How Long Does a G5 Transmitter REALLY Last? **UPDATE-Transmitter Died** UPDATE-New Transmitter ***UPDATE-2nd Transmitter 😭

Hi. I just joined this incredible group. I started my dexcom 5 on tax day, have been using xdrip+ and have already extended the battery life by 1 month. Could you tell me how you get that status screen? Mine is much less informative.
I’m not sure if this screen shot uploaded correctly.

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Hi @Osoblu Welcome to the best DOC on the interwebs. Glad you joined us!

You can get other status pages simply by swiping left. The next one, the G5 status page, is the one with all of the juicy information.

I don’t remember, can you view the data on-line via Clarity with xDrip+ also? How do you see the trending data with xDrip? (past 7, 14, 30, 90 days data as you see online with Clarity/glooka)

@ClaudnDaye Harold, it’s all there. Just but the “hamburger” menu in the upper right, go to statistics, and you get all kinds of info for today, yesterday, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days. Here’s a sample.

Also, you can get a daily glucose track with daily stats by going to history.


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3 posts were split to a new topic: xDrip+ on iPhones?

Well, almost dead. It’s been 186 days.

Been getting notifications from xDrip+ that the transmitter is almost dead for about a week now. Resistance is still pretty good (under 700), but the batterys’ voltages are just about ready to fall off of the cliff.
(Note that they are highlighted in red by the app)

These are the notifications I’ve been getting

On my last transmitter I only got the notification twice before the transmitter died. So this one doesn’t seem like it’s going to go quietly without a fight.

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Well, the transmitter that wouldn’t die, died last night. Because I use the watch to connect to the transmitter the readings just stopped without any notification on the phone.

I woke up because my Bg was low at about 6am and noticed I had not gotten a reading for about five hours.

Unfortunately, I botched the screenshot (Bg was 45 so I’m not surprised), but Voltage A was 256 and Voltage B was about 230. Resistance was, remarkably only 557.

I think it lasted for a week and a half after the voltage dropped below 300 because the resistance stayed fairly low. @Chris, is this a valid assumption?

But the transmitter lasted for 191 days!
That is nearly twice as long as the Dexcom controlled 105 day limit. We’ll see how long the new one that I started this morning will last.

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I am on day 149 of my first G5 transmitter. I have @docslotnick 's record of 191 days to beat.

VA = 314, VB=303 and Resistance at 641.

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@Aaron GO AARON!
Be sure to keep us posted.

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The basic equation for this is:

I = V/R

I = the Current; in a non chargeable battery you can think of current as the fuel.
V = volts
R = resistance.

Doc, so when talking about batteries that can’t be recharged, the lower the system resistance the faster the device will discharge. In this case I think the Resistance that is being reported to you is the battery internal resistance, which is a whole deeper and more complicated topic to tread into.

For the future, I would only look at the voltage to help you predict the end time. It looks like once the battery is unable to maintain the full 3.0 volts you have a couple of weeks left.

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We should erect a statue to this transmitter!

“She/he died to further humankind’s striving for knowledge. May it rest in eternal peace, with voltage nevermore, nor current to its batteries.”

Unless, of course, you are planning to get a new battery into the thing :slight_smile:

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I spoke with Dexcom Technical support today and discussed the G5.

Dex Tech Support said that having more devices connected to the G5 transmitter at the same time will cause increased battery usage and hence decreased transmitter life.

So with Doc only running his smart phone against the transmitter, he could reasonably expect the G5 transmitter battery to last longer as opposed to somebody else running both the Dexcom Receiver and a Smart Phone against the G5 transmitter at the same time.

Dexcom also said the X2 will connect to the G5 as a receiver - not as a smartphone. Apparently there is some difference. The X2 additional Dex functionality will allow the Receiver to be completely replaced by the X2. This would be in line with the Tandem t:slim G4 which was shipped with the Tandem pump, the Dexcom G4 transmitter (and sensors) but no receiver. So one would assume that the standard testing would be with the X2 and Smart Phone connected to the G5 transmitter but without the receiver also being connected.

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@Michel I would like to try out a transmitter with replacement batteries. But I can’t seem to find the replacement services at the moment. They seem to appear and disappear like sprites.

Also, I’m going to order some new transmitters. My insurance OOP has been met so they are no cost to me.

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Do you ever get confused at such point (max oop) and try to figure out if that is a good thing or a bad thing?
lol

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I look forward with great anticipation every year for the day my insurance OOP is met. This year was about a month late because of the way they calculate it and the increased amount ($5000).

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What did they give as a reason for the larger battery drain? I can absolutely understand that the system has two communication pathways, i.e. Bluetooth to phone and their proprietary connection to the receiver and/or the Tandem pump. But how could a second device receiving the information take more battery power from the transmitter?

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In this call we did not get into the “reason” other than “# devices”. In any event, I know the G5 has two-way communication. I am pretty sure the G4 was only one-way but I am not positive on that. For sure the G5 is two-way.

So the G5 is not simply doing a multicast once every 5 minutes and whoever is listening picks it up. Rather each device can poll the G5 for not only the current data point but as well any data points within the past 3 hrs that were missed (well devices that support that - the current receiver does not, the smartphone app does and the X2 pump does).

So the G5 is actually doing more transmissions with more devices.

Unfortunately some of that is guesswork and some is what I picked up from Dex Tech Support (from multiple calls). And I don’t remember what was guess and what was Dex tech.

So if anybody has information to the contrary - feel free to contradict.

Also I do not believe the proprietary connection between the transmitter and the receiver is present any longer. That was on the G4. With the G5 this is also Bluetooth. I am pretty sure that is fact based on the FCC testing documentation of the G5 that I read through. Which seemed very explicit.

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Ok, 2-way communication, that makes sense. That also explains why it would drain the battery to have more connections. I hadn’t considered that.

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That could also explain the longer physical life with the xdrip which I believe has been said to only work properly when using a single smart device and no receiver - hence - one device? (Ignoring the obvious logical shutdown when on Dexcom approved receiver and app.)

While Dexcom has (most certainly) tested the battery life of the G5 and expects it to last 3 months (and 3 weeks) with both the receiver and a Smart Device.

Perhaps?

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Really useful information @Thomas, thanks for doing the legwork on this!

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