#443

There should be a moulded piece of plastic that fits in the case to designate R/L too.

#444

Yes, mine have little bits of red and blue right next to the batteries on the swing-out battery holders.

#445

On the battery swingout, I have a blue square on both of mine, and a number 2 imprinted on another part. hmmm…

#446

The receivers for the Trax 42 have a SIM card so the hearing aids are able to determine if there’s a mismatch; they won’t boot up if you swap them.

All instruments come with blue markers installed by default. There are red ones in the box. Ask your fitter to give them to you.

#447

Thanks for those details! We all have to place a certain level of trust in the HIS/audi to get the most basic stuff right (Right vs. Left), but it is good to know the HA’s have a built-in fail safe mechanism.

#448

I would like to follow-up on the discussion of a few days ago on the problems some of us are having with
Trax 42 with noise in a car setting. These questions are specifically for those who are familiar with Rexton/Siemens programming, and particularly for Costco personnel. Before my next appointment (this Thursday), I want to have a better understanding of what the HIS can and can not do in order to be a partner in figuring out how to improve the situation. I have been studying the online information that Siemens makes available for professionals, but that brings up more questions.

I know that Costco uses their own software. Is it similar to any of the specific programs commonly used by others? I have been studying Connexx 7, but most of the screens I see look quite different from what I have seen when working with my Costco audi, so I suspect that Costco software may be based on something different? I get the impression that Connexx 7 has programming capabilities that Costco may not have.

About half the time, the “automatic” program does detect the “car” environment and I can clearly hear the noise reduction kick in. The rest of the time, it appears that it has not detected that it is in the car environment, and there is no noise reduction at all. Are there settings to adjust the sensitivity in recognising the different environments?

If we can’t get either the automatic program (in car mode) to work correctly, I’m thinking of a ifocus360 program specifically for the car. We actually started that last time, but with the only modifications being to lower the gain of the left aid 3db and increase the noise reduction to maximum. It works very well until there is any new sound (as I described in an earlier post) in which case the noise reduction apparently turns off and then gradually fades back in. Is there a way to lock the noise reduction on maximum so that it doesn’t come and go?

The troublesome noise that I hear from the driver’s side window sounds similar to white noise. Without the aids on, I don’t hear it. By experimenting with an adjustable white sound generator (found on internet), it seems that the problem frequencies are in the 1 to 2 kHZ range. I’m thinking maybe pulling the gain on those frequencies WAY down so that I don’t hear them. Even though that is in the speech range, it doesn’t do any good to amplify that on the left side, since the amplified noise masks the speech. Does this approach make sense as a work-around?

Does the Costco software provide for the ability to permanently fix the microphone direction in the ifocus360 program?

Any other suggestions on how to either make it work better or create a good work-around would be appreciated. By the way, I did try the suggestion of just turning off the left aid and that did help, but the problem with that is that without both aids, the binaural beamforming doesn’t work (so it won’t focus toward the speech source) and I believe some of the noise or wind reduction features won’t work.

#449

Fixing the mic direction in the 360 kind of defeats having the 360 program, eh?
Take the lows way down, give the middle a little extra and bring the highs down a little for the 360.
The level can be adjusted to cause the default to change programs quicker or hold longer.

#450

MTSAILOR,

I downloaded the latest Connexx 7 a while back simply to play with it. (I have no intention of self-programming.) In my observation it looks virtually identical to the software that the Costco HIS uses for my Trax 42s. Same screens, same options, etc.

As I noted a few weeks ago, the Trax 42 automatic program works wonders for me in the car, with no extra tweaking. It is curious why your experience would be so different. On the other hand, I have never heard anything “kick in”, noise reduction or otherwise. Sure, I can tell at times that the response is different, but nothing ever seems sudden. I wonder if your HAs are jacked up into some super touchy mode.

#451

widex unique’s audibility extender copies sounds down so the original sound is retained. this deals with issues 1 and 2. 3 can be said of all other frequency lowering tech. this industry matches on prices so I don’t see cost being an issue.

I remember when widex audibility extender came out and we all were floored at what it did. when phonak came out with sound recover we were disappointed. if I am not mistaken this was launch with the audeo yes line and on top of feedback manager issues people left phonak in droves and bought oticon aids.

I’ve tried the widex dream fusion and the aids sounded very natural. you could not tell audibility extender was on. you would think that everybody would sound like a bass singer but they did not.

#452

I downloaded the latest Connexx 7 a while back simply to play with it. (I have no intention of self-programming.) In my observation it looks virtually identical to the software that the Costco HIS uses for my Trax 42s. Same screens, same options, etc.

Gene,
I would like to check out Connexx 7 as you did, in order to better understand what my audi might be able to do, but I have been unable to download it. I have tried the download at https://www.rexton-online.com/upgrades/connexxUpgrades.asp, but after an hour of appearing to download, I get a “download failed” message. That is with Chrome for my browser. I have also tried IE, and that Rexton download page won’t even load. Anyone have any suggestions?

Doc Jake,
Thanks for the suggestions.

Fixing the mic direction in the 360 kind of defeats having the 360 program, eh?

