Has anyone been experiencing short life cycle of the CGM transmitter for the 670G. After troubleshooting with the Medtronic tech, and consulting with my Diabeties educator. My transmitter is no longer communicating with my pump. All the lights blink like they should. Just won’t connect. It’s past warranty. My educator said that yeah they all seem to be failing right at the six month mark.
Has anyone else found this to be true? Having an electronics background, my only thought is that it is not the battery. I’m afraid it’s a software design to purposely stop the transmitter to force new sales.
I was also told that dexcom’s transmitter lifecycle has also been getting shorter as well.
hi @pierce3127 James, welcome to Type One Nation. just out of curiosity, how did Medtronic verify that the pump receiver was working? From what I have heard, even dead Dexcom transmitters can be rebuilt and they work fine again.
Hey. It was not the receiver. It was the transmitter. The cgm. What they had me do was look at the history. It basically stopped transmitting with 2 days left on my sensor. I then charged it and tried a second sensor. It still did not communicate after the search time ended. He had me untape the transmitter and disconnect it with out removing the sensor. That was a delicate procedure. Anyway he stepped me thru everything and had me verify every step along the way. Once he came to the final conclusion that it was not going to finally connect we deemed it had died. All the lights blinked at all the appropriate times on the transmitter itself. Just never connected.
This seems to me to be by selfish monetary design. I work with building automation sensors, low voltage circuits. I program and tune outputs based off of sensor input. This cgm dying at 6 months is absolutely unacceptable. I am out of warranty and do not mind buying another transmitter but not every year. Should at least get two years out of one of these things. Also just a single charge without an occasional purposeful total discharge Will I fact shorten battery life but not that bad. Again all lights flashed so not sure it’s a battery thing as much as an internal software issue.
One thing you can try is to carefully disconnect the transmitter from the sensor. Leaving the sensor in place. Recharge the the transmitter, replace and put some tape over. All sensor sites are not equal. If I find one that is working well, I reboot it this way and get 10 or 11 days out of it. At least until it starts acting up. I hate planned obsolescence.
Thanks. This is what I meant. I am starting to agree with Medtronic. As to why- sometimes you don’t get lucky with electronics. I do pretty much the same as you do with automation and I am also a little frustrated with current cgm tech. Hope your next one works longer.
Hi @pierce3127. You mentioned Dexcom and that’s what I use myself. Their transmitters are supposed to last 3 months once started, and while mine might fall a week or two short I assume it is because of my alarms - and since it’s nearly time for a replacement anyway I haven’t thought much of it.
My insurance lets me get 2 at a time, and I keep the second safely tucked away in its original box until ready to use - even so, when I started my second a couple of months ago it never even started to work so I used a Freestyle while waiting for my warranty replacement.
I have gotten connection alerts due to sensor placement issues. I primarily use my abdomen and upper arm, but occasionally my upper thigh. In that case readings are fine so long as my pump is on the same side of my body and I’m not wearing denim - that combination tends to affect transmission.