My brother has a Tandem pump. He recently began using the G7. Tandem says I should start the sensor on the pump first. After warm-up, start the sensor on the Dexcom app, (Android phone). Dexcom says I should start the sensor on the Dexcom app first. After warm-up, I should start the sensor on the pump.
I’ve tried it both ways & I think starting it on the pump first is easier. I had problems one time with starting it on the app first. I assume you do whatever you want. What are your thoughts?
I always start it on the phone app first because it can be a while before it starts giving accurate numbers and I don’t want CIQ to use bad numbers (usually false lows).
I overlap sensors and keep using the old accurate sensor on the pump until the new sensor settles in.
Like Tnyc, I overlap the sensors to let the new sensor settles in (usually 2-3 hrs). Then I start the phone and pump within seconds of each other. I have not seen any difference whether the first few seconds are pump first or phone first.
I appreciate your feedback. It’s weird because when I talked to Tandem, he said to make sure the old sensor was more than 20 ft away from the new sensor I am inserting. I can understand that because one time I had troble with a G6 sensor & Dexcom told me it was because it was still reading the old sensor. They told me to wait 15 minutes inbetween removing the old sensor & inserting the new sensor. I did that every time & I didn’t have a problem ever again.
Your pump is more important than your CGM. Follow the pump manufacturer’s instructions.
It’s not clear if you are talking about yourself or your brother. I assume you have a G7 but don’t have the Tandem pump.
When the G7 is inserted it “turns on” and goes into a mode where it is continuously trying to attach to an app (pump, 'phone, watch it doesn’t matter). Connection is easy; I believe this is why Tandem say to do the pump first.
After the initial connection it goes into a mode where it only communicates every 5 minutes. I assume this is to save battery life. It’s relatively easy to see this happening using the Dexcom receiver and a 'phone app, one connected the other not. The “other” only manages to connect at exactly the same time the “connected” receives a reading.
IMO the design is broken but the message is clear; connect what matters first then hope the other stuff will manage to connect.
I would always start my dex sensor on the dex ap first and join on my pump as no code and it would work out.
On my tandem mobi it glitched a few times doing this with the g7, so now I pair my mobi pump first and my g7 ap second. It still sometimes won’t see it on the ap the first few times, but having my pump work is more important than having the G7 ap work.
In the end it’s pretty easy to get them both going. Remember to delete all the old Bluetooth sensors from your phone because it can cause a memory issue
I didn’t know that. Are you sure? It seems like an unnecessary complication. I realize that the sensor starts immediately on insertion but why would it have two modes of communication? Isn’t it always sending out a signal every five minutes?
I’ve inserted sensors about eight to twelve hours before I try to connect to them and customer service has told me that’s fine.
Yes. It’s an observation; the first receiver to attach attaches instantly, the second takes, yes, up to 5 minutes.
You can insert a new G7 sensor while still wearing and using readings from the "expired " sensor that is within its 12-hour grace period. However, you should remove the old sensor and move it away from your location (20 Feet or so) at the time that you are “starting” your new sensor on your smart phone and/or pump (even though it actually starts at the time of insertion). If the old sensor is still inserted your Smart phone and pump may not properly “locate” the new sensor due to conflicting signals.
I don’t know how this signal thing can be an issue since it uses Bluetooth, it should ignore other signals that are not paired with it. But I have seen dexcom g7 with the same code, so I’m not really sure what to think. I was able to restart a g7 by starting a new session with a controller for a few days. It’s seems like everything I thought I knew about the g7 is not accurate.
Everyone, thank you for your feedback. I always learn so much in this forum. John, it does seem that the pump should come before the cgm. I’ll continue to do that and see what happens.
I’m skeptical of the signal thing, too. You can have multiple Bluetooth devices at once, never seems to be a problem. I’ve had two G7s going at once (one on my pump and the other on my iPhone). Would certainly be a problem if they had the same code, but otherwise, I doubt it.