EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Verathon Bladderscan BVI3000

Anyone heard of Bladderscan with its newly firmware that prompt the user of the need for calibration ater a 12-month period even when the unit is accurately performing. Each time the service guy will come down to reset the message on the screen and that is $700. Isn't ridiculous? I wrote to the manufacturer but receive no favourable reply. Guess we need to switch to another brand.

Or, better yet, someone should have looked a little more closely at the spec before buying the thing!

Ridiculous? Not really. It's just another gouge. As we all know, the medical equipment "industry" is full of them. But don't hold your breath, you will never get a "favourable reply" from the manufacturer.

700 dollars? Is it worth that much? Why not hack into the thing, and "develop" it further? Sounds like all you need is a password.

Not that we have not looked at the specs. You know they have been around 10 - 20 years and out of a sudden comes this surprise.

Oh, it's a so-called upgrade then. Any chance of reverting to an earlier EPROM?

Meanwhile, if "they" upgraded your equipment without checking with you first, then get them to change them back themselves (if that's what you want)!

Thats shocking! Here in NZ we pay NZ$150.00.

Once the calibration guy forgot to reset the message. We just told the clinical staff to ignore it, which they did!

We also have a scanpoint, which we are able to do ourselves.

Can't you just wind back the system date by a year (or whatever)?

Maybe a programmer can help remove the irritating line that triggers the prompt.

I don't know this piece of kit myself, but isn't the code in an EPROM?

Try changing (rolling back) the date first!

Or is there some sort of config set-up that you can get at?

There was discussion on this issue in biomedtalk a year or two back. We have the calibration kit too, which works by online connection that you have to keep live. I think if you keep ignoring the message it will disable itself - clever!

The US solution was to get the company to disable the reminder, then service / check at intervals you set as for any other piece of equipment.

Andrew

$700 is quite expensive for a calibration. Our local service provider calibrates scanners for $350 AU, less for some models. We have some BVI 9400s with the calibration prompt, but our fleet of BVI 3000s have no such feature.

Be cautious of the handheld BVI 6100, it will lock out the user after a year has passed since the last calibration.