Home
- Due to a bug in the Broadcom Bluetooth stack used since Android 4.2, regular Android phones cannot establish a Bluetooth binding with the Accu Check Combo Pump.
- LineageOS 14.1+ with patch https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/scm/git/system-bt/commits/0ebf465dd13963f9d3c34b3cef7f7a8dd830248d has a fixed Bluetooth stack and can also establish a connection. This is the preferred operation system choice to run AAPS with ruffy.
- Here is a list of phones that are known to work: https://github.com/monkey-r/ruffy/wiki/Phones-known-to-work-with-ruffy
- Android 4.1 and older use a different Bluetooth stack and therefore can connect to the pump. I have no experience how well the rest of the software stack (xdrip+, AAPS, etc.) will work on older phones before Android 4.2.
- The patch is also included in the official Android 8.1+, which is available e.g. for Nexus 5x, 6p and Pixel phones. Nexus 5x has been tested to work with Android 8.1 out-of-the-box. So hopefully the pairing problem will fade away with more Android 8.1+ phones being available in the future. However, Android 8.1 seems to have introduced significant changes to the way backgroud tasks are managed (setting them to sleep and waking them up again), which causes problems to establish reliable connections to the Combo pump with the current software stack.
- Once you have successfully established a connection to your pump from a compatible Samsung smart phone, read this tricky explanation on how to re-use the connection parameters with a non-compatible phone: https://github.com/gregorybel/combo-pairing/
- The phone must be rooted to give apps full access to the Bluetooth stack
To start looping, you need a reliable source providing blood glucose levels. Here are typical options, while many more exist:
- Freestyle Libre with a customized Sony Smartwatch 3 (SWR50) and LibreAlarm (https://github.com/pimpimmi/LibreAlarm) as well as xdrip+ on your phone. Read this great tutorial for details https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zDwCDqX5mKQUdvUEF6Qzl3aDQ/view
- Freestyle Libre with Limitter (https://github.com/JoernL/LimiTTer) and xdrip+ on your phone
- Freestyle Libre with bluereader (https://bluetoolz.de/blueorder/) and xdrip+ on your phone
- A more "manual CGM" for a first test-run is the Glimp app on your phone which is regularly (at least every 15-30 minutes) used to scan your Freestyle Libre. xDrip+ also supports scanning the Freestyle Libre sensor directly and even has a calibration algorithm to improve blood glucose measurement accuracy.
- Ruffy (https://github.com/monkey-r/ruffy) to establish the connection with your pump. Be sure to use the "develop" branch when building and installing the app on your phone. I still can't believe that Sandra and her team managed to hack the encrypted Bluetooth protocol used by the Combo. Great work!
- AndroidAPS (https://github.com/MilosKozak/AndroidAPS) in a version that supports the Combo. This is not yet publicly released, but is scheduled to be available soon. Use the "full Release" build option to ensure you have all the required features. This awesome app implements the looping algorithm and makes basal rate adjustments based on current glucose values, bolus injections and carbohydrates eaten.
- xdrip+ (https://jamorham.github.io/#xdrip-plus or https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases) to wirelessly receive blood glucose data from your CGM and provide it to AndroidAPS
- Glimp (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.ct.glicemia) for manual scans of your Freestyle Libre without any additional hardware. Glimp is also able to automatically scan Freestlye Libre sensors with a Sony Smartwatch 3.
Nightscout (https://github.com/nightscout/cgm-remote-monitor) is a great web application to collect all your diabetes data and make it available to other software modules or third party users (e.g. your family or doctor). Nightscout is not required to get your loop up and running, but is a nice tool to do archive all data and perfrom long-term analysis on it. You can also use it to share your daza/reports with other people. If you do not have your own server to host Nightscout, you can read http://www.nightscout.info/wiki/welcome for further descriptions on how to set up Nightscout on cloud services such as Microsoft Azure or Heroku.
Martin from https://zehn.be has created a very nice service to set up and host a NightScout installation at http://ns.10be.de/de/index.html that requires very little technical knowledge.
The default setting of the Accu Chek Combo pump is to only allow temporary basal rates up to 200% and sound an alarm at the end of each temporary basal rate. These two parameters are not well suited for your pump being controlled by AndroidAPS and ruffy to constantly set temporary basal rates to keep your blood glucose level in good shape.
Roche released a software called 360 Pump Configuration Software with the Combo and used to give it away for free to registered Combo pump users. Be sure to not mix it up with the similar looking "360 Diabetes Management Software" product, which does not include capabilities to change the internal settings of the pump. Unfortunately, the software only runs on Windows XP and Vista and refuses to install on newer versions of Windows. While I installed it in a VirtualBox virtual machine running Windows XP, I also found a description on how to install the software on newer Windows versions: http://www.insulinclub.de/index.php?page=Thread&postID=135024 . However, I have not tried if this works.
With that software, you should modify your Combo's settings as follows:
- Set the maximum temporary basal rate to 500%
- Disable alarms at the end of the temporary basal rate interval
- Copy your currently used basal rate profile to profile number 1, as this is the one that ruffy/AndroidAPS is using
- Make sure that the quick info text is set to "QUICK INFO" (without the quotes), because this text is used by ruffy to identify the quick info screen
You should also modify the following setting on your pump directly:
- In the "menu settings", select the standard menu. This contains all relevant screens used by ruffy/AndroidAPS to control the pump and avoids to spend unnecessary time/resources for skipping unused screens
- It is recommended to enable the "key lock" to ensure that you are not accidentally pressing any keys on the pump while ruffy is connected, as this will interrupt the connection.