Agree with Anthony’s comments. The G5 is awesome and not having to worry about carrying the dedicated receiver is the number one selling point. Also, the G5 App is great as you can rotate is landscape and see a full 24 hr view.
As mentioned before, using Follow is a bit clunky (not sure if that’s the right word) but still very usable for me. Plus, I love getting tapped on the wrist for a high (mine is set at 130) or low via the G5 App notification being pushed to the Watch.
Mark - I would absolutely recommend getting an iPhone for this. Killer combo that is only going to get better.
Great! My G4 transmitter replacement date is Oct 7, and apparently insurance requires waiting until that date to place the order, but my D supplies person is getting it all authorized to be placed on that day (unless my current one totally dies before then… I wonder if… but nah). So I should be getting mine about a week later.
I’m not due for a new receiver until April '16, so I’ll probably go ahead and do the G4 firmware update as well, though I can’t help considering whether there’s a good reason to hold off on that. Probably not–the old transmitter’s battery is most likely going to crap out before I ever need a fallback. But the thought persists. Clearly the Force of T1 “Hold on to that old stuff, you might need it!” syndrome is very strong in this one.
Great, thanks for the clarification! It sounds like everything I’ve wanted it to be. The less stuff in my pockets/to keep track of, the better. I’ll always remember to keep my phone on me regardless of anything else, so making that the receiver is perfect for me.
I found out yesterday in a call to Dexcom that I’m eligible for the G5 transmitter upgrade right away. And all I need for full functionality with my current Dex Share receiver is a remote software update. By this time next week I’ll be up to date!
Umh, what happens to your current G4 transmitter? Do you mail it back to Dexcom after you have received the G5 and verified it is working as expected? I take it you then just continue to use your current stock of sensors with the new G5, yes?
I’ll have to give up the unused capacity of my current G4 transmitter. I know that’s a waste but I’m fortunate that I’m eligible for insurance coverage, 80%, that pays for a new transmitter every six months and these transmitters often exceed that period.
I understand the current Dexcom sensors are G4/G5 agnostic.
What I got from my D pharmaceutical supplier was that I can replace my G4 transmitter with the G5 when its 6-month warranty is up at no additional cost. In that circumstance there’s no question of returning the old one since it’s considered kaput anyway. My warranty period ends just a couple days from now, so I’m happy enough with that arrangement. Current sensors work with the G5, yes.
@John - no need to send G4 transmitter to Dexcom. I’m actually donating mine to another T1. G5 uses same sensors as G4. When I received my G5 last week I had a sensor on that was in for 2 weeks so I just popped my G4 transmitter off and put the G5 on the current sensor and all worked excellent (after the 2 hour warmup of course).
You do not really need G5 or an Apple watch or to wait for Dexcom. If you have G4+share, you can have your bg displayed on a (relatively inexpensive) Pebble watch, using the SimpleCGM watchface developed by T1D techies in the Nightscout project. I’ve used this for about 6 months and love it. Nightscout people have also developed displays for Android watches, ways to view and share bg and other data on a website, and lots of other cool stuff - worth checking out.
But this requires you to carry around the share receiver, right?
The benefit of having the receiver in the form of a watch would be not having to carry anything - although I can see how there might be a dichotomy in male vs female interest in this.
That’s true - you do have to carry the G4+share receiver around. G5 eliminates the need for the receiver, and with G5 SimpleCGM will still work just the same on a Pebble watch. At this time, however, any watch display still requires a phone and Internet access, because the phone sends data to the cloud and the watch app gets the data from the cloud. This is obviously unnecessary - it is entirely possible to have sensor data displayed on a watch directly or (more likely) through a smart phone, without the need for Internet access. I am pretty sure Nightscout people will figure this out for G5 before any official Dexcom solutions become available - will keep an eye on that. On another note, I am not sure I would be at ease with carrying just one display around - it is always good to have an alternative backup display just in case, so I think I will continue to carry the receiver even when I get G5.
So, I have found that there are certain times when I really don’t want to have my phone on me or where I do not want to fiddle with the watch to get a simple “timely” value. I have started using the G5 updated receiver again - along with my phone. When I’m out in the yard working I just use the receiver and it works as usual. Also, when I’m sleeping I do not want to fiddle with my phone/watch so I’m back to using the receiver at night.
Now, the cool thing is, when you calibrate one device the other is automatically calibrated. So, you don’t have to duplicate the work on 2 devices to use them at the same time. I did not have to start a new sensor session on my receiver either, since it was already started on the iphone. As soon as you input the transmitter ID into the receiver it starts looking for values.
So, at the office I just use my phone/watch combo and leave the receiver at home (waiting) to receive values once I get home.
I may finally stop using the receiver when the G5 watch app rolls out. Hope this helps people in making a decision.
nice Anthony cool that you can use in conjunction with each other. I won’t do this as I’m donating my G4 to another T1 but it’s nice to know it can be done!!!
Anthony - I was never motivated by reducing the number of devices I use. I like using the Dex receiver at night. That’s also when I charge my Apple Watch. Thanks for the comment about not having to calibrate multiple devices. I used to use two receiver so that I could bridge the 2-hour blackout period but calibrating two receivers was a pain in the tail.
MY G5 transmitter should ship today.
I just updated my iPhone iOS yesterday to 9.0.2. I hope it gets along with the Dex app.
My G5 App uploads directly to Clarity. Also, wouldn’t the G5 receiver need the internet connection of the iPhone to update to Clarity? Or do you mean update when plugged into computer?
