Seriously considering giving Loop a try, though I have used Android since the dawn of smart phones. Was thinking about dipping my toes into the water by buying an unlocked iPhone 6, but wanted to see if anyone had experience with this or if I should just go ahead and buy a more modern iPhone?
I successfully ran Loop on the iPhone 6s for over two years. Here’s the info on compatible iPhone models from LoopDocs.
As you can see above, the iPhone 6 model is listed as compatible. I strongly recommend that you closely review LoopDocs to guide your adoption of Loop.
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One downside of buying an older phone to Loop with is that when you do change phones, you have to rebuild your app again.
Are you planning to keep your Android phone for everything else? Then it would be a PITA to carry two phones. And if you want to have a chance of liking an Apple phone, you should get one of the newer, better ones rather than a dinosaur.
One of the most freeing things about Loop for me has been the ability to control just about everything in my life on my phone. I bought a new iPhone before I started Looping and what I love the most is Face Recognition. I struggled with my 6s recognizing my fingerprints. With OmniLoop, my Face Recognition authorizes my boluses. Not quite sure what a 6s would require.
I am struggling with Loop because I mostly hate the Omnipod. I am back on my Tandem pump for a couple of weeks but will try Loop again after my endo appointment next week. They did find one glitch where people with basal rates between .4 and .6 were missing out on some basal “clicks.” All of my basal rates fall in that range and others have solved the problem by expanding their target range. So I’ll give that a try.
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I agree with this. iPhones come with hefty price tags and people uncertain of the value that Loop can provide are trying to ease the economic burden and risk by looking at the older models.
I have found Loop’s therapy so valuable in terms of effectiveness and greatly enhanced quality of life that I had no hesitation buying an iPhone xR when my 6s model failed due to a bulging battery.
Laying out $700 for a new iPhone without confidence that you will be able to benefit from Loop is daunting.
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You should be fine buying an old phone off the internet. I would take it to Apple and have a current/legitimate operating system (iOS) installed immediately. Know that Apple cannot even tell the difference between its phones and knock offs at this point. You will likely never know for sure and there is some risk of incompatible hardware or malware coming installed on the device. I would not buy the absolute cheapest iPhone for that reason, but something more mid-range. REINSTALL THE OS AT APPLE to be safe.
You may want an unlimited data plan, I think. Sprint/Best Buy offer some really cheap ones ($20/month). Although, I think that Loop has been repaired so that the most recent version can run offline with the newest transmitters of the G6. There are a whole bunch of different firmware version associated with the newest G6 transmitters, so this may come into play if you are upgrading your Dex (if you already have one, things may be more smooth). If you are overseas, there may be some transmitter hangups with Loop.
I would highly recommend buying a Mac laptop and an Apple developer account ($99), so you can rebuild the application at the drop of a hat). Expect to have to rebuild. Expect to have to put in some time. I think that’s were people hit problems most often - lack of time. The RileyLink shipments are fast right now, so its a good time to start. But, you ought to start figuring out your settings right away because hardware may show up within the month. There will be lots to do in a month.
Lastly, I would highly recommend operating Loop off of a different phone than you currently use. I think its great if you keep running your android device as your primary phone for security reasons. I, personally, don’t install apps, or any superfluous stuff on my Loop phone to protect the security. Know that every application you install is a security risk and its better to have a clean device because this is a critical system.
There are lots of gross things floating around the internet right now. Setup your accounts on the most secure network that you have access to. Use strong passwords. (I have an entire 3 ring binder of user accounts and passwords for this system.) Those passwords are long and fairly secure, but if I loose the binder, I’m in trouble because I will never remember them and I dont store them in the browser. I recommend changing your home network password prior to setup (something complex) and hardening the iPhone (as recommended by El_ver). I’ll post his checklist for iphone hardening when your ready.
Best of luck!
