Free Software - Dump your oximeter data to a .csv file

[foggydaze]

I have just released a program I have been working on for some time now and using myself. It allows the user to communicate with a Nellcor oximeter and dump the data recorded in the oximeter to a .csv file for further analysis or plotting.

The program strips out all but the actual data point entires and makes the data easily readable by Microsoft Excel and other programs. It also has the option of filtering out data points where motion was detected by the oximeter or where the oximeter has entered it's pulse search mode.

You will need a serial cable to interface your oximeter to a serial port on your computer. You can download the program and find details on how I made my cable at this address: http://riggins.biz/MyOxiDump/

[Gerald]

Good evening Foggy......

The software you're developing for reading Oximeters is very interesting to me. I don't own an Oximeter yet, but I'm about to purchase one.

My average AHI is now running about 0.4 or so....but I suspect that my O2 levels are still not up where they should be. That's why I want to "hang a gauge" on myself while sleeping.

I was thinking about purchasing a wrist mounted SFO 7500 with the Profox software. Turner sells them in that configuration for $750.00.

Please let me know if you think there is another package that would be a better value. Might I purchase another brand Oximeter....and then purchase your software.......in order to put together a superior system for recording 02 levels all night?

After almost a year on cpap, I have come to the conclusion that 02 levels "are the ball game"......and that cpap is simply a good way to get the O2 levels back up to where they should be while sleeping.

Please let us know what you think. I think your work is very important.....and if people finally decide that regulating night time O2 levels is what's most important......and that cpap treatment is only a means to this end......your work will pay off handsomely.

Gerald

[foggydaze]

Good evening Foggy......

The software you're developing for reading Oximeters is very interesting to me. I don't own an Oximeter yet, but I'm about to purchase one.

My average AHI is now running about 0.4 or so....but I suspect that my O2 levels are still not up where they should be. That's why I want to "hang a gauge" on myself while sleeping.

I was thinking about purchasing a wrist mounted SFO 7500 with the Profox software. Turner sells them in that configuration for $750.00.

Please let me know if you think there is another package that would be a better value. Might I purchase another brand Oximeter....and then purchase your software.......in order to put together a superior system for recording 02 levels all night?

After almost a year on cpap, I have come to the conclusion that 02 levels "are the ball game"......and that cpap is simply a good way to get the O2 levels back up to where they should be while sleeping.

Please let us know what you think. I think your work is very important.....and if people finally decide that regulating night time O2 levels is what's most important......and that cpap treatment is only a means to this end......your work will pay off handsomely.

Gerald

Hi Gerald,

I did a lot of research and wound up buying a Nellcor unit from eBay they can be found under $300 if you keep yours eyes open on the auctions. The model 395 seems to be the most popular. I got a good deal on a 595 and since I have an arrhythmia as well I wanted to be able to use the capabilities of the better sensors which I think only work with the 595 and later. There is nothing wrong with the earlier models however. I also have a model 290 which works very well. Just make sure you get one with the patient cable included. The sensors can be bought pretty cheap but the patient cables can cost you almost as must as the oximeter if bought separately.

I have released my software to download the Nellcor oximeters to your computer already and there is no charge for it. Donations are always appreciated however.

You will need to make a cable to connect the oximeter to your computer's serial port and I have complete instructions on how I made mine included in the help file with MyOxiDump program as well as on my website. http://riggins.biz/MyOxiDump

Once the data is on your computer as a .csv file any number of programs can be used to plot the data such as Microsoft Excel.

Currently I am working on finishing up another program which will read the .csv file created by MyOxiDump and do the plotting in a very nice autoscaled fashion with options to save the plots as graphic files or print them.

Below is a reduced size screen shot from the plotting program I will be releasing very shortly.


Yeah I really did go to bed at almost 4 am and sleep till 1:30 pm after a long day working on my software.

I agree with you the object is to keep your O2 levels up there. Oximeters are like cars everyone has their favorites. But free is a good price for software to allow you to plot your data.

