Insight handset battery issues

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trophywench

trophywench

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
It appears I have killed my handset battery dead, it is now a late battery, has shuffled off this mortal coil etc etc all because I haven't plugged it in and recharged it every flipping night of its life. (Well - ooops - but why the hell does it need to have a battery that needs that much attention? Surely to God all the info it stores, all the configurations and calculations, can't be that much more than a fully loaded all singing and dancing Smartphone? Is it the Bluetooth? Can't be because the Combo batteries always lasted ages really. It's bats) Anyway they were quite OK and are sending me another. (Battery)

So - you most certainly DO have to charge it every 24 hours (not necessarily overnight) even though the battery bar doesn't appear to have moved, otherwise you shorten the battery's lifespan. However - their normal lifespan is apparently only roughly 30 months (two and a half years) anyway - so you should expect it to go at some point in any case before the pump is due for replacement. Now - that's something I hadn't heard before !

I asked about charging off 12v - yes - just need the adaptor to have an output of at least 5 Volts and 0.5 Amps. It seems that our adaptor - via which we have successfully charged various types of phone, and various types of laptop, tablet etc as long as their charging cables have a fullsize USB plug that goes in the full size USB socket on the adaptor - is incompatible with the handset for some reason only known to its Taiwanese (or whatever nationality it happens to be!) self. So - we'd better get a new one.

Finally - the 360 degree software - it is only compatible with Win 7 or 8. They are hoping a Win 10 version will be available 'early next year'. Personally I shan't hold my breath, they were promising the launch of the Insight in the same time frame for several years before it eventually did make an appearance, weren't they ? (Still no plans to make it compatible with anything to do with apples though.)
 
Sorry to hear about your dud battery TW. Thanks for the updates and info - very useful.
 
When I got mine I was advised to charge it when it was low - every two or three days, which I do. When I said I might do it more to make sure it never went flat I was told to definitely not do this as, like a smartphone battery that is topped up too often the battery would not last long. This has worked for me so far.
 
I've been told the absolute opposite by Roche - so I'll do what Roche have said, Maryanne.
 
The different instructions make me laugh! I was also told by Roche - I'll check this out again when I have my pump appointment in January as my pump nurse was the Roche rep who came and set me up with my pump, but now she works for the NHS.
 
After the Insight came onto the market, apparently quite a lot of people had the same problem as me, Maryanne - because they had apparently already issued the instructions they gave me. I dunno who they issued them to though - or perhaps I was even told but there's a lot to take in even having had the Combo for years before - and my own DSN who did the handover when I got it wasn't exactly fully conversant with it so I did a lot of my learning myself afterwards. LOL
 
Mmmm, I only charge when I get the warning of a low battery, maybe I should leave it charging on my bedside table at night?
 
I'd check it out first Phil.
 
I wish you would Phil (check with Roche I mean) seeing as it appears Maryanne was told the opposite to me!
 
trophywench said:
I wish you would Phil (check with Roche I mean) seeing as it appears Maryanne was told the opposite to me!
Click to expand...
What does the manual that came with the pump say?
 
Not the pump battery Sue - the handset (meter) battery. It says

Allowing the battery to fully drain reduces the ability of
the battery to hold its charge. It is suggested to
recharge the battery on a regular basis, for example
once every day. Keeping the meter plugged in to charge
does not harm the battery.

A blood glucose test cannot be
performed while the meter is plugged in.​
 
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I copied and pasted, tried to shorten the lines etc and it wouldn't let me.
 
I have a lithium rechargeable in my smartphone and it says to preserve life to let it drain completely every 30 charges.
So do you have different batteries for each?
 
Yes - Lithium AA battery for the pump, rechargeable for the handset. I had been doing exactly that with the handset, the smartphone thing, letting it go flat (took approx. a week when I first had it) but that shortened to less than a day when I rang Roche to complain - as you might or might not know - I didn't have the ruddy thing until May 2015 anyway - so that was ridiculous !

So, I can only conclude it must be a different type of battery or something. I do know that if you accidentally try to charge your smartphone through the Roche transformer (that you plug into the mains, then your phone into that, to charge it) that it instantly sucks out all the remaining charge from the phone - cos Pete did it accidentally one night when I first had it, to his ! He instantly plugged the right one in and recharged it, and it's been OK since so hopefully it's all OK. Plugging the handset into the phone charger OTOH, does absolutely zilch so I can only assume the handset requires a far different amount of electric current than does a phone.
 
Most rechargeable batteries last longer overall if you run them down as low as possible each time, not necessarily until it dies completely, but at least until it's asking you to plug in the charger (usually less than 15%). So I have to say that is extremely odd advice!! I have had exactly the opposite problem to you with my sat nav, because I had it plugged it in all the time and almost never allowed the battery to run down at all (because I only use the thing on long journeys when the battery wouldn't last long enough anyway) it very quickly lost its ability to hold any charge and now won't even stay on long enough to program the destination unless you have external power connected.

Either you are unlucky and have a dud one, or Roche have some very peculiar batteries!
 
I saw something on TV recently (which I *think* was on QI) which related to rechargeable batteries and a big booming klaxon for Alan Davies. Essentially they were suggesting that the new Lithium Ion (LiIon) batteries do not have the same 'ghost charge' problems as older rechargeable technologies. It was suggested that you could charge at any point within the charge cycle without creating any problems or shortening battery life, and that much of the full-discharge advice was outdated, even though it persists.

Certainly many of the devices I have which remain plugged in (eg electric toothbrush, cordless phone) suggest running the battery down to near empty every 6 months or so, but I find that very hard to remember to do and don;t really bother.

I suppose it's quite possible that you would get different advice from different tech-support people depending on what they *believed* generally about batteries rather than anything specific to the batteries in the Insight handset.

Makes it very hard to unpick all this eh!
 
When I started using an Insight pump and handset in April I was advised to charge the handset overnight every night, but as I prefer to have it by my bed so that I can use during the night as necessary to test I did not do this. As this is the opposite of 'usual' battery advice of fully draining the battery with phones etc, so I thought this would be ok anyway.
When I then got several 'Electronic Error' messages on the handset (for anyone who has had one they will know the one - it sounds like a loud klaxon and shuts the handset down for about 5 minutes) I called Roche. The person there said that these were probably being caused by not following the charging instructions and allowing the battery to run down too low. Since then I have charged the handset 3 times a week-I put a reminder on my phone so that I do it on those days each week, and so far, this seems to be ok. The battery goes to just under half full on the display by the time it is due to be charged again and then shows full after a couple of hours plugged in.
Curlygirl
 
Yes - actually Mike, on the other forum someone in Canada said exactly the same about the newer batteries.

But anyway - Curlygirl has just confirmed that the Roche info which I was given is correct - since she's had precisely the same problem for precisely the same reason!
 
trophywench said:
Yes - actually Mike, on the other forum someone in Canada said exactly the same about the newer batteries.

But anyway - Curlygirl has just confirmed that the Roche info which I was given is correct - since she's had precisely the same problem for precisely the same reason!
Click to expand...

What foxes me about this is why you should supposedly *need* to charge every day. A you say... the Combo had all the bluetoothiness and was quite happy on AAs. And why they didn't choose a different (less fragile) battery/charging solution, especially since if I understand right you can't actually use the darned thing when it's charging! All the reghargeable Diabetes gizmos I've got (Libre/Contour Next USB) get charged when batteries are near empty.

Tis a bit odd from over here in Medtronic land!
 
Tis a bit odd here in Roche land too Mike, but there you go, they probably thought they'd be a jump ahead with new technology or something - or maybe it's the norm in Switzerland anyway?
 
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