turning on auto feature on respironics bi-pap auto m series?

Can someone please give me instructions for turning on the auto feature on my bi-pap machine? We lost our medical insurance almost a year ago. The machine started beeping and flashing constantly. I talked the DME lady and she had me remove the card and she went through the steps to set it on auto starting by pushing down the two arrow keys at the top at the same time but I can't remember the rest. Can anyone help me?

Check your private message box. I sent you a link for the provider manual for your machine.
Should explain everything and include pictures to help you.

angelbear68 wrote:Can someone please give me instructions for turning on the auto feature on my bi-pap machine?

Be very careful... Did you have a titration study previously, and got a Rx for the settings on your machine?
In my experience Respironics machines get a bit too wild when set on "auto". It seems preferable to use definite manual settings that create a range of values for EPAP and for IPAP. Your prior Rx, if you had one, could be guiding you to define that range; otherwise if left free to choose, the machine might overshoot at times, and that is a real problem, very uncomfortable!

4betterO2 wrote:In my experience Respironics machines get a bit too wild when set on "auto".

Have you ever used any Respironics machine other than the one you are using right now?
If not, and you are basing your statements on your machine, which is an ASV machine, it cannot be compared to a regular BiPap machine. Apples and oranges.

The non ASV BiPaps don't go wild with anything. In Auto mode the BiPap functions pretty much like the APAP machine but with separate pressures for inhale and exhale.

Now your ASV model...totally different animal but you know what...people can self titrate on them...people do it.
It isn't impossible and of course ideally an in lab titration is desired but sometimes people can't get one.

Pugsy wrote:

4betterO2 wrote:In my experience Respironics machines get a bit too wild when set on "auto".

Have you ever used any Respironics machine other than the one you are using right now?
...people can self titrate on them...people do it.
.

Yes to both. I had a 760 before.
Auto-titration is possible and it is great that these machines can do it.
But the result of titration would indeed be, to see what are the ranges of values most used and their ranges, for EPAP and BIPAP.
After that, I wrote it would be best to limit the settings to those ranges, except in serious clinical cases where you do not want to, in case the patient could be endangered if the maximal values were no made possible.
In cases that are not severe, I would advise to set those ranges manually, according to titration results (sleep-center-based or home-machine-based), because (in my experience, and seen in other posts where patients complain that their machines "get angry" etc.,) both these models machines sometimes overreact and produce forceful shoots of pressure wich can cause ear damage etc., or, sometimes you get not enough air pressure and feel smothered. I have myself complained about that problem in other threads, in particular in this thread

████¯\(º_º)/¯████ !!! Taming the Respironics ASV
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=86461&p=791857#p791857

4betterO2 wrote:both these models machines sometimes overreact and produce forceful shoots of pressure wich can cause ear damage etc.,

The 760 Auto won't give forceful shoots of pressure...or any burst of pressure. Any increases in pressure are very gradual. They simply don't occur in the same way the ASV machines offer the bursts of air.
The algorithm simply won't/can't do it in the 760. Even the short test probes are slow increases and slow decreases.
If they were able to do what you are describing we wouldn't have to worry about minimum pressures....everyone could use the minimum and the machine would immediately go up to what is needed...and we all know that doesn't happen.

Pugsy wrote:
The 760 Auto won't give forceful shoots of pressure...or any burst of pressure. Any increases in pressure are very gradual.

I didn't feel they were gradual, but that could be because there is a threshold which when passed, causes the mask leak to scream noisily all of a sudden, or ears to pop loudly, making it feel as if the increased pressure itself was sudden? The effect was uncomfortable, unusable as you cannot sleep with so much noise etc., so for me the solution was to not have the machine allowed to use all of its auto range, and instead get it a range that was usable for me.

Pugsy wrote: If they were able to do what you are describing we wouldn't have to worry about minimum pressures....everyone could use the minimum and the machine would immediately go up to what is needed...and we all know that doesn't happen.

Precisely; here you agree with me that on "auto", we have to worry about getting minimum pressure, thus not enough air... Sometimes, when on "auto", the machine did not give me enough air on IPAP, so I had to get a minimum set that was higher than the auto range would have allowed...
My point in my prior post was in effect, that at both ends of the "auto" range, I was getting pressure values, when set as "auto", as if the machine was not correctly reading my needs, while those needs were met without the "erratic" problems when I got it restricted to use a range that was manually set. For as much as the machine (either 760 or 950) is a great technical accomplishment, I feel that on an individual basis for the need of each patient, it is not reading the patient needs always very accurately, and sometimes it overextends in either the low or the high end of the spectrum, when allowed to do so by being set on full "auto". Again, the clinical needs of some patients might require them to use the full range of the machine, and thus to leave it on auto. But when a patient does not need (or want, in the case of low pressure) the full range, then there is much benefit in choosing the range that is most comfortable while still doing the therapy needed, preventing this way the extraneous happenings of discomfort and side effects.