Best Regards
Foggy

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP, AHI

[ablong-1]

Sorry I could not get login to work.

I think you are on to a very good idea with the software.
Do you know how to dump Nonin or respironics units to PC
I am just as interested in all units and like you have seen some
good used units on the internet.

Keep up good work.

Allen

[Slinky]

...... I was thinking about purchasing a wrist mounted SFO 7500 with the Profox software. Turner sells them in that configuration for $750.00.

Please let me know if you think there is another package that would be a better value. Might I purchase another brand Oximeter....and then purchase your software.......in order to put together a superior system for recording 02 levels all night?

Gerald, shop some more. You should be able to find the SPO 7500 for $500 complete w/software and cable. SPO Medical packages them as a complete kit. I haven't had my SPO 7500 a full year yet and I've never seen them priced higher than $500 so your quote of $750 at Turner Medical caught me by surprise.

[Gerald]

Good morning Slinky.......

The Turner Medical price of $750 for the oximeter included Profox software configured to run on the model 7500.

They still offer the 7500 with its own software for under $500.....but, I didn't like the way the reports looked (using the cheaper software that is normally included).

Profox is supposedly the "gold standard" of reporting software used in the "oximeter industry".......and I like the way their reports look.

What I'm after is the best in both worlds.......a decently accurate oximeter that will operate with what is considered the best software.

As I mentioned in my previous post, monitoring our O2 levels may be the most important thing we can do to protect ourselves. If enough of us start looking closely at figuring out how to do this reliably....and at the lowest cost.....I think it'll be a great help to everyone on this forum.

Gerald

[foggydaze]

Sorry I could not get login to work.

I think you are on to a very good idea with the software.
Do you know how to dump Nonin or respironics units to PC
I am just as interested in all units and like you have seen some
good used units on the internet.

Keep up good work.

Allen

Thanks for the encouragement Allen.

What login could you not get to work?

I haven't tried to interface with other than the Nellcor units so far. If there is enough interest and I can get my hands on a unit I am willing to try.

foggydaze

[ablong-1]

The login to cpaptalk is on the blink during a server upgrade and
others are having a little problem too.

Thanks Allen


PS I have a Nonin 2500 and I could send you information
about interface and such. I will keep in touch.

[foggydaze]

The login to cpaptalk is on the blink during a server upgrade and
others are having a little problem too.

Thanks Allen


PS I have a Nonin 2500 and I could send you information
about interface and such. I will keep in touch.

Ok whew I thought you may have found a bug in my program

I sent you an email Allen. Yes if you'll send me some info on your Nonin 2500 I will look into adding capability for that as well.

Also I am looking for suggestions on what features folks would like to see in the way of reporting oximeter information.

Currently I auto scale the plots heights on the basis of the data contained in each test period. That is I capture the Max and Min values of each parameter (i.e. SPO2, BPM and PA). I then scale the height of each graph of these parameters based on the actual maximum and minimum values of the data . I then adjust the scale to the nearest convenient increment such as 5,10 or 25. Not the fastest method but I think it yields the best presentation of the data.

For the time axis I start the chart on the hour before the time of the first data point and end it at the next hour following the time of the last data point.

This auto scaling attempts to provide maximum resolution of the data while keeping it in an easy to view format. If anyone has better ideas I am open to suggestion.

I am currently working on the zoom feature. Using their mouse a user will be able to left click on a part of the graph just prior to a point of interest then right click on a later point. The graph would then be redrawn using only data between those two points. This would allow a much closer look at the data during points of interest.

Best Regards
foggydzae

[Slinky]

Well, I have several oximetry printouts from my 02 DME supplier and my sleep lab's oximeter (don't remember which brand). These are the printouts as supplied to Medicare to qualify me as eligible for Medicare paid 02 supplementation.

