So my replacement Dexcom receiver and G5 transmitter arrived last night. I’ve only had the sensor on for 3-4 days so I contorted my way through removing the old transmitter and clipping in the new one without pulling the sensor off. Honestly I was kind of reconciled to the transmitter being a marginal improvement. I’ve had quite a lot of dropouts, especially overnight, ever since switching to G5/Bluetooth and I figured that’s just the way it works due to the size and power constraints, plus I live in a city and work where there are lots and lots of BT devices fighting for bandwidth, not to mention I just am going to sleep on the thing for part of the night no matter where I put it and overnight dropouts have been the worst, though mostly to the iPhone more than the receiver. ANYway…
This new transmitter is TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!! It has been ROCK SOLID both to the receiver and to the iPhone. I had one dropout to the receiver while it was still running through the warm-up, which concerned me, but it was short-lived and I haven’t had a single one since. Not to mention it has been tracking within 5 points of fingersticks as well.
Really curious whether I’ve just gotten lucky, or have been unlucky up until now, or–hopefully!–that they’ve been improving their act and this is what I can expect from now on. Guess I’ll see what happens in three months when I have to swap in the other transmitter of the two they originally sent me. One thing I do know is that if that one has any dropouts of the kind I had been seeing I’m going to get it replaced right away.
@DrBB, That’s great and thanks for the report. I switched to the G5 system about six weeks ago and experience moderate data dropouts but much more than my G4 experience. Their more of a nuisance at this point but I had had some 1+ hour dropouts while sleeping and therefore didn’t get an alarm that I would have led to corrective treatment.
Can you tell me the date of manufacture of your current transmitter? I’m hoping that Dexcom made some significant engineering changes in response to data dropout reports like yours. Let’s hope it’ll now be smooth sailing for all of us going forward.
I kept the box, so if that info is on the sticker with the SN, Bt identifier etc, I can let you know when I get home this evening. One of the tech support people I spoke with said they were boosting the transmitter strength but I had the impression that was for the next generation ones. Dunno. But my current one still hasn’t missed a beat.
That’s supposed to be a factory? Huh. I thought it was like one of those “We’re #1” hands you buy at the ballpark. Anyway, the date on it is 2016-04-23. The one from my previous pair* that I haven’t used yet is dated 2016-04-16–just a week earlier. Maybe that was the week they fixed everything and it’s all stars and unicorns since then, but more likely I just got lucky. Guess I’ll find out in a few months.
*I assume the one that crapped out was from the same lot–unfortunately the box for that one has gone to recycling heaven.
I’m on hold for Dexcom technical support to ask them a transmitter question. It’s a coincidence that their computer called me to tell me that my G5 transmitters are no longer in warranty. I’ve already talked to a customer support person and asked them if any improvements have been made recently to the G5 transmitter. She answered “no,” but I realize that customer service is often the last group to find out about this kind of stuff.
I’m thinking you just lucked out to get a transmitter that performs better than the average.
One thing I learned in this call is that the “SB” date on the back of the transmitter box is a “ship by” date. I received my transmitters in October 2015 with an SB date of May 2016. That tells me that the G5 transmitter has a good shelf life. I also learned that the 90-day or 112-day countdown starts with the first time it’s inserted into a sensor shoe.
@DrBB, do you use your receiver and your iPhone simultaneously? That is, are both devices active with the same sensor and transmitter and within range of the transmitter Bluetooth concurrently? The reason I ask is because tech support told me that I could not use both devices simultaneously. I was getting lots of dropped signals on the receiver and for hours at a time til I shutdown the receiver, but not on my Android. It continued to work properly.
Absolutely, yes. Generally I find that the receiver seems more robust in maintaining connection than the phone, for one thing, but there are conveniences to the phone too. I also have it “shared” to my computer’s menu bar with the GlucoGram app.
I know they tell you to try shutting off any other B/t devices transmitting to your phone because the frequencies can get overcrowded and cause dropouts, but I don’t find having both phone and receiver connected at the same time makes any difference. It’s a single signal from the transmitter, so I don’t see why the phone should care if the receiver is getting it and vice versa.
Thanks! Yes, I was surprised when tech support told me both devices could not be used since as you say it is just a signal broadcast from the transmitter. But with Android xdrip I did find it to be a problem. The receiver just stopped receiving signals so now I only use my Android. Strange.
