Data not read on Resscan 3.3

Ahhhhh! Congratulations, RiskTaker!!

Goshes, I haven't ever bothered to unplug my Elite, my Vantage nor this new VPAP Auto except to take the device when traveling.

And - it MUST be the gray, drizzly, yecky day we are having here. I was up early as I so wanted to go to the horse show today to watch my daughter and granddaughters compete - until I got a glimpse and taste of the weather.

I did a download of last night's data to its very own individual file today. Duh. That was a dumb question I asked you earlier, DSM. Never mind bothering to reply. I see all the data from previous nights. Sheesh! Like I said. It's GOTTA be the weather.

Several comments based on my observations and experience.

It should not normally be necessary to turn the machine off before copying data to the ResScan card. However, doing the card copy immediately after turning off the blower may not be ideal, since the machine has not yet "closed out" the current session. The result is that the night's data is displayed (in AutoScan 5.7 utilization graphs) as a "hollow" bar rather than as a solid bar. Should not a big issue, since all of the data is there in any case. To prevent this (as BillBolton has recommended in the past), either turn the machine off and then on, or else wait at least 15 minutes for the session to be closed.

The number of files you end up with will depend on both the software and on your procedure. ResMed recommends that you open "THE" patient file BEFORE doing the dowload from the card. This is NOT essential.

With AutoScan 5.7, if you download the ResScan card WITHOUT opening a patient file, you can then do a "SAVE AS" and get a single new .PAT file each day. That one file will contain the last 180 days summary data and the last 5 days detail data. This approach is useful in that you have a small, separate file for each day (though in fact 5 detail nights are included). The size of the .pat file is about 44KB. These files can each be imported into the ResScan software.

With AutoScan 5.7, if you open your "patient file" first, and then download, the new detail data is ADDED to whatever you have downloaded in the past, once you SAVE the file. The result is a single updated .PAT file with multiple (over 5; upper limit unknown) nights of detail data in one file. The advantage is that you can have a great deal of detail data in a single file: for example, I have 55 nights of detail data in a file of only 334KB. Just update at least every fifth night. The disadvantage here, as Slinky may have taught us, is that ther may be an upper size limit for importing such data into the newer ResScan software. (Still unclear to me, Slinky, whether your difficulty stems from size - over 2300KB!! - , type of data, or a combination of the two.)

ResScan software works somewhat differently. It creates a patient folder which contains a separate .RLK file (think ResLink!! This is how AutoScan 5.7 saves ResLink data!!) for each night of detail data, and THREE files (ClinicalData.db, Notes.db and PatientDetails.db) of patient-specific data. (Slinky, these three files only are the result when I try to import your "large" .pat file into ResScan - but not nightly detail data.) Opening a "patient" in ResScan, and then downloading, will result in the new detail data being added as new .RLK files (and, if I recall a past post by BillBolton, will also UPDATE past .RLK files). If you import a .pat file created by AutoScan, ResScan will create a new "patient folder" with the same name as the .pat file, in the same location.

I have NOT discovered a way to "read" or "save" data directly from the ResScan smart card, other than by using one or the other of the ResMed software packages. Nor have I discovered a way to "combine" multiple "daily" AutoScan .pat files into a larger file. Nor do I know how to "divide" a large .pat file into smaller components (which might hopefully solve Slinky's difficulty). Nor can I find a way to "reconstruct" an AutoScan .pat file from ResScan .rlk files. Nor have I found an easy way to combine multiple .pat files imported into ResScan into a single ResScan "patient" (my guess is that simply moving .rlk files into a single "patient folder" would work, but I've not tried this). ResMed data seems generally to move "one way only".

I am not aware of either software program "erasing" the data on a card as a matter of course. On the other hand, it seems likely (though I cannot positively confirm this) that the machine itself completely overwrites previous data each time the card is inserted.

I do not use ResScan software much; it does not appear to be able to export data to Excel as AutoScan can, and this loss of functionality is a critical drawback for me.

I've never had a critical technical problem with the ResScan card, or with either AutoScan or ResScan software. And, unlike the frequent reports regarding Respironics Encore, I have NEVER "lost" ResMed data!!

Velbor wrote: ResScan software works somewhat differently. It creates a patient folder which contains a separate .RLK file (think ResLink!! This is how AutoScan 5.7 saves ResLink data!!) for each night of detail data, and THREE files (ClinicalData.db, Notes.db and PatientDetails.db) of patient-specific data. (Slinky, these three files only are the result when I try to import your "large" .pat file into ResScan - but not nightly detail data.) Opening a "patient" in ResScan, and then downloading, will result in the new detail data being added as new .RLK files (and, if I recall a past post by BillBolton, will also UPDATE past .RLK files). If you import a .pat file created by AutoScan, ResScan will create a new "patient folder" with the same name as the .pat file, in the same location.

I have NOT discovered a way to "read" or "save" data directly from the ResScan smart card, other than by using one or the other of the ResMed software packages. ResMed data seems generally to move "one way only".

I am not aware of either software program "erasing" the data on a card as a matter of course. On the other hand, it seems likely (though I cannot positively confirm this) that the machine itself completely overwrites previous data each time the card is inserted.

I do not use ResScan software much; it does not appear to be able to export data to Excel as AutoScan can, and this loss of functionality is a critical drawback for me.

I've never had a critical technical problem with the ResScan card, or with either AutoScan or ResScan software. And, unlike the frequent reports regarding Respironics Encore, I have NEVER "lost" ResMed data!!

It seems like all I need to do is back up the patient directory. In the event I need to install the software on another computer, I could simply put the patient directroy in the same path. Do you concur?

As far as the card being erased, I have to believe that there is a procedure built into one of the programs to deal with this.

That is correct - all you have to do is copy the patient folder - That is what I do and I have transferred that folder to a new installation of Resscan on a different computer - it works fine.

The card does not get deleted at all - it just gets overwritten every time you insert it into a flow generator - you can verify this by downloading the same card multiple times or on a different computer.