Ganglion board having frequent troubles initializing + streaming data

https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_GUI/issues/1265
Posting here to try getting some faster help.

Problem

Problem 1: New Ganglion board fails to initialize (~80% of the time). This is a new board received yesterday. When the board cannot initialize, it says to check the board is powered on and it is. After power cycling multiple times, perhaps 20% of the time it will connect and go to the widget board.

Problem 2: When successfully connecting, the latency of the accelerometer is very slow, perhaps 10-20 seconds. Observed this by flipping the board to change the gravity vector.

Problem 3: When clicking 'stop streaming data', the GUI reports failed to gather data from the board, and reports the board fails to send data and to check the board is powered on (and it is).

What I have tried:
1) Power cycling Mac, ganglion board multiple times
2) Restarting the GUI multiple times
3) Replugging the USB ganglion BLE dongle
3) Charging the battery to full

Expected

Expectation is for board to connect >90% (ideally 100%) of the time.
Expectation is for real time reporting to have <1s latency
Expectation is for GUI To be able to start/stop data collection without board or GUI crashing

Operating System and Version

MacOS Catalina 26.0

GUI Version

v6.0.0 - beta.1

Are you running the downloaded app or from Processing/VSCode?

Downloaded app

Type of OpenBCI Board

Ganglion

Console Log and Screenshots

This is the report I gathered for Problem 1. Will try collect logs for the other issues when I'm able to get to those stages again.

Console Log Started at Local Time: 2025-12-14_21-19-41
Screen Resolution: 1728 X 1117
High-DPI Screen Detected: true
Operating System and Version: Mac - 26.0
MacOS Details: MacOS Catalina
JVM Version: 17.0.6
Welcome to the Processing-based OpenBCI GUI!
For more information, please visit: https://docs.openbci.com/Software/OpenBCISoftware/GUIDocs/
OpenBCI_GUI::Setup: GUI v6 Sample Data exists in Documents folder.
Settings: LogFileMaxDuration = 60 minutes
OpenBCI_GUI::Settings: Found and loaded existing GUI-wide Settings from file.
ControlP5 2.3.6 infos, comments, questions at https://github.com/retiutut/controlp5
TopNav: Internet Connection Successful
Local Version: v6.0.0-beta.1, Latest Version: v6.0.0-beta.1
GUI is up to date!
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libGanglionLib.dylib
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libneurosdk-shared.dylib
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libsimpleble-c.dylib
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libMuseLib.dylib
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libBrainBitLib.dylib
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libBrainFlowBluetooth.dylib
Unpacking to: /Users/tedlao/Library/Caches/JNA/temp/libBoardController.dylib
BrainFlow Version: 5.10.0
OpenBCI_GUI: AuditoryFeedback: Loading Audio...
OpenBCI_GUI: AuditoryFeedback: Done Loading Audio!
OpenBCI_GUI::Control Panel: Playback history file not found.
OpenBCI_GUI::Setup: Setup is complete!
sourceList: click! 
OpenBCI_GUI: Channel count set to 4
[DEFAULT]: Refreshing available Ganglions using BLED112 Dongle...
ControlPanel: Found BLED112 Dongle on COM port: /dev/cu.usbmodem11
OpenBCI_GUI_Helpers Version: 2.0.1
[DEFAULT]: Search for Ganglions using BLED112 Dongle is in progress.
Nothing in list...
bleList: click! 
[DEFAULT]: Ganglion Device Name = Ganglion 1.3 (bd43)
[DEFAULT]: Attempting to Start Session...
initButtonPressed: Calling initSystem() after next draw()
OpenBCI_GUI: Start session. Calling initSystem().


=================================================
||             INITIALIZING SYSTEM             ||
=================================================

MAC address for Ganglion is e1:55:5c:01:bc:3d
[DEFAULT]: Detected Ganglion firmware version 3
[ERROR]: ERROR: brainflow.BrainFlowError: Error in prepare_session:GENERAL_ERROR when initializing Brainflow board. Data will not stream.
brainflow.BrainFlowError: Error in prepare_session:GENERAL_ERROR
    at brainflow.BoardShim.prepare_session(BoardShim.java:1347)
    at OpenBCI_GUI$BoardBrainFlow.initializeInternal(OpenBCI_GUI.java:2719)
    at OpenBCI_GUI$BoardGanglion.initializeInternal(OpenBCI_GUI.java:3882)
    at OpenBCI_GUI$Board.initialize(OpenBCI_GUI.java:2332)
    at OpenBCI_GUI.initSystem(OpenBCI_GUI.java:780)
    at OpenBCI_GUI.systemInitSession(OpenBCI_GUI.java:1117)
    at OpenBCI_GUI.draw(OpenBCI_GUI.java:654)
    at processing.core.PApplet.handleDraw(PApplet.java:2094)
    at processing.opengl.PSurfaceJOGL$DrawListener.display(PSurfaceJOGL.java:840)
    at jogamp.opengl.GLDrawableHelper.displayImpl(GLDrawableHelper.java:692)
    at jogamp.opengl.GLDrawableHelper.display(GLDrawableHelper.java:674)
    at jogamp.opengl.GLAutoDrawableBase$2.run(GLAutoDrawableBase.java:443)
    at jogamp.opengl.GLDrawableHelper.invokeGLImpl(GLDrawableHelper.java:1293)
    at jogamp.opengl.GLDrawableHelper.invokeGL(GLDrawableHelper.java:1147)
    at com.jogamp.newt.opengl.GLWindow.display(GLWindow.java:782)
    at com.jogamp.opengl.util.AWTAnimatorImpl.display(AWTAnimatorImpl.java:81)
    at com.jogamp.opengl.util.AnimatorBase.display(AnimatorBase.java:453)
    at com.jogamp.opengl.util.FPSAnimator$MainTask.run(FPSAnimator.java:178)
    at java.base/java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:566)
    at java.base/java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:516)
OpenBCI_GUI: Channel count set to 4
openBCI_GUI: haltSystem: Halting system for reconfiguration of settings...
[DEFAULT]: Data stream is already stopped.
[ERROR]: Failed to initialize board. Please check that the board is on and has power. See Console Log for more details.
OpenBCI_GUI::Control Panel: Playback history file not found.
clear() can only be used with createGraphics()
ConsoleLog: Copying console log to clipboard!

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Have you emailed to (contact at openbci.com), which is Customer Support? Since this is a new board, that is the first thing to try.

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Also one oddity is that the OS is reporting as 'macOS Catalina', but the number shows '26.0'. Catalina is actually very old at this point and its number is 10.15.x. Latest macOS is called Tahoe and is 26.2.

    Have you tried this Ganglion board on any other computers you might have?

  • edited December 2025

    Not sure what happened, but the board is now initializing 5/6 times today :smile:

    The latency of the GUI is still pretty dramatic. Perhaps 10-20 seconds. Is there a buffering/frame rate issue going on? Not sure why there'd be latency with BLE. This is on V6.0.0 GUI.

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Hi Wave,

    Did you get any response from Customer Support? Have you tried earlier versions of the GUI? Tried on other laptops? If you are using the dongle, have you tried using OS native BLE support, selected in the GUI initial dialog?

    Mentioning Richard @retiutut.

    William

  • edited December 2025

    Thanks for the suggestions wjcroft. I will send a message to customer support today.

    I just tried the OS native and the latency was gone! though there are some correlated 1Hz artifacts between channels my active channel 0 and de-activated channel 3.

    I have not had a chance to try on other laptops and didn't try earlier GUI versions. Is there an earlier GUI version recommended?

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    I would try just one previous, 5.2.2

    https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_GUI/releases

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