Earlier this month, we took a closer look at “FLORA,” Adafruit’s wearable electronics platform powered by Atmel’s Atmega32u4 MCU. The microcontroller boasts built-in USB support, eliminating the need for pesky special cables and extra parts.
Unsurprisingly, numerous Makers are currently using Adafruit’s FLORA to design a wide range of creations, a fact that has caught the eye of the folks at element14. To be sure, the Newark Corporation recently issued a challenge to engineers and Makers to develop their own piece of wearable technology. The platform of choice for the contest? Adafruit’s versatile FLORA.
Today, Adafruit’s very own Becky Stern is showcasing a wearable badge designed to display the beat of your heart. The project – based on FLORA – uses the Polar heart rate sensor which you wear around your ribcage as it wirelessly transmits heart beats to the receiver chip included in Adafruit’s educational starter pack.
As seen in the video above, the badge can be worn on your clothes or bag, as it is held in place by a magnetic pin back. Required hardware items for this project include:
- Polar Wireless heart sensor educational starter pack
- FLORA main board
- 150 mAh lipoly battery (with charger)
- Eight FLORA NeoPixels or 8×8 LED matrix w i2c backpack
- Magnetic pin back
- Sugru
- Thin stranded wire
- Double-stick tape or foam
Want to wear your beating heart with FLORA? The complete Heart Rate Badge guide is available here.