Omnipod Dash PDM Sound

T1D Tech & Daily Management Support
1

Hey everyone,

As you may or may not be aware you can disable the pod sound by hitting the kill switch before you put on you pod (and the pod still works!).

However, the PDM still beeps (and never stays on vibrate mode :roll_eyes:). Granted not as loud as the Pod but still would like the ability to temporarily or permanently disable the speaker so I can bring my PDM to meetings without it going off.

Some options I have thought of:

ā€¢ Sound proof pouch

Problem: havenā€™t been able to find anything that doesnā€™t also block Bluetooth which defeats the point of having the pouch (still might try this if there are no better options)

ā€¢ Headphone Jack

Problem: The dash comes with a headphone jack but Iā€™m not sure an alert will only come through headphones and not the speaker as well.

ā€¢ Taping the speaker

Problem: I tried this with electrical tape and scotch tape and it didnā€™t have a noticeable impact.

ā€¢ Disabling the speaker via code

Problem: Iā€™m in the IT field so I think I have the technical skills to do this but Iā€™m hesitant to attempt to gain access to the code. At least not without some more intimate knowledge of the PDM code.

Does anyone else have any ideas (Iā€™m willing to experiment) or solution they have tried?

Thanks!

(PS. An easy solution might be switching pumps. But, I live an active lifestyle and really donā€™t see tubing as an option for me. In addition to the fact I want to be as discrete as possible.)

3

You have a real problem with the sound. Thoughts - I have been a pumper for 12 years - but not with a Pod + PDM. I am retired from 40+ years in healthcare including 15 years on the streets in EMS.

1] Forget about being discrete. Many times peopleā€™s attempts to hide conditions makes things worse. I can think of many EMS runs where this was true. If I were on the streets today and made a run because you were down, if I found a pump, I would check a bg instead of wasting time with Narcan, the first step for a breathing, unresponsive person. If I found a CGM, I would check a bg and compare with CGM. Point, make it easy for EMS to care for you in an emergency by making you pump & CGM easy to find.

2] Now to the sound, what about a foam tape patch over the speaker. I see you have tried thin tape. Try two or three layers of foam tape, usually 1-2 millimeters thick. Try holding it on with several rubber bands so you can experiment and remove easily.

3] I am very happy with a Tandem t:Slim with Control IQ software. I can silence the alarms or not. My A1C has come down a more than a full point from over 7.5 to between 6.0 & 6.4.

4] Use the alarms to kill meetings. Arenā€™t most meetings a WOT anyway? WOT=waste of time. This is the satire answer. ((( GRIN ))) Might be a way to get out of jury duty if you are ever called and want a way outā€¦

Let me know which way you do and what works.

4

Thanks for the reply! Iā€™m going to try the foam tape first, Iā€™ll post on here my results.

1 Like
5

Hi there. I know this is an old post but thought I would ask you more about the kill switch before applying the pod. If you are able to let me know more I would appreciate it. Thank you.

6

Hi @joeiwms the op has not been back since this topic was created. Maybe you can tell us that version of Pod you have? Someone might have information or a tip for you.

7

Itā€™s definitely a good idea to learn how to durable a screaming pod before you ever have to (trust me, thereā€™s nothing like sitting on the darned thing as you feverishly search for YouTube videos demonstrating how to do it!). Below are a couple of pics showing you the hole you use to disable the sound. Youā€™ll need something very fine such as a pushpin or paper clip.

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@joeiwJoeā€™s posting this I realized you may have been referring to the PDM and not the pod. If thatā€™s the case, apologies. The pics are from an Omnipod5.

8

We are using the Omnipod 5 and constantly worried about the screeching alarm,

9

I am referring to the pod. Thank you very much. Do you do this before applying the pod?

