WardPole
One IV stand that watches the drip bags and the oxygen cylinder beside the bed
One smart IV stand beside a ward or home-care bed does the jobs of DripCrown and OxyCart: it weighs each drip bag and counts drops (mL left, time to empty, stopped or free-flowing), and weighs the backup E oxygen cylinder standing on the same pole (oxygen left, hours left at the real flow, power cut alert), with one brain, one battery and one app.
- Who buys it
- Ward managers and nurse leads in small hospitals and nursing homes; home-care and hospice providers whose patients have both a drip and oxygen.
- Why it pays
- NHS England counted 120 oxygen cylinder incidents in 12 months, including cylinders empty at the point of use; IV-pole cylinder holders alone cost $78–189 plus a $143 clamp. WardPole is $349 + $8/month against $448 + $10/month for DripCrown and OxyCart separately (est.).
- Target price
- $279 ward stand, $349 with FlowTee + $8/stand/month (target)
- First-minute wow
- The ring on top of the stand turns amber at the nurses' station: bag A has 20 minutes left and the cylinder on the same pole has 50 minutes at 2 L/min, both on one phone card.
What the research found
And how this design answers it
- Two products, two batteries, four chips (DripCrown, OxyCart) → one XIAO ESP32-S3 in the Crown, one 2 x 18650 pack in the Cradle, one app
- OxyCart's wheeled cart, mast, ballast and casters → the E cylinder stands in the same cup on a Cradle low on the IV stand the patient already has
- OxyCart's e-paper display → hours left shown by the Crown ring and on the app
- FlowTee had its own chip, LiPo and USB adapter → a lead board only, wired to the Cradle; its mains sense moved to the Cradle's USB-C inlet
- A stand moved with the patient → tilt sensor in the Crown holds every scale reading while it rolls
Use case
Bed 7 at night
Night nursePatientWard manager
- 01Trigger: bag A is running faster than set, and the patient is on the backup cylinder while the wall outlet is serviced
- 02Detect: the bag weight slope and the DripClip drop count agree on 160 mL/h; the cylinder weight slope gives 2 L/min
- 03Alert: the ring turns amber and the nurse's phone shows 'bag 20 min, oxygen 50 min' in one card
- 04Act: the nurse swaps the cylinder and adjusts the roller clamp in one visit
Outcome: One trip to the bed instead of two, and no empty cylinder found at the point of use
How it works
Architecture
- 01
Sense: two bag scales in the Crown, a cylinder scale in the Cradle, the DripClip camera and the FlowTee
- 02
Decide: the Crown's XIAO ESP32-S3 fuses weight and drops and works out oxygen hours left
- 03
Send: Wi-Fi MQTT to the IEMI cloud, ESP-NOW from the DripClip
- 04
Tell: the Crown ring and buzzer at the bed, one card per bed in the WardPole app
Hardware
Real parts, buyable today
Bill of materials: about $194 ward stand, $270 with FlowTee, at qty 1 (est.).
| Block | Part | Why this part |
|---|---|---|
| Brain | Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 | Runs every job; Wi-Fi out and ESP-NOW host for the DripClip |
| Bag scales | 2 x TAL220B 5 kg + HX711 | mL left and flow from the weight slope |
| Cylinder scale | TAL220 10 kg + HX711 | Grams of oxygen left, no gauge to read |
| Drip camera | XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense DripClip | Fast stop and free-flow detection |
| Oxygen sensor | Cubic Gasboard-7500H | Concentrator purity and flow for home-care beds |
| Power | 2 x 18650 + USB-C inlet | 11 days unplugged (est.); mains loss is the power-cut signal |
Mechanical
Printable CAD
10 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.
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Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways
Bought hardware fitted inside this part (checked in the CAD: nothing collides with the plastic)
- Crown casecrown-case.stl · ASA
- Crown lid (light ring window)crown-lid.stl · PETG
- DripClip bodyclip-body.stl · ASA
- DripClip lidclip-lid.stl · ASA
- Cradle casecradle-case.stl · ASA
- Cradle lidcradle-lid.stl · ASA
- Cylinder cupcylinder-cup.stl · ASA
- Pole collarpole-collar.stl · PETG
- FlowTee caseflowtee-case.stl · PETG
- FlowTee lidflowtee-lid.stl · PETG
Open risks we are working on
- A 5 kg cylinder 100 mm off the pole: the loaded stand tips at about 21° toward it (est.), so only stands with a 600 mm leg span and the cylinder low
- HX711 signals over a 1.6 m pole lead are unproven on the bench
- Drip monitoring is a regulated device class (FDA 21 CFR 880.2420); monitor and alert only, never a pump
- Oxygen purity readout is an oxygen analyser (21 CFR 868.1720); US rev A shows flow and hours only
- Hospitals may already have wall oxygen; the cylinder job matters most for transfers, home care and small facilities
Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.