Best board advice for multiple sensors

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if I could get some advice please?

I am working at an early stage start up, where we are trying to build a prototype of a sport tracking sensor unit. There is a number of sensors we need to load (GPS, 3-axis accel, some bio-sensors also). It would also need to be powered by rechargeable li-po’s and be Wi-Fi & BT BLE enabled.

So we are after advice of what people may suggest to be the best development board to start with and the lowest possible footprint?

Any advice appreciated and thanks in advance :slight_smile:

B

Do you need to do any on-board processing. If yes what are you doing (filtering, sensor fusion, etc)?

I’m assuming you also need a board that could be commercialised after the process? That could count out the Raspberry Pi Zero range because you can’t buy the chips unless pay for the licensing from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

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Hey Shaun, thanks for the prompt response.

And yes, this unit will be collecting and normalising a lot of the sensor outputs, storing it, as well as packaging it in a proprietary format for relaying it back to either a Wi-Fi or BLE end point. Was remiss of me not to mention this, so processing will be key.

You are also correct about the commercialisation of the product afterwards. However, in saying that, this initial prototyping effort is more to get the general product feasibility done. If we get to the production step, or even before that, a tech development step, there’s a very good chance we may fund the building of our own board that it’s more intricately suited to our application. So a Pi Zero would be feasible at this stage I reckon.

Make sure it’s the Zero W. That’s my go to in this case.

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Certainly the Pi’s were going to be first choice, purely because that’s what I’m most familiar with. So I’m glad you concur there. Thanks Shaun!

Still happy to hear other’s comments out there!

You could also use an ESP32 if you dont require Linux.

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