• The founding principle of closed looping is that your basal rate and carb ratio is accurate. All recommendations assume that your basal needs are met and any peaks or troughs you're seeing are a result of other factors which therefore require some one off adjustments (exercise, stress etc). The adjustments the closed loop can make for safety have been limited (see maximum allowed temporary basal rate in OpenAPS Reference Design), which means that you don't want to waste the allowed dosing on correcting a wrong underlying basal. If for example you are frequently low temping on the approach of a meal then it is likely your basal needs adjusting. You can use autotune to consider a large pool of data to suggest whether and how basals and/or ISF need to be adjusted, and also whether carb ratio needs to be changed. Or you can test and set your basal the old fashioned way.

  • Looping can reduce the pump battery faster than normal use. If you unexpectedly run low then the battery from the blood test kit or setter can be used. It is best to change battery at 25% as communication becomes challenging then. You can set warning alarms for pump battery by using the PUMP_WARN_BATT_P variable in your nightscout site. Tricks to increase battery DANA life include:

  • reduce the length of time the LCD stays on (within DANA settings menu)
  • reduce the length of time the backlight stays on (within DANA settings menu)
  • select notification settings to a beep rather than vibrate (within DANA settings menu)
  • only press the buttons on the pump to reload, use AndroidAPS to view all history, battery level and reservoir volume.
  • clean battery terminals with alcohol wipe to ensure no manufacturing wax/grease remains

  • the DANA startup procedure draws a high current across the battery to purposefully break the passivation film (prevents loss of energy whilst in storage) but it doesn't always work break it 100%. Either remove and reinsert battery 2-3 times until it does show 100% on screen, or use battery key to briefly short circuit battery before insertion by applying to both terminals for a split second.

  • If you don't want your preferences to be easily changed then you can password protect the preferences menu by selecting in the preferences menu "password for settings" and type the password you choose. The next time you go into preferences menu it will ask for that password before going any further. If you later want to remove the password option then go into "password for settings" and delete the text.

  • If you plan to use the android wear app to bolus or change settings then you need to ensure notifications from AndroidAPS are not blocked. Confirmation of action comes via notification.

  • If you take your pump off for showering/bathing/swimming/sport etc then press and hold on the "Closed Loop" text on the main homepage and select "disconnect for..." however many minutes/hours you plan to disconnect for. This will set your basal to zero for that time period. If you connect your pump sooner than expected then press and hold "Suspended (X mins)" and select "Resume". Your IOB will then be accurate for calculations on your return to the pump.

  • For safety, recommendations made are based on not one CGM reading but the average delta. Therefore if you miss some readings it may take a while after getting data back before AndroidAPS kicks in looping again.

  • Within your Circadian Percentage Profile you have another chance to set your units to mg/dl or mmol/l separate to the preferences menu, don't forget to update this in both places!

  • There are several blogs with good tips to help you understand the practicalities of looping:

  • Fine-tuning Settings See my CGM
  • Why DIA matters See my CGM
  • Limiting meal spikes #DIYPS
  • Hormones and autosens See my CGM

Other tips and tricks can be found in the Facebook group