might expose many more people to #WeAreNotWaiting.

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Yes, please! This would be awesome! And if you get a chance to write it up, could it be with the assumption that there will be many of us (hand raised over here) reading it who are complete hacking novices and won’t understand half of the vocabulary in the mix?

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You’ll also need a RileyLink-type bridge.

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Also, a quick question…which phone platforms will be requisite for this? Android only, or will an iphone be okay?

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They are currently debating that now. The thinking is that Android would be the fastest to implement with the least amount of road block, but not set in stone yet…

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Good point. Maybe when the new Bluetooth version comes out it will negate the need for it–although it would be back to decoding the comms again. BTW–love the pebble watchface profile pic! :slight_smile:

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Technically, assuming the comms have indeed been cracked, all of the DIY systems, AndroidAPS (on Android), OpenAPS (on a dedicated platform), and Loop (on IPhone) could be adapted to make use of the Omnipod system Developing required hardware and software is doable but not easy, and takes tremendous time and effort by volunteer contributors who deserve our respect and gratitude.

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Yes, @dm61! Both my respect and gratitude are all theirs! I wouldn’t know where to begin. This is life-changing potential, as we all know.

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@dm61 , is there something that we could do here to support any/all of these communities?

What if we gave them the use of one whole category as a "sub"forum of their own, where we (obviously) would be taking care of hosting etc.? I have found it a bit difficult to find info and ask questions about OpenAPS, although I am a pretty technical guy.

We are very similar in spirit with that community.

To be honest, unless people are able to actually code or do hardware development, I’d suggest staying on a side and observing is probably the best option. Giving verbal suggestions does not really help. Saying things are easy without doing any actual work can be a bit irritating, I’d imagine.

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Excellent idea!! I read some of the above and thought I’d mistakenly landed in the German thread!

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Here comes Debby Downer.

So my concern is that Dexcom will do the same thing that Minimed did. In other words, they will improve the encryption of the communications protocol they use between their pod and pdm. Minimed did this soon after it was publicly disclosed at a hacker conference that it was possible to control their pump remotely, for which they undoubtedly received what they considered negative press (though it also planted the seed that eventually led to OpenAPS). Soon after that they released their next firmware upgrade - which is why you need to use an old Minimed pump that was released prior to that firmware upgrade. Luckily their old pumps have a long lifetime (several years at least), so there are still old pumps available.

This problem will be worse for the Dexcom, however, because the pod is disposable. So when they improve their encryption (I find it hard to believe they won’t?), the pods that support the known protocol will soon age out and no longer be available. Which means that this race to decrypt will need to occur again, but it will be harder each time.

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Since PDM’s have a 4 year warranty, the old pods will need to be available for 4 years from the time they start selling the new Dash PDM. That is a requirement for Insulet, they can’t wiggle out of that.

So, 1 week before the new Dash PDM is available, I am buying another one of the current PDM. That allows me 4 years of having the old system.

I suggest everyone consider the same - buying a current PDM right at release, and helping to ensure the 4 years of current encryption.

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