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Pulse Sensor BPM:

The Getting Beats-Per-Minute, BPM, Tutorial !

  

Pulse Sensor BPM

  

PulseSensor_BPM Code Features:

  • Blinks LED on Pin 13 to a User's Live Heartbeat.
  • "Fancy Fade Blink" an LED on Pin 5, to a User's Live HeartBeat.
  • Calculates User's BPM, Beat-Per-Minute.
  • Calculates User's IBI, the Interbeat Interval (Time between beats).
  • Uses Arduino's Timer interrupt to calculate accurate BPM and IBI
  • Serial.print the Signal, BPM, and IBI.  Use this output to

This project and code will read the PulseSensor waveform and calculate Beats Per Minute, BPM.  It also calculates Interbeat Interval, IBI, which is the time between beats. The Arduino code uses a hardware Timer interrupt to measure the PulseSensor signal at an exact fixed rate (500Hz) in order to get a high-quality BPM reading. 

File > Examples > PulseSensor Playground > PulseSensor_BPM
After installing our Playground Library, you can find this project in Arduino "Examples" Drop-down Menu.  Run this project on your Arduino then open the Serial Plotter in Tools.
Tools > Serial Plotter
Note: In the bottom right corner of the data window, there is a drop-down menu for selecting the serial baud rate. Make sure that it is set to 115200 or you won't see anything!
The signal may take a moment to settle, but you should see something like the image above. The pulse waveform is easy to spot. That line above it is the Interbeat Interval (IBI) in milliseconds, and the line below it is the Beats per Minute (BPM).
  

 

Arduino Compatibility:

 Our Pulse Sensor BPM code is written to use a hardware Timer on the chip that is the 'brains' of the Arduino. However, the Library does not accomodate all the myriad types of Arduino boards! If you are using an Arduino board that our BPM code does not support we have another example sketch that will work! Just click on 

File > Examples > PulseSensor Playground > PulseSensor_BPM_Alternative

This Arduino sketch also defaults to print to the Arduino Serial Plotter, so if you want to use our visualizer, you will have to make the changes above.

Some Arduino boards don't have a hardware UART (Serial Port), and so we made an example that uses Software Serial so that you can use them anyway! Click on

File > Examples > PulseSensor Playground > SoftwareSerialDemo

This Arduino sketch also defaults to print to the Arduino Serial Plotter, so if you want to use our visualizer, you will have to make the changes above.

 

Playground Code Guide:

For an in-depth guide to preparing your Pulse Sensor Hardware and what to do with the parts in the kit, check out this handy GUIDE 

 

More Ways To Visualize:

The BPM and IBI values get sent over Serial and can be visualized by the Arduino Serial Plotter, OR with our Processing Visualizer, or Pulse Sensor Mac App.