The advantage of choosing two 16 channel EEG boards & InfluxDB for a 32 channel EEG setup

Last Updated on January 13, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org

The Aliexpress Sounds Good store offered 16 channel OpenBCI modules US $418.00, but they are not available anymore:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000244594585.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.23.2f6b51beVMbnNn&algo_pvid=5cd63584-96b9-473d-bc41-90c4d9b73706&algo_exp_id=5cd63584-96b9-473d-bc41-90c4d9b73706-11&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2210000000992301213%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21USD%21236.0%21236.0%21%21%21%21%21%400b0a558a16736260606578517d06a6%2110000000992301213%21sea&curPageLogUid=YdjISWLuiBA6

The Aliexpress ESP-All Store offers 16 channel OpenBCI modules with improved WIFI, which are available for US $668.63:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003298162429.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.75.2f6b51beVMbnNn&algo_pvid=5cd63584-96b9-473d-bc41-90c4d9b73706&algo_exp_id=5cd63584-96b9-473d-bc41-90c4d9b73706-37&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000025081286411%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21USD%21768.54%21668.63%21%21%21%21%21%400b0a558a16736260606578517d06a6%2112000025081286411%21sea&curPageLogUid=MROZ2jBogBLy

If we take two 16 channel boards form the Aliexpress ESP-All Store, we get a total of 32 channels for 1338 with improved WIFI. The chance is there, that the WIFI shield has no issues, since it is sold as an improved WIFI shield. Costs for two 16 channel boards are similar to the 32 channel devices shown here:

Comparison table 32 channel EEG, ECG, MEG, devices

In theory, it should be possible to stream two 16 channel boards over WIFI to InfluxDB, by connecting the WIFI shield to InfluxDB. According to William Croft from OpenBCI, not all parameters are transmitted, if choosing a setup with InfluxDB, but we eventually do not need all paramaters for our own special application. The advantage of choosing multiple 16 boards is, that the costs for individual boards are lower. If single boards break, the costs for replacement are lower than with 32 channel board, where the whole board needs to be replaced.

OpenBCI GUI does not support 32 channel EEG and InfluxDB. But if we stream OpenBCI sensor data into InfluxDB, we can do our own special analysis of EEG data with Python tools for EEG.