Peter Gamma (Physiologist & Director) Meditation Research Institute Switzerland (MRIS)

The advantages of open source hardware in the example of products which are based on the ADS1299 EEG chip from Texas Instruments

Last Updated on February 12, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

These are the products we know which are open source and based on the ADS1299 EEG chip from Texas Instruments

OpenBCI

  • OpenBCI is a highly flexible open-source hardware option for biosensing applications

HackEEG

  • HackEEG is an affordable, high-performance, fully open source TI ADS1299 Arduino shield ideally suited for digitizing biosignals like EEG, EMG, and EKG.

PiEEG

  • PiEEG is an open source Raspberry Pi shield that measures biosignals such as those used in electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and electrocardiography (ECG).

OpenBCI Galea

  • we found here the information that OpenBCI, founded in 2014, OpenBCI offers the only consumer-grade biosensing system built with open-source software and hardware:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/openbci-unveils-galea-a-new-platform-that-brings-next-generation-biometrics-to-mixed-reality-301177149.html

  • OpenBCI Galea is also available from www.OpenBCI.com
  • the Galea is a hardware and software platform that bridges spatial computing and neurotechnology.
  • it costs from $ 25’000.00 bis to 35’000.00 and is on stock

We often have heard about complaints about products from www.OpenBCI.com that they are expensive. But we are happy now that also OpenBCI products on eBay and Aliexpress are available. The big advantage of open source products is that if a seller does not fit to your needs, another seller can offer the product as well.

We have reported about the topic how to build for instance 32 channel EEG devices based on PiEEG:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2178452#p2178452

We are interested since a longer period of time in 32 channel EEG devices which are affordable, easy to use and of high quality. Unfortunately we did not find one which fit’s our needs to this date. Currently an issue with PiEEG that it is not available:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/hackerbci/pieeg#products

And we do not know if it comes back or not. So if another product developer want to take over we invite him to do so and offer PiEEG as well.