10

I only do it if the pod starts screaming, which is different from a regular pod alert and happens if Iā€™m not able to deactivate the old one due to a connection issue. Iā€™ve only had three or four since I started using Omnipod over a year ago.
The regular pod alerts can be inconvenient but I never thought of deactivating them as they serve a purpose. I do try to remember to turn the volume down on my controller but even when itā€™s been loud it hasnā€™t drawn much attention.
A while back I found some Vera Bradley padded eyeglass cases that I slipped my phone in. Itā€™s been a while but I think bluetooth was okay but I have not used them for the controller.
![Double eyeglass case red 1|375x500]

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11

Hi again. Iā€™m wondering if you have had a pod scream, or if you are hoping to forestall it? If youā€™ve never heard one is not as bad as the term ā€œscreaming podā€ makes it sound: itā€™s loud enough to get your attention and annoying along the lines of the alert you hear when youā€™ve left your fridge open, but nothing like the volume of a fire alarm. I woke up one night to get a glass of water and heard ā€œthis soundā€ but couldnā€™t figure out what it was. I followed it downstairs and to the trash can where I had tossed a pod earlier in the day - and voilĆ !
Iā€™m not sure if this will help or hurt, but hereā€™s a true story of mine about a screaming pod:

So - I left work early yesterday because my controller wouldnā€™t communicate with my pod. Things were back to normal when I got home 10 minutes later and I went to the dentist as planned. Got to work this morning and my co-worker good me I had missed some excitement.
Really, what?
We thought we had a bomb.
OH [insert your preferred expletive here]. I knew right away what he was referring to: the pod I had removed and tossed in the trash had not deactivated and was beeping when the early birds got to work. Thankfully James kept his cool and looked in the bathroom trash. Iā€™ve worn my pod on my arm and told people what it is so thankfully he recognized it - he threw it in the dumpster down the street. Not knowing how loud it might eventually get I walked around the dumpster waving my controller to connect and shut it off. I thought it stopped before I went back to my office but I did go back to check later just in case.
I may laugh about this someday but right now I am not amused. Note to self: take your used pods home to discard.

I did see the humor in it a couple of days later - and ever since then I take all my used pods home to discard, including the ones that ended normally - just in case.
As I recall mine have screamed not while I was wearing them, but some hours after removal because they did not disconnect fully from the controller (I was still able to start a new pod, so no worries). And my controller did let me know the discarded pod did not disconnect completely. When you get that message you can toss the pod in the freezer - in all but one case that completely prevented it from screaming in the first place.

To lighten things up a bit (I hope you donā€™t mind), an original and incredibly bad poem by yours truly, to the rhyme of ā€œPurple Cowā€ by Gelett Burgess (many or most of you may need to Google itšŸ˜Š):

If you should get a screaming pod
Just silence it, donā€™t fear it.
The sound it makes is not so loud
That you cannot get near it.

Insert a pushpin in the hole
That serves as the podā€™s speaker,
Or if you canā€™t find one of those,
Then toss it in the freezer.

Throw out your old pods at home
So only you will know
If stopping the last one you used
Just did not so well gošŸ¤Ŗ.

Take care of it quickly -
Try the options above -
And those around you will know
That you have done enough.

Yes it may be annoying,
And it might make you mad.
But compared to other alarms
Itā€™s really not so bad.
Hopefully

        By Dorie (the demented poet)
12

@joeiwms so the information in various forums kind of say you can use the paper clip method BEFORE you put the pod on but if you do- the pod will not alert critical errors, such as pod failure or occlusion. You know, if it is a critical alarm Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d want to disable it, but itā€™s your call. Omnipod does not mention it so thereā€™s no official information that I can find.

The freezer trick just drains the permanent pod battery (low temperature drains battery) while holding the pod in a sealed muffled box (the freezer) so there is no magic there.

Other than that you could crush the pod and cut out the battery but itā€™s kind of a big effort in my opinion.

Oh and thatā€™s a funny story @wadawabbit i can picture it. Where I work they would have evacuated the building and surrounding areas.

13

I was working at a small business, in itā€™s own building separate from the others in the neighborhood. You could hear it in my with area which was right inside the emplyee entrance but thankfully the people who got there first that day find it before others arrived. When I got to the dumpster I could just hear something but it was muffled by the rest of the trash. I did worry that 911 would be called if the trash people heard it, but I t it seemed to stop once I turned on my controller. But tbh Iā€™m not sure if it works that way.

14

@WarriorMom13 - your teenage son is understandably concerned about noises and alerts, and I wanted to share this Omnipod story with you. If it werenā€™t for your son you might find the same humor in it that I did - maybe you still will.
It only happened once at work - after that I took my used pods home when I changed at the office.