Training Heart Rate Zone Monitor Watch

College is a hectic and chaotic time in ones life, that is why it is very important to keep your stress level low. One way we like to do this is by working out, it helps keep your mind clear and body feeling healthy. That is why we created a portable biosensor that uses the human heart rate during an intense workout to provide information to users regarding the heart rate zone that they are in.

This is a way to help users ensure that they do not exert or push their body too hard beyond the maximum heart rate to a point that is dangerous. This sensor will also help users who are trying to lose weight or increase their stamina by making sure that they are maintaining their heart rate in specific zones.

Step 1: Heart Rate Zones

This picture above shows the different heart rate zones. Each time the user enters a new zone, the watch will increasingly light up in order to alert the user as to which zone they are currently in. If the user goes over his/her maximum heart rate the watch will turn red and vibrate. Max heart rate is calculated using the individuals age and subtracting it from 220.

Step 2: Materials You Will Need

Below is a list of the materials and tools you will need for this project:

Materials

1. Flora by Adafruit
2. Pulse Sensor
3. Vibrating Mini Motor Disc
4. NeoPixel Ring – 12 RGBW LEDs – Cool White
5. Diode
6. 220 ohm resistor
7. NPN Transistor
8. Alligator Clips
9. Velcro watch cuff
10. Battery
11. Wires
12. Button (optional)

Many of these materials can be found using this link: https://www.adafruit.com

Tools

1. Soldering kit/materials
2. Needle and thread
3. Arduino software
4. Wire strippers
5. Adhesive if needed
6. Scissors

Step 3: Preparation & Background

In order to be able to use these materials it is helpful to know and understand what some of them do.

A flora is Adafruit’s wearable electronic platform. This is a very beginner friendly device that is small with a power supply that is easy to use. The image above shows where everything is located on the Flora.

For more information regarding Flora’s, check out this website: https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-f…

NeoPixels is also Adafruit’s brand for individually-addressable RGB color pixels and strips. Another important thing to note is that they do not just light up on their own, they require a micro controller such as an Arduino and coding. It takes some programming practice in order for the NeoPixels to do what you want them to do, so we had to look into this for our project. Programming was extremely important for this project, and experience in that area will help.

For more information regarding Neopixel’s you can check you this website: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uber…

A pulse sensor from Adafruit is also used in order to take your pulse. We then implement code in order for it to calculate Beats per Minute (BPM) for this project.

For further instruction and information for the pulse sensor please see this link: https://pulsesensor.com/pages/getting-advanced

There are libraries that you will need to download into the Arduino software in order for the code to communicate to your device using certain commands. This link below shows you how to download libraries into Arduino.

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-all-about-ardu…

The following libraries are the ones you will need:

1. Adafruit NeoPixel Library

2. PulseSensor Playground

3. Adafruit Flora Pixel Library

Click “clone or download” and follow the instructions above in the link to include them in your code.

Acknowledgments

Special thank you to Adafruit that provided us with some of the code used for our final product!

Step 4: Safety Information

It is really important to always keep the safety of you and the people around you in mind when working on different projects. First, it is important to always have the USB unplugged from the computer when you are moving and attached wires to the Flora, this is so that you do not shock yourself.

1. Fluids should be kept away from this device in case of a spill that could ruin the circuit

2. Avoid current flow through your body by only touching wires and other metal circuitry while power is OFF

Warning this is not a medical device, it strictly alerts you if your heart rate has exceeded max heart rate, it should not be compared to a heart rate monitor in the medical world. If you feel exhausted/fatigued and the watch has not alerted you that you are above max heart rate, you should still stop what you are doing for the watch may not always be accurate.

Source: Training Heart Rate Zone Monitor Watch