Materials needed for today's activity.
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Note: Not for diagnostic purposes
The Arduino heart monitor and the IDE Serial Monitor for this lesson are purely for educational purposes and should not be used for any diagnostic purpose. If you have any medical concerns that arise as a result of this education experience, contact your health care provider for advice.
Watch this Video about our Heart Monitor
What is an ECG/EKG?
An ECG is an electrocardiogram or an EKG. The ECG is used to determine heart rate, heart rhythm and other heart information. It measures the electrical signals in our body.
Watch this video below by RCC Professor Ms. Riley about the basics of how and why your body makes electrical signals. (Video Pending)
Watch this video below by RCC Professor Ms. Riley about the basics of how and why your body makes electrical signals. (Video Pending)
Setting up the Heart Monitor.
Step 1) The first step will be to hook up the electronics of your heart monitor. The heart monitor comes in your kit's black box. Here is a diagram for how to hook it up and a picture of what it will look like plugged in.
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Step 2) Plug in your Arduino to your computer using the USB cable
Step 3) Open up Arduino IDE and type in the below code.
Step 3) Open up Arduino IDE and type in the below code.
Note, if your
Step 4) Verify that your code works by pushing the check button in the upper left.
If you get an error message, try the troubleshooting skills you learned on day one.
See this link for a reminder. https://www.rcccamp.org/day-1-monday-basics-and-lights.html
Step 5) Upload your code to the board using the right arrow button next to the check mark.
If you get a "Problem uploading to board" error, remember to fix your port
(at the top tab select tools, port, and then select the one that says Arduino
If you get an error message, try the troubleshooting skills you learned on day one.
See this link for a reminder. https://www.rcccamp.org/day-1-monday-basics-and-lights.html
Step 5) Upload your code to the board using the right arrow button next to the check mark.
If you get a "Problem uploading to board" error, remember to fix your port
(at the top tab select tools, port, and then select the one that says Arduino
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Step 6) Open up the Serial Plotter by selecting Tools and then Serial Plotter
Your arduino should now be looking for your body's electrical signal and show a graphing screen. You are ready to hook up. |
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You will have to make sure that the baud rate at the bottom left of the plotter matches the number you put in the Serial.begin line of your code in order for it to work.
See the pictures at the right. |
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How to hook up your Heart Monitor?
Here is a video by Ms. Riley from RCC Nursing to help you learn how and where to place your ECG pads. It is not an exact science, but there are some tips and tricks to help.
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Here is a picture to help you see where to place the pads. |
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Seeing your Heart Rhythm!
Now that you are all plugged in, you should be able to see your heart rythum.
The Arduino Serial Plotter should look something like below, this is Mr. Dorsey's heart.
The Arduino Serial Plotter should look something like below, this is Mr. Dorsey's heart.
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Listen to what a heart rhythm sounds like below.
Here is Mr. Dorsey explaining how he got his heart rhythm and a tip (stay still!)
How to read your heart rhythm
Here is Ms. Riley on the basics on how to read your ECG (Video Pending)
Control Electronics with your Heart
We will now learn some things we can do with our heart signals!
Send your code to your Arduino and open the Serial Plotter. See if your Arduino's builtin LED is lighting up at the same time your heart beats. Below is how to adjust your code to work perfectly for you.
Finding your threshold value
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You have always been told that everybody is different. Well, so is everyone's heart! The threshold value I used for my code above will be different than the one you need for your heart.
See how my highest hump is at about 390 and my 2nd highest hump is at around 360. You have to pick a threshold number between those two. I chose 370. 
Change your code's threshold number to work with your heart's numbers and resend your code to your board.
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Remember to save your code!
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Is your onboard LED lighting up when your heart beats?
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Did it work right?
Your onboard LED should be blinking once every time your heart beats. If you need help, watch this video. |
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Controlling an off board light with your heart.
Plug in your resistor attached to your LED like below to control your light using your heart.
That is the 220 Ohm resistor and a red LED.
That is the 220 Ohm resistor and a red LED.
Let's make a light show.
Remember the series and parallel lesson using the bread board? You can actually put a bunch of lights on your breadboard that will light up whenever your heart beats! For the +- rail, hook the black wire to the GND and the + red wire to pin 13.
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After you get your lights to work with your heart, feel free to share a video with your teacher by emailing it to them!
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LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE! (Buzzer)
Once you are able to get lights to work on your bread board, all you have to do is replace the lights with the buzzer in your kit and your buzzer should beep every time your heart beats.
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You will need the buzzer and a 100 Ohm resistor for this.
If your buzzer turns out too quiet, you can also try the 10 Ohm resistor. |
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Here is a video showing how it works. This uses the same code as the prior activity.
Get your Robot Hand Ready.
If you have not built your robot hand yet, go ahead and do that for the rest of today's class. You can also start gluing the servo motors on it to prepare for tomorrow. Those steps were at the end of day 2. Here is a link to that day. Just scroll to the bottom.
https://www.rcccamp.org/day-2-tuesday-servos.html
Try to have at least one servo glued to your hand by the end of today's class.
See the video below for what you should have to prepare for tomorrow.
https://www.rcccamp.org/day-2-tuesday-servos.html
Try to have at least one servo glued to your hand by the end of today's class.
See the video below for what you should have to prepare for tomorrow.
