Programming Ganglion Simblee Microcontroller with Arduino IDE

allenineallenine Rochester, NY
edited February 2017 in Ganglion
How does one use the Arduino IDE to program the Simblee microcontroller
on the Ganglion? I'm currently having trouble getting my computer to
find the Simblee microcontroller. Is a usb shield required?

Comments

  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    @allenine
    Programming the Ganglion will use an OTA (Over The Air) toolchain.
    It starts with the Arduino IDE, and moves through some nRF tools from Nordic Semiconductor. You will use your phone to do the OTA process.

    Tutorial is forthcoming. Thanks for your patience!

    Why and How do you want to modify the Ganglion firmware?
  • allenineallenine Rochester, NY
    @biomurph
    I bought the ganglion in order to learn how to make BCI systems to control the external environment. My beginner project is to turn on an LED with EEG signal. Would modifying the Simblee microcontroller be the best way to do this or is there another way? 
  • I also have a project waiting for the Ganglion programming tutorial, so please keep it high on the priority list.

    Thanks,
    Michael
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    edited February 2017
    @allenine, hi. The easiest way to control external hardware is with a separate Arduino on a serial USB COM port. Your EEG reading program can send control commands out that COM port. See Chip's blog for some examples,

    https://www.google.com/search?q=eeghacker+hexbug
  • allenineallenine Rochester, NY
    How does Chip send his processed EEG information to his Arduino? Is it using the processing software or some other software like MatLab? Does anyone have any tutorials dealing with this? I've been looking around his blog for a while but have been able to find something specific. Thanks!
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Please look through the links I sent above. He uses a modified version of the OpenBCI_GUI program. You can make such mods yourself. For example, he detects when the alpha band is present in the FFT graph, then sends commands out the serial port to the Arduino to control the hexbug.
  • babalauxbabalaux none
    edited February 2017
    [new thread: using Ganglion like Arduino?]

    Hi, I just wanted to know if it's possible to program the Ganglion as an
    Arduino. In particular I need to use the digital pins. I saw the GUI
    software but I don't wan't to use that as for my purposes there won't be
    a computer "in the middle"..I found some libraries on github but I'm
    not sure they are what I'm looking for and I'm a bit confused about the
    docs on the website.
    Can anyone show me what I have to use?

    Thanks

    B.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    @babalaux, hi. I merged your new thread into this existing thread on the same subject.

  • babalauxbabalaux none
    edited February 2017
    Hi @wjcroft and thank you. I'm not sure I understood what's the upcoming tutorial about.
    What
    I'd like to know is if I'd be able to manipulate the eeg data directly
    on the board and send them to the output pins..basically like normal
    signals in arduino, without having a computer or other software in the
    middle. Basically like for the Cyton http://docs.openbci.com/Hardware/05-Cyton_Board_Programming_Tutorial
     Is this what's the tutorial will be about?

    Thanks!
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Babalaux, yes, the Cyton link you show is the same idea.

    Here's Hassan's AlphaWave project, which runs on the mainboard, and does feedback over BLE to a phone,

    http://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/691/openbci-alphawave-bluetooth-le-enabled-no-dongle

    You could look at his code and replace the radio feedback with direct output to the pins, for example to control LEDs or sounds via piezo speaker, etc. Github link is there on the page (for Cyton).

    William

  • Hi,
    do you have a time frame for the Simblee programming tutorial.
    I downloaded CSR BlueSuite  and still the Arduino IDE doesn't find any port for the CSR dongle.

    Thanks :)
  • edited February 2017
    Please don't just ignore us.We wanted so long to get the Ganglion shipped, psychologically it's hard to accept to have no doc available and to be forwarded to an irrelevant one.

    Please give us at least a honest time frame at least for the docs. We want to reprogram to Ganglion since we cannot count is a straightforward serious and hackless solution for now.

    I know that your job is hard as most of us but communication is king if you want to make friends.

    Thanks for the reply if there is any.
  • Sir 
    Can i know how to program PIC microcontroller on the GANGLION using arduino ide and csr donglee
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    @Eshwar, hi. I merged your new thread into this existing one on the same subject. Tutorial is in progress.

