How to get OpenBCI made in China which is sold on eBay & Aliexpress to work?

Last Updated on August 26, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

• Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org is happy that OpenBCI is now also available on eBay and Aliexpress.
• Some WIFI shields which are sold there might have issues, but these issues can be resolved.
• How this can be done can be found on www.petergamma.org:

https://petergamma.org/tag/openbci_made_in_china

• Stellarpower from Scottland and Jenelson have done a great job to study the issues of OpenBCI made in China.
• Stellarpower brought OpenBCI made in China to work but had issues with the WIFI shield:

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/18651#Comment_1865

But he did not have the information that he has to:

remove the C4 100uF ceramic capacitor and replace it with a >300 uF electrolytic capacitor

as described here:

How to repair the OpenBCI WIFI shield

• And Jenelson had issues with the connector between OpenBCI Cyton and Wifi shield:

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/19886#Comment_19886

• Stellarpower did not have these issues with the connector.
• If the connector is faulty you can also check if you can solder in a new connector.
• If this is not possible and you have a faulty device negotiate with the seller to send it back.
• Some eBay sellers write “If you receive defective item, please kindly notify us within 14 days.”
• Other offer a 3 year warranty time.
• People like Stellarpower and Jenelson, who tested OpenBCI made in China are rare, but these where very skilled testers.
• With all the information provided here it should be possible to get OpenBCI made in China to work.
• How to get the OpenBCI WIFI shield to work has been described intensively.
• There is a software part and a hardware part which has to be studied.
• Also the OpenBCI Galea and Neurosity Crown contain the OpenBCI WIFI shield.
• OpenBCI Galea developer Connor Russomano and Neurosity Crown developer A.J. Keller contributed to repair the OpenBCI WIFI shield.

It is highly desirable that the testing of OpenBCI made in China continues and that the experience about this is shared, especially if there should still be issues. Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org is a physiologist, and not a soft- and hardware developer. But he thinks also for him personally that it should be possible to resolve the issues described here.