Hand-held test meter with disruption avoidance circuitry

1. A hand-held test meter for use with an analytical test strip in the determination of an analyte in a bodily fluid sample, the hand-held test meter comprising:

a universal serial bus (USB) interface;

a microcontroller block configured for boot strap loading (BSL) of data into the hand-held test meter via a serial signal; and

a circuit disruption avoidance block that includes at least:

a USB to serial bridge sub-block with

at least one USB input;

at least one serial output configured to provide a serial signal for BSL of data to the microcontroller block; and

a plurality of general purpose input/outputs (GPIO); and

a BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block;

wherein at least two of the GPIO are configured to provide BSL control signals to the microcontroller block via the BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block;

wherein the USB to serial bridge sub-block is configured to send the data to the microcontroller block via the at least one serial output; and

wherein the circuit disruption avoidance block is configured to prevent USB connection related spurious signals from disrupting the hand-held meter functionality.

2. A hand-held test meter for use with an analytical test strip in the determination of an analyte in a bodily fluid sample, the hand-held test meter comprising:

a universal serial bus (USB) interface;

a microcontroller block configured for boot strap loading (BSL) of data into the hand-held test meter via a serial signal; and

a circuit disruption avoidance block that includes at least:

a USB to serial bridge sub-block with

at least one USB input;

at least one serial output configured to provide a serial signal for BSL of data to the microcontroller block; and

a plurality of general purpose input/outputs (GPIO); and

a BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block;

wherein at least two of the GPIO are configured to provide BSL control signals to the microcontroller block via the BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block;

wherein the USB to serial bridge sub-block is configured to send the data to the microcontroller block via the at least one serial output; and

wherein the at least two GPIO are configured to be driven by programming residing within the hand-held test meter and to be unaffected by standard serial communications from the USB interface.

3. A method for operating a hand-held test meter configured for the determination of an analyte in a bodily fluid sample, the method comprising:

establishing a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection between a hand-held test meter and a peripheral device; and

transferring data from the peripheral device to the hand-held test meter via the USB connection while employing a circuit disruption avoidance block of the hand-held test meter to prevent USB connection related spurious signals from disrupting hand-held test meter functionality.

4. The method of claim 3 further including:

determining, following the transferring of data, an analyte in a bodily fluid sample using the hand-held test meter while employing the circuit disruption avoidance block to prevent USB connection spurious signals from disrupting the determination of the analyte.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the peripheral device is a personal computer.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the data is operating software for the hand-held test meter.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the data is an update of operating software stored in the hand-held test meter.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein determining step includes determining an analyte in a bodily fluid sample applied to an analytical test strip.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein the circuit disruption avoidance block includes at least:

a USB to serial bridge sub-block with

at least one USB input;

at least one serial output configured to provide a serial signal for BSL of data to the microcontroller block; and

a plurality of general purpose input/outputs (GPIO); and a BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block;

wherein at least two of the GPIO are configured to provide BSL control signals to the microcontroller block via the BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block; and

wherein the USB to serial bridge sub-block is configured to send the data to the microcontroller block via the at least one serial output.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the circuit disruption avoidance block further includes a time delay sub-block, and

wherein at least one of GPIO is in electrical communication with the time delay sub-block such that a time delay is imposed on the BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the time delay sub-block is configured as a hardware filter.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the at least two GPIO are configured to be driven by programming residing within the hand-held test meter and to be unaffected by standard serial communications from the USB interface.

13. A hand-held test meter in combination with a peripheral device, the hand-held meter comprising:

a hand-held test meter with:

a universal serial bus (USB) interface;

a microcontroller block configured for boot strap loading (BSL) of data into the hand-held test meter via a serial signal; and

a circuit disruption avoidance block that includes at least:

a USB to serial bridge sub-block with

at least one USB input;

at least one serial output configured to provide a serial signal for BSL of data to the microcontroller block; and

a plurality of general purpose input/outputs (GPIO); and

a BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block; and

a peripheral device,

wherein at least two of the GPIO are configured to provide BSL control signals to the microcontroller block via the BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block,

wherein the USB to serial bridge sub-block is configured to send the data to the microcontroller block via the at least one serial output,

wherein the peripheral device is interfaced to the hand-held test meter via a USB connection; and

wherein the circuit disruption avoidance block is configured to prevent USB connection related spurious signals from disrupting the hand-held meter functionality.

14. A hand-held test meter in combination with a peripheral device, the hand-held meter comprising:

a hand-held test meter with:

a universal serial bus (USB) interface;

a microcontroller block configured for boot strap loading (BSL) of data into the hand-held test meter via a serial signal; and

a circuit disruption avoidance block that includes at least:

a USB to serial bridge sub-block with

at least one USB input;

at least one serial output configured to provide a serial signal for BSL of data to the microcontroller block; and

a plurality of general purpose input/outputs (GPIO); and

a BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block; and

a peripheral device,

wherein at least two of the GPIO are configured to provide BSL control signals to the microcontroller block via the BSL enable gate/buffer sub-block,

wherein the USB to serial bridge sub-block is configured to send the data to the microcontroller block via the at least one serial output,

wherein the peripheral device is interfaced to the hand-held test meter via a USB connection; and

wherein the at least two GPIO are configured to be driven by programming residing within the hand-held test meter and to be unaffected by standard serial communications from the USB interface.