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 →

Questions and Answers

Legacy guide — no longer updated

A quick reference for common questions about HealthyPi 5. For walkthroughs, see the Welcome page.

Before you buy

What is HealthyPi 5?
An open-source biosignals-acquisition platform built around a dual-core Raspberry Pi RP2040 + ESP32, with medical-grade analog front-ends for ECG, SpO₂, and temperature. It can run as a Raspberry Pi HAT, a standalone wearable, or a desktop biosignals platform.

What does it measure?

  • Heart rate
  • Respiration rate
  • SpO₂
  • Skin temperature
  • ECG waveform
  • PPG waveform
  • Respiration waveform

These are streamed live over USB or BLE, logged to SD, or shown directly on the on-board display.

Where can I buy it?
Via Crowd Supply.

Is it open source?
Yes — both the firmware (Zephyr / Arduino) and the hardware design files are open source.

Setting up

Is it safe to connect to the body?
Yes. For body-contact use, we recommend the Complete Kit — the carrier board adds galvanic isolation between the analog front-ends and the rest of the system.

Can I use just the main board, without the carrier board?
You can — for benchtop development that doesn’t involve a person in the circuit. For any body-contact use, the carrier board is recommended for safety.

How do I program the device?
Two paths:

  • Drag-and-drop firmware — flash a pre-built .uf2 from the Welcome page. No toolchain needed.
  • Build it yourself — with Arduino IDE or Zephyr.

How does the boot/programming button work?
Hold the RP2040 boot button on the side of the kit while powering the device on. It enumerates as a USB mass-storage device named RPI-RP2, ready to receive a .uf2 firmware file. Full sequence: Welcome → Flash the firmware.

Mobile app

Is there a mobile app?
Yes — OpenView 2 is available on both Android and iOS. See BLE Streaming for download links and the pairing flow.

How do I connect the device to the app?
Open OpenView 2 → tap Scan → pick your HealthyPi 5 from the discovered devices → tap Connect. From there, vitals stream live and you can switch to plotted ECG, PPG, or respiration views.

Data logging

What does data logging do?
It records the live signal streams (ECG, PPG, respiration) so you can review or analyse them later. Three destinations are supported: on-phone, on-computer, or on the on-board microSD. Full details: Data Logging.

How do I start a recording?
From OpenView 2 (mobile or desktop) — connect to the device and tap Log to App, Start Logging, or Log to SD Card depending on where you want the data to go.

How do I get the recording back off the SD card?
Two ways:

  • Over BLE — from the mobile app, tap Get Logs, pick the file, tap Download.
  • Physically — power the device down, pop the microSD card out, read it with a card reader. CSV files sit at the root of the card.

Still stuck?