I have watched and admired the grassroots tech as the “We are not waiting” and “CGM in the cloud” movements emerged in the last couple of years. It didn’t seem germane to my situation as an adult with diabetes living alone. I didn’t feel that I needed outside remote monitoring and didn’t want to recruit, train, and burden a friend or relative with my moment to moment blood glucose levels. I do understand the critical niche that this remote monitoring tech can play when trying to manage the blood glucose and safety of a young child.
It wasn’t until Dana Lewis and Scott Leibrand were able to close the loop and implement the essential elements of the artificial pancreas did I start to see how this emerging citizen hacking movement could actually make my life better. Not until I listened to the interviews of each of them on Scott Benner’s Juicebox Podcast, did I start to think what my life would be like if I had a dependable and safe method to deliver in-range BG values every night while I slept.
What was holding me back from jumping into this project with both feet? For one, I had been reading about the commercial efforts by several companies pursuing the artificial pancreas. Reading about their initial targets for their first generation product underwhelmed me. They were shooting for performance that seemed overly cautious to me. I was thinking that I would wait until the second or third generation of the commercial product evolved into something more to my liking. That could easily be another five years!
There was also the idea that I would have to learn a considerable body of knowledge about integrating a pump, CGM, a computer, and the wireless communication component. It also involved learning some programming skills. I resisted investing my time and energy into something that may become obsolete in a relatively short time.
But now I’ve changed my mind. I’ve been going through a bit of a struggle to reach my overnight goals of staying in-range with my BGs. I have gone through a period of experimenting with Tresiba and an MDI program. After several weeks of that I returned to my pump therapy, but I’m still struggling with my overnight BGs.
One of the features of the “Open APS” system is that it requires a commitment to learning how this system works. It is not a turnkey system where all you needed to do is push the “go” button. The openaps.org website provides plenty of resources to build your own customized automated pancreas system but you will become intimately involved with its system design and components. That will aid in the the troubleshooting necessary to follow as the project unfolds. It’s a form of sweat equity.
I’ve decided to commit to building a system. As this is a community and social media site, I’m wondering if there are any other TuD’ers interesting in joining me in the build process. We can each build our separate parallel system and communicate/collaborate on the various questions that arise. I am going to do this anyway but think it may be more enjoyable to move forward together with someone.
We are working on an AP, but my husband is leaning towards just doing it from scratch with our Animas Ping. (Well, mainly my husband is trying to figure it out…it’s been done but it’s NOT easy). The Ping requires soldering and coding a lot of stuff from scratch, and the built-in safety features are not as robust.
I’m leaning towards using the Medtronic and the openAPS reference design, because I think it could be up and running sooner and because I understand the logic behind it and it is ultimately a more precise and constant version of what we are doing already (i.e. making a prediction about where a bolus will have you wind up, then constantly refining it as more CGM data becomes available). The downside is that all our infusion sets are for the Animas Ping and we don’t have a Medtronic pump yet. We would only want to use it at night in the beginning, which would mean a lot of swapping things out.
But because my husband is the coder, we’ll probably go with whatever he’s motivated to do. Either way, I plan to threaten to attempt coding it myself to get him to work faster
Anyways, I think it is totally worth it and that you can totally do it! If your’e serious, join the Gitter channel intend-to-bolus. The people involved are very responsive, very willing to help, and generally seem pretty wonderful if you run into difficulties. Someone whose daughter was diagnosed right around the time of our son (about 2 months) ago already has one up and running, and he was not a technical person at all. So it’s definitely doable!
If we do wind up going through the Medtronic openAPS reference design, I’d be happy to do it alongside you. I’m thinking that if we did go that route, my biggest contribution would be to provide documentation to make it easier for laypeople to master it.
Thanks for the reply. I share your situation with my current pump an Animas Ping. Getting the right model Med-T pump also necessitates getting the requisite infusion sets. Perhaps this will be the right time for me to more fully explore the “non-APS reference design” using the Animas Ping. In any case, I think step number one is thoroughly reading through all the documentation and then proceeding.
I intend to get through most of the reading this weekend and then making some decisions as to which path I like would like to take. Using the APS reference design (Med-T) means that more people have the experience and could help if needed. Let’s stay in touch.
Also, we are also SF Bay area folks, so if you’re ever wanting to walk through things in person that may be a possibility. We’re awfully busy these days with little free time, but what little we do have we are trying to focus on getting AP technology up and running.
