Iv’e been getting on an off transmitter “Out of range” errors with higher frequency (over the past 3 months or so). I got a new transmitter. Not much change from before the new transmitter and after the new transmitter.
Just put in a new one today and restarted it twice. It read one data point. Transmitter error appeared. Restarted it. Transmitter error for the past few hours. No data. Sensor Failed. I’m gonna swap it out in the morning.
Any info on this? Is this a hardware problem or is this a “hardware interacting with my body,” problem?
My guess is that it is most likely a hardware interacting with your body problem. Are you getting good line of sight between your transmitter and receiver? I do a lot of inline distance skating and when I go out for a 25 mile skate wear a cycling shirt with back pockets. I wear my sensor on my stomach between my belly button and xiphoid process. If I put my receiver in my back middle shirt pocket, I will get that transmitter error even though the transmitter is no more than 10 inches from the receiver. The signal will not go through my body. On the other hand, my receiver can be on a table 15 feet away from me with direct line of sight and no problem at all.
The Bluetooth signal does not properly go through the body. I have been told, and not sure if it is true is that the body is 90%+ water and bluetooth does not transmit through water. The other way to get this transmission error is to spoon (cuddle) another individual. If the transmitter is buried in another individual, again the signal does not go through the bodies.
During certain times of the year, we change the position of the receiver in relation to the transmitter and it is at that time we are most likely to experience transmitter signal loss.
A quick way to figure this out is to put the receiver next to the transmitter for 10-15 minutes and see if you still get signal loss. If you still get loss, then it is a hardware issue. If no loss, then then it is line of sight issue.
I also use the G4 and recently went through a transmitter out of range error when I had just inserted a new sensor. The error occurred during the two hour warm up period.
I normally wear my sensor/transmitter on the back of my arm and place the Dex receiver in my front pants pocket on the same side of my body. When I got this error, I realized that I had not moved my receiver to the same side of my body as my recently switched sensor/transmitter. Once I moved the receiver to physically align with my sensor transmitter, the error cleared.
Thanks for input, CJ114. I recall reading your post about this.
The error pops up for periods of 4 hours, during the middle of the day, even if its sitting right next to me. I can’t get the error to go away. This behavior is new. It didn’t happen for years. Now, it happens all the time. One subtle difference between the new models and the G4 is that it uses RF communication, not bluetooth. I have blocked the signal using water and a tight screen in combination. But, this isn’t that.
I agree with you that this is a hardware issue. I’m not sure how to overcome this. It is making my device unreliable.
Right, sorry about that. I am on G5 bluetooth, keep forgetting G4 on RF. You have changed out the transmitter and it is not a line of sight issue so that really only leaves either the receiver or a software update. Can you change receivers? If you are using a phone, use Dexcom receiver or vice versa? That would then narrow the issue down to hardware or software.
Thats interesting and not exactly how I would expect it to behave. I wonder why its doing that. I’ll run some tests with line of sight, again, just to be sure since you guys suggest it. Has this always happened? Or, has it become more of an issue lately?
The last time that I tried to block the signal (because I was bored, not because it was behaving badly), I found it pretty difficult to block the signal. Like, the thing had to be FULLY enclosed in a metal mesh and totally sealed up. I used a wet wash cloth in a plastic bag laid over it help. It there was even a tiny wrinkle in the cloth or any space between the mesh, the signal got through. It was tedious to stop it.
mmmm…I hadn’t considered the receiver. Thats a good point. Mine doesn’t update. Perhaps its getting old and this is it in the process of dying. Its very, very old. Might be time to upgrade to G5. I dont think they sell the G4 anymore. Thanks for bringing that up. I hadn’t considered it.
