Howdy Folks!
I have a question about the battery warning on the Animas Ping. I was updating My Mac today when I heard a beep and saw that the pump was giving me a Low Battery Warning. It was strange (I thought) because on the Display the battery indicator was showing 2 blocks light up out of the 3 available. I finished what I was doing and then checked the manual, as I’ve only been at this about a month now, and then panic because it says I have 30 minutes to change the battery before it fails (actually it saya a Minimum of 30 minutes, but I missed that as it is hotter than hades here, and it was right before a late dinner - so not at my best).
Anyway my question for you folks is will this always happen, or is it a strange occurrence that it was still showing a 2 thirds full when it ran the warning?
Also, when I change the Battery do I need to change out everything? I sort of remembered that I was told to do that when I was being trained, but I wasn’t sure, so I changed everything even though it was early and I ended up wasting a lot of insulin. I know you have to do a full rewind when you replace the battery, but could I have just re-used the vial and infusion set that I had in already? I had 2 days until I needed to switch it.
Thanks for any advice all you veteran Pumpers out there!
I’ve only changed my battery twice since i got my ping, but I noticed it went from 2 of 3 to replace battery now…Ive never had just 1 bar lit up. A bit different from my old mm pump.
Also, I was never told to change everything out when I change the battery, but it does tell me that I’m not primed. So I unhook, prime and all is good again. I don’t think I would change everything out, what if your battery went an hour after a site change?!?!
I have only had my ping for a little while so I don’t have much experience on how long the battery can run…but I previously had the Animas 2020 and it would still run for days with 2 bars lit up. I would say that the ping won’t last quite as long simply because of the RF signals being sent out. As far as changing everything out, I used to change my battery on the day that I change my set…obviously if you get the warning “change now” you can’t really wait, in that case I agree with Donna, you can remove your cartridge do a full rewind then just reinstall and reprime.
its the 2 bars thing that threw me at first…on my old minimed pump, it would go from 4 bars, to 3 then 2 and finally down to 1 bar for a couple of weeks then it would give a low battery alarm. I expected my ping to be the same, but it doesn’t seem to get one bar, it just goes from 2 to replace…
I’ve been on my Ping for almost 3 years, and always run till I get the Low Battery warning. I’ve routinely run the pump another 6 to 8 hours after getting that warning, and it’s still going strong. The only reason I change out the battery before the pump DIES is that I don’t want to go to sleep with a “low battery” indication and risk having the pump stop delivery while I’m asleep (not good).
I suppose your “run time” after “low battery” would depend on what your basal rate is, and how many boluses/corrections etc. you are doing that day…
I agree with Donna’s comment that you do not have to change everything when you change the battery. However, you must disconnect and reprime the pump.
Since Animas recommends using “Lithium ION” batteries, it is important to note that they do not work like standard or alkaline batteries where they gradually wear down. Lithium batteries run and run and run and then they’re dead. You truly get very little warning compared to other battery types. I too have run my pump for several hours after receiving the low battery warning. Especially if I get the warning while I’m at work. But I change the battery as soon as I get home that evening.
well thats interesting about the lithium thing. it still seems like it should go down to one bar before dying though.
i always carry batteries with me anyhow, just in case, i have not yet tested how long it can go before changing (the meter i did do, it can go 2 or 3 days after a low battery before telling me i have to change now)
hey dude! i have had my Ping since May, and mine did the same thing, at midnight!! i was just getting ready to go to bed when it happened! i too read the manual and then panicked!! i drove all over trying to find a store that carried lithium batteries, but ended up putting in just a regular alkaline one. i did not change out the whole set, i just unhooked, did a rewind, re-load and prime, then hooked back up. next day i bought lithium batteries and then changed to that during my next site change.
i marked it on the calendar so next time i get the low battery warning i will see how long it’s been since i last changed it.
i also found that the next day, the batteries on my meter started to crap out too, so now i always have the 2 types on hand!!
Lithium batteries last a long time but they seem to die quickly. When I see two bars remaining I generally will get a couple of days more and I change everything including the battery when it is time to change syringes and insets.