My latest, sitting here in front of me, was done w/the Respironics 920M Plus oximeter and ProFox oximetry version for NPF. The only difference of any significance between this printout and the SPO 7500 VitaScore/Vitabase is that this time they used 4 second intervals whereas I had selected 2 second intervals because that was what my last overnight oximetry report had indicated.

And, SPO's software currently only prints the list of the first 32 "events" whereas the night's in previous overnight oximetries w/ProFox software printed the whole darn list. But that is easily overcome by just exporting that data to Excel or some other program and the information is all there. I, and a couple of others, have mentioned to Eric at SPO Medical that we'd prefer to be able to print all the "events" from their software rather than export the data to access it and that is something they were working on.

For $750 I'd be tempted to go an extra $100 and get the Resmed XPod integrated oximeter kit. And if I remember correctly Respironics also has Nonin oximeters to integrate w/the Respironics xPAPs. $500 is one thing, but $750 takes you so very close ... I would check the Respironics and Resmed product lines to see what they have to offer and then price them out carefully. You can often find them brand new at eBay

[foggydaze]

Well, I have several oximetry printouts from my 02 DME supplier and my sleep lab's oximeter (don't remember which brand). These are the printouts as supplied to Medicare to qualify me as eligible for Medicare paid 02 supplementation.

My latest, sitting here in front of me, was done w/the Respironics 920M Plus oximeter and ProFox oximetry version for NPF. The only difference of any significance between this printout and the SPO 7500 VitaScore/Vitabase is that this time they used 4 second intervals whereas I had selected 2 second intervals because that was what my last overnight oximetry report had indicated.

And, SPO's software currently only prints the list of the first 32 "events" whereas the night's in previous overnight oximetries w/ProFox software printed the whole darn list. But that is easily overcome by just exporting that data to Excel or some other program and the information is all there. I, and a couple of others, have mentioned to Eric at SPO Medical that we'd prefer to be able to print all the "events" from their software rather than export the data to access it and that is something they were working on.

For $750 I'd be tempted to go an extra $100 and get the Resmed XPod integrated oximeter kit. And if I remember correctly Respironics also has Nonin oximeters to integrate w/the Respironics xPAPs. $500 is one thing, but $750 takes you so very close ... I would check the Respironics and Resmed product lines to see what they have to offer and then price them out carefully. You can often find them brand new at eBay

Thanks for you thoughts on report data! Some of the oximeters send data every two seconds when in realtime mode but only record it every four seconds in their internal memory. The over night oximetry was probably recorded on a computer while the oximeter was sending data realtime. The report with data points every 4 seconds may have been done by using the oximeters internal memory and dumping that.

Hopefully I can produce reports using surplus oximeters which rival or exceed the high priced spread.

Best Regards
foggydaze

[commuted]

I have bought a nellcor n-200 on enay. I think it was made in 1991 based on the date code of the chips inside. I opened it up to replace the battery which was getting warm.

I wrote some software to capture the output and log it but I am having trouble getting the unit to talk to the computer. I tried a basic three-wire null modem cable. Does anyone have experience with this unit? Next I'll try and spoof the hardware handshake on both ends of the cable. I would expect to see the optical cable flashing or something.

[JDS74]

I purchased a CMS50F wrist oximeter that has the plotting software included. Total cost about $230.
I copies the data into a header file which seems to contain the date and time information and a data file which is a .CSV file in plain ASCII. Excel reads it just fine.

So more than $500 seems a little high.

[Lizistired]

It wasn't in 2007. This is a really old thread.

[commuted]

I have bought a nellcor n-200 on enay. I think it was made in 1991 based on the date code of the chips inside. I opened it up to replace the battery which was getting warm.

I wrote some software to capture the output and log it but I am having trouble getting the unit to talk to the computer. I tried a basic three-wire null modem cable. Does anyone have experience with this unit? Next I'll try and spoof the hardware handshake on both ends of the cable. I would expect to see the optical cable flashing or something.

OK, Sorry, it works fine. I made the cable wrong.