8-bit 'Cyton' board, Future Updates?
enigmatist
Arizona, USA
Hey all. First time here. The support folks suggested I post my question here (and tag @wjcroft).
I contributed to the original Kickstarter and have one of the V3-8 boards. For reasons not worth going into, I haven't had the time to dig into this until now.
But I'm in full-steam now, having made my Ultracortex Mark IV and picked up a MindAffect unit to go along with it.
After reading through some of the other posts, it looks my old board won't work. Not surprising.
Before I invest in a newer Cyton board, I'm just curious if anyone has information on any planned future updates that might suggest I wait a bit longer before upgrading?
Thanks much!
Comments
Hi Bryce,
It is true that the old 8-bit 'Cyton-like' board, does not work with the current GUI. But the usb serial port SDK it implemented is still quite similar to what the 32 bit Cyton understands. With the exception of the later firmware v2 and v3 commands.
https://docs.openbci.com/docs/02Cyton/CytonSDK
So the current OpenBCI_GUI does not speak to the 8 bit board. But software that implements the base SDK serial port commands, should work. Though less reliably, because a lot of bug fixes happened to the firmware in the intervening years. Did you try to see if MindAffect can talk to the 8-bit board? I know that BrainBay talks to the 8-bit. As should OpenViBE, and even the Brainflow libraries.
There are no current Cyton upgrades in the pipeline for 2020, but may be new hardware in the 2021+ timeframe. As far as I know, Ganglion does work with MindAffect. So is another option.
William
Thanks William!
I have not tried hooking the board to the MindAffect, but will certainly give it a shot this weekend.
I figured the GUI was the low-hanging fruit but if the SDK is still mostly compatible, maybe I'll just try out some code.
If I can get that to work, I may stick with the 8-bit board for a bit and then upgrade once I've got some of the basics working... even if there might be new stuff coming next year+.
-Bryce
P.S. I just did a quick interview with one of your interns (and soon-to-be-employee) regarding the AR/VR work you're planning. I'm really looking forward to whatever happens on that front.
Yes, there is a separate AR/VR product that will release BEFORE a Cyton replacement arrives. Brainflow access to the 8-bit board should work.
https://brainflow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/SupportedBoards.html#cyton
https://brainflow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/Examples.html
I think MindAffect is accessing through Brainflow, but they would know if asked.
Thank you! And, yes, I'll reach out to MindAffect if I have any questions on that device.