  • Ahmed2205Ahmed2205 Hamilto, ON, Canada
    Hello, can any of you guys tell me how to send for example the alpha waves to an Arduino. I want to control a servo, how can i tell the servo when to move based from openbci gui
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Tutorial now appears to be online. Thanks to Joel @biomurph, AJ, Conor and the team.


    @Ahmed2205, see the previous posts above on how Chip did this with the Hexbug demo. Alpha detection is most easily done in the laptop, which can then send commands to a separate Arduino on a dedicated COM port. The commands sent on the COM port to the Arduino then control your servo operation. Don't try to control a servo from the Ganglion or Cyton boards directly, this is too much noise and will overwhelm your EEG microvolt signals.

  • Ahmed2205Ahmed2205 Hamilto, ON, Canada
    Can you tell me How to make OpenBIC GUI when it detect alpha waves for example, send commands in the COM port 
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Some 'widgets' are under development for the GUI, but I'm not sure the timeframe. Best approach might be to browse Chip's Github for examples. You will need to adapt his code and merge into the current GUI code.

    Yet another way to detect band activity is to use a VPL, such as OpenViBE, BioEra, Bioexplorer, etc.

    This current thread is concerning Ganglion board programming. So best to continue your discussion on a more appropriate thread.

    Regards,
  • >Yet another way to detect band activity is to use a VPL, such as OpenViBE, BioEra, Bioexplorer, etc.

    This suggests that Bioexplorer works with openBCI hardware.  I see no evidence of that yet.

    Best regards,
    Michael


  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Both Bioexplorer and BioEra now support Cyton and Ganglion. Check with the respective websites and contact the developer, a beta test version may be available. 

    William
  • The latest Bioexplorer version from the website does not support openBCI.

    As far as expecting support from the developer... well, you must not have much experience with Bioexplorer.

    Best regards,
    Michael
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    We're in regular communications with Larry Janow (Cyberevolution) and OpenBCI is now supported in beta test versions.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Addendum to the comment on Cyberevolution / Bioexplorer: we have no idea when the Bioexplorer will be released with the Cyton driver. Larry claims it works in house, but is not responding to emails asking for a link to the beta. As far as Bioexplorer support for Ganglion, that looks even more up in the air. Larry said one issue was that Windows 7 has no Bluetooth Low Energy support. This is one reason the OpenBCI GUI requires use of a BLE dongle for Ganglion: either the CSR or the newer BLED112. BioEra uses BLED112, so this looks like the best option.

    If you want a VPL with Ganglion, BioEra is your best bet at the moment.
  • Hi everyone,I am using Ganglion Board for EEG measurement.
    I am trying to program the ganglion board OTA.
    I will list out the steps followed:
    1. Installed compatible version of Arduino IDE(1.6.10) with Simblee Arduino IDE Library Files(1.0.3)
    2. Followed the steps given on: https://github.com/OpenBCI/Docs/blob/master/Hardware/09-Ganglion_Programming_Tutorial.md
    3. While compiling the Default Ganglion.ino file, this error comes
    Compilation Error: recipe.preproc.macros pattern is missing
    I have some questions in my mind.
    Is it possible to program the simblee OTA using windows?
    Do we require the wifi shield along with the Ganglion board for OTA Programming? Isn't that possible using Simblee BLE?

    Please help me out to compile the code and answer these questions.

    Thanks
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    We are not able to create the file with windows yet. This process works with Macs to create the appropriate zip file, then you can use iPhone or Android to do the OTA upload.

    Alternatively, you can use the wired programming scheme at the end of the tutorial.
  • Thanks a lot biomurph for the valuable information. Please help to compile the code (Compilation Error: recipe.preproc.macros pattern is missing), this is the error that pops up.
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    That is not an error I am familiar with.

    Please tell us what OS you are using, the version of Arduino, the version of the Simblee core, and what exactly you are doing to compile the code.
    Also, if you can share your code repo with us, that could help to replicate your issue.
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