Locked HA - Amplifon PIN for SmartFit

There is another angle here, which is that an audiologist using SmartFit standalone can add a pin which prevents an authorised person from saving to the hearing aids. It’s on the screen you get when you try to save the fitting.

But Amplifon don’t use this feature in UK when they supply Resound branded aids. I don’t know whether Amplifon pin protect Amplifon branded Resound aids.

I got my resound hearing aids trough an Amplifon clinic in Spain and they were indeed locked. Although I don’t really known who locked them first (resound or Amplifon) .

That is… weird…

My Hearing Aids can be programmed at any Amplifon clinic, so they must have set a master PIN on SmartFit, and that must have been done by Amplifon, not by GN Resound.

I’m just saying that Amplifon lock seems to be more plausible, rather than a manufacturer issued lock. The later is not impossible, indeed, but the former seems more reasonable to me.

How would they lock it? Maybe change the firmware in GN Resound’s hearing aids? Then write their own version of SmartFit to access the hearing aids that they locked? Oh look below, others are doing it too! Poor GN Resound. Maybe they got hacked and lost control of their products???

Or, maybe GN ReSound (like other manufacturers) is just expanding their product lines.

As I said above, Resound SmartFit Standalone already prompts the audiologist to add a PIN at the point where the software is about to save the fitting to the instruments. No doubt Resound stores the fact there is a PIN, and what it is, in the instruments. No hacking would be involved!

Why is the audiologist prompted to enter a PIN? Can the audiologist just skip any PIN entry?
If the audiologist is required to use a PIN, then the hearing aids are actually locked by the manufacturer.

It’s not just ReSound; Check out Discount Daily. Though, the business model of Discount Daily is Online Sales with Remote Fitting. They even have a low price guarantee. So this is different from health insurance sales.

You would have to ask Resound the first question. But on the relevant screen, it says it’s about aligning the fitting with the cloud information, for remote fitting purposes.

But the answer to the second is that yes there is an option to skip adding a PIN. It’s the audiologist’s choice whether to add a PIN or not.

If that’s the case then the the answer is simple. Ask your Amplifon audiologist why the hell are they locking your hearing aids? And insist that they stop doing it!

Mine aren’t locked, as I already said earlier in the thread.

Yep, but your HAs are special/not Amplifon, right?

They are just regular Resound Ones. But they were supplied and fitted by a branch of Amplifon who mostly sell Amplifon-branded versions of Resound aids.

Yep, but that gets us into comparing (apples-to-oranges) (Amplifon-to-ReSound)???

You have completely missed my point. But I’ve got other things to do now so will leave you to it.

I guess I have. Locked hearing aids is the topic. Amplifon’s are locked. ReSound’s are not locked. You insisted that you were to receive unlocked ReSound’s.

ETA: Maybe your point is that we are both saying the same thing? That is, you can insist that Amplifon not lock your hearing aids.

But that small success only affects only a small subset of the HOH community who might bother to slog through forum posts such as these. The larger issue is who is locking your hearing aids and why? I think it depends on the business model of the hearing aid outlet.

  • Costco - Only some brands of Costco HAs are locked. Did Costco ask the manufacturers to provide a method for locking Costco hearing aids. I don’t think so. I think it’s the other way around. That is, the manufacturer allows Costco to sell specific models that are heavily discounted, but only if the manufacturer locks them. Maybe that is changing. Lately Costco hearing aids have not been locked.
  • Government-National Health Services/NHS - NHS locks are likely to prevent abuse. Likely requested by NHS but designed and implemented by the manufacturer.
  • New-Anyname-Franchises - I am guessing that manufacturers allow rebranded/discounted sales of certain models but only when locked by the manufacturer.
  • Healthcare Insurance Providers - I must admit that I don’t understand this type of hearing aid outlet which is partially funded by employee benefits and such.

Ah, but maybe the whole paradigm may be changing soon. Most manufacturers (except Oticon) are switching to built-in rechargeable hearing aid batteries. The batteries are not replaceable except via factory repair. Perhaps that means rechargeable HAs are disposable after a few years. So what will be the point in locking disposable hearing aids?

Sorry to bump this old thread.

@OpenFitted Do you have the SmartFit version for Amplifon or do you recall where did you get it?

1 Like

You can find it by browsing the DIY School post by @pvc : DIY School - (v2.0)

Can’t seem to find it by browsing or searching.

Repeat from another thread; Maybe enter the code along with a checkmark and then restart SmartLauncher/SmartFit for the code to take effect. But do you have the code?

Let’s continue the discussion in the other thread.

1 Like

Can share the PIN please to test with my earing aids? Or send by MP
Thanks in advance !