This repo is made for our open-source lateral flow strip reader project. The project was originally created for our paper titled Development of Automated Detection and Wireless Reporting for a Handheld Point-of-Care Test. In the paper you can find a detailed performance analysis of the original hardware. To build the device you will need in-depth knowledge of electronics, as well as a decent FDM 3D printer such as the Original Prusa i3 MK3S.
- Optical readout module built on an ESP12F (ESP8266) Wi-Fi MCU and a PIC12F675 microcontroller, driving focused red LEDs and wide-area photodiodes to distinguish test/control lines with high sensitivity.
- Battery-powered design using two AAA cells and a single switching regulator for stable 3.3 V operation, with power-saving multiplexed LED activation and ADC sampling.
- Wireless data transmission over a secure WPA2 ad-hoc Wi-Fi network, sending raw intensity readings to a MATLAB application for real-time display, analysis and export to Excel.
- 3D-printed cartridge interface, aligning two lateral flow strips under an enclosure to block ambient light and ensure reproducible measurements.
hardware/– PCB schematics and BOM for ESP12F + PIC readout boardfirmware/– Source for ESP8266 and PIC12F675 (LED control, ADC, UART)software/– MATLAB GUI application for data acquisition and exportdocs/– Dataset and reference publication (BEC2020_TP_MF_CB_TR.pdf)
- Assemble PCB and load firmware.
- Insert batteries and power on—the module creates a Wi-Fi network
LFStripReader. - Connect PC, launch MATLAB app, and pipette sample to cartridge.
- View live readings and save results automatically.
This is an OSHW project