4betterO2 wrote:Precisely; here you agree with me that on "auto", we have to worry about getting minimum pressure, thus not enough air..

No I do not agree with your idea. There's a big difference between not having effective therapy pressure at the minimums and feeling like not enough air for comfort. At the minimums there is indeed sufficient air to sustain life...we may not like it but no one suffocates.

You are on a ASV machine...you are there because the 750 wasn't working for you. It didn't respond to your needs because it wasn't designed to respond to whatever reason you ended up with ASV.
If you didn't feel the increase were gradual well that is your perception but the 750 simply does not go from 0 to 60 in a blink of an eye. It can't do it.

I am not going to argue with you about your perceptions or your experience.

I will argue when you starting saying that the machine is going to do things that it simply can't do.

Remember I have used the 750 and the equivalent in the S9 brand for well over a year now. Your perceptions are certainly not the norm and could very well be related to the ineffectiveness of the 750 with your condition.
And BTW I use an auto mode range from 8 EPAP to IPAP max of 20. I have a whole bunch of reports showing gradual pressure increases.

Pugsy wrote:... related to the ineffectiveness of the 750 with your condition...

The shift from BiPAP to ASV is not the issue here, the point was about what happens when either of these machines were set to full auto. In my case, with each of these machines in turn, therapy was started with auto then shifted to limited ranges, each for EPAP and IPAP (within each range, the values would vary automatically , but between the limits set).

Pugsy wrote:
I use an auto mode range from 8 EPAP to IPAP max of 20.

In that case you are not using the full auto mode on your machine, which was what angelbear68, the op of this thread, was asking about.

Regarding EPAP, you have set a range that starts from minimum 8 EPAP.
The full range of your machine starts with 4 for EPAP, not 8. So if set on full auto, you would allow the machine to start at 4 for EPAP, if it deemed it good for you according to its auto mode algorithm.
Regarding IPAP, you have set a range that is limited to IPAP max 20.
The full range of your machine is higher, 25 or 30 maybe I don't know, but higher than 20.
So if set on full auto, you would allow the machine to go up to 25 or 30 for IPAP, if it deemed it good for you according to its auto mode algorithm.

Essentially, your settings have set range limits for the auto mode on your machine, and wisely so...
angelbear68 was asking however if it was advisable to let the machine be set fully automatic, which is where it could be allowed to use its full range, i.e. from its lowest possible pressure to its max possible pressure...
I would tell angelbear68 to follow your example. I only talked about the reasons for setting a range; you showed the way to do it. So in the end, we both offer the same answer to the op.

Non of the BiPaps will go past 25.
I could set my machine with max of 25 but it won't ever go there. I only rarely and briefly hit 20.
OP was only wanting to know how to change turn on the Auto feature.
There was no mention of pressures at all.
For all we know the OP may have been using straight bilevel mode with settings of EPAP 18 and IPAP of 25.
Or maybe it was originally on auto mode at whatever settings.

To me it sounded like there was a machine malfunction and they were simply trying to get it back to working like it did before.
There wasn't any mention of pressures at all. OP had been using the machine for quite some time. No mention of auto titration or anything like that. This wasn't a situation were someone was wanting instructions on dial a winging.
I got the sense that all this was in this situation was an experienced bipap user trying to get their machine working again and they had forgotten how to get into the clinical setup menu.
Beeping and flashing constantly...usually is not good news.
A lecture on how to titrate or what to watch out for wasn't needed IMHO and that's why I only gave the instructions because that was all that was requested.

I only commented on what you said because it simply wasn't true and I didn't want someone new reading it and going into panic mode because their doctor put them on a BiPap in Auto mode.

angelbear68 wrote:instructions for turning on the auto feature on my bi-pap machine? We lost our medical insurance almost a year ago. The machine started beeping and flashing constantly.

Pugsy wrote: I didn't want someone new reading it and going into panic mode because their doctor put them on a BiPap in Auto mode.

I think that readers will understand what I meant, which was not false, (I talked from experience), but can be better explained I'm sure.
You are right about me seeing more in this topic title than what the op intended, especially since the op has not commented on the replies! I hoped that other users would chime in on this important topic.
Indeed many doctors who prescribe a higher-priced auto-capable machine do so because the sleep study titration was not conclusive and they need that feature, so putting patients on auto mode is quite frequent.

I feel that the experience I have referred to, which for me was really difficult to go through, is useful for patients who find problems while in full auto mode; it offers them both hope, and a very easily implemented solution, if their doctor feels the Rx modification is clinically OK for them.