{"id":253,"date":"2026-02-08T01:58:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/?p=253"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:24:10","slug":"wearable-heartbeat-sensor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"Wearable heartbeat sensor project (version 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m working on a wearable heartbeat sensor project using the HW-502 and a Micro:bit. My initial configuration is using the Micro:bit for data collection and display, an Arduino to provide 5v power to the sensor, and the sensor is the HW-502 from the 37 sensors kit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was building this, I initially wanted the Micro:bit to show its heart icon when the sensor triggered, but there was a significant delay when showing the heart icon. Apparently there is an interval parameter<\/a> that’s not shown in the block code editor – only in Javascript and Python. That should speed up the heart display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m planning on getting this pulse sensor<\/a>, which seems to provide much smoother data and works with the 3v power provided by the Micro:bit. In the mean time, I’m also planning on using this moving average library<\/a> for Makecode to smooth the data on the HW-502.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next challenge is how to put it all together as a wearable device. I have a charge for Micro:bit<\/a> to power and hold the Micro:bit, I have a wearable circuits kit<\/a> from brown dog gadgets that I may be able to use maker tape and felt to attach it to my arm and connect the pulse sensor, and the pulse sensor comes with a velcro strap to attach it to my finger, so I think that could be a good setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
First version of the hardware<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Makecode blocks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the makecode file. You can copy and paste it into the Python section of Makecode and make it your own!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

heartbeat_project_makecode.py<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m working on a wearable heartbeat sensor project using the HW-502 and a Micro:bit. My initial configuration is using the Micro:bit for data collection and display, an Arduino to provide 5v power to the sensor, and the sensor is the HW-502 from the 37 sensors kit. As I was building this, I initially wanted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentation","category-projects","category-wearable-heartbeat-sensor"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringharmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}