The coding is so intimidating, I went so far as to make notes on all the steps but haven’t gotten the hardware yet. I know I will because I already use a compatible medtronic pump and my overnight control is as bad as it has ever been. The nightscout chat site makes it clear this is not a set & forget system, so I am dragging my heels. The folks there are totally ready to help though. Many people are already pushing the envelope on improved hardware setups and adding new features like meal assist and auto-sensitivity mode. Such a cool, cool project.
Great! I am preparing to build a backup system, and then a more compact version in the next couple of months, and I am also planning to contribute some more to the documentation, so I am in. I’d also be interested in exchanging ideas about various aspects of how the system works. I am not a coder, but I think we could offer some feedback to the developers.
I am not sure what to suggest regarding your Ping versus Medtronic pump decision. I think a few people have been looping with Ping pumps, but the setup is not well documented, and the code is very different from the core OpenAPS code. The setup with a compatible Medtronic pump is not straightforward by any means, but it is better documented, and more people would be able to offer assistance. It would probably be best to post questions regarding the Ping option to the OpenAPS community. The support by the developers and the community in the chat is really great.
Thanks for the response, @Dragan1. Your recent post on this topic put me over the top. I’m experiencing flat through the night BG envy. If you get the first third of the day right, things seem to fall in place.
I’m leaning toward the more traditional Med-T build so I can easily get help but also witness the typical experience of the main channel of adopters. I get the feeling that this will not be the last iteration on the DIY front. I can imagine people tweaking the first generation of commercial APs to align with more ambitious BG goals.
Ok if I send you questions as I go through this process?
Absolutely! Feel free to post open or PM questions here or on that chat (I am @dm61 there). I should say I am not online all the time, but I keep an eye on that chat (and will be more active there as I start building more AP systems soon), and I do check TuD fairly often.
It appears to me that reasonable curiosity and a willingness to do the homework will go a long ways with this project. I think it’s worth the leap of faith. Perhaps we TuDers could add another layer of resource for each other.
Absolutely. And the homework is all in good cause for ourselves and anyone needing help! I did familiarize myself with the command-line generally using this slick tutorial.
So, my husband is starting on the ping, breaking out the soldering iron and buying all the components to essentially mimic the remote, I’m still moving forward with Medtronic. A few things to note:
The Ping setup essentially mimics the pump’s remote using hardware with a much bigger range than the traditional Medtronic setup. The Medtronic really needs to be sitting right next to you and it’s bulky. The Ping, at least based on the specs of the antenna, should work anywhere in the same room or even apartment. Instead of changing dosing based on temp basals, the Ping changes dosing based on the extended or “Combo Bolus” option.
There’s no doubt that the Medtronic “code” is easier – in fact, calling it code is sort of stretching it as It seems more like command line stuff, as far as I can tell. So I feel it should be easier than the Ping if you have ZERO experience coding.
That tutorial looks nice. As @Tia_G noted, putting together a Med-based OpenAPS amounts to assembling Linux command lines - no real coding necessary. The documentation, which is now in much better shape then when I started, leads you through the setup step by step. @Don4 and @Terry4, as in anything D related, one can learn only so much by just reading. Time to get some hardware and go for it!
Good for both of you! A little intra-family competition will be good for the cause. I have a line on a possible 722 to get me started so I’ll probably move in that direction. The increased radio range of the Ping is a definite plus. Please post your OpenAPS experience going forward. This seems like a project with a lot of good potential. Sleeping every night with a tight range and flat BG will improve my life.
I just don’t want to make a mistake I could easily avoid just by doing some reading of the obvious. Like most men, my natural inclination is to just start assembling the kit and only look at the instructions when I run into a roadblock!
I would also like to participate in openAPS but I use omnipod and so far, I don’t think it is supported. The open source xdrip app works great though. I’m so impressed with all of the effort involved to produce great features and an excellent product buy all participants. Certainly Omnipod should make its protocol available to such open source groups!
I’m learning that the OpenAPS has a standard or “reference build” system. It uses a certain selection of older Medtronic pumps. I’m currently using an Animas Ping pump and decided instead to use one of the Medtronic models that works as a standard build.
I’ve borrowed a Medtronic pump to get me going. Once I learn the basics of the system, I may pursue a variation of the standard build and use my Animas Ping. In the meantime I am trying to learn what’s possible with the older model Medtronic pump.
I’m gathering parts now and have made the first steps to configuring my Raspberry Pi computer that will serve as the brains of the OpenAPS. I’m enjoying this project.
