glucometerutils news: many more meters, easier usage and Windows support

         English · Technical      Diabetes · Glucometers · Windows · Python      comments

You probably have noticed by now that I write about glucometers quite a bit, not only reviewing them as an user, but also reverse engineering to figure out their protocols. This all started four years ago when I needed to send my glucometer readings to my doctor and I ended up having to write my own tool. That tool started almost as a joke, particularly given I wrote it in Python, which at the time I was not an expert in at all (I have since learnt a lot more about it, and at work I got to be more of an expert than I’d ever expected to be).

Glucometer Review: Contour Next One

         English · Personal      Diabetes · Glucometers · Ascensia · Contour      comments

In my current quest for documenting glucometer protocols and implementing tooling to download data I ended up ordering myself a Contour Next One glucometer, currently marketed by Ascensia Diabetes Care, but originally developed by Bayer (to the point that devices and manuals still mostly refer to Bayer). The Contour Next One is marketed as a smart glucometer that can connect to an app on a smartphone, as it supports Bluetooth Low Energy.

Chinese Glucometer Review: Sannuo

         English · Personal      Diabetes · Glucometers · Travel      comments

As I start this draft I’m in Shanghai (mainland China), for a work trip. I have visited Shanghai before, but this time I have some more random time around, and while I was browsing stores with a colleague also visiting the city, we ended up in a big (three, four stories) pharmacy. We would have left right away if it wasn’t that I noticed a big sign advertising a Countour by Bayer glucometer, and I decided to peek around.

Glucometer Review: Abbott FreeStyle Precision Neo

         English · Technical      Diabetes · Glucometers · Abbott · FreeStyle      comments

During my December trip to the United States, I did what I almost always do when I go there: I went to a pharmacy and looked through the current models of glucometers that are for sale there. Part of the reason is that I just got to the point I enjoy a challenge of figuring out what difference in the protocol the various manufacturers put version after version, and part of it is that I think it is a kind of a public service that we provide tools not only for the nice and fancy meters but also for those that most people would end up buying in store.

Glucometer Review: iHealth Align

         English · Technical      diabetes · glucometers · ihealth      comments

You’d expect that with me being pretty happy with the FreeStyle Libre, new glucometer reviews would be unlikely. On the other hand, as you probably noticed as well, I like reverse engineering devices, and I have some opinions about accessing your own medical data (which I should write about at some point), so when I drop by the United States I check if they have any new glucometer being sold for cheap that I might enjoy reversing.

Abbot FreeStyle Libre, the mobile app

         English · Personal · Technical      FreeStyle · FreeStyle Libre · Abbott · Diabetes · Glucometers · Android      comments

You may remember I reviewed the Abbott FreeStyle Libre and even tried reverse engineering its protocol. One of the things that I did notice from the beginning is that the radio used by the sensors themselves is compatible with the NFC chip in most cellphones. This was not a surprise to everybody; indeed I was pointed at a website (which I refuse to link) of Nightscouters (self-proclaimed people who “are not waiting”), which in turn pointed to an unofficial Android app that is able to read that data.

Last words on diabetes and software

         English · Personal · Technical      Diabetes · Glucometers · Free Software      comments

Started as a rant on G+, then became too long and suited for a blog. I do not understand why we can easily get people together with something like VideoLAN, but the moment when health is involved, the results are just horrible. Projects either end up in “startuppy”, which want to keep things for themselves and by themselves, or we end up fractionated in tiny one-person-projects because every single glucometer is a different beast and nobody wants to talk with others.

CGM review: Abbott FreeStyle Libre

         English · Personal · Technical      FreeStyle · FreeStyle Libre · Abbott · Diabetes · Glucometers      comments

While working on reverse engineering glucometers I decided to give a try to a CGM solution. As far as I know the only solution available in Ireland is Dexcom. A friend of mine already has this, and I’ve seen it, but it felt a bit too bulky for my taste. Instead, I found out on Twitter about a new solution from Abbott – the same company I wrote plenty before while reverse engineering devices – called FreeStyle Libre.

Diabetes control and its tech: FreeStyle Optium reverse engineering

         English · Technical      Abbott · Diabetes · FreeStyle · Glucometers · Reverse Engineering · Windows      comments

As I said in previous posts, I have decided to spend some time reverse engineering the remaining two glucometers I had at home for which the protocol is not known. The OneTouch Verio is proving a complex problem, but the FreeStyle Optium proved itself much easier to deal with, if nothing else because it is clearly a serial protocol. Let’s see all the ducks to get to the final (mostly) working state.

Diabetes control and its tech: reverse engineering glucometer tools, introduction

         English · Technical      Diabetes · Glucometers · LifeScan · Abbott · Windows      comments

In the time between Enigma and FOSDEM, I have been writing some musings on reverse engineering to the point I intended to spend a weekend playing with an old motherboard to have it run Coreboot. I decided to refocus a moment instead; while I knew the exercise would be pointless (among other things, because coreboot does purge obsolete motherboards fairly often), and I Was interested in it only to prove to myself I had the skills to do that, I found that there was something else I should be reverse engineering that would have actual impact: my glucometers.