Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Affordable Heathcare

So I finished all the treatments with my Exogen Ultrasound Bone Healing System.  Based on my research, I really believe it did jumpstart my "delayed union".  After the 185th daily dose I got this message on the screen.  Did some digging online and found no information about how to reset the device other than it can't be.  Seems the unit has only been approved by the FDA for that number of uses.  Additional treatments if needed would require a doctor's prescription  and a brand new qizmo.  I called the rep from Bioventus and she said to just throw it away - it won't function any longer (that certainly takes care of any secondary market resale value!).  My new goal in life is to hack this silly little machine, or find someone who can - UK Neil, wanna take a stab at this project?  If anything, I think I could easily rewire the power that lights the screen to a couple of LEDs and make a rechargeable flashlight out of it.  Doesn't seem quite right to simply throw away something my insurance company paid $4500 for.  75,80,60,T,0

14 comments:

dreamer said...

It's a BIZZARO world. Common sense is a thing of the past. Sad.

Larry G said...

it's gotta be ObamaCare's fault, right?

everyone knows the private sector wouldn't do something that dumb, right?

;-)

Margery Billd said...

No, you just can't let go of the past and have temporarily bonded with gizmo in your brief, seemingly prolonged, shocking ordeal and the usage of the life-vigorating use of the apparatus. :-) But I would take the little bugger apart and find out what made it tick. After all, $4500.00 is nothing to sneeze at. And for example, if there is a pile of manure in a stable, there certainly must be a pony under all that. A rechargeable flash light would be a very usable item out there.

Dani said...

Planned obsolescence - t'is the cause of growing landfill piles and company mega profits. Recycling, where possible, is the only way to go...

Steve said...

ifixit.org is a great site on how to repair or hack electronics & other stuff. Maybe someone over there could help.

Larry G said...

ya know.. the manufacture probably has a dollar gitzmo that resets it, eh?

neil said...

I would be surprised if you can get it open without destroying it. Why don't we save the shipping costs and I will buy you a flashlight?

John Wells said...

Opening it is not a problem...and the flashlight idea even I can do. I'm looking for someone up to the challenge of figuring out a reset function.

beckerized said...

I'm an Electrical Engineer and might be able to point you in the right direction. However I'd need some high resolution pics of the circuit before I could even venture a guess as to what design they've used to implement the counter and whether a reset of it is at all possible.

If you do end up taking & posting circuit pics online, be sure to post the location as follow-up comment. (I checked "Email follow-up comments to " option for this thread.)

Anonymous said...

Hi beckerized,

I have just taken some high resolution photos. How can I send them to you?

I have googled for and searched on findchips.com for all the numbers on the chips, to no avail. Any assistance would be awesome. There was one 2 pin jumper. I removed it, turned it on, it worked, so I replaced the jumper, turned it on and now it says "Contact Customer Service" and it won't do anything except beep loudly until the device is turned off. Also, I do not see anything that would have made the device think I opened it up.

Any help on locating the counter would be amazing. Some chips and the panasonic 1632 battery are human solderable.

svarober said...

Any update? I have a unit I would like to reset and reuse.

John Wells said...

Sorry, no - I gave up on that project a long time ago.

Unknown said...

I have a bioventus bone healer system if anybody wants to buy it

Kim said...

Any newer updates on the Bioventus reboot or is it futile? Thank you!