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Oticon Opn. Rebooting randomly

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@wolverine said:

I have some doubts about the accuracy of this part of the audiologist’s message. Does someone happen to have more detailed information about this? I am interested in the connectivity aspects, so why and how the connectivity would be different?

What you’re asking would require a college-level course for an entire semester to answer. Suffice it to say that virtually all telecommunications standards are different between the US and Europe. Added to it is that each country allocates the radio frequency spectrum differently and you have a real mess on your hands that affects far more than Apple.

In reply to @wolverine

@KenP said:

With the reboots and the lack of accessories, it really looks like they rushed them to market.

That has been my thought too. There seems to be a number of things both major and minor not working correctly.

@wolverine said:

I have some doubts about the accuracy of this part of the audiologist’s message. Does someone happen to have more detailed information about this? I am interested in the connectivity aspects, so why and how the connectivity would be different?

When I was told this I chalked it up to someone trying to present information without having the full story. I may be slightly off base here but I think to much information is given out by Sales Representatives from the companies. These are the folks who primarily interact with the providers. I tried to contact Oticon in June when I noticed issues with my OPNs. I received a reply back that the company (at least here in the USA) does not provide support to users. I have written a number of descriptive emails to my audiologist about the problems I’m having and what I do as a partial work around. She forwards the information to her Rep. To date the company has never contacted me for a one-to-one dialogue. Instead they sent her a note to try some basic resets and the like which told me they had never read any of the things I wrote.
Fortunately for me the hearing aid portion seems to be working although how would one ever know if it was actually working at peak performance?

@gpsgrandpa said:

To date the company has never contacted me for a one-to-one dialogue. Instead they sent her a note to try some basic resets and the like which told me they had never read any of the things I wrote.

I have not been around too long on this forum, but I would be surprised if someone from Oticon R&D team wouldn’t be following this. For more technical discussion also Oticon’s own forum at http://forum.on.oticon.global/forum.html32 could be another channel to reach the R&D team. They must have quite a few test users, but bugs are difficult to catch, and I assume they would be happy to receive feedback from the end users.

According to a Moderator reply to a post on the Oticon Forum it is “mainly focused on the IFTTT integration and the ON app. For this type of unexpected behavior we kindly ask that you contact your dispenser so that any technical issues are addressed correctly.”
I had originally tried to contact Oticon support directly and been told they did not offer user/customer support so I must contact the dispenser. If there are Oticon R&D folk reading this forum they have never shown themselves. I had been a squeaking wheel for the first few months. The audiologist swapped them out for another pair but I could detect nothing different. It was then suggested I try another iphone. Not having one until a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t test that. Now I have an iphone 7 and it does exactly the same thing as the 6s. Now I will wait for the firmware update to see what happens.

I had one reboot once. Battery was very low so I did not think anything about it.

Does anyone have any how the serial numbers work?

Mine are 44827xxx series.

Thanks,

M

More information on my reboots. Not an Apple user so not paired with any device.

I’ve noticed that I can cause the reboot issue every time by standing in a particular spot at work. Nearby (<15 feet) are multiple 2.4GHz transceivers. Some running standard WiFi, some using a proprietary protocol. This would seem to argue that the issue may be less random than it seems. Maybe the issue is an attempt by the ’s to recover from some manner of interference induced errors.

One other thing, after the reboot I’ve noticed that sound directionality and speech understanding (everyone sounds like they’re echoing slightly) suffer to the point that I end up having to reboot both aids. Everything’s normal after that…until the next time time I stand in that spot.

Chris

Supposedly there is a firmware update coming from Oticon in November that will hopefully address many of these problems. (Hearing is believing.) I have never heard the startup tune except when powering them up. I’ve been trying to pay attention to any perceived hearing anomalies. At times during the day I notice an absence in one ear or the other of the hearing aids effect. The duration is variable but once detected usually is working again within 10 seconds or less. There have been times that I check the ON app on my phone and one of them is not showing up as active. Within a few moments it is shown as active again and things seem back to normal. This usually seems to be subtle and most notable when streaming some kind of audio to the from the phone. I still have issues with the signal warbling back and forth from side to side when streaming. I recently saw a posting on the ON forum when the issue was mentioned also.

It makes me wonder how one could ever be sure any hearing aids are fully functioning all the time. I sometimes wonder when I’m not hearing in a situation where I feel I should is it me or the device just not fully functioning.

I have both Vigo Pros and Agil Pros and they both randomly reboot, so I don’t think this problem is new to Oticon ’s. I also wouldn’t put too much faith in Oticon being able to solve the problem, because they haven’t been able to due it in six years that I know of.

Well, I get a similar occurrence streaming. I use a Phone Clip+ (Resound) and, after a period of streaming from the TV, I get an aid cutting out and then coming back. It doesn’t reboot. I found that I can eliminate the problem by turning the PC+ off and then back on. I attributed it to a form of stack overflow. Aids must be an interrupt driven system to some degree. That can lead to the system being in what programmer’s refer to as an unknown state at times. This pause might be a branch to a recovery system.

