Omnipod 5 PDM bricked

[John58]

I am in the midst of a glitch with the Omnipod 5 PDM that bricked it so decided to post the details here…watch out, this is a PITA and I sincerely hope it does not happen to anybody else. In fact, this event (and Insulet’s laissez faire reaction to it) are causing me to rethink my 3 year love affair with all things Pod.

Anyway, here is what happened:
Initiated a pod change, filled new pod, got the following error message after pushing “Next” to prime the pod:

This is the first time I have ever experienced this communication error while using Omnipod for the past 3 years.

“Try again” multiple times did nothing, got rid of that pod, “Discard pod”, filled a new pod and pushed “next”. New pod started up, got it on me, got to the menu “Switch to Auto mode?”. Selected Yes and PDM went into Restart mode.

PDM hung up on this screen, has not been able to “load 11 of 22” ever since despite powering down etc.:

PDM also gives this “Something went wrong” message which for some reason I find almost as infuriating as the “device is managed by your organization” message:

The pod that successfully started but also started this chain of events is still on me and seems to be doing its basal thing very nicely. But I have no way of using this pod for a bolus or a correction, or to determine if it is in Auto mode or Manual mode or to set a Temp Basal. At any rate I am using a syringe for bolus and all seems to be going fine but it feels like I’m driving in the dark with no headlights as far as basal.

I have been on the phone a few times with Insulet since this started 30 hours ago…They are sending a new PDM which should arrive today. The thing that bugs me is they have a fixation on the battery (“When was the last time you charged it”, etc etc) and other than that are very un-curious about the cause of this major glitch which bricked my PDM. I have assured them it was at 65% charge when the PDM glitched and I have subsequently brought it up to 100% with no change of the startup bug. The whole hardware/software setup of using these super discount android phones for their PDM bugs me a little, but their “Oh well whatever” attitude on the phone has gotten under my skin.

Should I expect better hardware/software and better technical support from a company I (and my insurers) have spent mega thousands of dollars with over the past 3 years? Or am I just being a reactionary crack pot? All answers are welcome, thanks for listening!

[drpepper68]

I wonder if it was doing a software update. Mine did same thing but the first retry worked. Never had that issue either. I notice the software looks different now though. Makes me want to get a backup android phone to use the app in case the pdm dies.

[John58]

Well the whole thing is a mystery thanks to the tech support people at Insulet who had nothing to say about it. They seem overly worried about the battery thanks to the Dash battery troubles. As far as getting a spare, I bought spare PDM for the old Omnipod and the Dash “just in case” but never had to use them. With Omnipod 5 I figured I could wait for the iPhone app to come out…my mistake.

That is a good idea to find a compatible Android phone and keep it on the shelf just in case.

[mremmers]

@John58 Yuck. Following this with interest. If you had a backup Android phone you put into use it would then allow a Bluetooth connection and I assume wifi would work. That would be enough to get data to Glooko without having cellular access via a paid provider, right? I believe that’s correct.

[jbowler]

The pod error is one I see very frequently with AndroidAPS. Most of the times I change pod I have to “retry” the connection. This is, of course, the Dash pods, not the O5, but plus ca change, non le tech.

So far as the O5 PDM is concerned, well, those guys are really concerned with the battery on my Dash PDM (which I don’t use and haven’t for years), so they are sending me a new one. I have some sympathy; the batteries are shyte and that applies to the ones in the dumbphones too, but they did use a cheap manufacturer and then got all panic when the batteries did, indeed, turn out to be exactly as unreliable as every other LiPo battery on the planet. New world, old world, resisting doing the French a second time.

@John58

PDM also gives this “Something went wrong” message which for some reason I find almost as infuriating as the “device is managed by your organization” message:

You are a very happy person with a very happy PDM. If I had seen that message my PDM would have become very, very, very unhappy. They really don’t like tasers on their CPUs, but that’s too sophisticated for me, I’m an old fashion hammer guy.

Sometimes I am ironic and most Usians misunderstand this as sarcasm; I am hardly ever sarcastic, please don’t wait for it to happen. In this case with regard to the hammer I am entirely, completely, accurate in what I say.

I suggest buying a cellphone and using that; this is what I would do, because then when the hammer comes in to play I simply explain to Insulet that my cellphone broke.

[John58]

Murphy’s law kicked in and the replacement PDM that Insulet shipped out has been stuck in transit at a local Fed Ex facility since yesterday morning, thanks to our snow/ice storm. They are now saying delivery Tues 12/27. That is one week after I called Insulet with this issue and they offered to send one overnight delivery. I get it that Insulet has no control over FedEx but still. In the meantime I let the PDM battery discharge to zero, charged it back and restarted, still hung up on “Something went wrong”. Looks like its MDI for the foreseeable future…

[Eric]

I have multiple backup PDM’s for this type of situation. Not sure what they charge for the O5 PDM but that might be worth looking into.

[John58]

Found an old Eros pod and PDM that got me back to podding for another 3 days…started up fine even though it expired 18 months ago.

[Eric]

@John58,
Lemme know if you need some more backup pods.

[John58]

That’s a nice offer! Thanks but it looks like I can keep this old pod going through the Christmas party and excess food/drink. If Fed Ex continues to delay delivering the new PDM I will probably be out at a sale somewhere Monday trying to buy a Samsung phone compatible with Omnipod 5 app. Anyway, Merry Christmas!