MAX30101 Breakout - Heart Rate, Oximeter, Smoke Sensor

The MAX30101 breakout is a sophisticated heart rate, oximeter, and smoke/particle sensor. Use it as a fun way to see your heartbeat, or to make LEDs or lights pulse in time with your heart. <3 It's Raspberry Pi and Arduino-compatible.

This sensor has three LED—green, red, and infra-red—and photodetectors that can be used together to detect the amount of light reflected back to the sensor. A technique called photoplethysmography (PPG) can be used to detect the change in colour of your skin with each beat of your heart when the sensor is pressed against your fingertip.

You can use the MAX30101 to detect particles in the air, like smoke, by measuring the amount of light bounced back to the sensor by the particles. Pimoroni got a rough example of how to do this in their Python library.

It's also compatible with Pimoroni's fancy Breakout Garden HAT, where using breakouts is as easy just popping it into one of the six slots and starting to grow your project, create, and code.

If you're using the MAX30101 with Breakout Garden for measuring heart rate, then we'd recommend using one of the Breakout Garden Extender Kits along with some female-to-female jumper wires on strip. This will make it much easier to get reliable heartbeat readings. See Notes below for more information.

MAX30105 note: The MAX30105 sensor that we originally used on this breakout was discontinued by Maxim in 2021 but no fear, it's back as MAX30101 - it's exactly the same sensor with a different name.

This sensor (and the code in the Python library) should not be used for medical diagnosis, as the basis for a real smoke or fire detector, or in life-critical situations. It's for fun/novelty use only, so bear that in mind while using it.

Features

• MAX30101 - heart rate, oximeter, smoke sensor (datasheet)
• Green, red, and infra-red LEDs
• Photodetectors
• Ambient light rejection
• Temperature sensor
• I2C interface (address 0x57)
• 3.3V or 5V compatible
• Reverse polarity protection
• Compatible with all models of Raspberry Pi, and Arduino
• Python library
• Schematic

Notes

• This sensor (and the code in the Python library) should not be used for medical diagnosis, as the basis for a real smoke or fire detector, or in life-critical situations. It's for fun/novelty use only, so bear that in mind while using it.
• When measuring heart rate with the MAX30101 sensor, you'll get much more reliable readings if you attach the sensor to your fingertip (the fleshy side) with a piece of wire or rubber band looped through the mounting holes on the breakout