Arm placement
One thing that came up in my chat with Andrew was arm placement. Having now done this for about 10 sensors, I feel quite comfortable with the minutiae of best location. And there is quite a bit of detail.
The goals are:
1) get consistent, reliable readings
2) have as little interruption as possible
3) be the least susceptible to the sub-cutaneous "liquid draw" that occurs while sleeping (which skews the Dex results and makes them useless)
4) have the least chance of the painful and dangerous (to your sensor) "shirt stuck on the edge of the transmitter" phenomenon
That last one is critical. The first 2-3 times I had an arm placement I did this constantly; I would take off my T-shirt and it would catch under the edge of the transmitter right as I was pulling it off my head. The result is a painful and worrying ripping of the tape from the inside out - that is, pulling on the center. It's like pulling off a band-aid just worse. And of course, there is the added stress of having potentially dislocated and ruined a brand new $60 sensor.
After some serious trial and error I hit on the best placement. I'll try my best to describe it in words; I wish I could draw so I could put up an image here.
Basically, in order to find what I think the placement is:
1) hold your arm right next to your side, straight down
2) look for the groove that is formed between the top of your biceps and the chest muscle that wraps around it; there is a sort of valley there which is quite well defined, more so if you are muscular
3) line your sensor so that:
3a) it is on the outside of your arm and just ever so slightly towards the back (we're talking an inch here)
3b) the top line of the transmitter holder - the clear plastic part - lines in with that groove
it seems that this placement achieves the top three goals while eliminating most of the chance of the T-shirt ripping because the top of the sticky tape now naturally angles outwards and "covers" the top of the transmitter, making it difficult for the fabric to get caught.
The goals are:
1) get consistent, reliable readings
2) have as little interruption as possible
3) be the least susceptible to the sub-cutaneous "liquid draw" that occurs while sleeping (which skews the Dex results and makes them useless)
4) have the least chance of the painful and dangerous (to your sensor) "shirt stuck on the edge of the transmitter" phenomenon
That last one is critical. The first 2-3 times I had an arm placement I did this constantly; I would take off my T-shirt and it would catch under the edge of the transmitter right as I was pulling it off my head. The result is a painful and worrying ripping of the tape from the inside out - that is, pulling on the center. It's like pulling off a band-aid just worse. And of course, there is the added stress of having potentially dislocated and ruined a brand new $60 sensor.
After some serious trial and error I hit on the best placement. I'll try my best to describe it in words; I wish I could draw so I could put up an image here.
Basically, in order to find what I think the placement is:
1) hold your arm right next to your side, straight down
2) look for the groove that is formed between the top of your biceps and the chest muscle that wraps around it; there is a sort of valley there which is quite well defined, more so if you are muscular
3) line your sensor so that:
3a) it is on the outside of your arm and just ever so slightly towards the back (we're talking an inch here)
3b) the top line of the transmitter holder - the clear plastic part - lines in with that groove
it seems that this placement achieves the top three goals while eliminating most of the chance of the T-shirt ripping because the top of the sticky tape now naturally angles outwards and "covers" the top of the transmitter, making it difficult for the fabric to get caught.
posted by Blinkered at 11:05 AM
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