This has been my experience too. If you watch the battery icon on the pump screen it can go quite a while on two bars but as soon as it drops to one the lithium battery isn’t going to last long at all in my experience. If I’ve gone more than two set changes with two bars on the pump battery icon I’ll try and remember to just change the battery at the next set change as mine typically won’t last much longer than that as I use the remote a lot.
If you end up changing the battery during set changes you don’t have to change the reservoir but you do have to rewind and prime again. You’ll also lose IOB if you change the battery while there’s insulin on board.
I keep a spare battery in my meter case because I’ve actually had the pump die on me because I thought I had more time after a low battery alarm to change it. Live and learn.
YEAH make sure you have a spare on you at all times, even if it sits in the bottom of the book bag, YOU do not want to get caught with a dead pump, I did that once and I WILL never NOT carry a spare battery!
Does the Pump give you any other indications that it is going to die AFTER you get the low battery warning? Some of you have said you us it until it dies. Does it beep or anything right before it finally gives out on that battery?
In my experience no. I don’t think there’s enough juice left in the battery to allow it to do anything after it gets to that point. It’s the one drawback to using lithium. But since it lasts so much longer than the alkaline it’s worth while for me. With an alkaline battery I’ll have a little longer between low battery warning and dead pump but I’m changing those more often which is also annoying. I really like the lithium.
mine does the same exact thing. The first two times my battery died I had to change my sets anyways, so I just did it all as one. Last time, I had 2 days left, so I just disconnected and did a new series of prime/rewind with the same cartridge and that worked fine. The little bugger will not shut up until you change that battery! I think it would last longer without all the warnings! (but then I would surely forget to change it…)
Isn’t that the dumbest thing you have ever heard? I had a MM and all you do is remove the battery and put the new one in and you are done. The need to re-prime is probably due to a poor design with the pump “forgetting” where it is and needs to start over again. This has happened to me when I was giving a presentation. It keeps playing music every few minutes until you do what it says … I had to leave the room to do this, leaving about 20 people just waiting for me to come back!
There are other examples of this. The pump itself seems to be fairly good but whoever wrote the software was clearly deranged! Of course, the uploading of data isn’t a very smooth process either. Oh well … I don’t want to become a total rant so I will stop now!
I’m actually kind of unhappy with the battery on my ping… I don’t want to retype so this is copied from my blog:
I had a little bit of a battery issue with my pump over the weekend… My battery was showing as completely full until late Friday afternoon, when it dropped to 2/3’s. I figured I’d get about another 5 days out of it and didn’t think anything of it. On Saturday after we got in around 10:45 my pump all of the sudden alarmed and said that the battery was low and to change now. I figured it was just getting a little ahead of itself and decided I’d deal with it the next day. I mean it had JUST gone to 2/3, surely I’d be able to get a few more days out of it. Not the case, Jamie woke me up at 3:30 because my pump was alarming its face off. Luckily he’s a light sleeper because there is no way that would wake me up. Anyways, in a sleepy stupor I tried seeing what was going on with the silly thing and the screen is BLACK. I can’t touch anything, and the alarm will NOT shut up. I don’t know if my basal was still continuing or what. I went downstairs and changed out the battery (thank god I had some double A’s sitting around!) and went back to bed, none too pleased. I got 4 weeks out of the battery, so that’s not a big problem, but I really do not like that it just died within 36 hours, when it had been showing as completely full. My meter remote is a little bit sketchy too. The battery was showing as 2/3 on some screens and fully charged on some other screens. It started giving me ‘change battery’ messages, which I ignored initially because the screens still showed as fully charged. After getting the message 3 times (and still getting 2/3 or 3/3 on the screens) I bit the bullet and changed the batteries. I got the change battery screen about 4 hours after changing them, so I have no idea why that came up, as they are brand new batteries. Since then everything looks okay, but I am not happy with these battery issues. I’ll see how it goes with what’s in there right now and if it drops drastically again, I’m calling tech support. What if I wasn’t home? It only gave me 3 hours before my pump was completly 100% not responding at all dead. That is unbelievable, and pretty dangerous if you ask me.
Not pretty happy with that! A little warning would have been nice… I hadn’t bought any lithium batteries yet, because I figured I’d have a couple days notice.
