When We Are Looking For An Issue-Free OpenBCI WIFI Shield With MQTT Support, What Can We Do?

Last Updated on September 22, 2022 by pg@petergamma.org

MQTT and InfluxDB are hot topics, and many coders write about this and make great demos, and write excellent papers. Why is there no option available from OpenBCI?

What can we do?

1. Write a comment in the OpenBCI forum, that we are looking for it:

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2699/wifi-shield-availablity-in-store-need-higher-sample-rate#latest

2. Write an e-mail to Shirley from OpenBCI that we are looking for it: shirley@openbci.com

3. We can buy a OpenBCI WIFI shield from Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32906287500.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.f9156c6aCE97vx&algo_pvid=af7d735b-6445-4f6f-88bb-0f95726c1baf&algo_exp_id=af7d735b-6445-4f6f-88bb-0f95726c1baf-3&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000020987248519%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21USD%21379.0%21379.0%21%21%2144.42%21%21%402101e9ce16636017613166169ee6e6%2112000020987248519%21sea&curPageLogUid=Z4hf4uPsleFj

• We suppose it is the same than OpenBCI had in the OpenBCI store, which had issues, but is not available anymore from OpenBCI.

• According to the OpenBCI documentation, with the old WIFI shield, it requires advanced technical skills and programming knowledge to use it effectively, as written in the OpenBCI documentation:

https://docs.openbci.com/GettingStarted/Boards/WiFiGS/

• We went through the issues and through the documentation, and we think that it is possible to bring it to work, but it takes time, event to go through the whole documentation and through the documentation of the issues, and there is no warranty that it will work.

4. The WIFI shield is since about two years not available anymore in the OpenBCI store.

And the answer is always, it will come. But when? And what can we do, if we need it now? We can write to the OpenBCI support, that we need the new WIFI shield, and that we need it now: support@openbci.com

5. What can we do if we need the Gerber files for the WIFI shield?

– According to OpenBCI, the Gerber files of the WIFI shield are currently not available, since they are faulty:

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/3426/gerber-files-for-wifi-shield#latest

• If we want it all the same, write an e-mail to the OpenBCI support, that we need it all the same, and ask, if we could get a copy: support@openbci.com

6. If not, maybe someone else has a copy of the Gerber files of the OpenBCI wifi shield.

• If you have one, send a message to pluto, who is looking for a copy:

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/messages/add/pluto

7. It would be very helpful to share your programming experience with the WIFI shield and MQTT:

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/3419/mqtt-route-not-found#latest

If an experienced coder can make a demo of how to bring it to work, that would be great.

8. We can choose a solution which has already been published

• We can use a Cyton Board & an OpenBCI Bluetooth dongle & an ODROID XU4 which Publishes to an MQTT Cloud, as it was done in this paper:

http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/medwelljournals/jeasci/2020/1377-1384.pdf

• but as far as we know, this works only for one channel of EEG. For more channels, another solution is needed.

9. If our goal is a mobile sensor data acquisition platform

whe can choose with the above setup for instance a Rasperri Pi CM 4, which has about the size of a smartphone with 5 inch display, when attached to the corresponding accessoire, the info can be found on this site.

10. If the above solution does not work, we can choose for instance a path with Lab Streaming Layer (LSL) and Python:

ArtificiaI Intelligence Safety Researcher Esben Kran Uses a 16 Channel BCI with Lab Streaming Layer & Python

But for Python LSL we need a x86 platform and not an arm platform, arm does not work. We can choose a Lattepanda V1 platform to run the setup on it for instance.

11. We can also choose Matlab with LSL:

Arnaud Delorme Uses His Muse Headband to Demonstrate All the Wonderful Things Which We Can Do With Lab Streaming Layer (LSL)

Arnaud Delorme recommends to put the costs for it on our yearly grant, if we can. But which scientists has one for mediation research? Eventually this one:

Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD., Director of Research, Kundalini Research Institute (KRI), Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

We need then to choose a more powerful Lattepanda with 4 GB Ram and x64 processor to run Matlab on it.