Care and feeding of smart cards?

[silver123]

I've been searching for this info and there are a zillion entries with smart card in them so I am just gong to ask. Maybe I can make this into a new article for the Our Wisdom section.

What are best practices with the Respironics smard card? How often do you download your data and check it? for me, it's daily...how about for others? How long do you wait before pulling the card? Do you clean the contacts? If so, how often? How often do you format your smart card? Daily weekly, quarterly, never? what utility do you use? do you back up your data from time to time?

Other hints or suggestions?

silver

[Goofproof]

The card usually holds 7 days of full data, downloading it every 6 gives you a edge. The "M"eries tends to loose date a couple of days now and again. I have "Classic TanK' it doesn't loose data, unless I forget to download it or forget to put the card back in it. (I do!)

I don't format it, don't need to, I don't clean the contacts, gold plating is very thin and not tough, If it failed I'd fool with as I'd have nothing to lose. I have spare machines, I'd just use another card, (after formatting it) Someone has a program to do that, but I just use Encore Pro.

I save the data (Dallies Only), as .pdf files and use Adobe Acrobat PRO, to combine them by month. Then I save them into a yearly file, as with anything computer wise, back-up, Back-up and Back-up, if you really want the data. Jim

I put the XPAP on a surge protector power strip, I turn the strip off before I insert or remove the card, and I only carry the card by the edge,never touching the contacts. Clean is good!

[Snoredog]

The card usually holds 7 days of full data, downloading it every 6 gives you a edge. The "M"eries tends to loose date a couple of days now and again. I have "Classic TanK' it doesn't loose data, unless I forget to download it or forget to put the card back in it. (I do!)

I don't format it, don't need to, I don't clean the contacts, gold plating is very thin and not tough, If it failed I'd fool with as I'd have nothing to lose. I have spare machines, I'd just use another card, (after formatting it) Someone has a program to do that, but I just use Encore Pro.

I save the data (Dallies Only), as .pdf files and use Adobe Acrobat PRO, to combine them by month. Then I save them into a yearly file, as with anything computer wise, back-up, Back-up and Back-up, if you really want the data. Jim

I put the XPAP on a surge protector power strip, I turn the strip off before I insert or remove the card, and I only carry the card by the edge,never touching the contacts. Clean is good!

Now I understand it,

Memory loss goes from the patient to the machine in the M series
and
Memoy loss goes from the machine to the patient in the tank series,

Makes perfect sense now

[WearyOne]

I don't do anything special, really. I take the card out of the machine without unplugging it anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 hours after I get up! I download anywhere from once a day to once a week, and enter the daily information into an Excel spreadsheet I created. I rarely wipe it off. After getting the info from the card, if I'm carrying a bunch of stuff up to the bedroom at the same time as the card, I just stick it in my pocket (and sometimes forget about it until it's time for bed!). At the end of the year, I put this card away, all info for the entire year intact, and start a new card for the upcoming year. I never delete the info on the "main" card, although I do have a "nap" card, and I do delete that at times.

[rstcso]

If using the card reader, it's not necessary to turn anything off before inserting or removing the card, either from the unit or the computer. If you are having trouble with the card not reading, take a pencil eraser and gently clean the contacts. If you'd like to have something around the house to help with electrical contacts for hooking up tvs, dvds, cable boxes, etc, there's a product on the market called DeoxIT Gold. Use it on HDMI (DVI) as well as other types of connectors (not optical), as well as data cards, etc. This stuff is a "miracle drug". Truly "a little dab will do 'ya", so buy the small bottle. It will last forever.

[deerslayer]

Hi Silver ...my approach has been to read the card every day or every few, depending if i want to confirm any different sleeping patterns/ track apnea duration,etc. download to encore pro(so i can then use the pro analyzer). every couple weeks i reformat the card with http://www.mycpap.org/downloads/CardUti ... taller.zip ..since starting this routine card has not had any( part timers) events

[plr66]

Can someone explain why reformatting might be necessary?

[silver123]

There is an intermittent problem with data loss where the data is not recorded to the card for many debated reasons. Various users here have found that reformatting the card once a week or other intervals seems to fix that problem.

silver

[plr66]

Thanks, Silver--not sure how I missed that little detail that it actually seems to fix the problem. As an obsessive "daily checker," it is sure frustrating to miss a day's data. Had it happen once, and would like to avoid it again!

[boston]

i just took my card to the dme, they say it was defective and gave me a new one, so now another month before i can see anything. i really need to get the card reader and software, maybe after the holidays....

[plr66]

i just took my card to the dme, they say it was defective and gave me a new one, so now another month before i can see anything. i really need to get the card reader and software, maybe after the holidays....

Why "another month?"

[boston]

thats their standard period, but i thought i had read that the card only stores 7 days of data, i dont know, just another DME problem. just as well, my allergies had me stuffed up so bad I couldnt use it for several days, this way I will show better compliance.

[gasp]

The card usually holds 7 days of full data, downloading it every 6 gives you a edge. The "M"eries tends to loose date a couple of days now and again. I have "Classic TanK' it doesn't loose data, unless I forget to download it or forget to put the card back in it. (I do!)

I don't format it, don't need to, I don't clean the contacts, gold plating is very thin and not tough, If it failed I'd fool with as I'd have nothing to lose. I have spare machines, I'd just use another card, (after formatting it) Someone has a program to do that, but I just use Encore Pro.

I save the data (Dallies Only), as .pdf files and use Adobe Acrobat PRO, to combine them by month. Then I save them into a yearly file, as with anything computer wise, back-up, Back-up and Back-up, if you really want the data. Jim

I put the XPAP on a surge protector power strip, I turn the strip off before I insert or remove the card, and I only carry the card by the edge,never touching the contacts. Clean is good!

Ditto what Goofproof said plus when travelling I take the card out of the machine and store in a paper, not plastic, envelope. Oh, and I don't turn the power off before removing or reinserting the card.

[plr66]

thats their standard period, but i thought i had read that the card only stores 7 days of data, i dont know, just another DME problem. just as well, my allergies had me stuffed up so bad I couldnt use it for several days, this way I will show better compliance.

Yeah, Boston--the card only holds about 7 days of detailed data. It does show all the compliance hours for a month. They don't care about the details, obviously. Get the software and reader as fast as you can!! Worth every penny.