First Data with OpenBCI V3

It’s here! It’s here! The (near) future has arrived! I have received an early OpenBCI V3 board from my friends over at OpenBCI. Check out the photo below. It’s a little smaller than I expected. Very cool! Let’s get it running and see what it can do!

The OpenBCI V3 board is a smaller than I expected. Looks great!

Note that the V3 board includes a built-in microprocessor. This means that you no longer have to buy a separate Arduino to act as host. That’s pretty sweet. OpenBCI gives you two choices of microprocessor: at ATmega 328 (the 8-bit option) or a PIC32 (the 32-bit option). While the power of the 32-bit PIC is appealing, I chose the ATmega because that allows me to program the OpenBCI board as if it were an Arduino Uno. I hear that the 32-bit PIC version can also be programmed from the Arduino IDE, but the Uno is my friend, and I chose to stick with him.

Another change with the V3 version is that it has a built-in Bluetooth module. In fact, to maximize electrical safety for the user, the wireless Bluetooth link is now the only way to get data off the device in real-time (though it does have a built-in SD card for those looking to simply log data). This is quite a change…and a change for the better, in my opinion.

OpenBCI says that the Bluetooth module is compatible with standard protocols (to enable connection to your mobile device) and that it has a special high-speed mode, if you have a mating BT module for your PC. To enable these high-speed modes, OpenBCI includes a BT USB dongle, which is shown at the bottom of the picture below.

Using the new OpenBCI V3 board to record my ECG. I used one disposable ECG electrode
on each wrist. The OpenBCI board was powered by a 9V battery, which is in the black
battery case. The OpenBCI board transferred the data to the PC via Bluetooth.
OpenBCI includes a BT dongle for the PC, which is shown in the bottom-left.

Once I got my hardware, I started in. Unfortunately, as part of the deal with me getting this hardware so early, the software to run the hardware is not yet complete. So, I had a little work to do.

When diving into new hardware, it’s best to take baby steps. Start from something that works and then add features incrementally, with lots of tests along the way. This makes it much easier to identify and squash the bugs as they pop up. For my first work with OpenBCI V3, here’s my approach

Test the wireless link using pre-defined dummy data
Test getting data from the ADS1299 using its built-in test signals
Test getting real data from the ADS1299 by recording my ECG
Test the full system by recording my EEG

Dummy Data: To get this process started, Joel (of OpenBCI) provided some example code that exercised the wireless link using dummy data. He even pre-loaded this software on to the V3 board for me. So, all I had to do was plug in the USB BT dongle, connect a battery to the OpenBCI board, and I was good to go. I started my Terminal program on my PC and was immediately interacting with the OpenBCI V3 board. It correctly transferred the pre-defined dummy data. Success!

Built-In Test Signals: Building from this working code base, and building from OpenBCI’s initial code for configuring the ADS1299 EEG chip, I added the ability to grab data from the ADS1299 and send it out the wireless link. I started with the ADS1299’s built-in test signals. After some fiddling with 24-bit vs 32-bit number formats (and then discovering that Joel already programmed the solution for me), I got the nice square wave signal as shown below. This proves that I can communicate with the ADS1299 chip and that I’ve got all the number formats correct. Success again!

Data from my OpenBCI V3 board…this is a built-in test signal being generated
by the ADS1299 EEG chip. Since it looks beautiful, it means that I have confirmed
that I can configure the chip and that all my number formats are correct.

ECG Data: As you may know from my previous “getting started” post, I like to start my collection of real data by recording my ECG (ie, heart signals). I do this because ECG signals are so much stronger and simpler than EEG signals. Having strong signals makes it more obvious when the system is working correctly (and when it is not working correctly). So, I got out my disposable ECG electrodes, put one on each wrist, and started recording. As you can see in the plot below, I got a nice sample of my ECG. My code for OpenBCI V3 might be rough, and my code is definitely not feature-complete, but it does work.

My wrist-to-wrist ECG looks pretty good.

The sample of data shows that my heart rate was about 80 beats per minute, which is a little high for simply sitting in a chair at my computer. Maybe I was just excited to be having success playing with the new hardware! I’m like that.

So, returning to my four step process described earlier, I’ve got 3 of the steps completed. Before I do the last step — collected actual EEG data — I’d like to revise the code a little more. Right now, I cannot view the streaming data in real time because the data format is a little different then before. To move forward, I need to adjust the code in my Processing GUI so that it can interpret the data packets and plot the data in real time. Once I get that to happen, I’ll hook up some electrodes to my head and maybe make my robot dance some more! Wish me luck!

Follow-Up: Raw data and analysis code is here.