Updating the firmware on the PR System One machines

[smatthew]

I was really interested in getting the firmware updated on my PR System One APAP. Wasn't getting enough humidity throughout the night, and figured classic mode might help me out.

I contacted my DME (a local company, Allstar Oxygen), and they hadn't heard anything about firmware, but they promised to look into it.

I brought the machine in when the Respironics rep was supposed to come by. He was a real piece of work. Told them he'd be there in 5 minutes, showed up an hour later, and tried to lie to me about that. He didn't realize I had been sitting there for 90 minutes and had heard the DME staff talking to him on the phone.

Anyways, he upset me enough that I just asked for his card and his boss's contact info. For some reason, he didn't want to give it to me ;-} His boss, the regional manager, said "Lets just swap it out for a new one", which they did. The new Anniversary Edition is nice. Pre-heat, better humidity, quieter, backlit screen. It's a big improvement.

I was still curious about firmware upgrades, so I called respironics tech support, and pretended I worked at the DME. At first, the technician on the phone was absolutely sure there was a way to upgrade the firmware. Then he said "hold on" and checked with his colleagues. And came back with the answer that no, firmware upgrades are not possible. I assume they mean "not possible for patient or DME". I'm sure there's a JTAG port on the circuit board (Has anyone taken apart their system one and photographed the guts") where they can program the firmware at the factory.

But lets face it. If respironics is willing to swap out your machine, and give you a new improved one, with an additional one year warranty, that's a much better deal than having your current machine upgraded.

[archangle]

I was still curious about firmware upgrades, so I called respironics tech support, and pretended I worked at the DME. At first, the technician on the phone was absolutely sure there was a way to upgrade the firmware. Then he said "hold on" and checked with his colleagues. And came back with the answer that no, firmware upgrades are not possible. I assume they mean "not possible for patient or DME". I'm sure there's a JTAG port on the circuit board (Has anyone taken apart their system one and photographed the guts") where they can program the firmware at the factory.

He might not have been lying. They may make occasional small changes to the machine hardware and design software version x to work with hardware version y. They may very well never update firmware, even at the factory, it may just be initial software loads.

I'd be real surprised if the firmware process isn't locked down real tight to prevent someone from converting a PRO manual CPAP to auto or even bilevel or ASV.

[Tetragonal]

Hi All:

I just received a replacement on warranty machine from Respironics. I now have version 2.50. I have a 2nd machine with v2.01. The only difference I can see is an added option to turn on "Silent Mode", but I don't even know what this does because it is not mentioned in the out-of-date manual included with the machine. Just to add to the confusion.

I just got a v2.50 machine with insert for the outdated manual. The listed new features are humidifier preheat (with the menu at therapy, hold the knob down for 5 seconds and it will preheat for 30 minutes), silent mode (reduces the beepiness), and ramp time (now user-adjustable).

[Kairosgrammy]

I don't even know what firmware I have or how to find out. Since I just got my machine two months I would think it would be up to date.

So, I have discovered that it is possible to update the firmware on the PR 1 machines.

Why would you want to do this? Well, one reason is the expanded "classic" humidification options dont appear to be available on older firmwares. There may be other benefits or improvements, but the changes between firmware versions dont seem to be documented anywhere.


So, There are two pieces to this whole process.

1:There is a program called "PR System 1 Flash Upgrade Utility 1.0" that is used to upgrade PR1 devices to software version 1.24

2:There is some sort of cable that you need to connect your machine to the PC with. Its Respironics Part #1064749
I was hoping that the update would be done through the SD card itself, but NOPE, you need this part to do it.

This Part# 1064749 is where I'm currently hung up. Does anyone here have any ideas how I could buy that or at least get some information about what it is or what it looks like? Seems like it may be a "DME ONLY" part or something..

One thing I'm also curious about is how exactly it connects to the PR1. Does it plug into the humidifier port? The SD card slot? Who knows. Until I find one, we may never know.

Any ideas would be welcomed!

Thanks.

[magicpsn]

It would be nice to be able to update firmware! Does anybody know if they will do a firmware update at Philips if we send in our machine? If so, do you know a phone number? I really don't want to be without my machine, but the preheat feature for the humidity really interests me.

I purchased my machine 5/23/11 and it shows v1.24 Interesting enough, I see announcements dating back to 11/16/10 about the "anniversary machine" release from Philips. That's 6 months prior to my purchase!! I guess that my supplier still had the older ones.

[retrodave15]

I would bet good money that the cable plugs into the connector right below the card slot. My machine has the communications modem in it so my DME can pull data from the machine. When I get home tonight I will snap a picture of the connector on the modem, as I need to pop it off to get at the SD Card.

[archangle]

There's never been any indication that PR ever does firmware updates on existing machines.

[retrodave15]

There's never been any indication that PR ever does firmware updates on existing machines.

Possibly not at the DME Level, but as a self styled hacker geek, I am sure that they have a way to flash the firmware on a machine. Image a whole run of machines has an issue with a new set of firmware discovered in the testing process. They will want a way to flash a new firmware on it instead of trashing a production run.

These companies hold on to the data and service manuals as they don't want to loose business. Imagine if people could figure out that they could change the straight CPAP into an auto CPAP by flashing the firmware by putting in a special SD card. Not saying that this is the case, but it is possible.

[blakepro]

Just an update to this thread. They have released a new version called "PR System 1 Flash Upgrade Utility 2.50"

It adds humidifier pre-heat, the ability to stop the beeping, and the ability to lock in the hose length so the patient cant change it.

Your machine has to already be on 2.XX to update to software version 2.50 using the flash utility. The utility is for Trained Service Accounts only and compatible with windows xp.

[cowlypso]

My new machine says version 2.51 on startup, and has the silent mode. But I can't seem to find the humidifier preheat setting? If it's there, do you know where I'd find it?

[blakepro]

My new machine says version 2.51 on startup, and has the silent mode. But I can't seem to find the humidifier preheat setting? If it's there, do you know where I'd find it?

It sounds like to pre-heat you just press and hold the round button when therapy is highlighted. Its not a setting in the menu. (I think)

[tetragon]

My new machine says version 2.51 on startup, and has the silent mode. But I can't seem to find the humidifier preheat setting? If it's there, do you know where I'd find it?

It sounds like to pre-heat you just press and hold the round button when therapy is highlighted. Its not a setting in the menu. (I think)

You hold it for five seconds. Cowlypso, your machine came with a "user manual insert", a single sheet of paper to describe the new features of preheat, silent mode, and more ramp adjustment options. Do you have a copy of it?

[cowlypso]

Okay, that did it. Yay!

And no, of course the DME did not provide me with any sort of manual or insert! Although, to be fair, the DME had absolutely no idea about the firmware upgrade to begin with. So I'm sure he assumed that I already had the manual (this was a replacement machine). Didn't realize that there was an insert of new features.

[tetragon]

There are a total of two inserts, one for the user manual and one for the provider manual. I don't know where my provider insert is, but that one briefly mentions the new features and details how to test the humidifier to see if it works. This test procedure amounts to: briefly put machine in preheat, did the the heating plate warm up.

Elsewhere, I typed out the section on silent mode from the user manual insert. One aspect of preheat to note is that it will automatically turn off after half an hour. I can type out the preheat section later if you want. The changes to ramp functionality allow the user to set both starting pressure and duration from the basic setup menu.

[cowlypso]

I think I'm good on the info without the inserts. I found the silent mode option already (don't remember if it was in the patient options or the clinician options, but it was set to silent when I got the machine). And I got the humidifier preheat to work last night. I don't ever use the ramp, so no worries there.