How to connect OpenBCI to a real-time database such as Home Assistant, Firebase, etc.?

Last Updated on September 19, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

In the following example with see Neurosity Crown CEO A. J. Keller showing an example how the Crown is connected to a contemporary real-time database:

You can find on www.petergamma.org how to build our own Neurosity Crown starting from a view 100 USD instead of 1 300 USD. Modern real-time software platform look often similar as Home Assistant. And there are also variants for physiological sensors:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9087877

ESP32 seems to be an easy way to connect sensors to real-time databases such as Home Assistant:

As shown in the following example at 8:40, we can also connect sensors over cable to ESP32:

ESP32 can also be connected over WIFI to Home Assistant:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-to-connect-esp32-using-wifi/422811

But we only know of an example with connects OpenBCI over the Bluetooth dongle to ESP32 to Firebase. Home Assistant and Firebase is based on InfluxDB. We found there is a pathway which goes from OpenBCI Cyton over the Bluetooth dongle to ESP32 to the Firebase Real-time Database (RTDB) which is rather complicated:

https://ocw.cs.pub.ro/courses/iothings/proiecte/2022/open_bci_esp32

Should OpenBCI software platforms not look like this in the year 2024:

OpenBCI can also be connected over cable. But unfortunately it is little developed. Look in the www.openbci.com forum for it. The connectivity of OpenBCI in general is little developed. Bluetooth is recommended by www.openbci.com. The WIFI shield has issues, and cable is little developed. And even if we have connected OpenBCI Cyton to a contemporary software platform such as Firebase, we still have only 16 channels which is possible with OpenBCI Cyton and Daisy and not more. But this is the way to go. And we suppose sooner or later these OpenBCI modules but also successor models similar to the BEATS with 32 channels will be integrated in contemporary software platforms such as firebase and will have more than than 16 channels.