Libre 2 fault. Starting to form a theory.

[Satan’s little helper]

8 days of persevering with a sensor. More off than on. (Working 30% of the time?) I tore it off & changed it. When it was working It was close to my meter. It would loose BT connection & I couldn’t NFC scan it. (“10 minutes” became hours. If at all?.) Data was only saved on the brief periods it was working. So now the theory; blood causing crud between the triangle probe thing on fitting breaking electrical continuity on the PCB. Lol it only seemed to work when I was either lying on it or there was some kind of multi layer clothing pressure. I’ve seen this with cleaning electrical contacts with automotives on older vehicles. & the charging ports on mobile phones. (Bit tricky with a Libre.) I have to add that this is the first time I needed to ditch a sensor in the time I’ve used them. I’m a patient person but even I have limits to this nonsense. Abbott are sending me a new one. After looking at & discussing the error log. Great customer service. They couldn’t apologise enough. Not the guy on the other end of the phone’s fault. He’ll get 5 stars on trip advisor.

 

[SimonP]

Sounds like a reasonable theory, I guess the question is how/whether one can fix it, or would want to - a quick squirt of contact cleaner in the hole on top. Would be cold if nothing else!

While I've had loads of failures, I've never, that I can recall, had one where the sensor became non-responsive to both BLE and NFC. I also don't get many bleeders, I can only recall one that I noticed.

Agreed that the customer service reps are very good, friendly, etc, and they always replace the sensors.

 

[Satan’s little helper]

Sounds like a reasonable theory, I guess the question is how/whether one can fix it, or would want to - a quick squirt of contact cleaner in the hole on top. Would be cold if nothing else!

While I've had loads of failures, I've never, that I can recall, had one where the sensor became non-responsive to both BLE and NFC. I also don't get many bleeders, I can only recall one that I noticed.

Agreed that the customer service reps are very good, friendly, etc, and they always replace the sensors.

Normally, if the BT drops. The sensor has banked 8 hours of memory that can be back filled when NFC scanned. I had the “wait 10 minutes” & sensor error messages but the only data I was getting was for the duration the Bluetooth was connected. I don’t get many bleeders myself. There’s no evidence this was the worst. But it does look like blood may have got between the sensor probe connection point to the PCB. I can’t pull it apart to find out because Abbot want me to send it back for inspection.

 

[trophywench]

I'll ask here about sending sensors back to Abbott - I have 4 to send back ,each with its box and 3 with the inserters so they've sent me a padded envelope which has a number and a barcode printed on it. There's also a sheet of A4 just under half of which contains a printed number and a QR code. No actual instructions so do I just stick all the boxes and contents and that A4 sheet in the envelope and simply hand it in at the post office for Parcelforce, or what?

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I'll ask here about sending sensors back to Abbott - I have 4 to send back ,each with its box and 3 with the inserters so they've sent me a padded envelope which has a number and a barcode printed on it. There's also a sheet of A4 just under half of which contains a printed number and a QR code. No actual instructions so do I just stick all the boxes and contents and that A4 sheet in the envelope and simply hand it in at the post office for Parcelforce, or what?

I've only ever had to return sensors one at a time, and they didn't ask for the applicators. They've always sent a padded envelope and two plastic sleeves. Maybe an A4 sheet, too. Also instructions on how to package the sensor: they want me to put it in a sleeve, seal that, then put that in the second bag and seal that, then put it in the envelope (I guess with the A4 sheet?) and post it. (I'm unsure about some of the details because it's been a while.)

The parts I'm confident about is the double bagging in plastic bags and that they included instructions. Are you sure those aren't present?

 

[Satan’s little helper]

I'll ask here about sending sensors back to Abbott - I have 4 to send back ,each with its box and 3 with the inserters so they've sent me a padded envelope which has a number and a barcode printed on it. There's also a sheet of A4 just under half of which contains a printed number and a QR code. No actual instructions so do I just stick all the boxes and contents and that A4 sheet in the envelope and simply hand it in at the post office for Parcelforce, or what?

I was told by the agent on the phone they would send a replacement sensor (Parcelforce from memory.) along with an SAE to post the dodgy one back? I’ve never had to deal with duff sensors prior. By sheer luck I’d ordered my prescription early, & had spare sensors anyway. The new one I fitted yesterday is working flawlessly by comparison to the last.

 

[SimonP]

The A4 sheet just contains the instructions, there's nothing relevant on there afaict, there's a barcode on the outside of the envelope which is presumably how they associate the returned sensor with the case.

As @Bruce Stephens says, pop sensor (nothing else, though I usually also put the peel-off plastic cover with the sensor SN in for good measure just in case their barcode system fails so there's the possibility for them to visually link it to the case) in one plastic bag, seal it, then put that into the second one and all in the envelope.

