I need help for my son

I am desperately looking for help for my 19 year old son - last year, he fell 30 feet and broke his back. You can google his name, Alex Kalscheur to find his story.

He shattered his 12th vertebra and had spinal compression leading to partial paralysis. He is currently relearning to walk.

He has some muscles that he cannot control, mainly his calf muscle. Occasionally, he can move them, but not consistently. While nerve damage is partly to blame for the lack of movement, his inability to “find” his muscle to engage (muscle memory is lost) is another big factor.

We need a sensor that will beep when his muscle is engaged so that he can recognize when he is successful.

Advanced Tech has given my some direction - but I don’t know how to put it together. They said to get the muscle sensor and add the MyWare LED Sensor. But HOW do you put them together? Is there anyone able to build this for us so we don’t have to? Thanks for any help you can give.

Hi amykal8,

You could certainly use the MyoWare Muscle Sensor and LED Shield for this application to help your son. You may want to also get a [MyoWare Cable Shield and [Sensor Cable so you can position the electrodes on the muscle you are targeting and then with the extra two feet of cable, still be able to have the LED display easily viewable. The [MyoWare Muscle Sensor Development Kit comes with these boards and the sensor cable, as well as other MyoWare boards and parts to help build a project using this sensor. To get started with this kit or just the MyoWare board, I would recommend reading through our [Hookup Guide. That will go over the basics of all the different MyoWare boards and how they function as well as some simple assembly tips. [This comment gives some helpful tips for assembling and soldering these as well as testing them with proper placement on the muscle.

If you are not able to solder, I am afraid SparkFun does not offer any customization options for our boards but you could try reaching out to a local [hackerspace or if there is a nearby college or university with an engineering department (or even middle and high schools with STEM programs), you could try reaching out to them to see if they have anyone who would be able to help or possibly a community outreach program that could help.

I hope this helps you get started with this project. If you have any other questions about our MyoWare products, let us know and we would be happy to help as much as we can.](List of Hacker Spaces - HackerspaceWiki)](Discuss Tutorial: MyoWare Muscle Sensor Kit - SparkFun Learn)](MyoWare Muscle Sensor Kit - SparkFun Learn)](MyoWare 2.0 Muscle Sensor Development Kit - KIT-21269 - SparkFun Electronics)](Sensor Cable - Electrode Pads (3 connector) - CAB-12970 - SparkFun Electronics)](MyoWare 2.0 Cable Shield - DEV-18386 - SparkFun Electronics)