NovoPen 6 Modification

[skaylife]

Typical me again! Last week I picked up 3 Nordic NovoPen 6 pens for my peptides, with no idea that a Novopen only takes its own prefilled insulin cartridges. Searching around for a Novopen on webshops does not tell you that either. I was taken in by the look of it and the nfc link to the app.

Opened a box with excitement when they arrived and tried to seat a cartridge. No luck. Reading the user manual told me I had made a mistake. I got in touch with the webshop and explained. They were good about it. Unopened boxes could go back for a refund, and I was to keep the opened one.

I enjoy buying this sort of thing, but I hate wasting money. I would happily give it away if I knew anyone who uses a Novopen. I do not. Yesterday I had some spare time and took a closer look inside it.

To begin with I cut the front off a used disposable pen, sized it to match the Novopen exactly and glued it with loctite, so that standard pen needles would fit. Standard cartridge thickness was the next problem. I got lucky there. It was only a 1mm raised and 1/2 mm high section of the cartridge holder standing in the way. Filing that down solved it and the cartridge would seat inside. Pen reassembled. Then another problem: the pump would not move out of its seat. Inspecting the mechanism showed that the standard cartridges were shorter. I made a 2 mm thick spacer out of a used ballpen housing and put it behind the cartridge. Every problem solved, and it now takes standard cartridges and needles.

Buying a Novopen and modifying it may not be the smartest move. But it can be a decent answer for anyone who made the same mistake I did.

 

[Skidude]

skaylife said:

Typical me again! Last week I picked up 3 Nordic NovoPen 6 pens for my peptides, with no idea that a Novopen only takes its own prefilled insulin cartridges. Searching around for a Novopen on webshops does not tell you that either. I was taken in by the look of it and the nfc link to the app.

Opened a box with excitement when they arrived and tried to seat a cartridge. No luck. Reading the user manual told me I had made a mistake. I got in touch with the webshop and explained. They were good about it. Unopened boxes could go back for a refund, and I was to keep the opened one.

I enjoy buying this sort of thing, but I hate wasting money. I would happily give it away if I knew anyone who uses a Novopen. I do not. Yesterday I had some spare time and took a closer look inside it.

To begin with I cut the front off a used disposable pen, sized it to match the Novopen exactly and glued it with loctite, so that standard pen needles would fit. Standard cartridge thickness was the next problem. I got lucky there. It was only a 1mm raised and 1/2 mm high section of the cartridge holder standing in the way. Filing that down solved it and the cartridge would seat inside. Pen reassembled. Then another problem: the pump would not move out of its seat. Inspecting the mechanism showed that the standard cartridges were shorter. I made a 2 mm thick spacer out of a used ballpen housing and put it behind the cartridge. Every problem solved, and it now takes standard cartridges and needles.

Buying a Novopen and modifying it may not be the smartest move. But it can be a decent answer for anyone who made the same mistake I did.

Great job!

Looks like a bit of fun. Have you tried it out on a dose yet?

 

[skaylife]

Skidude said:

skaylife said:

Typical me again! Last week I picked up 3 Nordic NovoPen 6 pens for my peptides, with no idea that a Novopen only takes its own prefilled insulin cartridges. Searching around for a Novopen on webshops does not tell you that either. I was taken in by the look of it and the nfc link to the app.

Opened a box with excitement when they arrived and tried to seat a cartridge. No luck. Reading the user manual told me I had made a mistake. I got in touch with the webshop and explained. They were good about it. Unopened boxes could go back for a refund, and I was to keep the opened one.

I enjoy buying this sort of thing, but I hate wasting money. I would happily give it away if I knew anyone who uses a Novopen. I do not. Yesterday I had some spare time and took a closer look inside it.

To begin with I cut the front off a used disposable pen, sized it to match the Novopen exactly and glued it with loctite, so that standard pen needles would fit. Standard cartridge thickness was the next problem. I got lucky there. It was only a 1mm raised and 1/2 mm high section of the cartridge holder standing in the way. Filing that down solved it and the cartridge would seat inside. Pen reassembled. Then another problem: the pump would not move out of its seat. Inspecting the mechanism showed that the standard cartridges were shorter. I made a 2 mm thick spacer out of a used ballpen housing and put it behind the cartridge. Every problem solved, and it now takes standard cartridges and needles.

Buying a Novopen and modifying it may not be the smartest move. But it can be a decent answer for anyone who made the same mistake I did.

Great job!

Looks like a bit of fun. Have you tried it out on a dose yet?

Tried it with an old half full cartridge and it runs. I have not checked the dosing. I will put 3ml of water in a cartridge and test it tomorrow. I will let you know

 

[CandyCap]

My guess is the dosing will be out, because the cartridges are not the same size and the volume dispensed (how far the plunger travels) is calibrated for the novo cartridge. You end up overdosing.

 

[skaylife]

CandyCap said:

My guess is the dosing will be out, because the cartridges are not the same size and the volume dispensed (how far the plunger travels) is calibrated for the novo cartridge. You end up overdosing.

