As a recently diagnosed diabetic without health insurance I am painfully aware of the high cost of "treatment." I looked long and hard at testing supplies, meters and which brand would be the lowest recurring cost for things like test strips. If you are in a similar situation I know you have done the same thing.

What we decided on was the Lifescan OneTouch® line of meters and supplies, if for no other reason than they were the only line that could use the same test strips across all of the meters in the line. What we also found is that in the finest tradition of "Gillette" marketing all of the test meter companies will gladly give you the meter in exchange for perpetual purchase (or insurance or Medicare if you are lucky enough to have it) of the test strips.

Most companies will also give you the software for your PC for free. What they definitely don't give away is the little cable to attach the meter to the PC. Most of the meter brands are also stuck selling serial PC cables with antiquated DB-9 connections for $30 a pop. When is the last time you saw a new PC with one of those? To its credit, Lifescan does offer a USB cable but will also hit you up for $30 for it.

We took a look at these cables, and as designing USB peripherals is our business, quickly realized how little there is to these. I built one originally just as an intellectual exercise (of course the first one cost me more than $30 but that's not the point) and threw it in with one of our prototype circuit board runs.

We finally have it to the point we can start selling it after testing on all of the supported OS's and meters in the line. This is the first in a new line of products we are introducing for blood glucose interface cables and it is compatible with the Lifescan OneTouch® line of meters including the

OneTouch® Ultra
OneTouch® Ultra2
OneTouch® UltraSmart
OneTouch® Mini

If you are looking for a break on one of these cables buy one and think of it as buying a US made product, made by a small US company and helping defray the costs of someone else dealing with diabetes. The introductory price is $19.95 (now $22.95 on web site - Admin) plus S&H for each cable. It is available in our web store now.  While supplies last we will throw in a new, in the box Lifescan Ultra series meter. These are still within expiration and were bought in bulk for testing, but never opened. You don't even have to put your existing meter at risk to try it. (These ran out in mid June 2008 - Admin)

The USB interface is USB2.0 compatible and comes with drivers for Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and Vista. The interface is low voltage to be compatible with the lifescan meters and has been tested with all of the meters listed about and the latest software available from their site on all three operating systems. The software is a free download. The USB to Serial cable comes with the cable and driver CD containing drivers and installation instructions.

If you own another brand of meter please watch our web site for similar cables in the near future.

If you have any recent, but unused meters laying around you would like to contribute to our effort to develop additional cables email us through the web site.

OneTouch® is a registered trademark of LifeScan, Inc. A Johnson & Johnson Company.

Send post as PDF to