Patrick Michell's Sleep Keeper and Portable Raspberry Pico Pal Aim to Track Your Sleeping Habits
Powered by two very different microcontrollers, this pair of boards boast heart rate tracking, microphones, speakers, and more.
Electronics designer Patrick Mitchell has launched an impressive 37th crowdfunding campaign, this time looking to bring two educational boards to life: the Arduino-compatible Sleep Keeper data logger and the Portable Raspberry Pico Pal carrier board.
"I'd like to introduce you to the Sleep Keeper and the Portable Raspberry Pico Pal," Mitchell writes by way of introduction to the latest in a long string of crowdfunding campaigns for educational electronics. "The Sleep Keeper was designed with data logging applications and heart rate monitoring in mind, using an Arduino compatible processor."
"The Pico Pal features the all new Raspberry Pico board, and includes 4.5v battery backup option, along with many of the same hardware features as the Sleep Keeper, with the exception that the Pico Pal was designed as an educational tool and expansion board."
The central premise behind both boards is the same: Each board includes a light sensor, microphone, real-time cock, a header for a passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor, an audio library for speech output to a bundled speaker or 3.5mm jack, push buttons, DIP switches, and an external heart-beat sensor. The Sleep Keeper also boasts an SD card socket for local data storage; the Portable Raspberry Pico Pal relies on the 2MB of flash aboard the Raspberry Pi Pico.
The reason for the "Portable" part of the latter board's name: There's a battery box on the rear of the board, housing three AA batteries for on-the-go use. "There is an on-off switch on the main board that allows for you to enable and disable this battery backup," Mitchell explains. "Also, when both the battery backup and USB are connected, power will be taken from USB and not from the battery backup, as USB offers a slightly higher voltage."
Both boards are available to order from the project's Kickstarter campaign page at CA$89 (around $74) each including accessories, with shipping expected to begin in June this year.