Will the smart card fit into a generic smart card reader

[myapapismadhot]

I'm rather pissed that these equipment vendors charge so much for non-clinical end user software. I'm wondering if I can pull the information off of the smart card reader and mess around with it programmatically myself. Does anyone know if I can use a standard card reader for this? Thanks.

[feeling_better]

Well, when I started a few weeks ago, I had similar questions. Of course the answer depends on your particular brand and model of the machine. But in general, the manufacturers (at least Respironics) try to prevent using other readers, and even encrypt the data so it is not easy for other sw to read it. If you tell the exact model of the machine, people here would be able to give more specifics.

[Goofproof]

Yes it will fit in some.
BUT it will only work in the DT3500 series

If you wrote your own software and the driver for the reader you like, you'd be all set. Maybe while you were at it you could just manufacter an Auto PAP, that had a USB2 port and wrote the data into Excel format.

Build it to weight three pounds, with built in batteries that would last 3 nights and run the HH too. It might be useful to have it use dehydrated distilled water, so it wouldn't leak as much. The Purr-fect XPAP is born. Jim

[jules]

It might be useful to have it use dehydrated distilled water, so it wouldn't leak as much.

Maybe we can sell dehydrated distilled water on ebay. I wonder how much we can rip off our customers for shipping it as we rip them off on the product.

[ww]

The card reader is pretty inexpensive for a usb device. I bought the reader for $47.50 and you can buy it with the Encore Viewer Software for $173.99. A company called 2factors advertises the reader for about 50% of that price, but never seems to be in stock. It can also be bought from a couple of on line companies. There is also a version of software to read the card originally written a couple of years ago and does not work for the new auto machines, but you might want to contact the author and see if he would share his source code. Then everyone could benefit from your work.

[Wulfman]

I'm rather pissed that these equipment vendors charge so much for non-clinical end user software. I'm wondering if I can pull the information off of the smart card reader and mess around with it programmatically myself. Does anyone know if I can use a standard card reader for this? Thanks.

Obviously your time is worth absolutely "nothing"........

All card readers cost SOMETHING.......the MAKO/Infineer DT3500 if fairly inexpensive at about $50 or less when you find the right source. And, in the whole scheme of things, the software isn't really that expensive either.

Would you spend thousands of hours programming "something for nothing"?
It seems to me that that's what you're asking of the manufacturers.
They've come up with a proprietary system that works for their equipment.....and YOU would too, if you were them.


Den

[myapapismadhot]

Wolfman,

Thanks for the rude, ignorant response. Please refrain from assuming anything about my time in the future. I likely make more than you, have more responsibility than you and am smarter than you. Ergo, my time is likely worth a lot more than yours. You might want to refrain from making any assumptions about my time in the future.

I have no problem with the companies charging what they do for the device and the masks or even the large sums they charge clinics for the software they sell. I do object to the price of their software and quite frankly, writing something to parse through data and give a graphical representation of it is quite simple.

Yes, card readers do cost something. You can get an external 20 in 1 USB device from newegg that will read smart cards for about $20. My question was around whether or not the cards would fit these readers or if they were a proprietary technology.

In terms of spending thousands of hours for nothing? I'm not talking about creating my own OS here. Programming might have been done on punch cards in your day, but you can make software quite quickly nowadays. Something like this would definitely not take 1000 hours. In terms of people programming for nothing, perhaps you haven't heard of Linux, Open Office, Firefox, Mozilla, etc. All of those efforts are open source and coded for the most part by people who give their time.

What would i ask for the manufacturers? Not gouging consumers might be what I ask. Were it me, I would certainly price a read only software at a much lower level than what they have done. I can certainly see them charging physician groups and hospitals much more given that they make money from the software. The manufacturers make good money and charge high prices for the devices they sell. I don't begrudge them of that. Making a software product for their end users, which is a subset of the high priced clinical version they sell for hospitals, should be more of a courtesy than how they're treating it.

That's how I see the situation and while I don't have a ton of free time, I do have some free time and I manage it well. I'd be happy to code something for fun if possible. Sadly, encryption of the data would probably prevent that from happening.

[Snoredog]

Wolfman,

Thanks for the rude, ignorant response. Please refrain from assuming anything about my time in the future. I likely make more than you, have more responsibility than you and am smarter than you. Ergo, my time is likely worth a lot more than yours. You might want to refrain from making any assumptions about my time in the future.

I have no problem with the companies charging what they do for the device and the masks or even the large sums they charge clinics for the software they sell. I do object to the price of their software and quite frankly, writing something to parse through data and give a graphical representation of it is quite simple.

Yes, card readers do cost something. You can get an external 20 in 1 USB device from newegg that will read smart cards for about $20. My question was around whether or not the cards would fit these readers or if they were a proprietary technology.

In terms of spending thousands of hours for nothing? I'm not talking about creating my own OS here. Programming might have been done on punch cards in your day, but you can make software quite quickly nowadays. Something like this would definitely not take 1000 hours. In terms of people programming for nothing, perhaps you haven't heard of Linux, Open Office, Firefox, Mozilla, etc. All of those efforts are open source and coded for the most part by people who give their time.

What would i ask for the manufacturers? Not gouging consumers might be what I ask. Were it me, I would certainly price a read only software at a much lower level than what they have done. I can certainly see them charging physician groups and hospitals much more given that they make money from the software. The manufacturers make good money and charge high prices for the devices they sell. I don't begrudge them of that. Making a software product for their end users, which is a subset of the high priced clinical version they sell for hospitals, should be more of a courtesy than how they're treating it.

