HealthyPi 5 Vital Signs Monitoring HAT Kit ₹24,995 Add to cart
Legacy firmware. This guide covers the original HealthyPi 5 firmware. For new builds, use the current guide. Go to the equivalent page →

Hardware Overview

Legacy guide — no longer updated

The HealthyPi 5 platform is built around four sub-assemblies — the main board, the carrier board, the display, and the enclosure. This page covers each at a high level. For the per-sensor breakdown of how each signal is captured, see Hooking up the Sensors.

Main board

The HealthyPi 5 main board pairs a Raspberry Pi RP2040 with an ESP32 in a dual-core layout — the RP2040 handles the sensors and the display, while the ESP32 handles BLE. Three medical-grade analog front-ends sit alongside:

  • MAX30001 — ECG and bio-impedance (respiration)
  • MAX30205 — clinical-accuracy body temperature
  • AFE4490 — PPG / SpO₂

The board exposes a 40-pin Raspberry Pi HAT connector for stacking, includes integrated power-path management (auto-switching between a 3.7 V LiPo battery and USB), and has an on-board microSD slot for local data logging. Both microcontrollers expose their boot/reset buttons so firmware updates are a matter of holding a button and drag-and-dropping a .uf2 file.

HealthyPi 5 main board, top view
HealthyPi 5 main board, bottom view showing microSD slot

Carrier board

The carrier board adds isolation and protection around the main board’s signal-acquisition paths. It provides galvanic isolation between the analog front-ends and the rest of the system, exposes additional connector breakouts, and brings the design in line with the safety expectations for body-contact biosignal acquisition.

You can use a HealthyPi 5 main board on its own for development, but the Complete Kit pairs the main board with the carrier board for any application where a person is in the circuit.

HealthyPi 5 carrier board, top view
HealthyPi 5 carrier board, side view

Display

The Complete Kit ships with one of two 3.5-inch TFT displays:

  • ILI9488 — white display panel
  • ST7796 — black display panel

Both displays are 3.5″ at the same resolution, with the only practical difference being the panel/driver pair. Each display board includes a side-actuated three-way navigation switch for menu navigation. The firmware download tables on the Welcome page list separate builds for each panel — match the build to your kit.

HealthyPi 5 ST7796 (black) display board

Enclosure

The enclosure is injection-moulded polycarbonate, sized to hold the main board, carrier board, and display together. It provides mechanical protection and shields the analog front-ends from electrostatic discharge.

HealthyPi 5 in its polycarbonate enclosure

Configurations

We offer the platform in two flavours so you can match the hardware to your project’s needs:

  • Basic Kit — Just the main board. Best for development, integration into custom enclosures, or use as a Raspberry Pi HAT.
  • Complete Kit — Main board + carrier board + display + enclosure. Ready to use out of the box, with the safer isolated signal paths required for any body-contact application.

Open hardware

All schematics, PCB layouts, and mechanical CAD are open source:

→ protocentral_healthypi_5_hardware (board files) and protocentral_healthypi5_zephyr (firmware).