Unleashing the Power of Your Punch: Building a Boxing Glove Tracker

As a prior amateur boxer, I have always wanted to find a way to record and measure the strength and velocity of my punches. So, when I decided to put together my own project using Adafruit’s ESP32-S2 with TFT.

I have been working on Adafruit iOS apps, specifically PyLeap, an app used to download project resources and transfer them directly to the user’s device via BLE or Wi-Fi. While working on the app, I became interested in creating my projects and decided to use my knowledge of iOS to make something related to my passion for boxing.

One of the challenges I faced was that I was unfamiliar with CircuitPython. However, I was determined to learn and understand it to complete my project. I spent some time researching and experimenting with the language, and I eventually got a handle on it.

When I set out to create a boxing glove tracker, my main goal was to measure the punch strength and velocity of my punches and have it recorded to Adafruit IO. I knew that an accelerometer could detect impact and measure the impact strength and velocity of a punch. When I started, I decided to use the CLUE board because it had an accelerometer built-in and could also use a Stemma QT PY to send that data to Adafruit IO.

However, someone on my team recommended that I use an ESP32-S2 with TFT instead, along with an accelerometer sensor. I decided to take their advice, which was a great choice! The ESP32-S2 TFT feather display allows me to see data from he external accelerometer  being picked up.

I’m using one of my old boxing gloves to complete the project. I’ll also need to figure out how to mount the ESP32-S2, sensor and battery to the glove. This part of the project is challenging, but I am confident I will figure it out.

Right now, I’m in the process of putting it together. I’ll keep y’all updated on my progress.

For this project, I’m using the following parts:

1 x ESP32-S2 TFT Feather – 4MB Flash, 2MB PSRAM, STEMMA QT

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin Cable – 100mm Long

1 x ADXL345 – Triple-Axis Accelerometer (+-2g/4g/8g/16g) w/ I2C/SPI (STEMMAQT / Qwiic)

1 x Lithium Ion Cylindrical Battery – 3.7v 2200mAh


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