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Will my Audi know if I make DIY fitting changes? Yes!

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Let’s talk about Date and Timestamp;

Typically when something is written using “Electronic Writing” it includes a date&timestamp. Your local database and your hearing aids/ have these date&timestamps. Thus your Audi’s database retains his/her date&timestamp that equates to your last Audi fitting session.

If you use fitting software to change the settings and you also save those settings, then your local database and your hearing aids will get a new date&timestamp. If you don’t save your changed settings to the HAs then your Audi will not be aware that the hearing aids were connected to a computer and/or fitting software. But what’s the point of making changes without saving them?

Let’s look at a specific situation where your Audi adjusted your hearing aids on Christmas day, and then you changed and saved the settings on New Years day.

  • Audi’s database = Christmas
  • Your local database = New Years day
  • HAs = New Years day

On Valentines Day you decide to return to your Audi so you restore the hearing aid settings to the Audi’s original settings (to HA only) before the Audi visit.

  • Audi’s database = Christmas
  • Your local database = New Years day
  • Hearing Aids = Valentines Day

During the Audi visit, the Audi’s database and hearing aid date&timestamps don’t match. Therefore, the fitting software will detect this mismatch and ask your Audi which settings should be used (the hearing aids or the database)? Busted!!

10 people in this conversation7 min readJump to latest

Any indication that they would actually pay attention? From my experience when I had made changes, the specialist just reverted back to old settings that they had until I requested otherwise. So yes, an observant audi could tell, but I think the odds are fairly low that they would notice.

Yes the Audi will notice because during a normal fitting session, the database and the hearing aids are the same, and therefore the Audi is not asked to choose which settings to use.

When the database and hearing aids are different and the Audi is asked which settings to use, their head swivels around from the computer screen towards you and you get the look :face_with_raised_eyebrow: They know something has changed. Did you go to another Audi? Are your hearing aids hacked? Are you a factory spy? Nope, you are just a super hero DIYer?

I let them know up front that I save their original settings, and that I respect their original settings (especially settings) and that it is no problem for them to restore their settings from their database. But it is my hearing loss and I want control.

Or you could just not go back to the Audi. I never return unless I have to.

Is this kind of timestamp of the last Audi settings visible? Maybe there is a way to generate a fake timestamp just when save the new settings.
If I know that the original settings are saved in the date 2019-04-18 14:18:11, maybe creating an hack (at OS level) that when the software ask for timestamp to the OS it reply always with 2019-04-18 14:18:11 may be a workaround.
Of course the collaborative way would be the most suitable one, but in many cases it is not applicable…

Why speculate on how to hack this? Just go hack it. Then return to present your handiwork. Also please start a separate thread for hacking timestamps.

  • This does not need to be hacked.
  • The hearing aids are your hearing aids.
  • You can program your own hearing aids if you want.

Will my Audi know if I make fitting changes? Yes… So what! If you paid for your ’s, YOU own them. If your audi can’t handle you making DIY fitting changes to YOUR hearing aids, find a new audi!

I have been told that mt hearing aids do not belong to me, but to the VA. I have already made significant changes to the way I received them. If the VA doesn’t like me programming “their” aids, they can take them back.

Your hearing aids belong to you. The VA will not want them back, ever!

In reply to @pvc

With Halloween approaching I am envisioning a scary hypothesis. I am not necessarily concerned about my Costco fitter because I feel we have good rapport.
But let’s say that in the future I make some fitting changes and a few months down the road I go into Costco Hearing for some unrelated problem with my H/As, he/she is on vacation, and I am assisted by a (fictional) overworked grumpy dept manager who notes the changes, and says Costco will no longer service my aids because they don’t want to be responsible for potential damage to my hearing caused either by me or some other hearing aid lab. (Maybe I then offer to sign a release but he says corporate doesn’t approve of locally-originated paperwork. What would my recourse be?

Has that every happened to anybody here? If so how did it get resolved?

Edited

It has not happened. Hypothetically if it did, I would ask where in the purchase agreement it says they can do that. I’ve looked and I don’t see any kind of exclusion for self programming. I think worst case scenario is that they would ask you not to do it. However, there’s always the possibility, but I think there are better things to worry about.

Thanks MDB for your reassurance.
I’ve always been an adventurous guy, but with a dash of caution.
I like to leap, but try to look first.
:sweat_smile:

Someone asked if their Audi (in this case a she) will see the self-programming changes when connecting their self-programmed hearing aids to the Audi’s fitting software?

To answer that question more directly, it is unlikely that your Audi will ever see your changes. Here’s why;

The first thing she will see is a warning that her database settings don’t match the settings in the hearing aids, and she will be asked to choose which settings she wants to use? Even if you have saved the original Audi settings in your database, and then restored the original Audi settings to your hearing aids before the Audi visit, she will still get the mismatch-warning because the warning is based on date-timestamps difference and not based on a comparison of the actual settings.

At that point two issues will need to be resolved;

  1. Your Audi will need an explanation about why the settings differ
  2. Your Audi will need to choose which settings to use in order to proceed

Will she choose your settings out of empathy without thinking about issues like professional liability and whatnot? Or will she choose her own settings to be on the safe side. imo> She will choose her settings (in a New York minute) and therefore she will never see your settings.

Oh, maybe a third issue will need resolution. Unless you have had prior discussions about self programming then you will likely get some sort of reprimand about changing her professional settings. I think that you should have the self programming discussion with your Audi beforehand and not wait until it is forced upon you at the last minute by the inevitable date-timestamp mismatch.

Edited

Hi I might have another usercase to have your opinion on.

@pvc wrote at the start post of this thread:
"
If you use fitting software to change the settings and you also save those settings, then your local database and your hearing aids will get a new date&timestamp. If you don’t save your changed settings to the then your Audi will not be aware that the hearing aids were connected to a computer and/or fitting software. But what’s the point of making changes without saving them?
"
What if you use the Target fitting software to read out the HA and ONLY store the Audi’s settings in your local fitting database and then disconnect.

Now my questions:

  1. Is the timestamp in the HA changed with this action? So downloading settings only.
  2. Can the Audi see the you have been connecting to the HA’s with fitting software? When I interpreted pvc’s above post I assume not. Just to be sure.

Thanks for your comments,
Gareth

@gjuittb

I’m not sure on other software but with Phonak Target, if you connect to software and then disconnect and only save to laptop, it doesn’t mess up the time stamp.

I also think that if you disconnect the hearing aids so the fitting software can’t save to them, the hearing aid timestamp won’t be changed.

But I’m not sure why you would want to do that.

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