 

[SimonP]

But it does look like blood may have got between the sensor probe connection point to the PCB.

Yes, these are the two little spider eyes you can see before you screw the applicator together. Must have been a gusher!

Decent close up pictures (just over half way down) in this tear-down for those interested: https://goughlui.com/2024/11/06/tea...bre-2-flash-glucose-monitoring-system-sensor/

 

[Satan’s little helper]

The A4 sheet just contains the instructions, there's nothing relevant on there afaict, there's a barcode on the outside of the envelope which is presumably how they associate the returned sensor with the case.

As @Bruce Stephens says, pop sensor (nothing else, though I usually also put the peel-off plastic cover with the sensor SN in for good measure just in case their barcode system fails so there's the possibility for them to visually link it to the case) in one plastic bag, seal it, then put that into the second one and all in the envelope.

The Abbott agent I spoke to after giving my details & taking the sensor code from me on the librelink app seemed to see all the error logs associated with my issue after looking at my account. Lol, I could see them on the app too.

 

[SimonP]

The Abbott agent I spoke to after giving my details & taking the sensor code from me on the librelink app seemed to see all the error logs associated with my issue after looking at my account. Lol, I could see them on the app too.

That's interesting, and I guess not an unexpected benefit of the app. I still use the dedicated reader to start the sensors to avoid any confusion/issues.

 

[Satan’s little helper]

Yes, these are the two little spider eyes you can see before you screw the applicator together. Must have been a gusher!

Decent close up pictures (just over half way down) in this tear-down for those interested: https://goughlui.com/2024/11/06/tea...bre-2-flash-glucose-monitoring-system-sensor/

Thanks for the link. 🙂 I’ve had blood come through the hole before. But the sensor still worked. I can only think this time blood clotted up & crudded the connection.

 

[Satan’s little helper]

That's interesting, and I guess not an unexpected benefit of the app. I still use the dedicated reader to start the sensors to avoid any confusion/issues.

Yep, I thought I was going to need to send the data to them? But he could see what was going on. I tried riding this out for 8 days going for hours without data then only getting five minutes worth after failed attempts to scan over an hour? Giving it longer than “10” I thought it was time to write this one off.

 

[Satan’s little helper]

And here. It only seemed to start working at night when I was presumably lying on it.

 

[helli]

Interesting that the Abbott agent can see the error logs.
I always thought they should be able to see some data if it is stored in their cloud which is why I was surprised when they asked me to read the last few items on the log when I reported an issue. Maybe it was for the agent to check they were looking at the correct records?

Like @Bruce Stephens it is some time since I last reported a problem so maybe things have changed/improved.
incidentally, I too remember double-bagging the returned sensor in "medical waste" bags.

 

[trophywench]

No plastic bags - just the Jiffy envelope though they sent me 2 of those and the one sheet of A4 with the QR code. The envelopes both have different numbers on them, hence I'm confused - plus I now have another to return since I had another one stop after a week-ish, during last night. However the very caring Ypsopump Helpline operator has now (I hope!) greatly assisted me in basically curing a 'User Error' fault. Might have known it would be me in the finish. Had someone ever mentioned that if I happened to have the Libre 2 App on my phone I needed to delete it before embarking on my HCL journey, I would have deleted it! DOH.

So I'm not going to mention this latest one to Abbott. If it means I run out of Libres before time then I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it, currently got 10 of em, unopened, taking room up in my kitchen, as they're despatched 6 at a time direct to me and the previously failed ones were all out of the first shipment which I received before the end of November then had to wait until 30th Jan to get started with them. I should therefore be due another 6 at the end of May! (Need to move to a house with a spare room, aaarrgghh)

 

[grantg]

I was sent 2x clear bags with red biohazard, alongside pre paid envelope and this sheet of paper giving instructions. Just hand in to post office. Took 4 days for the replacement to arrive returns stuff was in same giant box enough space for around 10 libre2 plus sensors to fit in

 

[trophywench]

The A4 sheet just contains the instructions, there's nothing relevant on there afaict, there's a barcode on the outside of the envelope which is presumably how they associate the returned sensor with the case.

As @Bruce Stephens says, pop sensor (nothing else, though I usually also put the peel-off plastic cover with the sensor SN in for good measure just in case their barcode system fails so there's the possibility for them to visually link it to the case) in one plastic bag, seal it, then put that into the second one and all in the envelope.

They told me to send the Applicators back, as I still had the boxes and they clearly show the S/Ns just seems sensible to me to send em the lot. If the piece of paper had any instructions on it that could be useful but as it doesn't I cannot follow them!