I went through a number of design ideas for a strip connector, to allow for multiple contact positions. For initial testing I decided to use a test strip connector that I desoldered from a Accu-Check Aviva meter. Since this connector has a total of 8 contacts (spaced 1mm apart). You can see this connector below:

I was able to mount this connector to some perf board and solder the connections to regular (0.25" pitch) male headers. Now it connects perfectly to my solderless bread board.

The number of contacts on test strips varies a bit but most strips now have

• 2 contacts to detect if strip has enough blood
• Reference electrode
• active electrode('s)
• some strips have additional contact areas to detect insertion of a strip.

Some of these contacts are combined.

I'm also working on using a Nokia 5100 LCD display, since they are available as salvage from old Nokia cell phones and have a nice form factor for a Glucometer Display.