Disabling cellular signal on Resmed Airsense 11

[chunkyfrog]

Not needing a tinfoil hat for either my cpap or my head: PRICELESS!

[raisedfist]

Altering a new expensive device, what could go wrong.

[000]

Disabled in 3 steps took me less then 5 minutes.

1) Watch this video to learn how to dissemble the Airsense 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1C7pxg3PM8

2) See picture, remove the two components marked in the yellow squares from the board With your fingernail or a blade. This cuts connection to the antenna from the LTE

air11.JPG (105.55 KiB) Viewed 8370 times

3) Reassemble

[lynninnj]

great video

thanks

[alcoholprepper]

I hate to reboot the discussion but it got pretty derailed at one point and it’s been 2+ years now.

Is there anything better then airplane mode or scraping bits off a soldered board to disconnect cellular?

Here’s my issue. And sure, go ahead and make fun of me if that makes you happy. But, I am a politically active veteran. My cpap is linked to a computer in the VA. And as I see it, the dang thing is basically an alibi checking machine that I do not want.

Yes, this is hypothetical. But suppose that I am accused of something, and someone in the federal government wants to harm me for political reasons. It is possible that someone within the VA could contrive a “legitimate” way to pull this data and use it to say, well he wasn’t at home on time on this night, this night… or worse, that I seemed to be sleeping badly on this night, this night, and this night… he must be part of the conspiracy!

I have also severed ties with some other VA healthcare providers whose records I am worried about. This is something where I don’t really need ongoing intervention that actually requires continual data sharing. Besides, the thing has an SD card slot, so I can still get the data to my provider if I actually need to for a legitimate reason.

It just seems to me like a pretty basic infosec concern to have such data residing anywhere that I personally can’t control it.

Maybe I need to just suck it up and throw the whole machine away and buy a different model that I feel I can trust more. In which case, congratulations Elon, you turned a $1000 government expediture into landfill.

There must be a way to just disconnect it. Or do I just buy a used one online, or maybe find another veteran with the same machine and we can just trade so at least both of our data is useless to a bad actor?

[Dog Slobber]

Is there anything better then airplane mode or scraping bits off a soldered board to disconnect cellular?

No.

My cpap is linked to a computer in the VA.

No, it's not. It uploads your data to the ResMed cloud, your medical practitioners then can access your data, by connecting to the ResMed cloud using ResMed's AirView software.

pull this data and use it to say, well he wasn’t at home on time on this night, this night

• HIPA laws prevent this.
• CPAP machines location is not transmitted in the data.
• Lack of data for a night, can only be interpreted as "machine wasn't used", not "he wasn't home".

I doubt you will accept any of the above, so:

• Buy a used machine
• Pay cash
• This machine will not be associated with you
• Get an Air10, they have devices without cell modems and cell modems can be easily removed.

So even if it transmit data, the men in the Black SUV's will arrest the guy who sold it to you.

[D.H.]

There's really no reason to do this. If you didn't get this through a DME, there's probably no service to your modem anyhow.

If you absolutely insist, you can put it in airplane mode as somebody already suggested.

[ChicagoGranny]

someone in the federal government wants to harm me for political reasons

Usually, I would say paranoia and conspiracy theory, but Trump was elected breathing threats and revenge.

[D.H.]

someone in the federal government wants to harm me for political reasons

Usually, I would say paranoia and conspiracy theory, but Trump was elected breathing threats and revenge.

If anybody wants to do you harm, in the government or otherwise, they won't be using CPAP data to do it.

[Dog Slobber]

There's really no reason to do this. If you didn't get this through a DME, there's probably no service to your modem anyhow.

You really shouldn't be giving technical advice.

DME's do NOT turn service on or off to the modem. That option is not configurable.

[alcoholprepper]

My machine is absolutely accessible by my doctor, as he was reading me his screen on the phone during our last appointment and confirmed that he was able to see things like the exact time that I started and ended each sleep session, and apparently the machine measures not just whether it’s in use but the depth of breathing.

I know I sound paranoid. But, this isn’t “I’m afraid that my private doctor will share data for no real reason,” it’s “my doctor works for the government, and his boss’s boss specifically called people like me suckers and losers and said that they want to cut off people who cost the government money.”

I have, through my advocacy work, directly cost the federal government around half a billion dollars so far, intentionally, and openly. I have sued the US government over 100 times… and won most of them, personally collecting over a quarter million in EAJA fees alone. I am very much a known enemy of the Trump administration, and I just would rather not have extra data points accessible to them that could be used creatively against me.

