Problem with Jelly Pro, Dexcom G5 and xDrip+

[Laura]

JELLY PRO with Dexcom G5 CGM issue:
I am wondering if someone could please suggest reasons why my daughter’s Jelly Pro stopped collecting data about 3 times today after collecting so consistently for up for her first ever 12 hours of using it with the G5 without any missed reading.
The Jelly collected consistently until Ava went to school this morning. She had the phone on her the entire time she was at school. It stopped collecting 3 times:

i). For approx 30 minutes at 9am,
ii). For approx 1 hour at 12.30pm
iii). For approx. 40 minutes at 3pm.

No changes where made to any settings before, during or after this. The teacher at school did connect it to the school WiFi thinking that this may be the issue. (However I believe this is Collecting/Bluetooth issue rather than a data/uploading issue).

I have applied the following settings to the collector/uploader phone:

1. Agreed to having Location ON (it is left on continuously)
2. Agreed to having xDrip request of NOT applying battery optimization
3. Whitelisted xDrip+ in Background task clear
4. In Battery Saving Mode - Battery Profile - My Mode - I have the following on:
   –Mobile networks
   –Bluetooth
   –GPS
   –Vibrate on tap
   6, Battery saver set as “Off/Never turn on automatically”
5. Intelligent power saving standby turned off
6. xDrip+ selected in the Duraspeed list of background activities of apps switched on in the list
7. OB1 ticked.
8. Authenticate G5 before each read attempt is ticked
9. In Network Access Control I have everything turned on/enabled.

xDrip+ VERSION: xDrip-plus-20171006-1a08760.apk

TRANSMITTER BATTERY: 216-ok

G5 STATUS:
Firmware: 1.0.4.10
Transmittor days: 154
Voltage A: 313
Voltage B: 303
Resistance: 600
Temperature: 30c

I noticed even when it is working the following message is highlighted in the System Status (Uploader section):
“Config error in nightscout at azurewebsites.net” and “You must set DEVICESTATUS_ADVANCED env item to True for multiple battery status to work properly”.
Again, I think the above is an uploading issue rather than a bluetooth issue.
Has anybody any suggestions? Are my settings incorrect?
BTW. I don’t know how the collection % is determined or found in the settings.
Sorry for the long post. We are tormented trying to get this to get the Jelly Pro and G5 to work consistently. We are trying to replace her previous setup (bulky phone with xBridge wixel and Dexcom G4)

[Michel]

@Laura, I put your post in its own thread. Welcome to the forum!

[docslotnick]

@Laura Welcome to FUD!

First thing I would try is to update to the latest xDrip+ nightly release

NightscoutFoundation/xDrip

The version you are running was pretty early in the quick evolution of the Jelly as a collector. I know that there were some Jelly specific tweaks that have been made since then.

Concerning the display of the collection rate, you can enable that in the Extra Status Line. Settings> Less Common Settings> Extra Status Line>Packet Capture Percentage.

Let us know how you fare getting the Jelly to be reliable. You should get at least a 95% capture rate.

[Laura]

Hi docslotnick,
I uninstalled the earlier version and reinstalled with the latest nightly release version dated 2017.11.13.
It is working away now with the last 50 minutes without any missed readings, albeit there was no missed readings either after the 3 missed readings incidents yesterday. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 6 hours or so. (it was during this time yesterday when she was a school that these incidents occurred.). I will let you know how we get on. The Packet Capture Percentage is also switched on now.

[Laura]

By the way.
I meant to mention that we were wondering about what may be affecting the missed readings:
In theoretical terms this probably does not make sense/wrong because Bluetooth (collection) and Mobile data and WiFi (uploading) are used for separate purposes on the collector phone, but say if the T1 (with their collector phone) is in a room in a school that has a very poor Mobile data/WiFi signal is it possible for a problem to occur in the Bluetooth connectivity due to the phone having to continuously search over and over for a signal?

[docslotnick]

@Laura

I meant to mention that we were wondering about what may be affecting the missed readings:

@Laura Periodic missed readings are to be expected due to the nature of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The varying Android implementations of BLE is the reason why the G5 works with some Android phones but not others.

For instance, my Samsung Note 4 will not connect at all to the G5, but using the Sony Smart Watch 3, I can get about 98% of the readings.

I’m sure the variability of BLE in Android devices is the reason that the official Dexcom app only worked with iPhone for so long, and why still there are only a handful of Android phones that will work with the official Dexcom App.

Wi-Fi and cellular data connections should have no effect on the BLE signal. Also, some manufacturers tie BLE to location, but I don’t know if the Jelly works that way. Best to just leave location enabled.

It’s been my experience that it takes a device several days to really consistently lock on to the G5 BLE signal with xDrip+, so be patient. I’m sure you’ll get to 95-98% capture rate in just a few days.

Keep us posted!

[Laura]

Ava is home from school and she did not have one missed reading all day. .
We asked the teacher to tell us as best she could what Ava had done differently compared to yesterday. Was she in different rooms etc.?
She said she was in a room with poor network/WiFi signal yesterday,however she pointed out that she noticed the phone had began to miss readings before she went into these rooms. Therefore the only thing that was changed between here and yesterday was uninstalling the older xDrip+ and replacing it with the latest Nightly release apk. 2017.11.13. The collection percentage is 96%. So we are delighted it is working. Thanks for your recommendation regarding the latest xDrip+ release. I presume this percentage is as good as can be expected?

