Serial wire connection Cyton - Arduino

TurpinTurpin Tokyo
in Cyton
Hi guys,

I want to recover the EEG, heartbeat and respiratory rate for real-time treatment.

I am already able to recover the EEG from the OPEN BCI CYTON (32bits) + DASY. And I get the other information with an Arduino.
I synchronize while using the information transmitted by the arduino only when I receive the EEG information.

I would like the data to be synchronized before reaching the computer. For this reason I had thought of connecting the CYTON directly to the Arduino with a cabled serial port. This would also solve the data transmission problem that is currently reduced to 125Hz due to Bluetooth. (I don't understand why they put such a slow module...)

I know i can made a serial wire port between two Arduino, i followed this tutorial to set up my Arduino IDE : https://docs.openbci.com/Hardware/05-Cyton_Board_Programming_Tutorial
But i don't really know the way i'm supposed to code on the CYTON, i didn't find any tutorial. Does it work exactly like a classic Arduino ?

What do you think ? Is a serial wire connection feasible ?
If i can't solve the problem of the frequency I will juste buy the WIFI module.

Hopefully, one of you is so kind for answering my questions. :)

Comments

  • BillhBillh
    For very good reasons having to do with safety -- once you put in a direct wired connection, how do you know what somebody will be connecting to that port and what amperage might come to bear on the device? -- the Cyton does not have a wired connection to an external recorder. I think Wifi was their solution for those for whom Bluetooth was not sufficient.
  • TurpinTurpin Tokyo
    Thank you for your answer,

    I saw that some pins are not used on the CYTON (D11, D12, D13, D17, D18). The CYTON is Arduino compatible, so it should be possible to create  serial connexion between the CYTOn and an Arduino card. 
    Here I talk about a serial connection for data only.

    Do you still think it's not feasible ?
  • BillhBillh
    If you can do the firmware, it's feasible :) 
  • TurpinTurpin Tokyo
    The problem is that i didn't find any arduino code exemple for CYTON. So i'm lost with myself :-(

    Buying the Wifi module is the last solution for me ... 
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Turpin, hi.

    If you want faster sample rates with the Daisy, the only way to go is with the Wifi Shield.

    There might also be a way you could use a 'trigger' digital or analog signal from the Arduino to the Cyton. This trigger could fire on a specific condition in your Arduino data stream, for example the peak of the respiration cycle. Since you are getting both EEG and respiration data streams, this would give you a way to synchronize. If you are getting ECG from the Arduino, that is another possible sync point. I'm not sure why you are not using the differential pin feature of the Cyton to capture simultaneous EEG and ECG.

    Regards,

    William

  • TurpinTurpin Tokyo
    Hi William,

    Do you know if i can use the RFRX and RFTX for a serial connection or are they already used by the CYTON ?

    Regards,

    Turpin
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Turpin, hi. I don't recommend trying the serial approach. Did you see my previous comments?

    Have you considered using an Arduino-like microcontroller, that supports a usb "host mode", such that you could plug the Cyton dongle into the uC? There are Arduino shields for this, Raspberry PI, etc. These uC's would then present the Cyton dongle as a serial port.


    If you want to peruse some old threads on how the 2nd serial port on the Cyton can be used, see below. These are in the context of a usb serial breakout board, which was piggybacked onto the Cyton.

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