That's how I see the situation and while I don't have a ton of free time, I do have some free time and I manage it well. I'd be happy to code something for fun if possible. Sadly, encryption of the data would probably prevent that from happening.

newbies!! if you knew the answer to your question why the hell ask it?

as for your ignorant response to Wulfman, boy have you got your head up your ass.

[Wulfman]

Wolfman,

Thanks for the rude, ignorant response. Please refrain from assuming anything about my time in the future. I likely make more than you, have more responsibility than you and am smarter than you. Ergo, my time is likely worth a lot more than yours. You might want to refrain from making any assumptions about my time in the future.

I have no problem with the companies charging what they do for the device and the masks or even the large sums they charge clinics for the software they sell. I do object to the price of their software and quite frankly, writing something to parse through data and give a graphical representation of it is quite simple.

Yes, card readers do cost something. You can get an external 20 in 1 USB device from newegg that will read smart cards for about $20. My question was around whether or not the cards would fit these readers or if they were a proprietary technology.

In terms of spending thousands of hours for nothing? I'm not talking about creating my own OS here. Programming might have been done on punch cards in your day, but you can make software quite quickly nowadays. Something like this would definitely not take 1000 hours. In terms of people programming for nothing, perhaps you haven't heard of Linux, Open Office, Firefox, Mozilla, etc. All of those efforts are open source and coded for the most part by people who give their time.

What would i ask for the manufacturers? Not gouging consumers might be what I ask. Were it me, I would certainly price a read only software at a much lower level than what they have done. I can certainly see them charging physician groups and hospitals much more given that they make money from the software. The manufacturers make good money and charge high prices for the devices they sell. I don't begrudge them of that. Making a software product for their end users, which is a subset of the high priced clinical version they sell for hospitals, should be more of a courtesy than how they're treating it.

That's how I see the situation and while I don't have a ton of free time, I do have some free time and I manage it well. I'd be happy to code something for fun if possible. Sadly, encryption of the data would probably prevent that from happening.

Not "rude" or "ignorant"......just plain talk and matter-of-fact. I've advocated in the past that the manufacturers ONLY manufacture data-capable CPAP/APAP/Bi-PAP machines and that the card reader AND the software be included with the machines.

You come across as being extremely arrogant.
But, I have worked in the data processing field since the punch card days (about 40 years) and am quite familiar with the other programming languages.

After all.....you started this thread/rant, so don't criticize ME for giving the response that I did.
You're far from being the first to bring up these software and data collection issues.
Someone has already come up with some smart card utilities at http://www.mycpap.org
If you want to use their utilities and come up with your own solution, have at it.

Den

[Insomniyak]

newbies!! if you knew the answer to your question why the hell ask it?

as for your ignorant response to Wulfman, boy have you got your head up your ass.

Snoredog, were you a newbie once upon a time? If so, did you enjoy when people jumped all over your case?? I admitted I was wrong about something in another post and that I should have PM'd a person that I had issue with rather than making it public, but you seem to enjoy jumping down people's throats. We are here to get advice and make our adjustment period to this therapy alittle easier. I don't think you have to jump in and be so mean to us newbies.

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): newbie

[Wulfman]

newbies!! if you knew the answer to your question why the hell ask it?

as for your ignorant response to Wulfman, boy have you got your head up your ass.

Snoredog, were you a newbie once upon a time? If so, did you enjoy when people jumped all over your case?? I admitted I was wrong about something in another post and that I should have PM'd a person that I had issue with rather than making it public, but you seem to enjoy jumping down people's throats. We are here to get advice and make our adjustment period to this therapy alittle easier. I don't think you have to jump in and be so mean to us newbies.

He's not mean. He just tells it like it is, too. We're all here to help. Some people "sugar coat" their replies, some don't. I usually don't, either.

Den

[Snoredog]

newbies!! if you knew the answer to your question why the hell ask it?

as for your ignorant response to Wulfman, boy have you got your head up your ass.

Snoredog, were you a newbie once upon a time? If so, did you enjoy when people jumped all over your case?? I admitted I was wrong about something in another post and that I should have PM'd a person that I had issue with rather than making it public, but you seem to enjoy jumping down people's throats. We are here to get advice and make our adjustment period to this therapy alittle easier. I don't think you have to jump in and be so mean to us newbies.

[Insomniyak]

so calling people an ass or telling people they have their heads up their asses is telling it like it is? I think it is rather rude to call someone an ass just because you might not like their opinion and I wasn't happy I did it the other day, but I was willing to take the oness for that. I just think their is a more polite way to tell someone you disagree rather than jumping on someone's case.

[Snoredog]

so calling people an ass or telling people they have their heads up their asses is telling it like it is? I think it is rather rude to call someone an ass just because you might not like their opinion and I wasn't happy I did it the other day, but I was willing to take the oness for that. I just think their is a more polite way to tell someone you disagree rather than jumping on someone's case.

Polite way? you mean like you did with Gumby??

LOL maybe you should create another poll on it??

[Insomniyak]

I think you should read your PM again, I didn't say I was going to delete it, IN FACT what I said was that it wasn't in my place to delete someone else's post and that was why I was asking if you'd consider removing it. That's water under the bridge if you read my last post in that particular thread.

As far as the knowledge of this, there is a learning curve and I am sure when I have dealt with this as long as you, I will have a considerable amount of knowledge about it. I thank you for the vote of confidence.