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Well, imagine my surprise.....
Here's the response I got back from Respironics to my query......

Here's the question:
As a user of the M series Auto w/A-Flex, I'm curious, in light of this information, how you justify your design and what your plans are to fix it??? Then how are you going to fix mine?? Recall to DME?? http://texyt.com/bright+blue+leds+annoy ... alth+risks
Cheers goose

Their response:

Thank you for your inquiry. We are not currently having a recall on our M-Series units. It is a Voluntary Withdrawal. If your machine is affected by this Withdrawal, please contact your homecare supply dealer for assistance. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Thank you,
Respironics, Inc.

No recall - understandable. Expensive and won't do that until lawyers are involved....
What's a voluntary withdrawal?? They're not shipping or pulling stock back??
Sooooooooo......are they changing the color??

Once again, seemingly left to the mercy of the DME......Fortunately, I have a decent one, but I know there are a lot of you that have DME's that are next to or worse than useless......

Red LED's anyone?????

cheers
goose

Maybe they are going to ship out Rose Colored Glasses Jim

If the Blue Leds are the biggest problem you ever have in life, consider yourself very lucky.

Reminds me of the Paris peace talks, not being able to decide of the shape of the table. Jim

Goose, I sent a similar email at about the same time and never got more than an automated response. I wonder what this is about? Maybe I'll put in a call to the DME.

Jen

Hey Goof -- yeah I wrote a long poem that included the table shape issue....Won't go there -- too close to home!!!!
Yeah the blue lights aren't even in the top 100 -- but figured I'd rattle Respironics cage a bit....

It will be interesting to see what response Jen gets from the DME.....I'm guessing they haven't heard anything about it......
("The president will disavow any knowledge of you and your IM team......")

cheers
goose

I've been refraining from commenting about the "Blue light special".....

cheers
goose

goose wrote:I've been refraining from commenting about the "Blue light special".....

cheers
goose

Now, Now, Refrain from comments about the "Blue light special", I did a time with them, after, I left they had to change managers, I had broken all the "Brainwashing" they had fed into him, he had to go into business for himself. Jim

It's funny how some things stay in your mind, and others slip away.

I always suspected those nasty blue lights were more than just an annoyance... I've been covering them up too.

Hmmm... Having violated every other gadget in the house, I think it's time to turn the soldering iron on the APAP! I havent' got an M-series yet, but some red LED's in the old Remstar would be a good proof of concept. I've already had it open to paint the case, it should be a piece of cake (I think I've got some red surface mount LED's left over from my xbox project).

In the immortal words of MTV's Beavis & Butthead: "This is going to be cool..."

Here is the reply I got from Respironics:

Dear patient,

Even though the lights on the “M” series units seem to have no purpose to a patient, they were put there for technical troubleshooting. They are as useful to our repair techs as the older machines and their error codes were. Modifying their existence in some way is being evaluated by the engineering staff. You must know though that ANY CHANGES MADE TO A DEVICE HAS TO HAVE THE APPROVAL OF THE FDA and that does not happen overnight. We have always taken the suggestions of the patients and evaluated the need and feasibility of the request. We thank you for your input and although I can’t tell you what or when things will happen, I assure you this will be sent to the appropriate people who can make a difference.

Product support

Help the repair techs? They are more important than the patient? Pure crap.

jen

What CRAP!!!
The color of the light has nothing to do with repair techs being able to do anything....Dual density LED's come in an array of colors....

Changing the color of the light would only require a "change" to the FDA -- has nothing to do with the functionality of the machine.....
BS -- pure and simple BS!!!!!!!

cheers
goose

No kidding!

And I just love the tone of the response--almost sounds angry to me! Think they are getting lots of complaints about this?

JEN

They ain't heard nothin' yet!!!!!!!!

cheers
goose

goose wrote:They ain't heard nothin' yet!!!!!!!!

cheers
goose

Maybe their "Tech" repair force is getting old and having trouble with their vision. The new Blue Leds being brighter, allow the "Older Tech's" to see if the power is on.

With my eyes, I'd have to work on the "Tank" repair line, I couldn't find those tiny "M"agic's, too small... Jim

We all know what management's site problem is, they have their heads to low. Jim

"Even though the lights on the “M” series units seem to have no purpose to a patient, they were put there for technical troubleshooting. They are as useful to our repair techs as the older machines and their error codes were."

ROTFL!!!!

"they were put there for technical troubleshooting"

Well, I guess it's a good thing those lights (no mention of the color) were "put there." I suppose if the lights don't come on when the machine is plugged in, the repair tech would know the machine wasn't, uh... on.

"They are as useful to our repair techs as the older machines and their error codes were."

That's the funniest thing of all.

Wonder if the buttons are supposed to turn pink or chartreuse or orange -- perhaps in different color combos depending on what the "error code" is?



Personally, I think the same guy who came up with the idea of color packs for the Comfort Curve mask (remember the different colors you could buy for that misbegotten mask?) came up with the "cool blue lights" idea for the M buttons. Whew.

Wonder how many people on their design teams actually USE cpap machines?

I quickly composed an incredibly mean reply but ended up putting it in my drafts box. I just don't know what to say to these idiots!

I just forwarded it to goose. He can probably answer it better than me!

BTW, I have another appliance with the same issue, I just remembered. It is my Sirius Satelite radio. Since I don't drive much at night, I didn't think about it before. But 2 nights ago I broke my toe (ghaslty!) and had to go to an immediate care center after dark and I found the radio very distracting. When I bought it, all the reviewers complained of how distracting the blue led backlite is. It really is! It is like there is a tiny computer monitor on full brightness sitting on your dash. Crazy. They used to be orange, maybe by the time this one gives out they will have returned to a better led color.

jen