*sigh*

So the other day my friend's phone (landline) went out and despite being only vaguely ept at tech, he unplugged and plugged in many things, including the Ethernet cable I use to plug my laptop in with for internet access. Of course, that cable was already plugged into the modem, so he made it so both ends of the same cable were plugged into ports going out of the modem. This apparently shorted out the cable completely. I'm surprised that the modem still works. I have another, somewhat shorter spare cable I'm using now. He is under strict orders not to mess with the yellow cable. And before you ask why I don't just use Wifi, let me just stop you there. He won't have Wifi in the house, or even run the signal over the house wiring. I have to use my phone's Hotspot to connect if I want to use the laptop in another room. He's not a Luddite, really, but there are times....

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.