Right now I am 20 hours into my day and have been working 14 hours straight. I will check it tomorrow.

 

[Huffingnpuffing]

Adapter kits exist with a spacer and a front end piece that let you use a novo6. Straightforward 3d printed parts. On Etsy there are people turning out boxes and accessories on 3d printers, for instance.

I have watched a video of a guy slowly dremelling out the inside of the novo cylinder, so that a wider generic cartridge slides in. Wider generic cartridges mean the same plunger travel pushes out a larger volume of liquid. So test a few and calibrate.

 

[myboysherman]

Nice bit of DIY. Those pens are slick.

Mine is a Novopen echo plus, which arrived with the newest "npmax" all in one 3d printed cartridge carrier. It was slightly too small and not snug enough, and went a bit cock-eyed after a few injections.

So I moved to a 3d printed screw cap and spacer from an Etsy seller and took a 15/32" drill to the ridge. The 3d parts looked scruffy, but they fit and work great, and the vendor threw in vial caps, tic tacs and some cologne packet thing, which was a nice touch. It made me think of friends in Turkey.

Mine tested at roughly 10% over, but it is a really nice pen.

Downloading the injection data is pointless fun, even though it comes with all the priming and fiddling and only clears once it rolls over at some absurd number of shots.

 

[skaylife]

myboysherman said:

Nice bit of DIY. Those pens are slick.

Mine is a Novopen echo plus, which arrived with the newest "npmax" all in one 3d printed cartridge carrier. It was slightly too small and not snug enough, and went a bit cock-eyed after a few injections.

So I moved to a 3d printed screw cap and spacer from an Etsy seller and took a 15/32" drill to the ridge. The 3d parts looked scruffy, but they fit and work great, and the vendor threw in vial caps, tic tacs and some cologne packet thing, which was a nice touch. It made me think of friends in Turkey.

Mine tested at roughly 10% over, but it is a really nice pen.

Downloading the injection data is pointless fun, even though it comes with all the priming and fiddling and only clears once it rolls over at some absurd number of shots.

I am Turkish as well. Perhaps it is something genetic

 

[skaylife]

Skidude said:

skaylife said:

Typical me again! Last week I picked up 3 Nordic NovoPen 6 pens for my peptides, with no idea that a Novopen only takes its own prefilled insulin cartridges. Searching around for a Novopen on webshops does not tell you that either. I was taken in by the look of it and the nfc link to the app.

Opened a box with excitement when they arrived and tried to seat a cartridge. No luck. Reading the user manual told me I had made a mistake. I got in touch with the webshop and explained. They were good about it. Unopened boxes could go back for a refund, and I was to keep the opened one.

I enjoy buying this sort of thing, but I hate wasting money. I would happily give it away if I knew anyone who uses a Novopen. I do not. Yesterday I had some spare time and took a closer look inside it.

To begin with I cut the front off a used disposable pen, sized it to match the Novopen exactly and glued it with loctite, so that standard pen needles would fit. Standard cartridge thickness was the next problem. I got lucky there. It was only a 1mm raised and 1/2 mm high section of the cartridge holder standing in the way. Filing that down solved it and the cartridge would seat inside. Pen reassembled. Then another problem: the pump would not move out of its seat. Inspecting the mechanism showed that the standard cartridges were shorter. I made a 2 mm thick spacer out of a used ballpen housing and put it behind the cartridge. Every problem solved, and it now takes standard cartridges and needles.

Buying a Novopen and modifying it may not be the smartest move. But it can be a decent answer for anyone who made the same mistake I did.

Great job!

Looks like a bit of fun. Have you tried it out on a dose yet?

I have just tested it, and a Novopen injects the same dosage as a standard pen. Filled a cartridge with 2.5ml of water and injected 250iu as 5x50iu back into a 3ml syringe. Each time 50 iu came back out into the syringe, and the last one was 48iu, which may have been lost while pushing excess air out.

The dosage is the same. A spacer in front of the cartridge is not workable. The needle is too short to get through the rubber at that distance.

The thickness difference between cartridges is almost certainly in the glass itself.

The liquid level on the pen scale reads 2mm lower. Even so, the same volume of liquid shows below the last stripe on the pen scale.

 

[skaylife]

CandyCap said:

My guess is the dosing will be out, because the cartridges are not the same size and the volume dispensed (how far the plunger travels) is calibrated for the novo cartridge. You end up overdosing.

I tested it today and the dosage matches a standard pen. See my reply above

 

[markspeptides]

Exactly the same mistake here, until I found out that custom printed adapters are sold on etsy, so I ordered a couple..search for novopen adapter

 

[skaylife]

markspeptides said:

Exactly the same mistake here, until I found out that custom printed adapters are sold on etsy, so I ordered a couple..search for novopen adapter

Thanks mate. I had a look. 13 euro voor the adapter and 21 euro shipping. I paid 50 euro voor the Novopen 6. I built the same adapter and spacer from scratch for nothing and they are fine. Took me no more than half an hour in total to fix it. Money is not the issue. But it has to be worth its price. Worth considering, if I had not managed it.