DIY

What we’ve been up to – mostly offline #OpenAPS

by Dana Lewis

It’s probably time for an update around here – especially since we’re nearing the “deadline” we set for closing the loop – August 1, 2015!

August 1 is our wedding date, which is part of the reason it’s been quiet around here as we are off busy preparing for that.

The other reason it’s been quiet (unless you follow me on Twitter and see some of the #DIYPS examples there) is because we closed the loop back in December (read more about it here), and we haven’t made any significant updates to the #DIYPS system.

It’s all working well.

Showing a relatively flat CGM graph despite a 75 gram carbohydrate meal, thanks to OpenAPS.

What we’ve been focusing on most of the year is supporting the #OpenAPS community. In particular, we’re trying to help more people learn what they need to understand so that they can build their own loops. There’s a handful who have made or are making excellent progress, and hopefully we’ll have some OpenAPS data to share soon.

Most recently, spotty hotel internet in Portugal helped prompt us to finish the offline version of #OpenAPS, which I’ve been testing. (And will use the honeymoon, wherever that ends up being, as an opportunity for more testing!) #DIYPS has always required internet connectivity to get the recommendations from the cloud (which is where it stores the data I give it about boluses and carbs). The reliance on connectivity is always something to troubleshoot if the system appears to not be working, and also makes it burdensome to carry around all the time and make sure it has connectivity.

Getting offline looping of CGM data to OpenAPS.

Offline OpenAPS will likely solve a big part of the frustrations I experience with daytime use of the system. I already saw a big improvement in being able to use offline OpenAPS in Portugal – both at the conference and in the hotel, as well as walking the streets of London during a layover. It’s nice to drop the system (the same Raspberry Pi, battery, and carelink stick from DIYPS) in my bag and not have to constantly check to make sure the wifi hotspot is connected. The only difference in the setup is that one of my CGMs is plugged directly into the Raspberry Pi.

Showing my OpenAPS rig against the plane window to illustrate offline steam of BGs to OpenAPS is working

We still need to do more testing on our offline implementation of OpenAPS, but it’s going well and I’m excited that what we’ve learned from this progress will help us with better tools to enable the broader OpenAPS community since #WeAreNotWaiting!

“Making” and “DIY”ing – continued

by Dana Lewis

I had a conversation this week with someone in the CGM in the Cloud Facebook group, after they indicated they wouldn’t be (or maybe weren’t interested in) joining the “dev” group for #OpenAPS – and it’s a conversation I find myself having often. Here’s what I usually end up saying, when someone says they’re not a “dev” or “not an engineer” or something similar:

“I’m not a formally trained developer/coder/engineer, either… but I keep telling people, many people in this project aren’t- it’s a passion project where we learn what we need to learn to do the things we want to do. It’s fine if someone chooses not to do something, but I encourage everyone to not let labels or perceptions of traditional roles stop them from jumping in and giving it a try to see what they can learn and thus do! Especially with this awesome supportive community of people willing to help you as you go.”

This also came up when we were discussing what it takes to be a “maker” on TEDMED’s #GreatChallenges live panel today. One of my excellent fellow panelists (Cole) pointed out that pretty much everyone is a maker – whether you tweak a recipe, work with wood, or find any kind of workaround of any sort to make things work. (Which in my mind makes every single person with diabetes a “maker” and probably anyone with any disease or health care condition that they live with.)

I previously wrote about what it takes to DIY from a DIYPS and #OpenAPS perspective (and why that’s important), but I think it holds true across any aspect of diabetes or any other disease state – and definitely beyond healthcare:

Passion, persistence, and willpower needed.

So please, don’t let labels stop you from DOING. You can learn whatever tech skills you set your mind to. You can find numerous ways to solve a problem, whether it’s on your own or by partnering with someone else – and there’s plenty of people with the skills who are willing to help you learn, too.Remember, we started building #DIYPS to make louder CGM alarms. Scott and I have both learned numerous new things and new programming languages and skills along the way as we went from alarms to an alert and recommendation system to a closed loop artificial pancreas (and now people who own 4 Raspberry Pis). We didn’t come to the table with knowledge of everything we needed to know to do what we first wanted to do – and we’re definitely still learning a dozen or more things (programming languages, new software, etc.) along the way as we continue with #OpenAPS. We also didn’t know anything previously about working directly with the FDA – and now we are, on a number of projects, in order to help scale from n=1 of a DIY artificial pancreas to many n=1s around the world.

You can do this. Bring your passion, and go do great things!

#WeAreNotWaiting, are you?