Virtual COM port (VCP) to communicate with OneTouch meter on Mac 10.8?

Diabetes Technology
1

Hey, y'all! Before I go and try this out for myself, I wonder if anyone else has done this already and might have tips/caveats to share.

I have a a Lifescan-branded cable, which I can use to download my blood glucose readings from my OneTouch meter on Windows and an older version of Mac OS. Now I have a new Mac with 10.8.3. (Yay!) But Lifescan doesn't provide a driver for the USB-to-serial cable that works with 10.8.3. (Boo!) That's making it rather difficult for me to communicate with the device from MATLAB. (Understatement.)

After Googling I get the sense that if I can just get *a* driver for a comparable USB-to-serial device, I should be able to name the port and initiate the communication from MATLAB.

Here's my question. Has anyone tried using a generic virtual COM port (VCP) driver (such as the one here: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm) to generate a COM port that makes the OneTouch cable visible to the system (and thus to MATLAB and CareLink)? From what I've read, the CareLink cable is just a normal low-voltage device with an FTDI chipset.

Anybody been down this road before?

2

I tried everything to get my One Touch to talk to my Mac, and nothing worked! I bought a Bayer Contour USB meter and have no problems with my Mac!

3

Yeah, the Contour USB works for me, too, but it's not the meter I usually use. Evidently, it wasn't in MM or Lifescan's priorities to make Carelink work once MM started partnering with Bayer. (That's pretty short-sighted if you ask me.)

Fortunately, I got it to work! I'll provide details shortly.

4

Alright, here's the deal. It is completely possible to connect a OneTouch meter to CareLink using the USB-to-serial meter that you can buy from Lifescan. It does require obtaining and installing a driver on your system, though. Pretty easy, especially since we're "geeks," right?

For the record--since I got it wrong above--the USB-to-serial cable from Lifescan uses a Prolific PL2303 chip, while an alternate vendor uses the FTDI chip (http://www.celeritous.com/estore/OneTouch_Cable). The latter vendor was very helpful as I was trying to figure out how to get this working. The important thing to note: different chips in the cables require different drivers.

Okay, how to get the Lifescan USB-to-serial cable working with MacOS 10.8... and maybe 10.6 and 10.7. (1) Download the driver from Prolific (http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=229&pcid=41). I needed to get the file md_PL2303_MacOSX-10.6up_v1.5.0.zip, which was the latest version at the time. (2) Remove any previously installed ProlificUsbSerial.kext drivers. Why is it there when it won't work? I don't know. I do know that mine was from 2006, which was probably from my previous MacBook. The instructions tell which "sudo" command to use. This is the trickiest part, and it's pretty easy. (3) Run the installer package. (4) Reboot. (5) Go to CareLink and enjoy uploading all of your data again.

Now that I've done that, I can finally try talking to my meters from MATLAB. Hello, rainy day project!

5

I'm using socat to bridge to a TCP interface.

I forward the port over ssh and then re-create another serial link on the other end with another socat.
For me, the pl2303 driver seems to work to provide me with a basic tty/serial-like device.

Here's an example used with lifescan:
* https://github.com/bewest/insulaudit-ssh-tools/blob/master/create_vmodem
* https://github.com/bewest/insulaudit-ssh-tools/blob/master/socat_forward_stick.sh

Also works with the medtronic usb carelink device, using usbserial.