I have a small travel CPAP. It is designed to be powered by an external battery. I have it so that we can camp and be off the grid and the people near me can still get a quiet night’s rest. The machine forces air inside my lungs so that I don’t get oxygen depletion in the middle of the night. It's a life saving, life preserving piece of amazing technology
Since we have not been traveling in the same way during the pandemic, I was surprised when I got it out recently to get ready to travel. It was no longer working. It had been sitting unused. I had a hard time understanding how it got broken in a box. I plugged it in and the screen flashed error 31.
I went to the internet and typed in the model number and the error code. I started to read so many similar stories, same confusion, same error code. Deep within a reddit thread I found a person who had an answer. There is a tiny battery deep within the machine. It is like a hearing aid battery, a tiny silver pill. When it runs out of power, it triggers the error code. Unfortunately, the battery is soldered onto the circuit board and cannot be replaced.
Well, that is not exactly correct. It is not designed to be replaced. I read about the process and then watched a YouTube video where a highly skilled electrical engineer removes the battery, puts in a battery holder so it can later be replaced more easily, and then fires it up with a new battery. He then has to go through a number of gyrations to get the CPAP to work, but finally he achieves the goal.
I ordered the parts and waited anxiously for them to arrive. Several days later the box was waiting on my porch. I found my tiny screwdriver set and began the tedious process of dissecting the machine. I paid careful attention to where each part went so that I could reassemble it after the transplant. Finally, I got the circuit board freed from the densely packed enclosure. Then to my frustration I saw that my model and the YouTube model were not the same. Different battery, different attachment. I struggled for a while but then gave up in defeat. I didn’t have the skill or the equipment to accomplish this task.
I reassembled it and now it is sitting forlorn on my shelf. I bought a new one and finally found someone that can repair the old one, but the price is about 2/3 of the new machine. I have not decided what to do yet.
I get to the state of depletion sometimes. I, however, have a built-in recharging system. A good night's rest does me wonders. Three days in the mountains is like sleeping for a month. I feel alive and rested and ready to go. Quiet dinners with friends, laughter, game night, bird watching, all fill my tank. Rich moments of spiritual communion-worship, singing around a campfire, discovering something in the Bible all give me a jolt of energy. If you have become depleted by the last two years, it’s time to recharge, it's not too late to get a second wind