One thing that is different from yesterday is the increased battery usage. The current battery % after 7 hours is 43%. This time yesterday it was around 60%. It lloks like she may struggle to get a full day usage out of it before bedtime this evening.
The Jelly has Bluetooth and location enabled (Yesterday I had Bluetooth, Location and Wifi for about 3 hrs). The Jelly is not used for anything else except collecting and uploading. I did Force stop one app (I can’t remember which one). This would be the only difference other than the newer version of xDrip+.

I think I read some where previously that Force stopping an app may have the opposite intended result of using more battery instead of sparing because the software is working harder with it not being available.???

I tested turning off location yesterday evening. It worked for a while and then it eventually stopped getting readings so I left it on full-time thereafter. In the battery usage it says that the “Screen” which is turned down to the last is around 19%, followed by Google Services at 13% and Bluetooth at 8%. Everything else is around 1%. I presume Google Services has to be running. (I have it turned off/prevented from working in the background in DURA)

I contacted Unihertz (The Jelly phone manufacturer) and they said that they do not supply replacement batteries to Ireland. They did not clarify if this included all countries. I don’t know if there are restrictions in place for shipping batteries on their own to particular countries?

[Laura]

UPDATE: Ava’s phone ended up lasting 13 hours. There was 5% remaining when it was plugged in for charging.
Her phone did not miss one reading all day either. The Collection Percentage is 97% right now.

[docslotnick]

@Laura Yes, you must keep Google Services running for xDrip+ to function.

But 13 hours for a phone battery only doing xDrip+ is abysmal. My watch battery lasts longer than that. I have a few suggestions:

• If you are running OB1G5, then turn off all the settings available in G5 Debug settings. OB1G5 collector makes them unnecessary and they eat battery life.

• Obviously, if you haven’t set your screen timeout to a short duration, the screen will eat battery life.

• For apps you don’t need that want to persist in the background, there is a very good app called Greenify. It will hibernate the apps that you wish it to hibernate and can save a lot of battery usage. Greenify is free on Google Play.

Hope this helps!

[Michel]

@Laura

The Collection Percentage is 97% right now.

@Laura, really awesome!

Please keep on letting us know about the Jelly Pro, many of us are interested in it for our kids.

You may want to introduce yourself in the Welcome thread?

[Laura]

1. The only setting other than the OB1 setting that I had turned on was the “Authenticate before every reading”.
2. The screen timeout was set at 1 minute. (I have changed it just now to the lowest duration of 15 seconds)
3. The only other App installed by me on the phone was a Panic button that was linked to location settings. I have just uninstalled this app.
4. The only App whitelisted is the xDrip+
5. Almost everything is turned off in DURAspeed except, Messaging, phone, xDrip+, clock, and a few more. I did NOT turn off these other apps clock etc. because I was worried that the clock is linked somehow to the xDrip+ and needs it to run the app???
6. Intelligent battery saving is off.

I am not sure what else can be done?

The charger was removed about 45 minutes ago (while battery was at 100%). After 15 minutes it was down to 95% of the battery, now 45 minutes later it is at 90%.
I don’t know if it is normal for a battery to drain this quickly initially. It did this yesterday as well but it did not drain at the same ration as the day progressed.

It is probably best if I take screenshots of what settings I have in place. Does anyone what buttons need to be pressed for this to be done on the Jelly Pro?

[Michel]

@Laura

Does anyone what buttons need to be pressed for this to be done on the Jelly Pro?

Try pressing and holding the power and the volume down buttons at the same time for a couple of seconds—that should do the job.

[Laura]

UPDATE: 4 hours after unplugging the charger at full charged, the battery is now 66%.
I presume this has nothing to do with battery life but there are 3 phones setup as followers.
2 use Nightwatch and 1 uses xDrip+. Does this have any affect on battery life by any chance?

[docslotnick]

@Laura I think that the battery life you are seeing, unfortunately, is pretty normal for the Jelly Pro.

From TechRepublic:

A smartphone that costs $110 and is only a bit more than 3 inches tall is sure to have some drawbacks, and that’s the case with the Jelly Pro.

The most glaring problem is the battery. It’s only 950mAh. That’s over 1,000mAh smaller than the iPhone 7 battery and less than a third the size of the Samsung Galaxy S8’s. The Jelly Pro has been sitting on my desk mostly idle today, and as of 2:30 pm (it came off the charger at 7:30 am) it’s at 64%. My iPhone 7, which I’ve been using regularly is still at 77%.

The power that is being used for the Dexcom and xDrip+, although not a huge percentage of total power, is probably a lot for that small of a battery.

There are small, portable recharging batteries that you may want to look at for during the days your daughter is at school.

[Laura]

I think you are correct.
We are now on 34%.
We took it off charge at around 8.30am.
It is just over 8 hrs later.
It seems to have actually used up more battery today compared to yesterday and that is after taking steps to improve it!

I think one of the big things eating the battery is having to have the location switched on.
xDrip+ says that location must be enabled for it to find the device but it also says that it can be turned off once this this done.
However I noticed that if I turn it off it works away for a while but shortly after you will get loss of connectivity.
I do not understand why the newer versions of Android require the location feature to be activated when older version do not and I do not know why it is less consistent when it is not on continuously even though xDrip+ says you do not have to have it on the entire time?

[Laura]

[Laura]

I said I would take the above snapshots so as to be clear on the settings being used on the Jelly Pro.
I noticed that the location setting is set at high accuracy. I wonder if xDrip+ will still work if I change this to Battery saving location and possibly save some battery?

[Laura]

[docslotnick]

@Laura Yes, switching GPS to Device Only will help some. High Accuracy does take a lot of battery power.

[Thomas]

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