Last Updated on June 4, 2026 by pg@petergamma.org
For years I was reviewing EEG devices. With the result that I came to the conclusion that EEG devices suck. 50 000 USD for a device with 32 channel?
But what are the alternatives? Devices from mBrainTrain or Neurosity? Which company who is really interested in selling EEG devices chooses such a name for a company? And buying from www.openbci.com? A Swiss guy like me who never buy in the U.SA. but from Aliexpress.
ArdEEG from Illdar Rakmudin from Russia? Or HackEEG from Adam Feuer? After studying these devices, we are asking the question, are these more than old protypes picket up from the garbage which have all issues?
For a Swiss guy all products based on the ADS1299 are not very interesting. Is there a monopolist behind it which is Texas Instruments from the States who makes those products uninteresting for Swiss guys who are used to open markets? To little competition? Or is the market which is to small?
But finally if we compare products from OpenBCI with 16 channels for around 2 000 USD to the devices from Adinstruments for Australia where an amplifier with 16 channels costs 20 000 USD, openbci is a real bargain. But somehow only for hobbists? And if we want to build our own device, we have to negotiate with Texas Instruments which we don t.
One option could be OpenBCI from Aliexpress. Those modules have a bad reputation, and are faulty. And there is someone missing who checks those modules and sells those. Since buying from China is more interesting for Swiss than from the US.
But is also there a market plan behind this, which is internationally co-ordinated, and this will not happen? Since EEG device are not only of little interest for buyers, but also for sellers?
And what makes those devices even less interesting? 10 years after InfluxDB came onto the market, wo is still interested in the development of EEG devices which are based on an outdatet concept such as the ADS1299?
But EEG devices based on InfluxDB? There is not a single device I know I could mention. Maybe the new devices which are sold to Universities?
So I guess we have to live with what is there. The sellers, but also the buyers. And SCHILLER who sells medical equipments and has his headquaters in Baar in Switzerland does not sell EEG devices at all.