As to hipaa, hipaa only covers certain kinds of disclosures and there are absolutely “legitimate” pathways for one government agency to get my data from another regardless of hipaa, and some of those could be used to do me harm that has nothing to do with black SUVs. The ways it could be used against me are mostly very boring.

I don’t really like this machine all that much anyway. I liked my Philips machine better and would be happy to go back to it if not for the “you might die from foam inhalation” factor. An acquaintance who buys and sells used stuff for a living actually has an Airsense 10 that he has offered to me for a very reasonable price, so I think that is the real solution. I don’t even know why I haven’t just gone straight to it. But I guess on some level I don’t want, on principle and for economic reasons, to walk away from a healthcare system I’ve been relying on for years.

[ChicagoGranny]

his boss’s boss specifically called people like me suckers and losers and said that they want to cut off people who cost the government money.”

I have, through my advocacy work, directly cost the federal government around half a billion dollars so far, intentionally, and openly. I have sued the US government over 100 times… and won most of them, personally collecting over a quarter million in EAJA fees alone. I am very much a known enemy of the Trump administration, and I just would rather not have extra data points accessible to them that could be used creatively against me.

I think Trump's minions will not even look at your CPAP data.

(They will kill you without doing any reasearch.)

[Dog Slobber]

My machine is absolutely accessible by my doctor, as he was reading me his screen on the phone during our last appointment and confirmed that he was able to see things like the exact time that I started and ended each sleep session, and apparently the machine measures not just whether it’s in use but the depth of breathing.

And I absolutely *never* said that your data was not accessible by your doctor.

You incorrectly said that your CPAP machine was "linked to a computer in the VA", I correctly described how your data is made avavailable to your medical Practisioner.

It uploads your data to the ResMed cloud, your medical practitioners then can access your data, by connecting to the ResMed cloud using ResMed's AirView software

For some reason, you concluded that me accurately describing how your data is made available to your doctor, as a claim that your doctor could not access your device or data.

There is a huge correlation between conspiracy theorists and lack of technical knowledge, this is true with the Anti-moon landers, flat-earthers, CPAP data steelers. This is why they have their irrational beliefs, and this is why they don't accept rational explanations.

Good Luck with your therapy, I hope hackers don't reconfigure your device in your sleep.

[electronics-tech]

I wanted to disable the ability of an AirSense 11 to communicate to ResMed and thus to the insurance companies, yet still be able to re-establish communication in the future, if I needed to, for whatever reason.

As an electronics tech, I know my way around electronics equipment. The two components that "000" recommends removing are surface mount components and are not replaceable, so this will permanently disable cellular communications from the machine.

In "000"'s picture, two components are circled. The bottom one connects the cellular antenna to the circuitry ground and doesn't need to be touched or removed at all. The top component is in-line of the RF signal feed from the modem to the antenna. There is a small, approximately 1/8" long copper trace from the right side of this top component, leading to the input connection of the antenna.

To make the disconnection of the antenna repairable in the future, I used a sharp pocket knife to vertically cut this copper trace running from the topmost component and leading to the cellular antenna input connection. The cut doesn't have to be deep or wide; the width of the blade is fine as long as the copper trace is completely severed. This will disconnect the signal side of the antenna from the modem and disable the cellular signal from the unit. The connection can be repaired if needed, by carefully scraping the top lacquer coating off of the copper trace on both sides of the cut, and melting a small amount of solder to bridge across the gap in the trace.

After cutting the trace on my AirSense 11 and re-assembling the machine, the cellular signal strength indication on the front panel was zero bars of connectivity.

[Snorezabit]

My Airsense 11... I used Airplane Mode to diminish (I expect) the device's communications efforts. After months of not using it, I turned it on and it let me know that it had just completed downloading updates. And it turned off Airplane Mode or forgot it was on.
I've heard that cell phones operate near the same bandwidth as microwaves. I've experienced some of that radiation and the resulting warming up of my own tissue under cell phones in as little as 20 minutes with just jeans between my skin and cell phone. The Airsense 11 uses cellular wavelengths for communication.
I've seen a science guy put a number of different cell phones in a microwave to see if they will ring in response to being called. Most he tested did not ring while in the microwave.
Maybe instead of the maneuver of disabling the modem internally, a faraday cage can be made of grid on the front of microwaves? Two sleeves that slip on from the left and right sides?
Now that I'm on the lookout for dumped microwaves, it may be months before I can piece this together!