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P.S. You should join the Jaeb study right away because its nice to have some pre-Loop data there. If things move quickly, you might want to start uploading data there right away. You can do this even if your still operating a super old Dex G4 without Share.
https://studies.jaeb.org/ndocs/loop/Public/Participant/StudyRecruitment.aspx
Go ahead and join the fb group if you haven’t allready. Dont panic. It will seem like there’s tons of problems because everyone is there troubleshooting the system. Its not that bad. But, it will give you an idea of what sorts of difficulties arise. It will take them a couple days to let you into the group.
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Hey Laddie, someone mentioned that there might be a Loop bug that is contributing to Omnipod leaking. Do you know anything about this? I just heard about it and apparently they are troubleshooting it. Did you have leaking during that test period before you used Loop? Here’s the Link: Looped | Facebook
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Totally agree and you guys hit the nail on the head-- not super wild about carrying two phones but I was thinking of kicking the tires of Loop first with something cheaper and if it works well I can eventually jettison the Android and upgrade the iPhone. Wasn’t sure if the 6 was too far back in time but sounds like it would be fine.
I’m a software developer by trade and already have a Mac, so don’t anticipate any issues at all on that side of things. In fact I’m shocked I haven’t played with this already.
Thanks so much for all the valuable info!
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Thanks for sending, sounds great, but sadly I am older than 18 
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Just requested for FB group… thanks!!
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Thanks for great tips… Hadn’t really thought of knockoff/security aspects… Will be careful!
Bought a RileyLink and a refurbished iPhone 6s from Amazon! Wish me luck… 
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The bug is that Loop says it gave you a “click” of insulin but it didn’t. I don’t think it has anything to do with making the pod leak. But this missed insulin might make sense because every time I run AutoTune, it keeps raising my Basal rates to rates higher than I have ever used. I know some people use about 20% more insulin on the pod, but some of these rates were about 50% higher than my t:slim rates. I couldn’t use the link to open the discussion in FB. Not sure why.
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I myself bought a 64MB iPhone SE unlocked on E-bay for like $75 and added a 2 year squaretrade warranty. I’m currently on the Sprint $25/month unlimited kickstart plan. I charge the phone and the rileylink every night. Works great at a minimal cost.
Excellent responses already and agree with most comments. I use an iPhone SE, and also use an Android for my main phone with cellular and continue to use xDrip but with data source set to Dexcom Share. It is great for viewing history and statistics.
Yes, @Laddie, I think I’ve been effected by the OmniPod click discrepancy, too. I’m using jojo-beeps, so hope the fix will be merged to it. In the meantime, I don’t feel comfortable with the workaround of increasing the target range as it will be difficult to maintain a low target, I think. Instead I do frequent checks tapping Bolus, and then bolus the pending amount.
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Wow, Jaeb must have gotten all the adults that they needed in the last four weeks. I hadn’t noticed the change in the request for participants. Thanks for clarifying.
Where are you guys reading about the jojo-beeps issue? I was just gonna rebuild from with that branch, but maybe I’ll wait. Thanks for info
@mohe0001, JFYI, Jojo branch is no longer supported:
Katie DiSimone
I’ll no longer be supporting Jojo (or similar) branches for public use.
I’ve reached my limits of people having “hurt feelings” when being asked to do a modicum of leg work themselves to learn about things well covered in docs or simple search in the group.
Use Loop official versions and you’ll have less work to do. And keep your feelings safe.
Overrides are in dev branch now, so that part of Jojo has already made it to a main branch.
I saw that on FB. Its sad that she feels so badly.
I don’t think I’m ready for another branch yet. I’m gonna move slowly. Is that the one that you are using? I might start looking at Autotune, but I probably wont use it with Loop, if its possible to just kinda play with it first and manually input information. I’m too nervous to let anything other than me set my basals.
Yes, agree, Katie has provided so much support. I don’t follow sufficiently to know all the issues.
Yes, I use Jojo-beeps. I’ll stay with it for now as I like the Overrides.
Happy to report I have Loop up and running with G6 on iPhone 6s!! RileyLink was back ordered so should have Omnipod hooked up in hopefully a couple of weeks. Thanks again!
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