It could be a limitation in either hardware or software. Makers avoid letting what they are doing being disclosed – totally proprietary. So, all one can do is just semi-knowledgeable guessing.

Edited

Thank you for your bit of semi-knowledgeable guessing. It gives me some possible insight into cause and effect. I for one would find it very beneficial if the Oticon people would even tell my audiologist why I’m experiencing events with the hearing aids. Instead it seems like the entire industry is geared to keep everything shrouded with no explanations for anything. While I don’t understand everything you just wrote I can put enough together and say to myself, “Hmmm. That makes sense.”

"Thank you for your bit of semi-knowledgeable guessing. It gives me some possible insight into cause and effect. I for one would find it very beneficial if the Oticon people would even tell my audiologist why I’m experiencing events with the hearing aids. Instead it seems like the entire industry is geared to keep everything shrouded with no explanations for anything. While I don’t understand everything you just wrote I can put enough together and say to myself, “Hmmm. That makes sense.”

I don’t think that Oticon knows what is causing the reboots. I have learned over the years that if a fire truck goes by, I’m in HD and a forklift goes by, etc. to turn the volume down and it won’t reboot, if I don 't do it quickly enough it will. My audiologist looked at me like I had two heads the first time I asked her about it 5 years ago and over the years has tried to get an answer from Oticon,but none has been forthcoming. I had to do the quote as you see because for the past several days my space bar won’t work if I hit the Reply with Quote button.

I have now gone through 3 pair of Oticon OPN 1 Minirite hearing aids. Every single pair does random reboots. Sometimes the left sometimes the right. I’ve had firmware updates that have never resolved this issue. I just got my 3rd set back last Monday, April 30, 2018. Today, 5 days later, my left hearing aid randomly rebooted. I’ve worked with Oticon to correct this for 2 years now. Unfortunately, since it is Bluetooth that’s connecting both hearing aids together as well as to the iPhone anything can interfere with them. Such as microwaves, WiFi, other Bluetooth devices, etc. I’m working with Apple to see if they could find anything on my iPhone X log files that could possibly relate the issue with a connectivity issue caused by connection to the iPhone X. Incidentally, this has happened with both my iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone X. I’ll let you all know what they find. If anything.

I’ve had random reboots with both my OPNs about maybe once or twice a week, even with firmware 5. These are very complex devices so I find that frequency of reboot is acceptable.

For folks whose OPN momentarily mutes but you don’t hear the reboot chime, it’s not a reboot, it’s probably protection from a loud sound.

Volusiano, I agree but, Oticon and my audiologist keep telling me that it should not be happening at all. This pair I have now have only reboot once within two weeks that I have had them. Making this pair the best out of three so far.

One of mine (circa 2016) just started randomly rebooting in the last couple of days. I wouldn’t mind so much except that the last few notes are just slightly off key (the left more so than the right). It bugs me every time I hear it! Also the other device was echoing loudly in my ear yesterday for a minute or two, then thought better of it and stopped doing that.

I got my OPN1 aids in December of 2018 and I have had a few reboots, mostly due to going from a very quiet environment to a very loud environment. I have also been told that they will reboot if their memory cache filled up and the reboot is the only way they can clear memory

Anyone have an update? Mine have been rebooting and my Audiologist sent them back. They came refreshed, she was told…same serial number. Today they have rebooted a few times. I am not on Bluetooth, and have t paired them back with the iPhone yet.

Was hoping Oticon could solve this.

Anyone know of a fix?

This used to happen a lot in the first year of release for the OPN, but after a few firmware updates, it seems to have stabilized and at least for my personal experience with my OPN 1, they don’t reboot as often anymore.

So make sure you’re on the latest firmware version for the OPN. If you are, and the “refreshed” pair still reboots too often, request a complete replacement pair if you’re still under warranty.

Hi
Thanks for the reply!
Yes, latest firmware and still under warranty.

I have appointment with Audiologist Tuesday and will request replacements. She did send them back two weeks ago and they claimed they checked everything.
Thanks

My OPN S1s do this random rebooting. They were replaced by Oticon a few months ago when my audiologist sent the aids in to be checked. I don’t think Oticon even bothered to check them ; they just sent a new pair. The new pair does the same thing. Only answer I was able to get was that it could be radio signal interference. I have noticed that if battery level ( I have rechargeable aids) gets below 70% it seems to happen more often but out also happens when aid are fully charged. It also happens mostly when I’m streaming from TV adapter box. I had OPN previously but can’t recall if they did the same thing. Oticon support told me they are aware of the problem but don’t know when they’ll have a solution. My personal opinion is that with the MORE aids out now, Oticon is putting any fixes for earlier aids at the bottom of the list.

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