The xBT is in. It’s implanted about an inch below my armpit, chest-side, and it’s entirely covered by my arm when it’s down. I’ve taken a few “gold standard” measurements and compared them to the chip’s throughout the day: provided I keep my arm down for a few minutes before a reading, the chip’s reported temperature seems to stay between 0.5C and 1C below the thermometer’s.
So, pretty much identical to a regular axillary temperature reading - which it is, at the end of the day - only much, much more convenient to take: the Halo Scanner easily reads the chip through 3 layers of clothing without lifting my arm up (so, through a coat, sweater, T-shirt and at least a solid inch of flesh when my arm is down). Amazing performance!
Here’s a piece of advice if you want to implant an xBT, to get the same performance: have it implanted it horizontally - i.e. parallel to the floor when standing up, or “back-to-front” - and not vertically. Roughly like the blue mark on @amal’s drawing.
The reason is, when the xBT was still in the needle, I noticed the Halo Scanner’s performances were best when I would present the needle orthogonal to the reader, as if “flying through the loop” so-to-speak, and not flat against the reader. So I figured I’d implant the chip on the side of my chest horizontally so that one end would face the reader when approaching it flat against the front of my chest, and it seems to work great. Also, it’s a lot easier for the piercer to work facing you.
Here’s another thing I noticed: if the chip is below 23.9C, it stops reporting the temperature. That got me scared for a minute at the piercer’s: I had just arrived, I took a few readings of the chip to ensure it was still working before implanting it, and the Halo only reported the UID but no temperature. But the chip had spent 2 hours in the car at -20C, so I figured it was probably okay, just too cold to report anything useful. Sure enough, seconds after implanting it, the temperature started showing up and climbing.
So, just so you know, if you get a UID reading from your chip but no temperature, you’re either dead, or you’ve turned into a zombie. Another useful feature 