On my 523, it is under Utilities, Alarms, auto-off.
It’s a poor man’s version of 670 low suspend!
2 Likes
Err, no? Auto off turns off insulin delivery if there hasn’t been a button press for 12 hours. (The time is adjustable.) It has nothing to do with BG level.
OmniPod has the same option - except it kills the pod completely, no recovery from it.
I like the idea when alone. I can set it for 9 or 10 hours. If I have slept longer than that, I am certainly low.
So in a way, it kind of has a little bit to do with low BG level. I think the only time I would ever go that long without pushing a button is if I am totally zonked out low.
2 Likes
Yeah - that is the reason behind the Tandem version of the functionality.
I would love for the omnipod to just suspend insulin delivery instead of killing the pod completely. Because of the pod-killing, I only use that option when alone. Oh well.
1 Like
Next version. Maybe?
Hard to understand the thinking behind “kill” instead of “suspend with option to resume”.
Right! I have mentioned this to them.
But, possibly the reason is that the longest temp basal allowed on a pod is 12 hours. So if the no-touch feature were implemented, maybe it would only be possible to suspend for 12 hours, because that is the limit of the temp basal duration.
Maybe there is some issue with it being tubeless. What if you lost your PDM? Or your kid went to stay with grandma and they forgot to take their PDM? There would be no button pushes. So maybe the FDA made it a requirement that they kill instead of suspend for 12 hours. Who knows?
(Well, the engineers at Insulet know, but fat chance ever getting an answer from them.)
But doesn’t it alarm first, after the time period you set? It only deactivates the pod if the alarms are ignored. According to the user guide, anyway. I’ve never used it.
Yes, that is correct, it alarms first. But in the context of the idea, if it alarmed and the alarm was ignored, suspending all insulin delivery would still make it a more usable feature than killing the pod. I think I would always have it turned on if it only suspended.
1 Like
Yes. Exactly what I meant.
1 Like
And probably way more reliable. 
1 Like
I used to think that too, until a couple occasions where I cruised on a flatline overnight and into the next morning, fasting because of upcoming labs. The pump turned itself off because I hadn’t had any need to take a bolus or correction for 12 hours (one time) and 14 hours (another time.)
2 Likes
In a few cases, I have gotten the auto-off alarm on my MM 523, usually when I sleep in or skip breakfast. But I just clear the alarm and it never really shuts down.
I like technology. As a result, in the past I used to spend too much money on technology that I didn’t really need. I’ve toned it down since reaching proper adulthood (read: my 30s). At the moment I’m using an Animas Ping that’s been out of warranty for more than three years, an iPhone SE that I only “upgraded” from my iPhone 5 because the camera broke (and I use the camera every day as a magnifier), and a braille “tablet” type device that came out in 2010. If I like the hardware, I tend to avoid upgrading.
With the braille device, for example, I love the hardware. There is no device out there now that has better hardware than the one I have, and I don’t like how any of the newer ones look or feel or features (there are parts of some I like and parts of others I like, but no overall product that I like). However, software-wise, I really hate my device at times. I literally spend hours working on a document yesterday (using the device so I could be away from my computer for once) only to have it display the message “class does not exist” when I tried to save and/or exit my document. I debated just pulling the SD card out but I was worried that would corrupt whatever part of the document might exist, so I reset the device and doing so erased the entire file. Times like that, I really want to upgrade. Too bad new devices cost $4,000+ and are not covered by any insurance, so I have to make sure I really, really like whichever new device I might upgrade to.
3 Likes