WiFi Shield availablity in store? (need higher sample rate)
Dilemma
US
Seems that the WiFi shield is not available in the OpenBCI store right now. Is there any way to purchase it? Thanks.
Comments
The Wifi Shield is not available at the moment. This may change in the future.
William
Hi William,
Thanks for the reply. I want to use the WiFi Shield to increase the sampling rate. I tried to save the data in an SD card but I could not figure out how to change the sampling rate. I've found many posts on this topic but they are all several years ago. Would you please tell me how to increase the sampling rate? Thanks so much.
Dilemma, hi.
This Pull Request (PR) apparently fixes the ability to sample faster to SD card. It has not yet been folded into the current firmware. Feel free to try it out, and comment on the PR Issue or here.
https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_Cyton_Library/pull/96
Mentioning @retiutut.
William
This is the related Forum thread,
https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2435/over-250-sps-to-sd-card-using-bluetooth-dongle
I just got word that more Wifi Shields should be arriving. Not sure the time frame to get here from manufacturing.
Hi William,
Thanks for letting me know. Looking forward to their arrival.
This I need wifi shields also, Thanks
Hi,
Is there any update on the availability of the shields? Thanks.
OpenBCI engineering staff is occupied with the upcoming VR/AR product. Before the Shield reappears in the Shop, it needs a minor power supply modification to increase reliability with Cyton. (Ganglion reliability is fine.) So Shield manufacturing run is waiting on the testing of that mod. Probably 1st quarter 2021 is likely.
As far as increasing sample rate to SDcard, I assume you saw the previous posts on this thread from Sep 15, regarding firmware mods that enable faster sample rate without needing shield.
Regards, William
Any updates? Hopefully it arrives before October.
The revised Wifi Shield has been delayed by the number of staff working on the Galea product. Apologies for the 1st quarter 2021 projection in late 2020. Mentioning @Shirley Richard @retiutut.
@wjcroft thank you for the mention. The wifi shield hardware revision is currently paused due to ongoing time obligations but we have not shelved the plan to bring it back into the shop. Any updates will be announced via the OpenBCI monthly newsletter.
Hi,
I and my colleagues are conducting a research in which wifi shields are necessary. Might we kindly ask when they will be available? If the updated wifi shields could not be available soon, is it possible to get their previous version?
Best,
Attha
Hi,
A year passed.. Still not available?
Thanks,
Also looking forward to buying the wifi shield!
Hi there,
We're considering buying the electrode cap kit (multiple) for a university undergraduate course. However, we really would want to have the increased sampling rate of the wifi-shield. Any prospects if and when they will be available again?
Best,
Jonas
Hi Jonas,
The hardware team has put the wifi shield on the list of near-term projects. Solution testing will soon be underway. At this point we don't know how long the fix + manufacturing of new wifi shield will take. Updates on this product will be announced via OpenBCI newsletter (be sure to sign up).
best,
Shirley
Hi Shirley,
Is that possible to reserve six of them by depositing some money?
Best,
Attha
Thank you for the request. Unfortunately no. The timeline of availability hasn't been solidified. Also, due to the significant difficulties and cost associated with sourcing components in the global situation, the wifi shield price had not yet been determined.
Hi,
Are there other viable alternatives for the wifi shield at this time? I'm also looking for the higher sampling rate it provides but SD card is not an option. I saw some 3rd party WiFi shields but I'm not even sure they would be compatible with the Cyton/Daisy. If possible, I'd prefer to stay within the OpenBCI ecosystem. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Sam
We are also interested in the new WIFI shield, and we would be happy when it arrives. The WIFI shield has support for MQTT, which is a feature which is quiet new and not yet very well supported by EEG software. But now Home Assistant offers the option the connect devices over MQTT. There are integrations for Garmin, Polar, Fitbit, Withing, etc. :
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/
Not all inegrations are for Home Automation, for instance the Integration of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), which shows measurements of current air quality.
The OpenBCI WIFI shield with MQTT support would allow to integrate EEG data from OpenBCI devices with sensor data from other devices with MQTT support in Home Assistant which stores sensor data in InluxDB. This feature allows to change to a system which is based completely on MQTT and InfuxDB, which is quiet new and revolutionary. Devices with MQTT support like the OpenBCI WIFI shield are rare and very precious.
What are the advantages of the Wifi Shield? Does this improve the quality of the EEG?
The Wifi shield is not currently available. It hopefully will be re-listed in the Shop when the minor engineering changes are complete. Here is a snapshot of the Shop page from 2018. Be patient it takes around 20 seconds to load from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine,
https://web.archive.org/web/20180822092044/https://shop.openbci.com/collections/frontpage/products/wifi-shield?variant=44534009550
https://docs.openbci.com/ThirdParty/WiFiShield/WiFiLanding/
Thank you William for the archive link. So it allows for a higher frequency, which is needed for... Higher resolution? What would be a clear use case?
In most cases, 250 Hz (Cyton) or 200 Hz (Ganglion) is quite adequate for EEG. Some EMG applications may benefit from higher sample rates. And some EEG research projects use 500 or 1000 Hz. It's rare though.
I think the original motivation for AJ Keller, who did the Shield hardware and software, was so that web applications (Javascript, etc.) could access the EEG stream directly over Wifi. With no computer or dongle needed. But it turns out that is actually a niche application area. Almost all EEG applications use a separate app (not the browser) on the computer / laptop or a mobile device -- receiving the data stream.
Ahh, thank you so much William!
When wioll the shield be available again at the store?
@Ahmedn1, hi.
Merged your new thread into this existing thread. See previous comments. There is no timeline at present for the Shield to reappear in the store.
Also this related comment,
https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/18282/#Comment_18282
William