ProtoCentral AFE4490 Pulse Oximeter Breakout Board Kit

Measuring SpO₂ (blood oxygen saturation) is now straightforward. The ProtoCentral AFE4490 Pulse Oximeter Breakout uses Texas Instruments’ AFE4490 single-chip pulse-oximetry analog front end to read both heart rate and SpO₂ from a standard finger-clip probe.

Pulse oximetry is an indirect, non-invasive method of measuring oxygen saturation. The probe shines red and infrared light through a fingertip and measures the light absorbed by haemoglobin — the ratio between the two wavelengths gives SpO₂, and the same waveform’s pulsatile component gives heart rate without any ECG electrodes. For a deeper background read, see How Equipment Works — Pulse Oximetry.

The board is fully open-source — schematic, layout, and firmware all live in our GitHub repository. It’s compatible with the ProtoCentral OpenView unified visualization app for live waveform plotting on Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Important: This is a development and prototyping board for SpO₂ research and education only. It is not a medical device and must not be used for clinical diagnosis or patient monitoring.

Features

• TI AFE4490 single-chip pulse-oximetry analog front end
• Standard Nellcor-compatible DB9 connector for the included finger probe
• Computes SpO₂ and heart rate using the provided Arduino library
• Streams live PPG waveform to OpenView for real-time visualisation
• SPI host interface — works with Arduino, ESP32, Raspberry Pi, and most modern MCUs
• Fully open-source hardware and software

Board Dimensions

55 × 34 mm (2.165 × 1.339″)

Documents

• Getting Started Guide — wiring, library install, first reading
• Arduino library, examples, schematic, and KiCad files (GitHub)
• Latest library release (ZIP)
• TI AFE4490 datasheet (PDF)
• Board schematic (PDF)
• OpenView visualization app — install & setup