Interesting thing....

So, I gave my old OneTouch Verio IQ to a friend, meaning that the cable that was with it had to go along, because not only is it used to connect to a computer, it's part of the charging assembly. Fine, my new one has Bluetooth, plus a standard USB cord will work, per the directions, right? And I have lots of USB cords hanging around the apartment. So I'm good to go, right?

Argh. I just got an education in USB and USB Micro and Mini connectors thanks to a guide by Cables to Go, which they very helpfully put up. Why, you ask?

The Bluetooth on the meter does work, but is apparently designed so you have to unpair and re-pair the meter with the phone each time you go to upload a test, which seems a little silly. Then I got one that refused to go...it just said there were no more new readings, but there was one, plain as day. So I thought, well, I'll just upload it with a cable.

Apparently, although the manual says a 'standard' USB cable will work, only Micro B cables will plug into the meter. Also apparently, all of my USB cables were either B (printer), Mini B (5-pin) [most everything else], or in the case of my camera, Mini B (4-pin). The only Micro B cables I have happen to be the charger for my Kindle Keyboard and the cable that goes to the portable charger that stores the charge and can then be used to charge the phone. (my phone, incidentally, uses a Micro-USB 3.0 charger, that has both the regular Micro B pins plus some others, so you can use a Micro B charger, it's just slower than the 3.0 one that comes with it. So, of course, that was definitely a no-go.)

I haven't tried the charger cable yet, but the Kindle cable worked fine. I was able to transfer the reading without any problem. But in the process I learned a lot about connectors. And now, maybe you have, too.