You are right, of course, but for this particular use, all I’m really interested in hearing is my wife sitting to the right.

Take the lows way down, give the middle a little extra and bring the highs down a little for the 360.

I’m confused by the suggestion to “give the middle a little extra”. If by “middle”, you are including 1 to 2 kHZ, that would seem to increase the problem, as that sounds to me to be the frequency range of the problem noise. It’s not low frequency road noise.

The level can be adjusted to cause the default to change programs quicker or hold longer.

Thanks. That is the kind of help I was hoping to hear. That gives me some hope that maybe the automatic program can be tweaked to more reliably detect the car environment.

#453

MTSAILOR,

I use Firefox, and I had no difficulty downloading the Connexx file. It is quite large, at over 1 GB, so it takes a while. I just looked again at the site, and I started the download without a problem. I did not finish since I did not need the file.

I never use Internet Exploder for anything unless forced.

My only suggestion would be to try again.

#454

Well…I don’t have particulars, sorry. But I think she slightly increase the background noise level elimination in the 2000-4000 ranges and it has help. I still get it on certain roads, but it’s better by a lot.

#455

I picked up my Trax 42s yesterday. I find my own voice to be noticeably louder with them than it was with my Unitrons. I also notice that when I walk close to 30ish percent of the florescent lights in my office building that there is a squeaking/hissing noise in the hearing aid closest to the light. If walk directly under them, I will hear it in both sides. Has anyone else noticed this issue? I never had it with my Unitrons.

Bob

#456

If your domes are about the same your louder voice is probably the result of increased gain. Fluorescent lights, especially older ones, often emit various noises. Again probably the result of increased gain. It’s always been there, you just haven’t heard it.

#457

Mark,

Thanks for the feedback. I know what the buzz of a florescent light ballast sounds like. This is much more of a crackly static like noise. After wearing them for three days I believe that the gain or volume is set to high as I still hear myself. Also sharp noises like doors creaking are overpoweringly loud. I was listening to a Dusty Springfield song on the radio today and seems that hearing aids were over driven on the highs.

On the day I picked them up two of the women in the Hearing Aid department were talking and opening cardboard boxes. The sound of the boxes opening was very loud, but there voices were muffled. They made an adjustment at the time for soft sounds…but I still need further tweaks. Right now I hear less well with the Trax than I did with my old Unitrons. I am going back in Monday afternoon for some readjustments. I feel as if the hearing aids are just amplifying and not processing.

On a positive note the rechargeable 13s work from early morning 7:00 AM until 11:00 PM at night.

Bob

#458

It seems that my hearing aids had not saved their programming from the initial setup. So they initiated the setup process again. Also the technician swapped the closed domes for open domes. This has made a huge improvement. I am still a little echoey. I may go back in a week or so and have them drop the default volume a bit. The florescent light squeak is still there, but it is not as loud or annoying. I was able to hear the TV alright with my streamer.

#459

I had a problem with a defective pair of the Trax 42xm’s where the Smart Connect would cause them to reset the Costco programing and I would have to return for them to run the setup again. I also had a echo problem with my voice that went away after I had a set of custom molds with properly sized vents made. It seemed like the receiver was not positioned in my ear properly with the double domes.

#460

I have a question for ya’ll. I just received my Trax42 HA’s yesterday (Tuesday 2/2/16) and got to say they are as good as I had hoped. I moved up from KS3 (Cobalt 16’s) which I have been in for five years. A little history, in August I had a bike tire blow up next to my right ear (my good ear until then) - lost all hearing for two days, then with Steroid treatment got half of it back. Anyway, my question. I had problems with my right HA and feedback with my KS3’s when we switched to P receivers in September. Now with my new Trex 42’s with P receivers I am having the same feedback problem (again right ear). I see my Costco HA rep next Tuesday… is there something he can do to remove the feedback without messing up my overall hearing experience in the right ear. I haven’t heard this good since before the accident, so I want to keep this clarity and volume for right ear, but need to get feedback stopped. I see in my Rexton booklet they refer to a “Click Dome” - I currently have double closed domes. Would Click Domes help with reducing feedback? Has anyone used them yet?

250 500 1000 2000 4000 6000 8000
Left 65 70 70 65 75 80 95
Right 45 55 55 60 75 85 95
#461

I had trouble with feedback with my P receivers also. The Costco fitter had to go into the feedback section of the software and set it to “FAST” to fix it. Now I still get some when certain pitches are hit when listening to music, but 99% of it went away. Rexton first had them adjust a high frequency range, but that decreased the sound quality greatly. I have the soft custom Rexton molds and they have a little ring molded into each one that clicks onto the receiver so that seems to be why the are called click domes. The custom molds are extremely comfortable and allowed me to get vents that can be adjusted to reduce feedback with small inserts. They gave the aides a much richer sound over the double domes and eliminated echos that I was getting from my voice. I feel it was a well spent $80.00.

#462

The streamer seems to run down the hearing aid batteries very quickly. I usually start watching TV around 8:00 PM. Last night the right battery was running out of power by 9:00 PM.