The Tragedy of the OpenBCI Connectivity

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

stellarpower who failed to resolve issues with packet loss and noise spiking of the WIFI shield

we do not know if stellarpower is computer engineer,check out his GITHUB page:

https://github.com/stellarpower

But AJ Keller is Computer Engineer and OpenBCI WIFI shield developer:

https://github.com/andrewjaykeller

But it is not a shame that simple coders as stellarpower can buy an OpenBCI Cyton board on Aliexpress together with the OpenBCI WIFI shield, but cannot connect this setup in an easy way for instance to Home Assistant?

We have the skilled computer engineer AJ Keller, who made demos of the OpenBCI WIFI shield on YouTube:

We have the OpenBCI Wonders Store which sells OpenBCI modules with 6, 8, 12 or 16 channels on Aliexpress:

And offers us to manufacture those within 1-2 weeks, if we communicate to the customer service of the Aliexpress Wonders store. Still, committed coders as stellarpower from Scottland fail to resolve issues packet loss and cyclic noise spiking with the OpenBCI WIFI shield.

What is wrong?

Even though we have a fast WIFI connection for the OpenBCI shield, the only recommended connection is Bluetooth, according to this table:

Although we have all these options, Bluetooth connectivity is recommended. We are interested in connecting the OpenBCI WIFI shield to a contemporary database like InfluxDB and a contemporary Python software like Home Assistant. But the recommendation is to do this over Bluetooth, and not over a fast WIFI stream. This is the OpenBCI reality. But who wants to connect OpenBCI on this path to Home Assistant? To do this reminds us to the path developers from Ecuador have choosen for MQTT and OpenBCI, which is very complicated:

https://petergamma.org/which-path-did-the-pioneers-for-openbci-mqtt-choose/

We have put all these facts together so that everybody knows what the connectivity of OpenBCI is, which issues it has, and how they can be resolved.